1Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
WRITTEN RESPONSES
Submitted by: LEARNER ID #: 2105440
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Psychology
Capella University
10 May 2019
Comp Exam Facilitator: [Insert here]
STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL WORK
I understand that Capella University’s Academic Honesty Policy (3.01.01) holds learners accountable for the integrity of work they submit, which includes, but is not limited to,
discussion postings, assignments, comprehensive exams, and the dissertation. Students are
expected to understand the Policy and know that it is their responsibility to learn about Instructor
and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources in written work as
specified in APA Publication Manual, 6 th Edition. Serious sanctions can result from violations of
any type of the Academic Honesty Policy including dismissal from the University.
I attest this document represents my own work. Where I have used the ideas of others, I
have paraphrased and given credit according to the guidelines of the APA Publication Manual,
6 th Edition. Where I have used the words of others (i.e. direct quotes), I have followed the
guidelines for using direct quotes prescribed by the APA Publication Manual, 6 th Edition.
2 Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
I have read, understood, and abided by Capella University’s Academic Honesty Policy
(3.01.01). I further understand Capella University takes plagiarism seriously; regardless of
intention, the result is the same.
I understand that placement of my learner ID# below constitutes signing and attesting to
this Statement of Original Work.
Attested to by:
Learner ID#: 2105440
Date: 10 May 2019
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
QUESTION 1
QUESTION: Review scholarly literature on three theories within your specialization. Analyze
how these different theories could be integrated, synthesized, or combined to create a better
perspective on your proposed (or School-approved) topic. Evaluate the extent to which these
theories conflict in ways that cannot be reconciled within this context.
4 Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
Many people are proud of their title whether they are a CEO, manager, founder, doctor,
etc. These titles indicate a certain level of accomplishment and prestige. Titles can even become
an intrinsic part of a person’s identity. Wouters (2014) explains how self-esteem is dependent on
external or internal conditions, and to perceive oneself as good and worthy, individuals with high
self-esteem need to fulfill certain criteria. While titles can be given or earned, there is no
question that a title carries certain levels of expectations and people make judgements based on
these titles.
When a person introduces him/herself with a professional title, he/she may be doing so
simply out of habit, but it could also be to show off his/her accomplishments. Bourdieu (1984,
2000) and Bourdieu and Passeron (1977 ) explain how unconscious cultural and social
domination occurs through forcing subjects into categories of thought and perception. This study
intends to explore the magnitude of influence that a person’s title has on other people by
comparing whether a subject is more willing to accept the opinion or information from someone
with a title rather than someone without a title.
This topic is appropriate for general psychology, which is a broad field that impacts all
people, as it involves cognitive psychology, social psychology, and identity. O’Donohue and
Ferguson (2001) describe cognitive psychology as the scientific study of the mind and mental
function. These are aspects of basic human existence that apply to the entire general population.
Cognitive psychology also includes how people learn, memory, attention, perception, reasoning,
language, conceptual development, and decision making. Everything that makes a person a
person, revolves around cognitive psychology.
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McCleery, Horan, and Green (2014) define social perception as identifying and utilizing
social cues to make judgments about social roles, rules, relationships, context, or characteristics
(e.g. trustworthiness) of others. This also includes knowledge and adaptation of social norms,
social roles, and schemas surrounding social situations and interactions. Harvey and Omarzu
(2000) mention that social perception theories explain how people use their environment and
observations of behavior of others to dictate their own behavior. They also discuss the
importance of social perception and how people understand and label behavior of others.
Rosenhan (1973) showed that educated professionals are just as apt to quickly, and without
cautious scrutiny of evidence, label others and direct certain behavior dependent upon those
labels.
Job titles affect personal perception of oneself in many ways; one of those ways may be
self-esteem (Garnett 2013). TV commercials will often have an actor portray a lawyer or doctor
or other professional for certain ads to endorse a particular feeling or have consumers assume
certain things. (Brinol et al., 2017) finds that perceived power can increase or decrease
persuasion depending on the circumstances and could affect short and long-term consequences
for behavior. Therefore, someone who has a prestigious job title may have more self-esteem and
perceive themselves as more powerful. These characteristics should result in the person having
more persuasive influence which could affect interpersonal communication bias with other
people.
