hypothesis give us one example W r i t i n g

1. What is the general topic that your group is interested in? Your topic can be about advertising, journalism, marketing, public relations, or media psychology (e.g., the positive or negative effects of media on people’s everyday lives). Pick one of the above and describe a sub-area of this topic that you want to research.
2. The goal of explanatory research is to predict when something occurs with great accuracy. In other words, explanatory research will tell how and why something occurs which will allow you to predict when it occurs and when it does not. With this in mind, what is your group trying to predict?
3. Give me your informal theory that allows you to predict when the target of your research occurs. This is the informal theory you’ve been developing over the whole semester. Remember you need to include causal statements, meaning there is a cause (your theory) that affects the thing in your second answer.

Section 2 (Your Methodology)

1. Which methodology did you choose (Survey, Experiment, or Content Analysis) and why is this methodology the best for studying your above topic?
2. Give us your hypothesis that you are trying to examine with this methodology.
3. The next part will depend on the methodology you have chosen. Pick one of the following.
   1. Survey
      1. Conceptualize your Predictor and Outcome Variables (i.e., give us the name and definition of each) for your hypothesis
      2. Give us one example of a Predictor Variable question and one example of an Outcome Variable question that you would use in your survey
      3. What type of survey do you plan on using to collect this sample (e.g., Mail, Telephone, Personal Interviews, Mall, or Internet Survey)? Explain why your study needs this specific type of survey. That is, answer why will this survey type test your hypothesis better than other types.
   2. Experiment
      1. Conceptualize your Independent and Dependent Variables (i.e., give us the name and definition of each) for your hypothesis.
      2. What are you manipulating with your Independent Variable? In other words, you will have at least 2 conditions and you need to tell us how those 2 conditions will be different.
      3. How are you going to measure your Dependent Variable (i.e., survey questions, observing their behaviors) and why?
      4. Pick an experimental setting and explain why you need to conduct your experiment in this setting (e.g., laboratory experiment, online experiment, or field experiment).
   3. Content Analysis
      1. Define your universe
      2. What is your unit of analysis?
      3. Give us 2 examples of variables in your codebook including the Variable Name, Variable Operational Definition, and Variable Values

Section 3 (Your Statistical Analyses)

1. What type of statistical analysis would you conduct for your above study?
2. For surveys and experiments, do you expect to find a positive or negative relationship between your Predictor/Independent Variable and Outcome/Dependent Variable? For content analysis, what do you expect to find in the media content you analyze? (Look to your hypothesis and specific wording of survey questions, operationalizations of experimental manipulations, and Variable Values of content analyses for guidance)
3. Assuming you found what you expected (your data suggests you should reject the null hypothesis, p < .05), why are your results important? How can your results be used by others?