Experiment, Establishing Cause and Effect - Study Guide | COM 3311, Study notes of Communication

Download Experiment, Establishing Cause and Effect - Study Guide | COM 3311 and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 10 Experiment: A study of the effects of variables manipulated by the researcher in situations when all other variables are held constant. Variables are manipulated or introduced by the experimenter for the purpose of establishing causal relationships.  Unlike surveys that are used to establish correlations between variables, experiments introduce variables that weren’t present to begin with  Experiments manipulate variables to establish cause and effect  Achieving a constant is impossible. Potential confounding variables: anything that makes the experiment different “One test taker got engaged, one got dumped. One had breakfast, one had a headache, one is in a cold room, etc” The randomization assumption: when we randomly assign groups, the potential confounding variables even themselves out. Outliers: people who fall way outside of the norm in a random sample Establishing cause and effect  Assigning variables is not a way to prove cause and effect. You have to be able to manipulate the variables to get cause and effect Deception Forms of deception 1. Concealed true purpose of the experiment Not telling the whole truth and using vague terms 2. Concealing the purpose of the students own actions Problems with deception  Ethically wrong  Deception defeats informed consent Rationale for using deception  Removes potential confounding variables If you know what the researcher wants, then what you give them is likely to be influenced by that knowledge