Case study

  • After reading chapter 2, what factors do you think have contributed most to who you are today? For example, are you more a product of early interpersonal bonds or losses (attachment theory) or learning or modeling (behavioral)? Or are you just a product of the billions of neurons in your body and how they function and interact with each other? Any other contributors to who you are?
  • As you have aged, how have your peers influenced your behavior? Was there ever a change in their degree of influence? Do you think there is a time when peers influence a child’s development more than other factors, like parents and siblings? Why or why not?

2.You’ve viewed the lecture materials on 3 different types of study designs and you have completed one personal assignment to work through your understanding of the distinction among the three types. Now we will have a group discussion to finalize your understanding. Read the scenario below.

 

Mark wants to evaluate a new diabetes monitoring system that uses a phone app that automatically nudges the user to report glucose levels every morning and evening. He recruits participants and then draws a number from a hat to assign them to receive either the new app or the old self-reported paper diary system (to be completed every morning and evening). He compares the two groups on how frequently they record their glucose levels over 6 weeks.

Observation, Experiment, or Quasi-experiment?

In your response to this scenario, address the following issues (in a list format):

  1. Is there any randomization indicated? If so, what text in the passage above indicates this?
  2. Is there any manipulation of the situation indicated? If so, what text in the passage above indicates this?
  3. Is there any control/comparison group or situation? If so, as indicated by what text?
  4. Based on your answers to 1-3, what type of study design do you think it is? Observation, Experiment, or Quasi-experiment?