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AP Psychology Essay Questions Name: ___________________________ ESSAY I: You must answer the following question (BOTH PARTS A AND B). Make sure that you respond to all parts of the question. Keep track of the time!!! Part A: (5 points) It is the year 2010 and you just can’t seem to hold down a job as an attorney. For the past couple of years you have been working as a nurse’s aide at The Guido Institute for Affective Disorders. It is a large psychiatric facility that specializes in the treatment of depression and other affective (mood) disorders. Presently, the institute is treating over 700 in-patients. Over the past several months, you have noticed that the residents who spend more time out-of-doors and walking around the grounds seem to be less depressed. You wonder if the sunshine itself might be related to depressive symptoms. You decide to conduct a study in order to determine if a relationship exists between exposure to sunshine and level of depression in the patients with whom you work. In this part of your essay, be SURE to include answers to the following questions: a) Who will you use as subjects and how will you obtain them? b)
How will you operationalize BOTH variables under investigation (i.e., how
will you measure c) In general how will you carry out your study? d) If you obtain an “r” of -.72, what would it MEAN with respect to the two variables of interest? e) If you obtain an “r” of +.64, what would it MEAN with respect to the two variables of interest? Part B: (10 points) It is the year 2012 and you are still working at the Guido Institute. You are even more convinced that sunshine has a positive effect on depression. In order for you to obtain support for your theory (and hopefully get a raise from the cheapskate you work for), you need to conduct a TRUE EXPERIMENT that will determine if exposure to sunshine actually CAUSES improvement in depressive symptoms. In your essay, be sure to: a) State your hypothesis (in the form of comparing two groups) (1) b) Identify and operationally define the independent and dependent variables (i.e., how you would manipulate or measure them?) (2) c) Identify the control and experimental groups (2) d) List two control techniques you would utilize to improve the internal validity of your study and explain what they specifically control 4) *NOTE: One specific control technique must be used in all true experiments and therefore, must be mentioned in order to get full credit. Other techniques should be used in experimental research whenever possible and others may be specific to this particular study. WARNING: Describing how you manipulate the IV is NOT a control technique! e) Describe a possible ethical issue in this type of study (1) |
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