Research Music Preferences
This activity simulates a psychology research effort.
Related material is Why Is Research Important? While this activity uses central tendency values, p-values described in statistical thinking could be used for a more advanced version of this activity. This activity draws from practical applications of psychology such as in business psychology.
With small groups of students:
Have students learn about Likert scales which are frequently used in psychology studies.
Have students select two songs for “testing.”
Quantitative
Have students poll at least one, but no more than three people (parents, friends, etc) to answer two questions with the Likert scale:
1. How do you rate the beat?
2. How do you rate the lyrics?
Qualitative
Also have the participants give three to five words to describe their impression of each song.
Collect student data and analyze through quantitative and qualitative methods.
Analysis
Basic quantitive analysis
For each of the two songs, average the values of “beat” and “lyrics.”
Compare these averages.
- Compare song 1 “beat” score to the song 2 beat score.
- What conclusion can be made from this comparison?
- Repeat this for the “lyrics” scores.
Basic qualitative analysis
Read through the comments
Made at least two categories such as “positive comment” and “negative comment.”
Find one of the comments from each category that best represents all of the other comments in that same category.
Basic Findings
Write up a brief findings paper. Describe the quantitative comparison and conclusion that these numbers imply. Use the selected qualitative comments to support the conclusions.