PSYC 230 Lab 1 Name:
Store name: ____________________ Location (city/town): ______________________
RETURNED CART
1. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
2. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
3. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
4. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
5. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
DID NOT RETURN CART
1. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
2. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
3. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
4. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
5. Car make and model: ___________________________ Body Type: _________
Distance from nearest cart return: parking spots away _________
Children present: Yes No
Time: _________
PSYC 230 Lab 1 Name:
While some research questions and hypotheses are developed with a specific theory in mind, others
come from every day observations about behavior. The grocery store is a place that most of us have to
visit at least once a week, making it an ideal location to observe human behavior. Returning (or failing
to return) a shopping cart to the front of the store or a cart return in the parking lot is a topic that most
people seem to have some opinion about. Some see it as prosocial behavior, and diligently return their
cart to the front of the store, each and every time. Others seem to be less scrupulous, and leave their
cart sitting in the adjoining parking space, regardless of the proximity to a cart return. Our goal with this
project is to try and determine which factors seem to be related to whether or not people return or fail
to return their shopping cart to the designated return locations.
For this assignment, you will need to plan on spending some time in the parking lot of your chosen
grocery store. This can be anything from Whole Foods to Grocery Outlet, as long as the store is
primarily a grocery chain, and not a retail store that happens to also have food items (such as a “super”
Target or Walmart, though a Walmart grocery store is acceptable). Once you have arrived at your
chosen store location, you will choose an aisle in the parking lot to observe. Make sure that it is an aisle
that has a cart return. You will watch for people coming out of the store to their car in your designated
section, and record all relevant information on your data sheet. You must make 10 separate
observations: 5 from people who return their carts, and 5 from people who do not. They do not need to
be in order (e.g., your first two subjects may return their cart, and the third person does not), but you
must continue collecting data until you have all 10 completed. Your data collection can happen any time
in between now and class next week. It is very important that you complete your data collection, and
that you do so accurately, as the class will be pooling the data for analysis.
Come to class next week with your completed data sheet, and AT LEAST ONE planned analysis. This
means that you will need to develop a hypothesis using whether or not someone returned their cart,
and one additional variable being collected, as well as think about what type of statistical test would
be appropriate. In order to do so, you will need to determine the scale/level of measurement of the
variables.