Develop a research design

Developing a Research Design
Name
Institutional Affiliation
1. Hypothesis:
H0: There is a relationship between empathy and morality in an individual.
H1: There is no relationship between empathy and morality in an individual.
2. Variables
[IV] The independent variable is empathy while the dependent is morality. The two might be close to each other, as lack of empathy might lead to immorality. To begin, the independent variable includes traits such as understanding and is characterized by holding traits such as fair treatment, suspended judgment, justice, and right interpersonal relationship with other people (Masto, 2015). The measurement of such characteristics in an individual gives the result of their empathy score (Masto, 2015). An account of the empathy score of an individual might provide his/her characteristics that might relate to the morality of an individual.
Morality depends on the level of empathy an individual portray and possess. Therefore, the level of compassion an individual can hold could determine their morality. More, morality would largely depend on the level of understanding an individual hold towards other people.
The data that will form the quantifier of the independent variable will come from a closed end questionnaire with its questions on a Likert scale. The scale for use will have a range of 1 to 5 with an answer such as “not at all” forming the lowest score while the highest score of 5 is “definitely.” The intermediate scores include “most likely,” “likely,” and “not sure,” which is now the complete Likert.

The analysis of the scores using inferential statistics gives the sense of the personality of an individual that renders him/her moral or immoral. The relevant sections of the inferential statistics that will be used in this study include the percentile, range, interquartile range, average, and median values. The percentile, average, and median will be used to describe the range of empathy scores that renders one moral or immoral. For instance, an average rating less than 35.5 is immoral while scores above 40 rank an individual as moral. At the same time, a median score that range between 37 and 40 will lead to a conclusion that these people are honest while those lower than this are immoral. Additionally, the number of participants’ empathy score above 41 will be said to be empathetic while those below this will be classified as not empathetic.
Manipulation of the Variable
The manipulation of the independent variable requires no special tools other than Microsoft Excel. The application will be used in the inferential statistics manipulation of the data. The outcome will be used in making inferences about empathy and morality in an individual and a group.
Definition of the Dependent variable
The dependent variable in this study is morality. The morality of an individual depends on the level of empathy the person has towards other people (Decety & Cowell, 2014). In this study, the measurement of understanding is proportional to the level of an individual or a group of people’s morality. For instance, an average score less than 35.5 is immoral while scores above 40 rank an individual as moral. At the same time, a median score that range between 37 and 40 will lead to a conclusion that these people are honest while those lower than this are immoral. At the same time, a group analysis with a range of empathy score of between 37 and 47 are averagely moral while those who are above this level are moral. However, those below this range are immoral (Decety & Cowell, 2014).
Therefore, to determine the dependent variable, a score of the independent variable must be in place. Moreover, when the count of empathy of an individual is high, the mortality index of the person is also high.
Research Design and Sampling
The study will be carried out using a correlational research method. The researcher aims at finding the relationship (Tanner, 2016), between empathy and morality. Moreover, the independent variable will not be manipulated during the study (Tanner, 2016). The subjects for the study will be chosen using the snowball system. An email invite to one person will lead to a referral to another one who can participate in the study. A minimum of 50 people will be recruited in this manner. However, the target number of participants is 55, which should be 40% females and 60% men.
The people participating in this study will be informed of the importance of the research to the field of knowledge, to them, and the society. Those who are pleased with the details and are willing to take part in it will be assured of confidentiality, by hiding their details. Moreover, the participants will not receive any token for this study, but they will only take part in it as volunteers. The idea is to avoid the manipulation of results through the participants (Tanner, 2016). Furthermore, there is no deception in this study as all that will be done with the data collected from the participants will be communicated to the participants at the end of the survey as a debrief. Having placed all the sensitive ethical issues in perspective, the research will then be performed by assigning personality related tasks to the participants and filling a questionnaire after the task.
References
Decety, J., & Cowell, J. M. (2014). Friends or foes: Is empathy necessary for moral behavior? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(5), 525-537.
Masto, M. (2015). Empathy and its role in morality. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 53(1), 74-96.
Tanner, D. (2016). Statistics for the Behavioral & Social Sciences. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.