Tholen (2016) explains how a demand for a person’s credentials is not necessarily related
to the demand for job skills; this is more of a cultural or professional preference. Interviews,
performance evaluations, and employee loyalty are all practical implications of social perception
6 Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
(Principles of Management, 2018). Interviewers generally make early impressions of an
interviewee based on social perceptions (Principles of Management, 2018). An employee’s work
performance is also based on perceptual processes, as well as employee perceived loyalty.
There is no doubt that people respond to authority and expertise. Vieo (2013) explains
how a simple introduction of a real estate agent can influence the number of appointments
booked and contracts signed by simply mentioning how many years of experience the agent has
before transferring the call. This example has to do with a person looking for a professional
working in their profession. There is a gap in literature that shows how people are influenced by
professionals and authorities in matters unrelated to their professions.
The Milgram Experiment connects ordinary people with authority figures to determine
how far that authority figure can push the ordinary person to harm another person. However,
this is testing an authority figure using their position as an authority figure to influence another
person. Billikopf Encina (2014) describes how “ordinary” people are wiling to shock other
“ordinary” people when instructed to by an authority figure. The subjects were told that the
shocks would be anywhere from mild to possibly lethal. Despite the possibility of administering
a shock that could kill the person, these subjects still gave the shock when instructed to do so.
The Stanford Experiment is another example where authority is recognized. While this
experiment dealt more with perceived power, it is done so at the place of their assumed
profession.
Konnikova (2015) explains that the Stanford Experiment involved middle class college
students that were deemed “normal” after answering a questionnaire. The subjects were
randomly divided into two groups. One groups was prisoners and the other guards. Given little
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to no directions or instructions, within 24 hours, the guard began humiliating and
psychologically abusing the prisoners. The prisoners became submissive and depersonalized.
Due to the extreme results of the experiment, it ended in 6 days rather than the originally planned
length of 2 weeks.
Anaejionu (2018) describes job titles as work place indicators of status. These titles
overtly or indirectly let co-workers and clients know how to treat or address an individual.
Appelo (2015) goes into detail further on how specific job titles can influence behavior and
performance.
Caldwell (2002) performs a study which evaluates the affect of HR titles and the
importance of the title. People whom are management professionals with an HR title were found
to identify more strongly with the change-oriented agenda of HRM.
There are many experiments and situations that explain how people act when in the
presence of authority or are given authoritative positions. Abbott (2016) conducted a less
controversial version of the Milgram experiment. The participants reported feelings of lessened
responsibility of their actions which inflicted pain. Neisser (2014) states that humans are not
passive in processing information. People are active participants and can manipulate their
memories. Information processing is one of two features in the cognitive paradigm according to
Hyman (2014). Information processing focuses on following information from environment
through the various cognitive processes that lead to perceptions, memories, thoughts, and
behaviors.
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Brown & McGeeney (2013) share that 16.6% of unemployed Americans suffer from
depression. It has already been understood that job success impacts self-worth and image. This
could play a part in the depression for unemployed Americans. If Americans had a prestigious
title, that may increase their self-image. There is a significant lack of studies that have been
done on how titles impact ordinary people on matters unrelated to their professional titles.
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Voos, A., Cordeaux, C., Tirrell, J., & Pelphrey, K. (2015). Developmental neuroscience of social
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QUESTION 2
Prepare and present a literature review on the area of your proposed (or School-approved)
dissertation topic. Evaluate trends and ethical research issues in the scholarly research in this
area and propose at least two research topics that would serve to move the scholarly dialogue
further. Defend your proposed topics to show how such research would contribute to the current
literature.
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There are no significant ethical challenges as there are no vulnerable populations being
dealt with in this study. Steps will be taken to ensure all APA code of ethics and Capella IRB
handbook guidelines are followed and that all participants are aware of their rights to privacy and
protection of their information. All participants will have the proper legal documentation to be
part of the study and proper informed consent and right to withdraw. Online participation can be
utilized for volunteers to take surveys and questionnaires and will keep anonymity. Means of
communication can remain online as well by only using e-mail. Data collected will be stored on
a computer flash drive and will be secured in a locker only accessible by the researcher when not
in use. No names will be needed, but if names are given, those names will be replaced by
numbers. After the study is complete the data will be destroyed.
