Case Study 1.2 Hostile Heart
Social Psychology
Instructor:  Susan Boland

This case study assignment requires that you apply information about research methods from Chapter 2 of the textbook.  Read the case study carefully and answer the six questions in detail.  Follow the instructions for case study assignments distributed in class.  A copy of the instructions is also on reserve in the library and on my web page http://www.lhup.edu/sboland 

Avoid quoting directly from the textbook -- write using your own words.  Information taken from the text, even if rewritten in your own words, must be credited to or cited to the textbook authors.  See the full instructions for more information about citing the text as a reference. 

If you have any questions regarding this assignment, please ask.

 Case Study 1.2 (30 points):  Hostility and Heart Disease

      A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that young women and men who rate high in aggression, anger and other forms of hostility are more likely to develop hardening of heart arteries at an early age. 

     The study had 374 women and men aged 18 to 30 years old take the Cook-Medley hostility test.  The test consists of 50 true-false questions tapping anger, cynicism, mistrust of others and aggressive behavior, both overt and repressed.  Electron-beam tomography (a special type of X-ray) was used to measure the extent of calcification or hardening in the arteries.  The results of the tomography measurements were then compared with the self-reports of hostility.  Higher rates of hostility were associated with more hardening of the arteries, a precursor of heart disease.  

1)      Does the study described above use a correlational design or an experimental design? In your answer you should briefly describe each type of research design.  Explain the basis for your identification.  In other words, explain what makes this particular study a correlational design or an experimental design.  

2)      Is the relationship between hostility and heart disease positive or negative? Explain your answer and include a description of both positive and negative relationships between variables.   

3)       Can you conclude from the results of this study that hostility causes heart disease?  Explain your answer.  Give at least one alternative explanation for a relationship between the hostility and heart disease. (It may help to think in terms of the directionality and third variable issues discussed in class.)  

4)      Suppose you wanted to do additional research on the hypothesis that high hostility increases the risk of developing heart disease.  You decide to carry out an experiment.   To carry out an experiment you need to manipulate an independent variable and measure a dependent variable. A) Define the term independent variable and suggest a way you could manipulate the independent variable, hostility.  B) Define the term dependent variable and suggest a way you could measure the dependent variable, heart disease.  (Your suggestions for manipulating and measuring the variables must be different from the techniques used in the original study.) 

5)      In an experiment you must randomly assign participants to experimental conditions or levels of the independent variable. What is random assignment? (Take care not to confuse random sampling with random assignment.)   Explain why it is important to use random assignment and describe how random assignment works. (Vague answers such as, "It eliminates bias," are not sufficient.  You must explain what sort of bias is controlled and how random assignment controls it.)  

6)   Discuss ethical issues related to your proposed study.  Are there any potential ethical problems
      with your study? Explain your answer.  How would you protect the rights and welfare of the
      participants in your study?