The Psychology Experiment: Cause and Effect, Lecture notes of Psychology

Download The Psychology Experiment: Cause and Effect and more Lecture notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! THE PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENT WHEN CAUSE AND EFFECT COLLIDE QUESTION FOR SURVEY: How is an experiment carried out? The experiment is the most effective psychological research instrument (a formal trial undertaken to confirm or discon- firm a hypothesis about the causes of behavior). Psychologists meticulously regulate the variables in studies to find cause-and-effect connections. You would carry out an experiment by doing the following: 1. Subtly change a factor you believe may have an impact on behaviour. 2. Make two or more topic groupings. With the exception of the condition you are altering, these groups ought to be similar in every manner. 3. Track any changes in behaviour that result from changing the condition. Let's say you wanted to know whether driving while using a phone increased the risk of an accident. You would first create two groups of individuals. Then you could do a test to see how well one set of people can drive while using a mobile phone. In the second group, the exam would be administered without the use of a mobile phone. You might determine whether cell phone usage has an impact on driving ability by comparing the two groups' average driving ability ratings. As you can see, the most basic psychological experiment relies on two different groups of test subjects (animals or people whose behaviour is investigated; human subjects are also called participants). The experimental group is designated as such, while the control group is designated as such. The experimental group receives the same treatment as the control group. except that you purposefully deviate from the requirement. This circumstance is referred to as the independent variable. Groups and Variables Each circumstance that is changeable and could have an impact on the experiment's results is referred to as a variable. Three different sorts of variables are needed to determine causes and effects in an experiment: 1. Conditions that are adjusted or modified by the researcher, who determines their size, quantity, or value, are known as independent variables. Differential behaviour is suspected to be caused by independent factors. 2. Dependent variables gauge the experiment's outcomes. In other words, they show the effects independent factors have on behaviour. Test scores and other performance indicators are often used to demonstrate such impacts. 3. Extraneous variables are situations that a researcher wants to keep from influencing the experiment's outcome. To our mobile phone/driving experiment, we may use these words as follows: The independent variable is mobile phone usage, and our goal is to determine if using a phone while driving has any impact. The dependent variable is driving ability (measured by test results for driving ability); we are interested in determining if mobile phone use while driving affects driving performance. Any other factors that can have an impact on driving prowess are irrelevant. The amount of hours you slept the night before the test, your driving history, and your familiarity with the experiment's automobile are all examples of irrelevant factors. (You may be interested to hear that according to Strayer, Drews, and Crouch (2006), those using mobile phones while driving are no safer than those who are legally intoxicated.) As you can see, people exposed to the independent variable make up an experimental group (cell phone use in the preceding example). The independent variable is the only situation that members of the control group are not exposed to. Let's look at another straightforward experiment. Let's say you discover that listening to your iPod as you study seems to help. This raises the possibility that music-listening helps learning. We may put this theory to the test by starting an experimental band that does musical research. Unaccompanied research would be done in the control group. Then, we could evaluate their test results. Are controls really required? Can't folks simply listen to their iPods while they study to see if they do better? superior than what? The results from the experimental group may be compared to those from the control group as a point of comparison. It would be hard to determine whether music had any impact on learning without a control group. If the experimental group's 1.5). Most university psychology departments have ethical committees that review research in order to assure this. Yet, there are no simple solutions to the ethical issues that psychology raises, and discussion regarding particular studies is likely to continue. Clearly communicate dangers to prospective participants. Be certain that involvement is free will. Reduce participants' pain to a minimum. Keep things private. Don't needlessly intrude someone's privacy. Employ deceit only as a last resort. Dispel any false impressions brought on by trickery (debrief). Participants should be given the findings and explanations. Respect and decency must be shown to participants. Analyzing the Findings How can we determine if the independent variable really mattered? Statistics are used to address this issue. In practically all reports in psychological journals, the phrase "Results were statistically signifi- cant" appears. This implies that the outcomes would only extremely seldom arise from pure chance. A difference must be significant enough to occur by chance in less than 5 experiments out of 100 in order to be considered statistically significant. Unneeded variables unrelated variable Table 1.7 By balancing unimportant variables for the experimental group and the control group, experimental control is obtained. For instance, it could be possible to make the average age (A), educational level (B), and intellect (C) of group members the same for both groups. The independent variable might then be applied to the experimental group. As compared to the control group, if their behaviour (the dependent variable) varies, the independent variable must be to blame. further details may be found in the Statistics Supplement.) Hence, when results can be reproduced (replicated) by other researchers, they are more credible.