Blue, Hu, & Zhou (2018) conducted a study in which a trust game was used to investigate
whether social status plays a role in influencing evaluation of honesty-related feedback.
Participants were more affected by promises given by higher status trustees than those of a lower
social status. Even when both the higher and lower trustees received the same or neutral
feedback, their social status had an impact on the results. The findings from the study indicated
that the “social value” hypothesis predicts that participants would be more surprised by a higher
status dishonesty than dishonesty from someone of lower status.
There were no apparent ethical concerns for this study as there were no vulnerable
populations utilized. Limitations of the study included overcoming the barrier of the slight but
distinct difference between social status and power. Blue, Hu, & Zhou (2018) explained that
socioeconomic status is composed of objective socioeconomic status and objective
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socioeconomic status. Objective socioeconomic status pertains to quantitative factors such as
salary, vocation, or highest achieved education. Subjective socioeconomic status refers to an
individual’s feelings about such things in relation to the general population. Being a manager at
a fast food restaurant might give a 16 year old high objective and subjective socioeconomic
status whereas a 55 year old fast food manager might have mild objective socioeconomic status
and low subjective socioeconomic status.
Prestige-based status, in relation to socioeconomic status, as described by Blue, Hu, &
Zhou (2018), is the amount of deference, respect, and admiration an individual receives. This is
seen as advantageous as it is distinct from power and wealth and can be easily manipulate in lab
settings. Blue, Hu, & Zhou (2018) addressed the limitations surrounding social status by
systematically analyzing the behavioral and neutral effects of both prestige-based status, which
was manipulated at the beginning of the experiment, and socioeconomic status, which was
measured after the experiment.
In the proposed study the learner intends to do, the limitations of socioeconomic status
and prestige-based status will be avoided by keeping prestigious titles very exclusive and the
participants will have either a prestigious title or will not have a prestigious title. The gap
between differentiating and identifying those of higher or lower status will be extreme and easy
to identify. For example, when needing to compare two individuals where one has a title and
one does not, the one without a title will have only a high school diploma and a lower income
job, such as a fast food cashier. The individual with a title will be described as an accomplished
CEO of a fortune 500 company with a PhD in business.
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The Stanford Experiment is a well-known experiment with significant ethical concerns.
While the experiment provided significant information about behavior, psychology, social
interactions, etc. it violated many ethical codes and standards (McLeod, 2018). Some of the
ethical concerns involved were the right to withdraw from the experiment. There was also
deception and questions regarding proper informed consent, and the risks involved actual
psychological and physical harm to the participants. Two prisoners had to be withdrawn due to
significant emotional distress, and the entire experiment ended early due to the severe ethical
concerns and negative reactions to the experiment itself. Some other concerns include the
validity of the results due to it being a field experiment versus a scientific experiment.
Some of the valuable information gathered from the Stanford Experiment include social
roles, social hierarchy, learned helplessness, authoritarianism, and deindividuation (McLeod,
2018). Social and ideological implications indicate that subjects from both the inmate and guard
positions behaved in mannerisms related to their position (guard vs inmate) rather than use their
own individual common sense or “normal” human judgement (Martyn, 2008). The results on
whether the actions of the participants were truly human nature is still undecided and
undetermined. Some believe that authoritarianism, learned helplessness, and/or social hierarchy
are the reasons the participants acted the way they did, however, others believe that the
participants were simply acting and playing pretend according to their “roles” in the experiment
(Martyn, 2008).
One of the research topic questions will include the following: Do the predictor variables
of age, gender, and educational level, taken together significantly predict the choice of advice
taken from someone with a title or without a title? The null hypothesis: T he predictor variables
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of age, gender, and educational level, taken together will not significantly predict the choice of
advice taken from someone with a title or without a title. The a lternative hypothesis: T he
predictor variables of age, gender, and educational level, taken together will significantly predict
the choice of advice taken from someone with a title or without a title.
