Your paper for this course should focus on one family. This family can be your own or someone else’s. If you choose to focus on a family outside of your own, be prepared to spend some time interviewing at least one member of the family who is well informed about its members.
Your paper should be an examination of a family guided by one (or more) of the theories discussed in your texts or in class (these will not be mutually exclusive). You are free to look at one generation of your family or more than one. For example, theories of stratification may explain your family history two generations in the past, but you may find that political theories explain your family better in the present. Or, you can focus on individual family members whose life experiences have been shaped by a particular theoretical viewpoint in your opinion.
Remember, in your interpretation of family dynamics, there is no right or wrong. What you are trying to explain as a sociologist is the present state of your family. What do you think have been the most powerful influences? Were these influences the people or the historical circumstances? What theories best explain the single parent household that you grew up in? What theory explained your parents ‘ lives? How did these influences clash? How did they complement each other? Is your family an extended family? Why or why not? These are just a few of the questions you may want to explore.
Keep in mind that is a sociology course, and not a family therapy course. Try to explain your observations through the use of sociological theoretical perspectives. You are not required to write about any experience that makes you feel uncomfortable. Again, if writing about your own family does not appeal to you, you may write about another family.
Papers should be no longer than 2300 words, (typed, double-spaced, 11-12 pt. font, l” margins, approx.8 pages). Your “word count” should appear on the first page of your paper underneath your name. You do not need a title page but papers must contain a “Works Cited” page (aka, bibliography) that contains at least three citations, none of which can be your text or any encyclopedia, e.g. Wikipedia. Your paper’s grade will suffer if the appropriate citations do not accompany it.

1.  Your friend is reading a research article about a study that found a statistically significant positive correlation between shyness and test anxiety in a sample of 200 undergraduate students, r(198) = .49, p = .001.  Your friend believes that this is proof that shyness causes test anxiety.  Discuss at least two things that your friend doesn’t understand about correlations. (Give and example)

1. A researcher conducted a study to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for generalized anxiety disorder. Each participant received behavioral therapy for two months, then cognitive therapy for two months, and finally cognitive-behavioral therapy for the last two months. At the end of each two-month period, the same therapist who served as therapist for all the conditions rated each participant’s levels of generalized anxiety disorder. The results showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy was the most effective, followed by cognitive therapy,with behavioral therapy being the least effective.

1. A)  What in this study design is causing a confound?
2. B)  Suggest one technique to eliminate this confound.

1. 3.  Create your own example of a simple but true experiment to test the hypothesis that listening to music improves math test performance.

1. A)  Briefly describe how you would conduct this experiment, and include all the necessary components to demonstrate you are conducting a true experiment.
2. B)  Name the experimental design you’ve chosen and explain how you know this is correct.
3. C)  Identify your IV and give a good operational definition.
4. D)  Identify your DV and give a good operational definition.

1. A researcher believes that part of college students’ success in school is attributed to their personality type.  Her research hypothesis is that college students with Type B personalities will endure frustration in an academic assessment better than students with Type A personalities.  She obtained a convenience sample of 40 volunteer college students and classified each person as having either Type A or Type B personality. Next, she sent the volunteers individually to a lab where they were frustrated by a confederate experimenter who asked them to solve 10 anagrams that were unsolvable. Then the confederate experimenter gave the volunteers a new set of 10 anagrams that did have valid solutions and timed how long it took each of them to solve these anagrams (in minutes). The following data was obtained:

GROUP	n	M	SD
Type A Personality	20	12.96	3.943
Type B Personality	20	9.34	4.318
	t = 1.63	df = 38	p = 0.273	Cohen’s d = .23

1. What kind of research design was used here?  How do you know?
2. Is this a true experiment?  How do you know?
3. Name the independent variable and identify the scale of measurement for the IV.
4. Note that the description of this experiment does not include a good operational definition for the IV.  Pretend that you are the experimenter for this study.  How would you operationally define the IV for this study as it is described in the question (don’t change the IV or the levels, just give them an appropriate operational definition)?
5. Name the dependent variable and identify the scale of measurement for the DV.
6. Did the IV have a statistically significant effect on the DV?  How do you know?
7. Write a complete statistical conclusion for these results using proper APA style (just like you did for ID4).
8. Extra Credit:  Describe a different study you could do to test the same hypothesis.  Your example does not need to be complicated, but there has to be at least one significant difference in your description (e.g., different IV, DV, methodology, research design) compared to the study described above, and you must test the same hypothesis.