Question

To determine whether physical contact immediately after birth affects maternal behavior, 28 first-time mothers were assigned to one of two conditions after giving birth to normal full-term infants. The youngest 14 mothers were placed in the control group and had usual physical contact with their infants. The oldest 14 mothers were placed in the extended contact group and had 16 hours of additional physical contact with their infants. It was predicted that greater physical contact would lead to more positive maternal behavior. Maternal behavior was measured 28 days later with a standardized interview, an examination of the baby, and a filmed bottle-feeding. Extended-contact mothers were more reluctant to leave their infants with someone else, usually stood and watched during the examination, showed greater soothing behavior, and engaged in significantly more eye-to-eye contact. These studies suggest that simple modification of physical contact shortly after delivery may alter subsequent maternal behavior. Non-experimental (two sets of participants were measured on a varaible to see if group membership was related to the measured variable) Question 2 What is the independent variable in this study? feeding method maternal age maternal behavior amount of contact How did the researcher operationalize physical contact? by changing the feeding method by recording how often mothers touched or heid their infants through the number of contact hours the mothers had with the babies immediately post birth Question 5 How did the researcher operationalize maternal behavior? by varying the number of hours participants spent with their infants reluctancy to the leave the infant, eye contact, and greater soothing behavior Feeding method Question 6 State the researcher's hypothesis using your own words. Use the ediror to format your answer Question 8 Is there a confounding Variable in this study? In other words was there another variable that changed along with the independent variable? yes no Question 9 Can it be inferred that the change in the IV led to the change in the DV? In other words can we say that the voriable the researchers hypothesized would leod to to o change in the DV is what caused the charge in the DV? yes no Identify a flaw/limitation with this study and explain why it is a flaw/limitation. Use the editor to format your answer Question 12 Suggest an improvement to the research design and explain why it improves the study. Use the editor to format your answer

Answer 1

The independent variable in this study is the amount of contact immediately after birth.

Step-by-step explanation:

The independent variable in this study is the amount of contact immediately after birth. The researcher operationalized physical contact by recording how often mothers touched or held their infants through the number of contact hours the mothers had with the babies immediately after birth. The researcher operationalized maternal behavior by varying the number of hours participants spent with their infants and measuring reluctancy to leave the infant, eye contact, and greater soothing behavior.