Jenny is an undergraduate student with a full course load studying the relationship between exercise and self-esteem. She is interested in learning whether self-esteem differs between people who exercise regularly and those who do not. She is also interested in the types of exercise, intensity of exercise, and how these differences affect various aspects of self-esteem such as self-efficacy, confidence, and self-worth. She needs to complete data collection within a semester by herself. However, she needs 250 participants for sufficient power. Which of the following would be the best strategy for Jenny to take to complete her study?
A) Recruit 250 participants from the Introduction to Psychology subject pool and run each of them individually in hour-long interviews asking about self-esteem and exercise habits.
B) Print and handout 500 surveys on campus and analyze the data from the first 250 students who return the survey.
C) Upload a survey on self-esteem and exercise habits and recruit 250 students from the Introduction to Psychology subject pool to do this survey online in their own time.
D) Reduce the number of participants to 60 and interview 60 students approached randomly on campus.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Recruiting 250 participants individually would be incredibly time-consuming and impractical for one semester. Handing out surveys on campus may not yield enough responses, and the self-selection bias may skew the results. Interviewing only 60 students is not sufficient for the desired sample size. The best strategy would be to use an online survey to recruit 250 participants from the Introduction to Psychology subject pool. This would allow for a larger sample size, reduce the amount of time needed for data collection, and minimize the self-selection bias.

Jenny Is an Undergraduate Student with a Full Course Load