Write a paper about Recording and analyzing behavior on a TV show.

How do I define prosocial behavior? Before watching the shows, write a comprehensive operational definition of what you mean by prosocial behavior. Remember, you are observing behavior (so your definition shouldn’t mention thoughts or feelings or motivations because these are not things that we can observe). Your definition must be clear enough so that someone else could use your definition while watching the same shows and derive the same results. Using this definition, you will count the number of instances of prosocial behavior being displayed by a boy or by a girl on each show.

How do I collect the data?
Choose any television (or online) shows with a child actor (about 3 to 12 years of age) (not an infant, teen or adult, and not cartoon characters). You need two different shows that each have a boy actor and two different shows that each have a girl actor. So, you will watch four different shows, in total.
Watch each show for 10 continuous minutes. (Consider recording the shows or choosing shows that are available online as you may find it useful to re-watch segments for more accurate observations.) You can start watching at any point in the episode – it doesn’t have to be at the beginning of the show.
During the 10 minute time span:
count the number of instances of prosocial behavior being displayed by the child that you have chosen.
note whether the consequence following each example of prosocial behavior is positive (e.g., a reward of some type), negative (e.g., a punishment of some type), or neutral (i.e., no consequences).
Enter this information (typed) on the Record Form. See Sheet 1 of Record Form. Record your name, ID number, and section number on the Form because you will submit it as part of your assignment.
Note that Section 1 is for information about the behavior of boys and Section 2 for girls.
Enter the name of each show that you watched on the left hand side of the Form.
If you did not observe any example of the behavior, enter the number zero in the cell – do not leave it blank.
How do I analyze my data? So, your form now contains the total number of instances of prosocial behaviour, positive consequences, negative consequences, and neutral/no consequences for each of two boys AND for two girls.

FOR THE BOYS AND THEN FOR THE GIRLS:
Calculate the mean (i.e., average) score across shows for the prosocial behaviours.
Calculate the mean (i.e., average) score across shows for the positive consequences, and then for the negative consequences, and then for neutral/no consequences.
The mean score is calculated by adding the totals across the two shows for a particular category and then dividing by the number of shows (i.e., 2).

Questions to Answer
Answer the questions in your own words; do not copy from any source.

State your operational definition of prosocial behavior. Describe one example of this behavior in a show that you watched.

a. Define what is meant by the term experimental design.

b. Is the method that you used an example of an experimental design? Why or why not?

Describe using words the numbers that you recorded on the Observation Record Form. However, don’t explain what you think your results mean, as this is the next question that you will answer.

What is the meaning of the results that you found?

Read the article by Christakis et al. (2013) that is posted on Moodle: How does this article help you to understand what your results mean? Be sure to use your results to support your conclusions.

Name two possible limitations of your study. For example, are there other variables or ways that could have been used to study this issue?

What to submit?
The assignment is to be typed double-spaced using Times Roman 12 point. Put your name at the top of the first page in the left hand corner. Do not use a Title Page.
Submit only the answers to the above questions (do not include the questions). Paste the Record Form after the answers to your questions.