Effects of Risk Level on Increased Compliance by the Pique Technique
This is a research project that I completed in my psychological research methods class in Fall 2014. I worked with a group to determine how the effectiveness of the Pique Technique, a persuasion method in which an added aspect of strangeness to a request is thought to increase compliance to that request, changes due to change in the risk level involved in complying with the request.
Featured Skills: Research, Writing, Presentation
Featured Skills: Research, Writing, Presentation
Research
Research Proposal
We based our research on a seed article that examined the effectiveness of the pique technique and determined that it was indeed a successful persuasion method. However, we were curious to test the limits of the pique technique and see how much compliance to a request it could really produce. We proposed a study in which we would give $100 imagined dollars to our subjects. They would be to invest however they liked amongst four companies that were manipulated by level of experience and strangeness, and we would record the average amount invested in each company. In our research proposal, we outlined the questions that we hoped to answer with our research, our proposed study design, and our hypotheses.
We based our research on a seed article that examined the effectiveness of the pique technique and determined that it was indeed a successful persuasion method. However, we were curious to test the limits of the pique technique and see how much compliance to a request it could really produce. We proposed a study in which we would give $100 imagined dollars to our subjects. They would be to invest however they liked amongst four companies that were manipulated by level of experience and strangeness, and we would record the average amount invested in each company. In our research proposal, we outlined the questions that we hoped to answer with our research, our proposed study design, and our hypotheses.
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Study Design
Once our research had been approved, we began to discuss and finalize the details of our study design. This involved determining the specifics of our study conditions and then counterbalance those conditions to eliminate bias. At this stage, we had to rethink our design multiple times and make slight changes in order to maximize the reliability of our results. For example, in manipulating strangeness of the company, we had trouble operationalizing such a subjective word. Had we had more time and resources, we would have solved this problem by completing a baseline study to determine if our "strange" companies were all of equal strangeness and actually were considered strange by our subjects. However, we had to instead depend on informal testing with friends to determine how other people perceived our strange companies. |
Counterbalancing study conditions
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Creation of Research Materials
We began to create our materials - a unique two page survey for each participant. We thought about how our materials could possibly bias our results and made sure to control for all of this. We especially focused on making sure that our survey was clear, concise, and intuitive, so that confusion of the subjects would not be a confounding variable in any way.
We began to create our materials - a unique two page survey for each participant. We thought about how our materials could possibly bias our results and made sure to control for all of this. We especially focused on making sure that our survey was clear, concise, and intuitive, so that confusion of the subjects would not be a confounding variable in any way.
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Run Subjects
We ran subjects all in one time slot, and moderated and answered questions if they had any. We had a few subjects that did not show up, which caused an issue with our counterbalancing at first, but we had prepared and were able to quickly recover so that it did not affect our study results.
We ran subjects all in one time slot, and moderated and answered questions if they had any. We had a few subjects that did not show up, which caused an issue with our counterbalancing at first, but we had prepared and were able to quickly recover so that it did not affect our study results.
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Analyze Data
My team and I used SPSS in order to analyze the data using a two-way ANOVA with an alpha level of 0.05. We created a bar graph figure to represent our results using Microsoft Excel that followed APA guidelines. Our results were not fully as expected, however we pinpointed limitations for our study that could have possibly contributed to our results, and determined that further research on the subject is necessary. |
SPSS results
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Writing
Research Paper
The final task was turning our quantitative results into words in order to ultimately express the implications of our study for psychology and for everyday people. At this point in the project, I split from my team to write my own independent research paper on our study. Following standard APA guidelines, I wrote, edited, and revised my paper multiple times until I felt satisfied that my writing was clear and concise. In writing this paper, I discovered the importance of using such clear and concise language in the research environment. My paper received the highest grade in my class.
The final task was turning our quantitative results into words in order to ultimately express the implications of our study for psychology and for everyday people. At this point in the project, I split from my team to write my own independent research paper on our study. Following standard APA guidelines, I wrote, edited, and revised my paper multiple times until I felt satisfied that my writing was clear and concise. In writing this paper, I discovered the importance of using such clear and concise language in the research environment. My paper received the highest grade in my class.
PresentationFinal Presentation
My teammates and I presented our completed research to the class using a PowerPoint presentation. We outlined previous findings, what we hoped to answer with our research, how our study was designed and implemented, and finally what our results were, their limitations, and how it all impacted psychology and everyday life. |
Results represented on a bar graph
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