Author: chris

Modules 7.1 and 7.2
7.1
Consider the following news headline, “Cigarette Smokers Make Lower College Grades than Nonsmokers” The news article goes on to say that researchers at a university collected information on rate of cigarette smoking (total number of cigarettes smoked in a one month period) and the college student’s current GPA for completed college courses. They found that those with higher levels of cigarette use had lower GPAs, and vice versa. What can you rightfully conclude from this? Why? Be specific about what this kind of information may indicate and mean.
7.2
A pharmaceutical company conducts a study to evaluate the relationship between length of time taking drug X and size of tumor. They enlist 2400 patients with the same type of benign tumor who have been on drug X for varying lengths of time (measured in days). They find that the longer the patient is on the drug, the smaller the patient’s tumor size (measured in volume). In fact, they report the results as r(2398) = -.21, with significance of p < .0001. What is your initial perception of this information? What are other ways, beyond looking at the p-value alone, you could use to try to interpret what this outcome of r(2398) = -.21 tells us about the relationship between length of time taking drug X and the size of the tumor? Support your responses.

The US legal system places a lot of importance on eyewitness memory. Most people would report that they can accurately convey what they saw in a particular situation. However, these ideas are not supported by research. Instead, research shows that memory is quite malleable and is affected by many factors. This research repeatedly demonstrates that people do not remember exactly what they experienced. This module’s experiment will show you firsthand how memory for events is not always one hundred percent accurate.

Access the CogLab demonstration False Memory. Follow the instructions to complete the demonstration to familiarize yourself with false memory. Then locate at least one research study from a peer-reviewed journal that examined how eyewitness memory can be affected by false memories.

Based on your research, respond to the following situation:

You are considered to be an expert in false memories, and a local district attorney has therefore requested your expertise on the following case:

On Tuesday, March 6, 2007, a bank was robbed in Slidell, LA. It was just after opening time, 9:04 a.m., and there were barely any customers, when a car arrived and parked in the side parking lot of the bank. Two men came out of the car and walked to the entrance. Both wore dark clothing. Upon entering the bank, they held out guns and asked for the manager. When the manager identified herself, the smaller of the two robbers ordered her to open the safe. Meanwhile, the other robber, a tall, and burley man, walked around holding his gun in his outstretched arm, and threatening the remaining employees and customers. The manager complied and the smaller robber collected all the money and valuables from the safe. After five minutes, the big robber asked if his companion was ready to go. When he was, the two ran back to their car, and drove away.

The district attorney has asked that you create a presentation about false memory and explain how it might influence this case. He asks that you specifically address the following:

• Describe false memory and false memory experiments. Use the CogLab experiment to illustrate false memory experiments, special distracters, and normal distracters.
• Describe at least one research study from a peer-reviewed journal that investigated how eyewitness memory can be affected by false memories.
• Explain how false memory might influence this particular case. Use specifics from the description of the case, the CogLab experiment, and research to support your answer.
• Using evidence from the case, the CogLab experiment, and outside research, justify why eyewitness testimonies should or should not carry weight in criminal proceedings.
• Discuss any procedures which can increase or reduce the occurrence of false memories when reporting eyewitness events.

Remember, your presentation is designed to help the jury understand false memory and how it might influence the eyewitness testimony of this case. You will have ten minutes to present.

Since this is a legal case, you must include formally written slide notes (proper grammar, proper paragraphs, APA formatting, and academic tone) with research to support your claims. The presentation will be a legal document in this case, so make it worthy of being legally binding!

Develop an 5–6-slide presentation in PowerPoint format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2.ppt.

By Wednesday, November 11, 2015, deliver your assignment to the M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

Course Project Grading Criteria and Rubric

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW: The purpose of this assignment is to apply the skills learned throughout the semester to a social science research topic of interest to you. For this assignment, you will propose a research project you have designed yourself. You must choose your own research topic, devise a researchable research question, and then use the latter to structure your research proposal. The study you propose can be either quantitative or qualitative (but not both), and you must propose to collect your own data and design your own measures (rather than using available data, like the Canadian census, or established measures, like a standard depression inventory). Assume for the purposes of the research proposal that you have a period of up to three years in which to conduct your study. You are required to consult the literature for this proposal but you are not required to actually collect or analyze any data.

