Help with a psychology research design

Question

We have to write a paper about a psychology research we would do if we could and I need help with some of the information.

If my study was about college students and their stress and there were three groups. Group one would use an app for meditation and start at week one, group two would start using the app in the middle of the study at week 8 and group three would use nothing. This would go on for 12 weeks and there will be three surveys, one at the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end that would calculate their stress, mindfulness, and self-compassion.

What would the independent and dependent variables be?

What type of study would this be called? True experiment, quasi-experiment, or a correlational study? And what design would it be? Multiple regression with 2-5 predictors, longitudinal design measuring 2-3 variables at least 2 points at a time, mediation design, one-way ANOVA with 3-5 conditions, or two-way ANOVA with 2-3 factors with 2-3 levels in each factor?

Answer 1

Hi there! I have a bachelors in psych, this is super important information to understand if you are moving forward with a psych career or degree, if not, it is still pretty straightforward.

two issues that might need to be addressed:

1) Make sure you're clear on run time and time stamps for groups starting their app usage (if the study is 12 weeks, half way is 6 weeks not 8 (I'm assuming this was a typo))

2) The three surveys would need to be administered all three times, you would have no relevant data if you collect each one a single time. Again I assume that was a typo or mis-specification, but this is very important in terms of viability.

1. Variables
2. (Primary Dependent Variable)
3. Stress level
4. measured by stress Survey
5. (Secondary Dependent Variables)
6. mindfulness
7. self compassion
8. (Primary Independent Variable)
9. Usage of Meditation app
10. 12 weeks (Treatment 1)
11. 6 weeks (Treatment 2)
12. none (control)

For analysis, there are multiple ways to determine which you need to use, but the decision really comes down to what you are looking for in the data set.

I believe a one-way anova would be appropriate here, but you could also do a multi-linear regression, depending on how you want to use the non-stress surveys in the study. if you want to use all three survey scores to determine something greater than just stress, then one-way anova still works fine.