In spring semester 2021, the country is in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the consistent recommendations by the Center for Disease Control is that everyone comply with safety guidelines (i.e., mask wearing and hand sanitizing, etc.) to prevent the spread of the virus. However, due to some states not enforcing these CDC guidelines, there continues to be outbreaks of the virus. Your task is to design a study designed to increase compliance with mask-wearing and other safety precautions as recommended by the CDC. The statistical and research concepts of correlation and causality were discussed in some detail. Two research designs, experimental and correlational, were also discussed in some detail

PART A) Propose an Observational/Correlational study that would help address the public's compliance with CDC safety guidelines (e.g., mask-wearing, hand-sanitizing, etc.). An observational/correlational design should be used because we would not want to assign anyone to a non-mask group, or to a group that is "not" encouraged to wear a mask. So, limit your proposal to an Observational-Correlational design.

PART B)As the major objective of your study is to increase compliance with safety guidelines (i.e., mask wearing; hand sanitizing, etc.), design the study to compare the effectiveness of two or more different kinds of public service type campaigns designed to encourage people to comply with safety guidelines (i.e., mask-wearing, hand-sanitizing, etc.) among populations that are presently choosing not to comply with CDC safety guidelines.

PART C) You may assume that the State of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia would support the financial cost of such research, for purposes of this classroom assignment. Is there any conflict with these sources of funding in terms of potentially biasing the research results or the conclusions drawn by the researchers? Any other potential sources of bias in the study?

PART D) Sample: Clearly identify what American populations, in terms of geographic and demographic characteristics, that are most likely "not" to comply with CDC issued safety guidelines.How might participants be recruited for such a study? What types of participants should be included in a study designed to increase compliance with CDC issued safety guidelines? Approximately how large do you think your sample should be?

PART E) How might you measure the effectiveness of the public service campaigns to increase compliance? Describe as well as you can. How might you analyze the effectiveness results? How would you present them graphically? Please specify if you would use a Boxplot, Bar Chart, or Scatterplot, or some combination of these to present the results. Indicate what variable would be on the X axis, and what variable would be on the Y axis.

PART F) What possible variables might act as confounding or mediating ("3rd" variables) potentially making it difficult to truly assess the relationships between variables? Also, how might you be able to evaluate whether any relationships are: (see page 261 in text):

• Possibly causal in nature?
• Probable causes?
• Causal beyond a reasonable doubt
• Due to coincidence?

PART G) What other issues are important to consider in the evaluation of data that would be collected from the study you have proposed?