Advancing the field by filling the gap in current literature on the influence of titles is how
this study will contribute to the theory. This study narrows social interactions and perceptions
to two people, and how their social perception is impacted by the presence of one of those people
having a prestigious title.
This study will impact those that have a title, want a title, or those who interact with
people who have a title. This data could help advertisements in how to portray actors in
commercials. This data could be used for movies and television shows in how actors could be
portrayed. The data could also contribute to self-help books as well as counseling. By knowing
how titles affect people, those with titles could use them to their advantage, and those without
them could learn how to avoid negative influences on their self-esteem/worth and public
perception.
Social perception is a critical part of social cognition as it covers how people recognize
each other, perceptions of experiences and emotions, and representation of self and others (Voos
et al., 2015). Adolphs (2009) explains that humans are social creatures. People learn, adapt, and
behave based on their interpretation of the world around them. To understand the world and how
to act, one must learn how to be social. Part of learning social rules and norms is understanding
subgroups. Understanding social brain mechanisms promises to be a useful tool for defining
meaningful subgroups to facilitate analysis (McPartland & Pelphrey, 2013). This study hopes to
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
expand on the social perception theory and also aims to help expand current knowledge on
existing framework and expand the field of general psychology by providing an additional
avenue to help understand social interactions and perceptions through cognitive and social
psychology.
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Ambler, G. (2016). Leadership is not a position or title. George Ambler, Helping Leaders
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QUESTION 3
QUESTION_3: Briefly summarize the purpose, research method, findings, and conclusions of
studies that provide a scholarly foundation for your proposed (or School-approved) dissertation
topic. Evaluate the methodological strengths and weaknesses of each study, and how the
weaknesses potentially limit the validity of the findings and conclusions. Based on your
evaluation, analyze how a study on your proposed (or School-approved) dissertation topic will
further the scholarly research while maintaining ethical research requirements.
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
There is a lack in research and literature on the effects of having a prestigious title when
two people, one having a title and one without a title, are judged or considered for following
advice from on matters unrelated to their area of expertise and based solely on the possession of
having a title. The purpose of this study is to see if a person’s professional title carries any
perceived weight or importance in matters unrelated to their profession. Do people really care if
someone is a Dr. or is a CEO when getting recommendations or advice on matters unrelated to
their area of expertise? Do people assume that if someone is successful in one area of their life,
they are successful in other areas as well?
If someone were looking for information on investing, and a person who did not graduate
high school and a person who is the founder of a successful company give advice on the topic,
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
would the person seeking advice be swayed by their title despite neither being able to
intelligently talk on the matter?
In a 2015 article in Fortune, Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics, claims that a job title
“doesn’t matter” contradicts all other research in this area. The article explains how leaders
should instead lead by example. However, this is not an explanation for why “job titles don’t
matter.” The article falls short on providing any evidence on the topic or even discussing it at
all.
Church (2015) explains that job titles do matter. In fact, he claims it is just as influential
as skin color, gender, and age. These are all characteristics that people take into account when
meeting or evaluating others. Sometimes these are judged harshly or barely even give
consideration, but they are considered. One example Church gives is a person is 37 years old
and “only a manager.” This would surely make their application less desirable as their work
accomplishments do not match their age. He explains that it is expected that someone that age
should be a higher level at that particular company.
There are several questions this study intends to answer: 1) Do the predictor variables of
age, gender, and educational level, taken together significantly predict the choice of advice taken
from someone with a title or without a title? 2) Does the variable of age by itself significantly
predict the choice of advice with a title or without a title? 3) Does the variable of education by
itself significantly predict the choice of advice with a title or without a title? 4) Does the variable
of gender by itself significantly predict the choice of advice taken from someone with a title or
without a title?
