The research question is: does exposure to negative social media cause depression? The subsequent hypothesis is: depression signs are stronger when the consumed news are consecutively more negative. In order to test this hypothesis, it is essential to involve ten participants who would be asked to read five pieces of news with varying degree of negativity. After they have read the news, they would be asked to assess their stress levels. The results of the assessment will constitute the basis for answering the research question and proving or deconstructing the hypothesis.
This experiment will follow a between subjects design, which presupposes that each participant is subjected to the conditions of the experiment only once. In contrast, a within subjects design has each participant undergo each condition of the study. However, a within subjects design is not appropriate for this experiment since it would mean that overall exposure to negative news would increase (Passer, 2020). Considering the importance of the first impression, repeated exposure will impact the results of the study in a negative manner.
The experiment will also utilize a counterbalance in order to understand how exposure to intensity of news affects people. Five randomly selected participants will read news in an ascending order with the next news being more negative than the previous ones. The other five participants will be first exposed to the most disturbing news, then to less stressful ones. This counterbalance will allow ascertaining whether the order of news is important in causing depression. If the results highlight a correlation, it will be possible to make an argument that a following a certain intensity trajectory can increase or decrease depression prevalence.
Reference
Passer, M. (2020). Research Methods (3rd ed.). Macmillan Higher Education.