EVALUATION: Your project will be graded according to the specification of the research question(s) and the appropriateness, quality, and clarity of the proposed research methodology. Be as detailed and precise as possible, in line with the guidelines. As you design your study, ask yourself: If this study were undertaken, how successfully would it answer the research question(s) it poses? How well does it meet the standards for valid social science research?

PART 1 & PART 2: The research proposal assignment will be divided into two parts. Details regarding Part 1 (5% of your final grade) are provided below. Details for Part 2 (15% of your final grade) will be provided closer to the due date. As you draft Part 2, you must follow any instructions and implement any corrections suggested by the TA who has marked Part 1.

SUBMISSION & DEADLINE FOR PART 1: Part 1 is due as an electronic copy to be submitted on Turnitin.com by 2pm on Nov. 12th. To submit your assignment on Turnitin, you will need our course’s class number (10652395) and enrollment password (socb05). Please be sure to turn in your assignment as a Word document in the folder for Second Assignment – Part 1. In the “title” field in Turnitin, please enter your information in the following format:  TUT#___ Last Name, First Name. In the “title” field in Turnitin, please enter the same information contained in the file name.

The late penalty is 5% if you submit after 2pm on Nov. 12th, and a further 5% will be deducted for every 24 hours late after that. The last day on which late assignments will be considered is Nov. 19th.

FORMAT FOR PART 1: Please include the following sections in your assignment, which should be 4-5 double-spaced pages in length, with page numbers clearly labelled. Before drafting each section, review the relevant textbook and lecture materials. You may order the sections as you wish, but please use bold headers for each section.

Part 1 must include the following sections:
Research Topic and Research Question
Justification of Research Question
Literature Review
Conceptualization
Operationalization
Sampling Plan
Citation List
Instructions for each section:
Clearly Defined Research Topic and Research Question(s)
You must develop your own unique research question(s) (no more than 1-2 research questions are advisable) on a social science research topic that you find interesting.
Do not replicate examples from Assignment 1, the textbook, lectures, or other published sources.
Ideas can come from other Social Science classes or the conclusions sections of existing studies.
If you do model your research on an existing example, you must convincingly demonstrate that your project is making a new contribution in the justification and literature review sections. You can do this by:
Proposing a different sample than previous studies
Proposing revised variables or concepts
Proposing a different methodology from previous studies
Take the time to develop meaningful research question(s).
Avoid simplistic or obvious questions, or questions which we can already guess the answer to with a fair degree of confidence.
Make sure your research question is neither too narrow nor too broad.
Be specific – what social group, what geographic area, and what historic time period does your research question pertain to?
Explain your research question to the reader.
If you are following the deductive model, list the hypotheses (up to three) that you will be testing

Justification of Research Question
In this section you are required to explain to your reader why your research question is important and why it requires sociological explanation based on both your opinions and existing literature on the topic.
The justification section should be based on what you found in the literature, but should not repeat the same arguments and findings as your literature review (see below). You need to apply what you learn from the literature to show why your proposed study is important, interesting and worthy of attention.
Be sure to use appropriate in-text citations using the ASA format (more under section 7 below).

Literature Review of at Least 4 Academic Sources
Consult at least 4 academic sources (articles from peer-reviewed journals or books published by a university press) that have clear relevance to your research question.
Your 4 sources should be social science publications that report the findings of empirical research related to your research question(s). The geographic area and time period should be relevant to those you intend to focus on in your study.
Do not describe each of the 4 sources separately. Your literature review should weave the four sources together, with each paragraph discussing one cross-cutting theme found in the sources.
Be sure to describe the empirical findings of the 4 sources, as well as the methodologies they used.
Based on these sources, discuss how your study will refine, revise or extend existing research on your research question.
Be sure to use appropriate in-text citations using the ASA format (more under section 7 below).

Conceptualization of 1-3 Key Concepts
Conceptualize (ie. define) between 1 and 3 key concepts you will use in your study. At least one of these 1-3 concepts must be abstract.
Define possible dimensions of your abstract concept(s) that are relevant to your research question.
If you have independent and dependent variables that are not socio-demographic variables (see the point below), these must be included in the 1-3 concepts.
If answering your research question requires standard socio-demographic information such as gender, age, race, or ethnicity, you may simply list these. However, these are not considered key concepts and you do not need to specify how you will define them.

