7-2 Final Project Submission: Statistical Analysis Report

7-2 Final Project Submission: Statistical Analysis Report

Agueda Toni Hudkins-Teague

Southern New Hampshire University

I chose data set two. The reason for my choice was very simple, I work for the government and the sector I would like to advance to (BAU) is within the FBI. I would like to see the correct criminals get justice and never question if an inmate has been wrongly convicted, whether due to eye witness testimony or a field mistake. The BAU division is related to Forensic Psychology,therefore my reason studying Psychology at Southern New Hampshire University.

                Data set two has 34 participants that will be recruited from a college campus. They will then be divided into two groups which are group A and group B. Upon being divided into separate groups, they will be then shown a 58 second video of a crime scenario. During this short video, the perpetrator’s facial characteristics are clear at two separate points of the video while only sporadic during the rest of the video. After watching the video both groups will be shown a lineup (individually) that consist of five individuals that will be numbered. The only difference will be that group A will have the lineup that has the perpetrator in their line-up while Group B will have a line-up that will not have the perpetrator in it.

Both groups will be asked the same two questions following the line-up and the questions are 1. Was the perpetrator from the video in the line-up and if so which number individual in the line-up? 2. How confident are they in their choice that they have madewith a rating scale of 1-10 and 10 being highly confident. The reason that each member from each group will be shown the line-up individually is that I want to make sure that the potential for groupthink does not occur.

The APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologist will be at the forefront of this study with 8.02: Informed Consent to Research, 8.03: Informed Consent for Recording Voices and Images in Research, 8.05: Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research, and 8.07: Deception in Research.  Consent forms will need to be signed prior to any participants involvement in the study. Each participant will be told that they will be participating in a study involving a crime which will include the viewing of a video of the crime. Each step of the study will be addressed to each participant along with a debriefing that will be conducted whether the participants choose to leave the study or stay for the entirety.8.02 Informed Consent to Research.8.03, Informed Consent for Recording Voices and Images in Research, 8.05, Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research; and 8.07, Deception in Research.

This study isbased upon group levels and the individual’s certainty regarding what they witnessed (eye-witness testimony) through a 58 second video. Group A will be designated to answer correctly andbe the “right” group while group B will be designated to answer incorrectly and be the “wrong” group.

Two sample t-test will be the statistical procedure that will be used since it should revealwhether the confidence level was average within the two groups by having the different line-up. Theconfidence levels should also show the differences within each separate group with group A showingmore confidence.“A t-test is an analysis of two populations means using statistical examination; a t-test with two samples is commonly used with small sample sizes, testing the difference between the samples when the variances of two normal distributions are not known.” (2014)

Alternative hypothesis – Is what I believe the outcome of my research will show. The outcome will

show that Group A will have a higher confidence level since they will be shown a lineup that has

the perpetrator in it. Whereas the null hypothesis would have an equal level of confidence between Group A and Group B.

Bennett, J., Briggs, W., & Triola, M. (2014). Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Janis, I. (1972). Victims of Groupthink. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.