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A psychology researcher wants to design a correlational study to investigate the relationship between explanatory style and academic burnout in college students. Describe how you would operationalize the predictor variable, explanatory style, using a questionnaire. Your response must apply the specific definitions of pessimistic and optimistic explanatory styles to explain how you would score and interpret the questionnaire responses.
Question: A psychology researcher wants to design a correlational study to investigate the relationship between explanatory style and academic burnout in college students. Describe how you would operationalize the predictor variable, explanatory style, using a questionnaire. Your response must apply the specific definitions of pessimistic and optimistic explanatory styles to explain how you would score and interpret the questionnaire responses.
Sample answer: To operationalize explanatory style, I would develop a questionnaire featuring hypothetical negative academic events, such as failing an exam or missing a project deadline. For each scenario, students would rate their agreement with statements representing different attributions. To measure a pessimistic explanatory style, scoring would assess the degree of self-blame (internal attribution) and the expectation of long-term, widespread negative consequences affecting other areas of life. To measure an optimistic explanatory style, scoring would assess the degree to which students attribute the event to outside forces (external attribution) and expect only limited, temporary negative consequences. The overall score would place students on a continuous scale from highly optimistic to highly pessimistic.
Key points:
- Use a questionnaire with hypothetical negative academic scenarios to measure responses.
- Assess self-blame and expectations of long-term, wide-reaching consequences for pessimistic style.
- Assess blaming outside forces and expectations of limited negative consequences for optimistic style.
- Establish a scoring system that places participants on a spectrum between optimistic and pessimistic styles.
Rubric: The response must: 1) Operationalize explanatory style using a questionnaire with negative events. 2) Describe scoring for the pessimistic style (attributing blame to self and expecting long-term, widespread consequences). 3) Describe scoring for the optimistic style (attributing blame to outside forces and expecting limited, temporary consequences).
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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