Juan Miguel L.

Bautista Psych 162

2011-45408


The data used for the following exercise was taken from our Psychology 115
(Experimental Psychology). Our experiment was focused on the effects of
lighting and expressive suppression on the perceived scariness of horror films.

The 120 participants of the experiment were divided equally into 4 groups for
each condition. There were 30 participants each in condition A (lit-room, non-
suppressed), B (lit-room, suppressed), C (dark room, non-suppressed), and D
(dark room, suppressed) where they were asked to watch a horror clip in each
condition. They were then asked to rate how scary they thought the clip was on a
scale of 0 to 9.

A 95% confidence interval was used for the analysis of the results of this
experiment.

Hypothesis: Suppressing the participants expressions while watching in a dark
room will increase the perceived scariness of a horror clip.

Participants:
N = 120
Population: Students from the University of the Philippines Diliman
taking Psychology 101
Mean age: 18.7

Tables and Interpretations

Table 1: Summary of Results from Univariate ANOVA

Source Significance Partial Eta Squared
Intercept .201 1.000
Suppression .553 .417
Lighting .455 .571
Suppression*Lighting .245 .002

Based on the data from this experiment and as seen from table 1, there was no
evidence that lighting and suppression had an effect on the perceived scariness
of horror films. From the table above this can be seen in that the significance
levels of the independent variables are much greater than the significance
threshold ( = 0.05) as suppression, lighting, and their interaction have
significance levels of 0.553, 0.425, and 0. 245 respectively. It can also be said that
there was a wide variety of answers as partial eta squared of suppression and
lighting are relatively high.




Table 2: Descriptive Statistics

Suppression Lighting Mean Standard
Deviation
Non-suppressed Lit-room 4.4557 2.43159
Dark room 4.5000 2.34521
Total 4.4833 2.36852
Suppressed Lit-room 4.0567 2.08332
Dark room 4.5333 2.67470
Total 4.3000 2.38853
Total Lit-room 4.2667 2.25394
Dark-room 4.3917 2.37032

As we have previously discussed, there was no evidence that lighting and
suppression had an effect on the perceived scariness of horror films. We may be
able to some of the reasons why this is so in table 2. As we can see in table 2, the
mean scores given by the participants on how scary they perceived the horror
clip shown in the experiment are almost the same throughout the conditions.
The differences are miniscule to the point that they are negligible. Their answers
also appear to have a large amount of variety as seen from the relatively high
standard deviation scores.

Table 3: Correlation between Suppression and Perceived Scariness (Spearmans
Rho)

Suppression Perceived Scariness
Suppression 1.000 -.082
Perceived Scariness -.082 1.000

Table 4: Correlation between Lighting and Perceived Scariness (Spearmans Rho)

Lighting Perceived Scariness
Lighting 1.000 .003
Perceived Scariness .003 1.000

Although not originally part of the analysis of the data of the experiment, the
correlation between the different variables was looked into for the purposes of
this activity.

We can see in Table 3 that there is a low negative correlation between
suppression and the perceived scariness of the horror clip. However, the
correlation coefficient is too small for us to be able to say that such a correlation
is even significant.

In table 4 however, it shows that there is a positive correlation between lighting
and the perceived scariness of the horror clip. It is similar though to table 3 in
that the correlation coefficient is too small for us to be able to say that such a
correlation is even significant.