Psy110
Assignment #1 - PSY110 Social Psychology
Jose Flores
Title: The Components of Experimental Research
Cause and effect experimental research involves a situation where a researcher manipulates a variable called an independent variable. Once that is done, he evaluates another variable called a dependant variable and checks to see if it reacts to the manipulated independent variable. If the dependant variable is reacting to the independent variable in a predicted way, than the researcher can conclude that the independent variable is the cause of the change of the dependant variable. This is the process of a cause and effect experimental research test. In a field experiment, subjects are observed in their natural outdoor environment so that researchers can study their behavior. Most of the time, the subjects are not aware of the researchers and so usually the conclusions are mostly accurate. For example, researchers may follow lions and research how they live, eat, breed and also migrate in order for them to stay close behind on their prey. As long as the researchers are not interrupting the lion’s routine, their findings should be highly accurate. The drawback to this experiment is that the researchers have little to no control of the experiment if something happens. The last experiment is a laboratory experiment. This is where a subject is put in a controlled environment so that the researcher can manipulate the setting and see if it causes any reaction in the subject. The advantage to this research is that the researcher has a high amount of control of the setting so that he or she can manipulate the environment and way they see fit in order to get a response from the subject. One example could be putting a subject in a empty room and administer different drugs to him to see what would be the results. Since the room is empty and nothing can interfere with the subject, the researchers can monitor the subject closely and record accurate readings since there are
Jose Flores
Title: The Components of Experimental Research
Cause and effect experimental research involves a situation where a researcher manipulates a variable called an independent variable. Once that is done, he evaluates another variable called a dependant variable and checks to see if it reacts to the manipulated independent variable. If the dependant variable is reacting to the independent variable in a predicted way, than the researcher can conclude that the independent variable is the cause of the change of the dependant variable. This is the process of a cause and effect experimental research test. In a field experiment, subjects are observed in their natural outdoor environment so that researchers can study their behavior. Most of the time, the subjects are not aware of the researchers and so usually the conclusions are mostly accurate. For example, researchers may follow lions and research how they live, eat, breed and also migrate in order for them to stay close behind on their prey. As long as the researchers are not interrupting the lion’s routine, their findings should be highly accurate. The drawback to this experiment is that the researchers have little to no control of the experiment if something happens. The last experiment is a laboratory experiment. This is where a subject is put in a controlled environment so that the researcher can manipulate the setting and see if it causes any reaction in the subject. The advantage to this research is that the researcher has a high amount of control of the setting so that he or she can manipulate the environment and way they see fit in order to get a response from the subject. One example could be putting a subject in a empty room and administer different drugs to him to see what would be the results. Since the room is empty and nothing can interfere with the subject, the researchers can monitor the subject closely and record accurate readings since there are
References: Franzoi, S. L. (2009). PSY 110: Social psychology: 2009 custom edition (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Custom Publishing, P.37-39.