I’m trying to study for my Psychology course and I need some help to understand this question.

Unit 1: Assignment

Research in Social Psychology*

* With the outbreak of the coronovirus and some of you on lock down or advised to have minimal public contact, this assignment my not be possible as it was originally designed. In this case, you can either do some research on the power of a smile (cite sources if you do), or put a smile on your face and hold it there for at least five minutes and report your feelings afterwards. If you select either of these alternative options, two well written paragraphs will satisfy this assignment. Be safe and take good care of yourself and those you love!

This unit you will be conducting your own “mini-study” (using a field experiment, as opposed to a laboratory experiment) to examine the power of the situation. Specifically, you will be examining the impact of nonverbal cues on social responding. This homework gives you the chance to:

• Explore the expression of emotions, including individual and sex differences in such expression
• Demonstrate the power of nonverbal communication
• Increase awareness of how self-image is affected by the responses of others
• Develop students’ skills as experimenters; and to study the influence of experimental variables.”

Mini Study

1. Your Task:
   Your task is to look at strangers and either smile or not smile, and to record these strangers’ responses to you. Specifically, you must make eye contact with each stranger and, on the basis of a random assignment determined before you choose the stranger with whom you will make eye contact, you should smile or not smile at this person, and should maintain this eye contact for a few seconds. If the stranger has not already done so, you should end the eye contact and move away. Then, you should record whether the stranger:

• smiled
• neither smiled nor acknowledged your smile in any way
• acknowledged without a smile — as by nodding the head or showing some other form of greeting without smiling
• showed avoidance — as by looking away and avoiding further response
• other, which you should describe in your notes
• Categorize Responses:
  You should choose only one of these categories to describe each stranger’s response. You should also be sure to note the gender of each stranger and which condition he or she was in (i.e., did you smile or not?).

  It is very important that you use random assignment (such as a flip of a coin) to determine whether or not you will smile at a person, and this random assignment should be done before you select the stranger with whom to make eye contact. Also, you should try to select strangers who are alone.

1. Collect Data:
   You must collect data on at least three men and three women in each condition (so, smile at three men, don’t smile at three men, smile at three women, don’t smile at three women – total of 12 targets).

1. Calculate Number of Smiles:
   When the data have been collected, calculate the number and the percentage of strangers in each condition who smiled, the number and the percentage who did not smile, the number and the percentage who acknowledged without a smile, and so on. Then do these calculations separately for each condition, as well as separately for males in each condition and females in each condition. Examine your results and look for differences between conditions and between male and female strangers. Provide an interpretation of the results. Suggest a theoretical reason to account for any differences that you found between or among conditions.
2. Evaluate Results:
   Examine your results and look for differences between conditions and between male and female strangers. Provide an interpretation of the results. Suggest a theoretical reason to account for any differences that you found between or among conditions.
3. Discuss Your Findings:
   Discuss what you learned about experimentation by conducting this “mini-study”?

   (CRITICAL NOTE: In the “no smile” condition, to avoid discomfort for you and the target, as well as an appearance of rudeness, please feel free to acknowledge your targets in a friendly manner, after you note their initial response.)