Question

Identify the factors, levels, and number of cells for each of the following research examples. State the number of levels for each factor and describe each in words.

A psychologist believes that perception is influenced by a motivational bias (a bias to satisfy one’s personal needs, such as a desire for control or power). The psychologist believes this bias is especially present in the context of sports. To test this, the psychologist had a group of sports fans watch a recorded football game where many penalties were called on each team. Some participants were fans for the home team, some were fans for the away team, and some were not fans of either team. The number of penalties that each type of fan (neutral fan, home fan, away fan) disagreed with during the game for each team (the home team and the away team) was recorded. It was expected that if fans showed a motivational bias, then they would disagree more often with penalties called against the team they were rooting for; whereas neutral fans should show the least disagreement overall.   

Dependent variable:______

Factor A:______

Levels of Factor A (p):______

Factor B:______

Levels of Factor B (q):______

Number of cells (pq): ______

Answer 1

Dependent variable is the number of penalties because the number of penalties is dependent on the type of fan and team type. So, number of penalties is the dependet variable.

Factor A or independent variable is the type of fan because type of fan is not dependent on any other variable.

Level of factor A (p) is three because there are only three type of fans, i.e. neutral fan, home fan and away fan. This means p = 3

Factor B or independent variable is the team type, i.e. home team and away team. It is independent variable because it is not dependent on other variables.

Level of factor B (q) is two because there are only two types of team, i.e. home team and away team. This means q = 2

Number of cells = p*q

where p=3 and q =2

So, number of cells = 3*2 = 6