Operationalization of your Key Concepts
Describe, in detail, how you plan to measure or observe each of the key concepts from the previous section, as well as any relevant dimensions.
If you need to use more than one measure (indicator) to adequately capture a concept or dimension, describe these indicators.
Explain how each indicator will be measured and, if appropriate, at what level it will be measured.
If appropriate, identify the dependent and independent variables.
Assess how reliable (how repeatable) you believe your measures or observations will be, and explain why.
Assess how valid (how well aligned with the definition of the concept) you believe your measures or observations will be, and explain why.

Sampling Plan
Discuss what type of sampling you will be carrying out (probability or non-probability) as well as the specific sampling design you will utilize.
Explain the rationale (why you are using this approach) and limitations (the disadvantages of this approach) associated with your choice.
Describe how generalizable your study’s findings will be, and how important the issue of generalizability is, given your research question and the sampling plan you propose.

Citation List (ASA format only)
You will need to provide a reference list that contains proper ASA reference style citation for any articles, books or other sources that are utilized in your research proposal.
You can find information about the ASA format here: http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/sites/default/files/ASACitation_June%202013.pdf
Please also be sure to review the guidelines regarding plagiarism posted on Blackboard and/ or the Writing Centre’s material on this issue:
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize

It is due on Sunday by 8:00 p.m. There are 2 different assignments here.

assignment 1:

Prepare a 10 – 12 slide PowerPoint presentation of your course project. Consider your audience to be management of the case study company. What specific material would you include so that your audience will receive your presentation positively?

Please also create and upload a 10-15 minute video of your presentation using a software such as Vimeo or Eyejot as examples. Be sure to include the URL of your video location in the drop box message area.

assignment 2: 

Prepare a package of the original case study and a copy of the coded questions you prepared last week. Include a copy as a separate document with your submission. Proofread your paper for final submission, changing items as needed for a professional presentation. Prepare a management report to present to the company.

Include at least 15 pages, not including your title page and reference page. Assemble your report in this order (already completed items are shown in parenthesis from the corresponding week you completed them):

• Title Page (week 1)
• Executive Summary (week 6)
• Table of Contents (week 6)
• Introduction (week 1)
• Problem Statement (week 1)
• Research Objectives (week 1)
• Background Material (week 3)
• Sampling Design (week 4)
• Research Design (week 2)
• Data Analysis (week 5)
• Limitations (week 3)
• Findings (week 5)
• Conclusions (week 6)
• Recommendations (week 6)
• References (week 2)

Assignment 2: Part B: Your Marketing Plan

Due Week 6

In Assignment 2, using the same company from Assignment 1, you will focus on the company’s mission, introduction, and branding.

Note: You may create and /or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

1. Develop a branding strategy for your product that covers the brand name, logo, slogan, and at least one (1) brand extension.
2. Assemble a marketing strategy for your product, and determine an appropriate time table to implement your plan). Provide a rationale for your response.
3. Prepare a positioning statement. Include a perceptual map that shows your company’s position against its competitors. From this map, create a statement that depicts your position. For example, “Our product is the fastest in its class for half the price.” Note: See pp. 54 – 55 in the textbook for examples of perceptual maps. You may use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or other equivalent software to create your perceptual map.
4. Examine the relevant consumer behavior for your target market. Explain the main reasons why the brand name, logo, slogan, brand extension, as well as the positioning statement and marketing strategy are right for the identified target market.
5. Develop your company’s mission statement and company introduction.
6. Use at least three (3) academic resources as quantitative marketing research to determine the feasibility of your product / service. These resources should be industry specific and relate to your chosen product / service. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Analyze the marketing framework including the concepts of the 5Cs, STP, and 4Ps.
• Examine the marketing science of customer behavior and products in the marketing exchange process and create dynamic strategies for competing.
• Evaluate the basis for market segmentation and approaches to segmentation.
• Evaluate target customer segments and positioning products within these segments.
• Examine the marketing science of customer behavior and products in the marketing exchange process and create dynamic strategies for competing.
• Develop branding strategies for existing and new products.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in marketing management.
• Write clearly and concisely about marketing management using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric found here.

Describe the natural resources that are used in its production, including their origin, their price, and their significance in the price of the final product. Choose one of the natural resource inputs that is used in the production of your final consumer product. For the chosen natural resource: -describe current conditions in the market for the resource, including price, recent changes in price, US and world reserves -identify the factors that have influenced recent changes in the price -identify the potential implications of current economic conditions and public policies -describe income sources – wages, profit derived and compare to national averages -describe how changes in the price impact households, businesses and different groups in the economy