Download
1 / 13
130 likes | 228 Views
Practice with experimental method . Setting up an experiment . Experimentation. Exploring Cause and Effect. Like other sciences, experimentation is the backbone of psychological research. Experiments isolate causes and their effects. Exploring Cause & Effect.
E N D
Practice with experimental method Setting up an experiment
Experimentation Exploring Cause and Effect Like other sciences, experimentation is the backbone of psychological research. Experiments isolate causes and their effects.
Exploring Cause & Effect Many factors influence our behavior. Experiments (1)manipulate factors that interest us, while other factors are kept under (2) control. Effects generated by manipulated factors isolate cause and effect relationships.
Evaluating Therapies Double-blind Procedure In evaluating drug therapies, patients and experimenter’s assistants should remain unaware of which patients had the real treatment and which patients had the placebo treatment.
Evaluating Therapies Random Assignment Assigning participants to experimental (breast-fed) and control (formula-fed) conditions by random assignment minimizes pre-existing differences between the two groups.
Which of the following is the best way to generate a random sample of students for a research study? • A. mail out a questionnaire that students could voluntarily complete and return • B. stand by the door of the library and ask people who pass by to answer your questions • C. offer extra credit for students in a particular classroom who choose to participate • D. use a table of random numbers to pick participants from a student listing
Independent Variable An independent variable is a factor manipulated by the experimenter. The effect of the independent variable is the focus of the study. For example, when examining the effects of breast feeding upon intelligence, breast feeding is the independent variable.
Dependent Variable A dependent variable is a factor that may change in response to an independent variable. In psychology, it is usually a behavior or a mental process. For example, in our study on the effect of breast feeding upon intelligence, intelligence is the dependent variable.
Dr. Anderson conducts an experiment to see whether exposure to helpful models leads to helping behavior in young children. Of the forty girls and boys in his study, half are exposed to helpful models while the other half watch the same models not engaged in helping behavior. In this experiment, the dependent variable is: • A. the gender of the children. • B. helpful or non-helpful models. • C. the age of the children. • D. helping behavior.
Experimentation A summary of steps during experimentation.
Experimentation • Expectancy effect • when a research participant expects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result • double-blind methodology is used to eliminate the effect
Experimentation • Ethics • Consent form • Confidentiality of data • Debriefing
Hypothesis: Caffeinated coffee improves memory • 1) Develop an experimental study based on the above hypothesis. • 2) What is your: • Independent variable • Dependent variable • 3) Describe your: • Experimental group • Control group • 4) How will you control for expectation effects? • 5) Ethically, before your study begins, what must you as the researcher get from each of your participants? • 6) Ethically, what will you do at the completion of the study to provide information to your participants?
