Case Study: Participant Subsection

Participant subsection: Students attending full-time schooling at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The participants are from different racial backgrounds, age groups, are both male and female, and are enrolled in the spring section one research methods class.
Material and Methods subsection:
For this experiment, we used a stress related quiz from MacArthur SES and Health Network. This quiz is designed to test the subjects stress levels before and after the independent variable is manipulated. The quiz is written in a way that the subjects will have a harder time knowing what we are trying to measure. The test has 10 questions and a scale for scoring subjects after the test is complete.
Procedure subsection:
We chose everyone in
our Research Methods class as the test subject population.
We formed a hypothesis for our experiment, “If full-time students at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls journal 10 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday, then their overall stress levels will decrease because journaling has been known to reduce stress.”
We then identified our independent and dependent variables. Our independent variable is having subjects write in a journal for 10 minutes. Our dependent variable is the overall changes of subjects stress level on our scaled test.
We found a test to assess stress levels, that are not easily identified by the subjects (they will not know exactly what we are testing them on, so they can not influence the results of the study).
Next, we did some background research. We found reputable sites online with background information and actual studies performed that were similar to our own.
Once we had completed steps 1-5 we began printing our scaled survey. The survey was handed out to the subjects by our professor, so the subjects would not know who’s experiment they were taking part of.
The participants took the survey (anonymously?) and gave them back to our professor to give back to us.
When we receive the surveys, we used the scale system to determine the stress levels of each subject.
After the numbers were calculated, we manipulated the independent variable. The professor asked the class to write 10 minutes of a journal entry about responsibilities or family/friends, until our last (how long?) experimental day.
Once all of the journals were written, we re-administered the same scaled survey in the way that we did in procedure 7.
The surveys were returned to us, the stress levels were determined.
Finally, we compared the stress levels from the initial survey and the concluding survey.