BRED, Assignment 1

Vanshpreet S Kohli, 2020114014

1. Examining past projects

a) An analysis of Conservatism and the Involvement of Nationalism:

• Null Hypothesis: There is no qualitative difference between the way nationalistic rhetoric
is used in conservative politics as opposed to liberalist politics.

• Extraneous variables:
• Political bias of evaluators – while it is evident that the evaluators had measures in place to
eliminate political biases from the stimuli provided, it is possible the evaluators’ own political
biases and understanding (such as, should a certain politician be considered liberalist or
not?) could be a factor in the results generated and the ways in which they were reported.

• Context of the quotes, speakers – each candidate’s understanding of the given quote and
speaker may vary, causing them to pick certain answers and react to stimuli differently
based on their understanding of the context of a given quote.

b) Effects of music and emotions on creativity:

• Null Hypothesis: music, regardless of emotion associated with it, does not affect creativity.

• Extraneous variables:

• Mood – the moods of the candidates prior to the study, owing to factors extraneous to the
study, were not taken into account.

• Music preferences – depending on the candidates’ music preferences, different genres of

music may affect their moods differently.

• Environment – Factors like noise levels, location, temperature affect participants' mood and
creativity but were not accounted for.

2. Qualitative + Quantitative research

One example of a research problem requiring elements of both quantitative and qualitative research
is: How do cultural factors influence the adoption and usage of mobile banking services among millennials in
a specific urban area?

• The quantitative elements for such a scenario are metrics such as usage rates, demographic data
and survey responses/reviews.

• The relevant qualitative elements are in-depth interviews, examination of cultural context and
ethnographic observations.
 Combining quantitative and qualitative elements is necessary for a more holistic understanding of the
research question because while quantitative data can provide statistical trends and general patterns,
qualitative data can offer deeper insights into the cultural nuances, individual experiences, and contextual
factors that influence mobile banking adoption among millennials. Cultural factors are complex and
multifaceted, and they often require qualitative exploration to truly understand the "why" behind certain
behaviors and attitudes. Integrating both types of data allows researchers to triangulate findings, enhance
validity, and provide a comprehensive answer to the research question.

3. Case Studies
a) Dora the anthropologist

• Independent Variable: Dora's presence and participation within the remote indigenous tribe.

• Dependent Variables: Social interactions, cultural practices, and social dynamics within the tribe.

• Extraneous variables:

• Constant Extraneous Variables: The geographical location of the tribe, its historical context,
and overall climate.

• Random Extraneous Variables: Variations in weather conditions, occasional wildlife

disruptions, or occasional illnesses among tribe members.

• Confounding Extraneous Variables: Dora's language skills, her personal biases, the specific
tribe members she interacts with more often.

• This is a non-experimental setting as Dora does not actively manipulate the independent variable
to try and gauge its effect on the dependent variable.

• No conditions or groups are being compared here, due to this being a non-experimental setting.
However, within the environment, Dora is separate from the tribe she is studying and they may
therefore be thought of as two groups.

b) Sttinger

• Independent Variable: The type of drink administered to participants (new Sttinger formula or
placebo).

• Dependent Variable: The level of sleepiness or alertness among Engineering students while
working on their BRED assignment.

• Extraneous variables:

• Constant Extraneous Variables: The soporific quality of the BRED assignment in question, the
non-BRED workload of the batch (assuming the same workload for everyone), the ages of
the students

• Random Extraneous Variables: participants’ caffeine tolerance, caffeine consumed through

sources other than Sttinger, lighting and noise levels in the experiment setting, participants’
moods and stress levels during the experiment,
 • Confounding Extraneous Variables: Due to the usage of a placebo, there is no extraneous
variable that changes systematically with the independent variable. Therefore there are no
confounders in this case.

• This experiment can be classified as a True Experiment. The key defining factor here is the
random assignment of participants into two groups: one receiving the new Sttinger formula and
the other receiving a placebo. This random assignment helps control for potential confounding
variables and allows for a cause-and-effect relationship to be investigated.

• There are two conditions or groups in this experiment:

• Experimental Group: Participants who receive the new Sttinger formula.

• Control Group: Participants who receive the placebo (original Sttinger energy drink).

c) Sleep versus CGPA

• Dependent Variable: The dependent variable is the academic performance, measured by the
CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) of the students.

• Independent Variable: The independent variable is the average hours of sleep per night.

• Extraneous Variables:

• Random Variables: students' personal sleep patterns before the study, their daily routines,
and other unpredictable factors that might affect their sleep and academic performance.

• Constant Variables: the educational institution where the students belong, the time frame of
the study, and the grading criteria.

• Confounding Variables: study habits (studying at night/during daytime), caffeine

consumption, social life/extracurricular activities, health are some variables that can change
systematically when the independent variable is changed, and can thus confound the study
results.

• This experiment can be classified as a "Quasi-Controlled" study. It's not a true controlled
experiment because Dora is not actively manipulating the independent variable (hours of sleep)
in a controlled setting. Instead, she is observing and analyzing the correlation between naturally
varying sleep patterns and academic performance.

• Conditions/Groups: In this quasi-controlled study, there might not be distinct experimental

groups in the traditional sense. However, Dora could still divide the sample into categories based
on sleep duration (e.g., less than 6 hours, 6-8 hours, more than 8 hours) to explore the correlation
between different sleep durations and CGPA.

4. Cup color study

• This is a true experiment because it involves manipulation of the independent variable (color of
the cup), control over other variables (cup size, number of samples) to ensure that the
dependent variable is affected only by the independent variable, and the recording of
participants’ responses (ratings on sensory scales).
• To conduct the experiment in a closer-to-real-life setting, the lab conditions can be omitted in
favour of coffee shops and restaurants. The customers can be asked to provide reviews for the
beverage they had consumed, and these reviews can further be used to assess the impact of the
colour of the cup used to serve the beverage.

• Pros:

• This is more convenient than the lab study because not only can more beverages and cup
colours be tested, but there is the additional benefit of very small additional costs of running
the experiment, because all the time and resources poured into it would essentially be paid
for by the customers.

• Conducting the study in real-world settings, such as coffee shops or cafeterias, can better
reflect how people actually experience and perceive hot chocolate (or any other beverage).
This would enhance the generalizability of the findings to real consumption scenarios.

• Cons:

• Participants' responses to reviews of the beverages could be influenced by factors like social
interactions, ambiance, and the presence of other foods or drinks in a café setting. These
factors might impact their perceptions and add confounders to the study.

• It is challenging to standardize the experiment conditions in such a study, because of too

many potential random variables such as mood, café ambience etc.

• In the lab setting, the pace of experimentation can be set by the researchers. However, in the
café setting, it may take quite a while before a significant number of customers have bought,
consumed and rated the beverage.