Class:Research Methods of Psychology

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1. Bastian et al. (2015), "Sad and Alone: Social Expectancies for Experiencing Negative Emotions Are Linked to Feelings of Loneliness": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EkVNFA8SNfncvkX9zVdgH_E_tfFMf-T2/view?usp=sharing
2. Crosswell et al. (2021), "Effects of acute stress on cognition in older versus younger adults": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qwecy6wJC7eA5Oiw8LBq8WoxQJPxB9vv/view?usp=sharing
3. Du et al. (2018), "The Relationship between stress and negative emotion: The Mediating role of rumination": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pNOUbwPjp_cCX4i7bvMWA8heIiDYjfij/view?usp=sharing
4. Erzen & ikrikci (2018), "The effect of loneliness on depression: A meta-analysis": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FrMnEE3DFBFZITmHRXLwReUPscWh6qK9/view?usp=sharing
5. Feldman et al. (1999), "Negative Emotions and Acute Physiological Responses to Stress": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r0NaDEeKP5cCR1xgFF3TEQIH2Kf6P01e/view?usp=sharing
6. Munir et al. (2022), "Impact of Loneliness and Academic Stress on Psychological Well Being among College Students": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h7mz8mNp_x5sPgR2mJ5Bv3hO52jKLy-f/view?usp=sharing

• MAKE AN INTRODUCTION FOR THE METHOD & RESULTS DOWN BELOW. (FILL IN INFORMATION IN THE PICTURES ON THE BOTTOM)

Hypotheses

I hypothesized that people who reported higher levels of negative emotions (predictor) would report greater feelings of loneliness (outcome) and higher levels of stress (outcome).

Method

Participants

Participants were part of the National COVID-19 and Mental Health Study. Participants were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk, a widely used online panel system that allows researchers to access a U. S. set of adult users who take surveys in exchange for a nominal fee.Participants were paid $1.20 for taking the survey. This rate was estimated to match the federal minimum wage for participants who completed the survey efficiently in 10 minutes. We chose a very broad title for the survey listing that was visible to participants: "Personal Attitudes and Experiences Survey." Participants were told that the survey involves reporting about their personal attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and demographics. This description was chosen to ensure that people interested in COVID-19 or health were disproportionately recruited based on the advertisement. When participants clicked on the survey link, the consent form provided more information about the study. To gather data from people with a wide variety of schedules, the survey was posted several times throughout the day from Wednesday April 22, 2020 until Sunday, April 26, 2020.

A total of 4,141 participants passed all of the attention check measures and inclusion criteria. The average age of the sample was 39 (range 18-84) and included 1797 males, 2346 females, and 6 intersex. There were 3082 Whites, 309 Asians, 378 Blacks, 205 Latino/as, and 175 biracial, multiracial, or other ethnicities. Among the Asians, 100 were Chinese. All participants lived in the United States. One-third reporting leaning-definitely Republican (32%), compared to 21% (866) Independent and 47% (1951) leaning-definitely Democrat. The majority had a college degree (61%), followed by some college (20%), two-year degree (10%), and high school or less (9%).

Measures

Predictor Variable(s)

Negative Emotions.The State Adjective Questionnaire (Cohen et al., 2003) is a well-established measure used to assess negative emotions. It consists of 6 items that describe various negative emotional states, such as "feeling tense," "feeling on edge," "feeling hostile," and "feeling angry". Participants will be asked to rate the extent to which they have experienced each emotion in the past week. This time frame allows for the assessment of recent emotional experiences and minimizes recall biases.

Participants will rate their experiences on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Definitely, 2 = Mostly Disagree 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree 4 = Mostly Agree 5 = Definitely Agree). This scale provides a continuum for participants to express the intensity of their negative emotions. The items will be averaged to make a total score for negative emotions. Averaging up the items allows for a comprehensive assessment of overall negative emotional experiences. Higher total scores indicate a higher level of negative emotions reported by participants.

Outcome Variable(s)

Loneliness.The Three-Item Loneliness Scale and one additional item (Hughes et al., 2004) will be used to measure loneliness. This scale is a brief and widely used measure in psychological research. It includes 4 items that assess subjective feelings of loneliness, such as "feeling left out," "lacking companionship," "isolated from others," and "feeling alone".

Participants will rate their agreement with each item on a 5-point Likert scale, (1 = Definitely, 2 = Mostly Disagree 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree 4 = Mostly Agree 5 = Definitely Agree). This scale allows participants to express the frequency of their experiences, providing a quantitative assessment of loneliness. The items will be averaged to calculate a mean loneliness score. Averaging the items provides a summary measure of overall loneliness experiences, with higher scores indicating greater feelings of loneliness.

Stress. The Perceived Stress Scale-4 (Cohen, 1988) will be used to measure participants' perception of stress in their lives. This scale has been widely used and validated in various populations. It consists of four items that assess the degree to which participants perceive their life as stressful such as, "unable to control the important things in life," "confident about the ability to handle personal problems," "things were going your way," and "difficulties were piling up so high that the participant was not able to overcome them". The items capture aspects of stress, such as feeling overwhelmed by difficulties.

Participants will rate their responses on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Definitely, 2 = Mostly Disagree 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree 4 = Mostly Agree 5 = Definitely Agree). This scale allows participants to express the frequency of their perceived stress experiences. The items will be averaged to make a total stress score. Averaging up the items provides an overall measure of perceived stress, with higher scores indicating higher levels of perceived stress reported by participants.

Results

The full set of correlations are reported in Table 1.

Hypothesis 1: Association between Negative Emotions and Loneliness

The results showed a significant positive correlation between negative emotions and loneliness, r(4141) = .49, p < .001. This indicates that people who reported having higher levels of negative emotions tended to report greater stress. As such, this result supports the hypothesis that an increase in negative emotions is associated with an increase in loneliness.

Hypothesis 2: Association between Negative Emotions and Stress

The results showed a significant positive correlation between negative emotions and stress, r(4141) = .52, p < .001. This indicates that people who reported having higher levels of negative emotions tended to report greater feelings of loneliness. As such, this result supports the hypothesis that an increase in negative emotions is associated with an increase in stress.

Hypothesis 3: Association between Loneliness and Stress

The results showed a significant positive correlation between loneliness and stress, r(4141) = .50, p < .001. This indicates that people who reported being lonelier tended to report greater stress. As such, this result supports the hypothesis that an increase in loneliness is associated with an increase in stress.

Table 1. The Associations of Negative Emotions to Loneliness and Stress

	Negative Emotions	Loneliness	Stress
Negative Emotions	-
Loneliness	.49***	-
Stress	.52***	.50***	-

Note. ***p< .001

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