A psychologist conducted a study at her home during an annual activity of children wearing masks and going
door-to-door receiving candy. Some of the children arrived alone, while others arrived in a group. Over the
course of the night, the psychologist asked half of the children to remove their masks when they arrived at her
door. The remaining half kept their masks on. The psychologist told every child to take only one piece of candy.
She then went inside the house, leaving the bowl of candy outside. This gave children the opportunity to take
additional candy. The psychologist measured the percentage of children who took additional candy. The
psychologist’s hypotheses were that children would take more candy when they were alone and that children
would take more candy when they were masked. The results are shown in the graph below; assume all
differences are significant.
A. Identify the operational definition of the dependent variable in this study.
B. Explain how the data support or do not support each of the psychologist’s hypotheses.
C. Explain why the psychologist cannot generalize her findings to all children.
D. Explain why the study is not a naturalistic observation.
E. Explain how each of the following might have played a role in the children’s behavior.
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Modeling
Deindividuation
Lawrence Kohlberg’s preconventional stage