A psychologist was interested in the effects of different fear information on children’s beliefs about an animal. Three groups of children were shown a picture of an animal that they had never seen before (a quoll). Then one group was told a negative story (in which the quoll is described as a vicious, disease-ridden bundle of nastiness that eats children’s brains), one group a positive story (in which the quoll is described as a harmless, docile creature who likes nothing more than to be stroked), and a final group weren’t told a story at all. After the story children rated how scared they would be if they met a quoll, on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all scared) to 5 (very scared indeed). To account for the natural anxiousness of each child, a questionnaire measure of trait

Question

anxiety was given to the children and used in the analysis. Which of the following statements best reflects what the effect of ‘Type Of Information’ in the table tells us?



A. The type of information given to the children had a significant effect on their fear beliefs.

B. The type of information given to the children did not have a significant effect on their fear beliefs.

C. The type of information given to the children did not have a significant effect on their fear beliefs, even after their natural level of fear had been accounted for.

D. The type of information given to the children had a significant effect on their fear beliefs, even after their natural level of fear had been accounted for.

Answer 1

Answer: D