PS598 Unit 2 Hypotheses Paper Example

Three Predictions Before an Anatomy Exam: A PS598 Unit 2 Paper Writing Research Questions and Hypotheses for a Writing Experiment

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

PS598: Master's Capstone in Psychology

Unit 2 Research Questions and Hypotheses Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the college and the planned study are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

From Question to Questions

My Unit 1 question asked whether a ten-minute self-compassion writing exercise before an Anatomy and Physiology I exam reduces test anxiety and improves scores. A single question hides three. One concerns anxiety, one concerns performance and one concerns whether the exercise works differently for students who start out harsh with themselves. Separating them makes it possible to write a testable prediction for each.

Research Questions

RQ1: Do students who complete a ten-minute self-compassion writing exercise before an exam report lower cognitive test anxiety during the exam than students who complete a neutral writing task?

RQ2: Do students in the self-compassion condition earn higher exam scores than students in the neutral condition?

RQ3: Is the effect of self-compassion writing on cognitive test anxiety larger for students whose baseline self-compassion is low?

Why These Questions

Cassady and Johnson (2002) distinguished the cognitive part of test anxiety, worry and self-deprecating thoughts during testing, from its physical part, such as racing heart and sweating, and found that cognitive test anxiety was linked to lower exam performance among undergraduates. That points to the cognitive component as the target. The students who freeze in our tutoring center describe exactly this: thoughts like "I'm going to fail, I always fail, I'm not smart enough for nursing" taking over the first minutes of an exam.

Neff (2003) describes self-compassion as having three parts: kindness toward oneself in place of harsh judgment, a sense that suffering is part of common human experience rather than a personal defect and mindful awareness of painful thoughts without being swept away by them. Each part speaks to the self-deprecating thoughts Cassady and Johnson measured. If self-compassion reduces self-criticism, it should reduce cognitive test anxiety.

Ramirez and Beilock (2011) showed that a short writing exercise can change exam performance. Their ninth graders, and their laboratory volunteers before a math test, spent ten minutes putting exam fears on paper and then outscored comparison students; the gain showed up mainly in the most anxious test takers. Their exercise asked students to write expressively about worries; mine asks students to respond to their worries with kindness. Their study gives a precedent for the format and timing.

Ramirez and Beilock showed that ten minutes of writing can change a test score; my question is whether the kind of writing matters.

Hypotheses

H1: Students in the self-compassion writing condition will report lower cognitive test anxiety, measured immediately after the exam, than students in the neutral writing condition.

H2: Students in the self-compassion writing condition will earn higher exam scores than students in the neutral writing condition.

H3: Baseline self-compassion will moderate the effect of condition on cognitive test anxiety, such that the reduction is larger for students with lower baseline self-compassion.

Each hypothesis is directional because the theory and the precedent study both predict a direction. Each names its variables: condition (self-compassion writing or neutral writing), cognitive test anxiety, exam score and baseline self-compassion. The corresponding null hypotheses predict no difference between conditions and no moderation.

Operational Definitions

A hypothesis is only as testable as its terms. Self-compassion writing means ten minutes of writing in response to a printed prompt that asks students to name a worry about the exam, write to themselves as they would to a friend in the same situation, remind themselves that many students share this worry and describe the worry without judging it. Neutral writing means ten minutes describing, in detail, the route the student took to campus that morning. Cognitive test anxiety means a student's summed rating on Cassady and Johnson's scale, completed right after the exam and referring to the exam just taken. Exam score means the percentage correct on the first common unit exam in Anatomy and Physiology I. Baseline self-compassion means the total on the Self-Compassion Scale Short Form, completed in the first week of the term.

Alternative Hypotheses I Considered

I also considered predicting that self-compassion writing would lower physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart. Cassady and Johnson's distinction made me drop that prediction, since physical symptoms are a weaker predictor of performance and would need different measures. I considered predicting effects on the final course grade, but too many events intervene between the first exam and the end of the term for one writing session to be a fair test. Last, I weighed a prediction about exam-day attendance, since anxious students sometimes skip, but attendance is already high for the first exam and would leave little room to detect change.

Why an Experiment

All three hypotheses make causal claims: the writing exercise is predicted to reduce anxiety and raise scores. A survey correlating students' self-compassion with their test anxiety could show an association but not that changing self-compassion changes anxiety. Testing causal hypotheses requires manipulating the writing condition and randomly assigning students to it, so that any gap between the two groups traces back to the writing rather than to the mix of students each group drew. Unit 7 will develop the design.

A Third Condition?

I considered adding a third condition, expressive writing about worries as in Ramirez and Beilock's study. It would answer whether self-compassion writing adds anything beyond writing about worries. It would also require a larger sample. For now I am keeping the comparison with neutral writing as the primary test, and I will decide in Unit 7, after the power analysis, whether a third arm is feasible.

What Would Count Against the Hypotheses

If self-compassion writing produced no difference in anxiety or scores, or if anxiety fell but scores did not change, the results would challenge the idea that self-criticism is a lever for test performance in this setting. If the effect appeared only for students low in self-compassion, the exercise might be useful as a targeted rather than universal tool. Stating these outcomes in advance helps keep the analysis honest, and it gives the committee a clear basis for judging the study later.

Conclusion

The capstone question has become three research questions and three directional hypotheses, each tied to a source: Cassady and Johnson's cognitive test anxiety, Neff's components of self-compassion and Ramirez and Beilock's evidence that brief writing can change exam performance. Because the hypotheses are causal, they call for an experiment with random assignment.

References

Cassady, J. C., & Johnson, R. E. (2002). Cognitive test anxiety and academic performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 270-295. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.2001.1094

Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309032

Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. Science, 331(6014), 211-213. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199427