Prepare Questionnaire and Hypothesis
Order Description
am a 4th year psychology student and doing my thesis. In this order, I need someone to help me find a Research Question and one or two hypothesis, and some sub-scales that I can include in my survey questionnaire. They should be based on recent and reliable previous studies and the scales should have validity, reliability and have been used before.

Most probably I will be asking you later during the year for writing of the proposal and the full thesis, but for the moment I need to submit an Ethics form so I only need these.

This thesis is being done by 3 students and the survey must include all measures and sub-scales that all of us will use in our thesis, but each of us will analyse different variables, so each of us will focus on a specific part of it and have a separate thesis.

The main topic we have been given was:
“Understanding Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers”.
One other student is looking at Empathy and the other looking at Fear/Threat, they want to check if these variables have relationship with “Attitude toward Asylum Seekers” and the level of “Empathy” or “Fear/Threat” before and after an intervention. We will have an intervention to reduce the level of Negative Attitude toward Asylum seekers.
It is decided that the design of the study is experimental repeated measures. We will have an online survey at the beginning and then have the intervention happening during a week online as well and then take the second survey online.
The interventions are “short 2-4 minutes videos” and “infographic” about asylum seekers (some tapping on emotion and some on cognition) to change the negative attitude toward asylum seekers.

So the other students have put these measures in the survey:
1. Demographics
2. Attitude Toward Asylum Seekers Scale (ATAS)( Pederesen, Attwell & Heveli (2005))
3. Threat Scale (Realistic and Symbolic)( Stephan, Ybarra, Bachman, (1999))
4. Empathy towards Asylum Seekers (affective) (Adapted from Pedersen et al, (2004) & Davis, (1994) By Pedersen & Thomas, (2013))
5. Empathy (dispositional)( Adapted from IRI (1983) by Pedersen & Thomas, (2013)

I will attach a copy of the items in our questionnaire at the bottom.

Now, my problem is to find a good variable to be able to assess and can sit in this study. It is suggested by my supervisors to look for the effect of “Prejudice” on “Attitude Toward Asylum Seekers” and its’ effect on the change of attitude after the intervention. I am not finding a scale to measure Prejudice level, So I could measure it before and after the intervention and 1. I can find the correlation of Prejudice with Attitude Toward Asylum Seekers and 2. If the level of Prejudice have changed after the intervention.
I am not sure it can be scale of Prejudice for asylum seekers or maybe Prejudice in general. Which would be sensible to study and analyse in my thesis?

Also I am looking for a scale to measure “contact” with Asylum seekers, as previous studies suggested that it has an effect on Attitude toward Asylum Seekers. This possibly is a few item scale suggested by my supervisor.

I will also put some references that I have at the moment. The first 2 references are recommended for our thesis and the 3rd one is about “Contact”.

Pedersen, A., & Hartley, L. K. (2015). Can we make a difference? Prejudice towards asylum seekers in Australia and the effectiveness of antiprejudice interventions. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, 9(1),

Public attitudes to unauthorised arrivals in Australia A review of the evidence for the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture by Harriet McHugh-Dillon April 2015
Pettigrew, T. F. (2016). In pursuit of three theories: Authoritarianism, relative deprivation, and intergroup contact.Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 1. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-03332
And the Questionnaire we have at the moment is the following:
Thesis Questionnaire
Demographics
1. Gender
2. Age
3. Occupation
4. Were you born in Australia?
5. Were your parents born in Australia?
6. What is your political orientation?
7. What sources do you receive the majority of your news from?
8. How much contact have you had with asylum seekers/refugees?
9. How culturally diverse is your social group?
ATAS
10. Asylum seekers are holding Australia to ransom by resorting to violence such as rioting
11. If asylum seekers need refuge, they should be granted refuge ®
12. Asylum seekers are being dealt with appropriately by the government
13. Separating asylum seekers like they are alien species dehumanises us all ®
14. Asylum seekers are ungrateful by protesting in the manner that they do
15. I sympathise with the situation of asylum seekers ®
16. Asylum seekers are justified in hunger striking to attract attention to their situation ®
17. The government’s policy on asylum seekers is justified
18. Asylum seekers are being unfairly detained ®
19. Asylum seekers are manipulative in the way that they engage in self-harm protesting such as self-mutilation
20. Asylum seekers don’t attempt to be part of Australian society
21. Asylum seekers are innocent victims of bad government policy ®
22. Asylum seekers are legitimate refugees and should be welcomed ®
23. So called asylum seekers are people fleeing the chaos of war and the cruelties of monstrous regimes ®
24. Asylum seekers who mutilate themselves would not make model citizens
25. Asylum seekers breed hatred
26. If asylum seekers are not happy, send them home
27. Asylum seekers would be better off in self sufficient communities rather than in detention ®
Fear/Threat scales
28. Asylym Seekers should learn to conform to the rules and norms of Australian society as soon as possible after they arrive
29. Immigration is undermining Australian culture.
30. The values and beliefs of Asylum Seekers regarding work are basically quite similar to those of most Australians
31. The values and beliefs of Asylum Seekers regarding moral and religious issues are not compatible with the beliefs and values of most Australians
32. The values and beliefs of Asylum Seekers regarding family issues and socializing children are basically quite similar to those of most Australians.
33. The values and beliefs of Asylum Seekers regarding social relations are not compatible with the beliefs and values of most Australians
34. Asylum Seekers should not have to accept Australian ways.
35. Asylum Seekers get more from this country than they contribute.
36. The children of Asylum Seekers should have the same right to attend public schools in Australia as Australians do.
37. Asylum Seekers have increased the tax burden on Australians.
38. Asylum Seekers are not displacing Australian workers from their jobs.
39. Asylum Seekers should be eligible for the same health-care benefits received by Australians
40. Social services have become less available to Australians because of Asylum Seekers
41. The quality of social services available to Australians has remained the same despite Asylum seekers immigrating
42. Asylum Seekers are as entitled to subsidized housing or subsidized utilities (water, sewage, electricity) as poor Australians are.
Post-intervention Questions
43. How (if at all) did the material change your opinions of asylum seekers?
44. Would this issue influence your voting preference in the next election?
45. Do you feel less threatened by asylum seekers after viewing this video?
46. How likely are you to further research this issue?
So I need to add the scale for “Prejudice” and “Contact” to this Questionnaire as my part, and I Should have a related research question and 1 or 2 hypothesis according previous literature that I would measure in this study. Could you please help me with this? I really appreciate your help in advance and please let me know if you need more information or clarification. Many thanks ?