A researcher is aware that playing certain computer games can impact people's moods. She wonders whether these effects might vary with age. She recruits a group of students, a group of middle-aged adults, and a group of elderly adults to participate in her study to test her hypothesis. The research design is best described as a non-experimental design.

Question

A researcher is aware that playing certain computer games can impact people's moods. She wonders whether these effects might vary with age. She recruits a group of students, a group of middle-aged adults, and a group of elderly adults to participate in her study to test her hypothesis. The research design is best described as a non-experimental                design.

A.
cohort

B.
panel

C.
cross-sectional

D.
longitudinal

GPT-4o mini · Answer

The research design described is best classified as a non-experimental **C. cross-sectional** design. This is because the researcher is comparing different age groups at one point in time rather than tracking the same individuals over a period (which would be longitudinal) or observing the same cohort over different time periods (which would also be longitudinal). A cross-sectional design looks at data from different subjects at one time to find patterns or relationships.