Question: I'm still struggling to figure out how to test my hypothesis and come up with questions that haven't been answered in relation to my...

Question:I'm still struggling to figure out how to test my hypothesis and come up with questions that haven't been answered in relation to my research question and hypothesis. Here is some more information and question sheet to develop my research design. Please help! I need some help on finding a gap in literature. How to contribte some new knowledge about something that has not been researched before on my research question and hypothesis. My research question is: "Do People With a Narcissistic Personality Disorder Have Lower Levels of Empathy Than People Who Do Not Have That Diagnosis? My hypothesis is: "Patients Experiencing Narcissistic Personality Disorder Shows More Deficiency in Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Empathy in Relation to Healthy Controls". How to test the hypothesis. Develop a research design hypothesis ________________________________________

Hypothesis:

1.     Describe your variables broadly. Note, you may or may not have two IVs and two DVs.

IV________________________________

IV2 _______________________________

DV________________________________

DV2 _______________________________

2.     Describe your variables more specifically, beginning with an operational definition of your (first) independent variable. Note, that sometimes manipulating or measuring a variable is as simple as handing someone a questionnaire. Other times, it requires more procedural steps and perhaps even elaborate cover stories and confederates[1]. The point here is to develop the best design to answer your research question.

·        Describe your procedures or the scale you will use to manipulating or measuring this IV. In other words, provide a specific operational definition. If you are using a validated questionnaire, which questionnaire? Be specific[2].

·        Sometimes, our first thoughts are pretty underwhelming. Once we dig a little deeper, we come with a really inspired idea! Develop an additional operational definition for your independent variable. That is, generate another idea for manipulating or measuring this construct.

·        Which operational definition do you like better? Why? What are the strengths and weaknesses of using this operational definition (these strengths and weaknesses might be ethical, practical, or statistical in nature).

3.     Describe your second independent variable (if you have one IV, if not skip to question 4). As you did above, think of two ways to operationalize this construct.

·        First operational definition of independent variable 2.

·        Second operational definition of independent variable 2.

·        Which operational definition do you like better? Why? What are the strengths and weaknesses of using this operational definition (these strengths and weaknesses might be ethical, practical, or statistical in nature).

4. Will you need any special equipment or special materials to manipulate or measure your IV? If so list/describe it below.

*Note, did you describe your procedures or materials in enough detail so that you can write about it in sufficient detail in your methods section? You will need a high level of detail for your research proposals.

5. As with independent variables, dependent variables can be as easy to operationalize as finding the good scale or measure, and other times it involves a lengthy procedure. In this section, think about how you will operationally define your dependent variable.

What is your DV? ____________________________________How will you measure your dependent variable? Provide two operational definitions below.

·        Describe your procedures or the scale you will use to manipulating or measuring this DV. In others, provide a specific operational definition. If you are using a questionnaire, which questionnaire? Be specific.

·        Sometimes, our first thoughts are pretty underwhelming. Once we dig a little deeper, we come with a really inspired idea! Develop an additional operational definition for your dependent variable. That is, generate another idea for manipulating or measuring this construct.

·        Sometimes it is advantageous to measure your DV in more than one way. Also, you might consider including more than one DV to answer your research question. For example, let's say I was interested in the effect of math on stress. I might look at heart rate AND fidgeting behaviors as people complete really complex math problems.

7. Do you need any special equipment to measure your DV?

8. At this point, you should be able to articulate whether you are using an experimental or quasi-experimental design or a correlational design. To figure this out, answer the questions below with regard to your independent variable.

a.      Will you manipulate an independent variable? If yes, then you are using an experiment. Continue below. If no, then you are using a correlational method skip to question 2.

b.     Can you randomly assign to groups? If no, then you using a quasi-experimental design. Skip to question

c.      Will participants be exposed to all levels of your IV? Remember, levels can be thought of the number groups or number of different stimuli related to your independent variable. A pre-test, post-test design is an example where people are exposed to both levels of your IV. If yes, then you will be using a within-subject design.

d.     Will participants only be exposed to one level of your IV? If so, then you are using a between-subjects design.

e.      If you have a complex design (which I will usually encourage you against) list your factors below and describe whether participants will be randomly assigned to them.

·        e.g., in a study investigating the effect of gender and hair color on ice cream preference my factors would be: 2 (Gender: male vs. female) x 3(Hair Color: yellow vs. brown vs. red). That is, I would have a 2 by 3 quasi-experimental design.

2. What research design will you use? Please describe in detail below.

Finally, how will you recruit participants for your study? For this class, we will not actually collect data therefore imagine you have unlimited resources (and therefore can pay people to participate or can recruit special samples).