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According to VanVoorhis and Morgan (2007), t he sample size for this study will be
30 when using the rule of thumb, but the researcher aims to have at least 50. There are 3
predictors, age, education, and gender with a total of 8 levels. Age is a variable because people
have different ages. This is being measured by individuals selecting the applicable age group
they fall into. Education is a variable because people have different levels of education. This
will be measured by selecting the appropriate education level they have completed. Gender is a
variable because people are either male or female. This will be measured by the individual
selecting the appropriate option of either being male or female.
Participants will select their age, gender and education level. These are the determining
factors that make them eligible for the study. Other factors include being able to read and
understand English up to an 8 th grade level, as that is the language that the study will be given.
The age categories are 18-29, 30-45, and 46-60. Participants will select their applicable level of
education. They will either have completed up to a high school diploma, completed up to a
bachelor’s degree, or have completed above a bachelor’s degree. Participants will select the
appropriate level of education that applies to them. Participants will select whether they are male
or female to identify their gender.
The instrument will be a vignette in which the participant is instructed to make a decision
on whether or not they are likely to accept the advice from someone with a prestigious title or
someone without a prestigious title. Binary logistic regression will be used to predict the
outcome. The choice that the participant makes after assessing the vignette is the operational
definition. The categories that the participants identified themselves as being part of will show
in logistic regression as to which group they choose and the outcomes. The vignette example,
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
which the researcher will create, will be something similar to the following: you are in the
market to purchase your first home. You are given advice from Dr. Smith, about certain
strategies for buying the home. The local UPS driver gives you equally convincing, but
conflicting advice. Who, if either, are you more likely to take advice from?
For age, participants will select their age category. The categories are 18-29, 30-45, and
46-60. Participants will select their applicable level of education. They will either have
completed up to a high school diploma, completed up to a bachelor’s degree, or have completed
above a bachelor’s degree. Participants will select the appropriate level of education that applies
to them. Participants will select whether they are male or female to identify their gender.
The dependent variable is whether they accept or do not accept the advice from someone
with a prestigious title, and that will be measured with the binary logistic regression. The results
will predict whether the person is likely or not likely to accept the person’s advice if they have a
prestigious title. The outcome variable is whether they accept or do not accept the advice from
someone with a prestigious title, and that will be measured with the binary logistic regression.
The results will predict whether the person is likely or not likely to accept the person’s advice if
they have a prestigious title.
The vignette example, which the researcher will create, will be something similar to the
following: you are in the market to purchase your first home. You are given advice from Dr.
Smith, about certain strategies for buying the home. The local UPS driver gives you equally
convincing, but conflicting advice. Who, if either, are you more likely to take advice from?
This will be a non-experimental design to predict the outcome of whether someone is
more or less likely to choose the advice from someone with a prestigious title. Data will be
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
collected through the evaluation of the vignette given to participants. The participants will be
given a scenario in which two different people give them advice, directions, guidance, etc. No
discriminating factors will be disclosed about the people, for example, no gender, race, age, etc
will be stated. The only information about the person giving the advice, guidance, information,
etc will be their title or lack thereof.
Early research shows that speaker credibility is related to behavior and attitude (Petty,
Wheeler, & Tomala, 2003). The findings of this research state that people are more apt to
believe a speaker with higher credibility than a speaker with low credibility.
Harvey and Omarzu (2000) discuss the importance of social perception and how people
understand and label behavior of others. Rosenhan (1973) showed that educated professionals
are just as apt to quickly, and without cautious scrutiny of evidence, label others and direct
certain behavior dependent upon those labels.
McCleery, Horan, and Green (2014) define social perception as identifying and utilizing
social cues to make judgments about social roles, rules, relationships, context, or characteristics
(e.g. trustworthiness) of others. This also includes knowledge and adaptation of social norms,
social roles, and schemas surrounding social situations and interactions.
Advancing the field by filling the gap is how this study will contribute to the theory.
Social perception theories explain how people use their environment and observations of
behavior of others to dictate their own behavior (Harvey & Omarzu, 2000). This study narrows
social interactions and perceptions to two people, and how their social perception is impacted by
the presence of one of those people having a prestigious title.
