What kind of research method is are these?
Hypothetical Study 1
Researchers recruited 50 young adults (ages 18-25) who had recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, 50 who had recently been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, as well as 50 non-diabetic young adults, ensuring a comparable distribution of age, race/ethnicity, and gender across samples. They asked all of these participants as well as the participants' parents to complete a self-report measure asking questions about the participant's dietary and exercise habits between ages 15 and the present. They also requested participants' medical records indicating their body weight over time. Researchers found that the group with Type 2 diabetes was significantly more likely to have been overweight than either of the other groups as early as age 15. They also reported significantly higher levels of unhealthy eating habits as well as significantly lower levels of physical activity across this whole time period. Young adults with Type 1 diabetes did not differ significantly from the non-diabetic group across any of these measures.
Hypothetical Study 2
Researchers recruited 100 obese college students to participate in a weight-loss study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group participated in a didactic course teaching them about healthy eating habits, exercise, and other types of self-care. The second group received the same training and also participated in a weight-loss support group. The third group was placed on a waiting list to participate in the training until after completion of the study. Researchers found that students in both the group that received didactic training only and the group that received both didactic training and a support-group lost significantly more weight throughout the course of the study than did those in the wait-list control group, but that they did not differ significantly from each other. However, at 6-month follow-up, they found that 90% of those in the group that had only received didactic training had regained the weight they had lost, whereas only 50% of those in the group that had also participated in the support-group experienced similar weight gain.
Hypothetical Study 3
Researchers asked 100 high school students to complete weekly self-report measures over the course of a year, asking questions about sleeping habits as well as general health questions. They examined the relationship between the number of hours of sleep students got on average and the number of days they were ill throughout the year. Researchers found that students' average number of hours of sleep per night was inversely related to the average number of days they reported being ill throughout the year. However, students did not seem to experience additional health benefits by sleeping more than 8 hours per night.
1. Which of these studies is an experimental study?
A) Study 1
B) Study 2 (i think it is this one)
C) Study 3
D) Studies 1 and 3
E) Studies 2 and 3
F) Studies 1, 2, and 3
G) None of the above
2. Study 1 employs a ___________________ design.
A) retrospective (i think it is this one)
B) prospective
C) longitudinal
D) cross-sectional
E) natural experiment
3. Study 3 employs a _________________ design.
A) experimental
B) randomized, controlled trial
C) ex post facto
D) prospective ( i think it is this one)
E) retrospective