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
Job titles affect personal perception of oneself in many ways; one of those ways may be
self-esteem (Garnett 2013). (Brinol et al. 2017) finds that perceived power can increase or
decrease persuasion depending on the circumstances and could affect short and long term
consequences for behavior. Therefore, someone who has a prestigious job title may have more
self-esteem and perceives themselves as more powerful. These characteristics should result in
the person having more persuasive influence which could affect interpersonal communication
bias with other people. TV commercials will often have an actor portray a lawyer or doctor or
other professional for certain ads to endorse a particular feeling or have consumers assume
certain things.
Dahl & Turiel (2019) discuss how children’s perceptions and evaluations are decisive for
environmental interaction. Naturalistic video recordings are explained to be a new method for
investigating this development. Social perceptions are developed continuously throughout a
person’s development and having an understanding of how children develop their social
perceptions may be beneficial for this learner’s proposed study.
Dahl & Turiel (2019) only discuss children and social perceptions of younger subjects,
but the information in this study is valuable when considering how social perceptions affect
people in general. Dahl & Turiel (2019) suggest that age influences how a subject perceives and
interprets simple everyday events, and noted that the perceptions and evaluations of five to six
years were more distinct than those of three to four year olds. The three year olds also reportedly
did not apply concepts of intentions, welfare, rights, or material disorder to hypothetical
situations.
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
The research methods used by Dahl & Turiel (2019) were validated for studying
children’s perceptions and evaluations of social situations. The research assisted in furthering
valuable methods of investigating children’s perceptions and evaluations of everyday events
Dahl & Turiel (2019). The findings from this study were consistent with previous similar type
studies, however, progressive and new information was obtained as well. Most of the new
information yielded questions involving aggression based situations. Limitations of this study
involved potential harm/safety concerns, disorder, and having to rely on the verbal responses of
the subjects.
Blue, Hu & Zhou (2018) conducted a study on the effects of honesty within social
hierarchies and hypothesized that social norms indicate that the higher the social status the more
serious offence it is to violate honesty as there seems to be a higher level of expectation of trust.
Wahrman (2010) explains that there are two schools of thought that explain why group members
abide by social norms according to their social status of being either higher or lower status.
Wahrman (2010) suggests that persons of high status are often able to avoid sanctions due to
higher status and higher power typically go together which can cause less powerful members
(lower status) to be fearful.
The study Blue, Hu & Zhou (2018) conducted showed that people of higher status were
judged less harshly than lower status counterparts when violating a social norm. One example
used was measuring subject’s reactions and speculating on blame when people of perceived
higher and lower status accidently knocked over a briefcase. The individuals of high or low
status were judged based on dress and appearance and perceived occupation. This line of
assumption and reaction of people based on status is in line with the proposed learner’s study.
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
One of the limitations Blue, Hu & Zhou (2018) mentioned with the study conducted is
the lack of comparisons between the subjects’ social status compared to the social status of the
person being judged. This is a factor that will be addressed in the learner’s proposed study.
Blue, Hu & Zhou (2018) also mentions that one’s perceived socioeconomic status can be
influenced by one’s own feelings of power and status which may or may not be directly aligned
with their title or exact socioeconomic status. This will also be addressed in the proposed study
by making the socioeconomic status gap between the subject and other persons either the same
or extremely different/complete opposite on the socioeconomic spectrum.
Blue, Hu & Zhou (2018) explains how objective and subjective socioeconomic status
differ from each other. Objective socioeconomic status refers to quantitative accomplishments
such as highest level of education achieved, salary of self and/or parents, and vocation.
Subjective socioeconomic status refers to one’s feelings about such topics as they relate to the
relevant population. Blue, Hu & Zhou (2018) defines prestige-based status as the amount of
difference, respect, or admiration an individual receives and comments on how this type of social
status can easily be manipulated in a lab setting.
This dissertation topic will further the scholarly research while maintaining ethical
research requirements. There are no vulnerable populations being used, and all APA code of
ethics and Capella IRB handbook guidelines will be followed. Prior to gathering any
information from participants, all legal consent and proper documentation will be acquired.
References
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Running head: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM LEARNER 2105440
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https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00350/full
Dahl, A., & Turiel, E. (2019). Using naturalistic recordings to study children’s social perceptions
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