Research Methods - Experimental Method - Topic 1 - Psychology

A huge part of being a psychologist involves conducting research - this often involves experiments along with a lot of other research methods.

Let's begin with an experiment!

Half of the class will write the following sentence on a piece of paper with their eyes open and the other half of the class will write it with their eyes closed.

"I love psychology class. It is the best"

The hypothesis will be;

Students who write this sentence with their eyes open will produce neater handwriting than students who write this sentence with their eyes closed.


Aims

The aim of research is to develop a theory based on an idea, a question, thought, observation or prior knowledge. You may notice that some people's handwriting is worse when they are not fully concentrating on the page, or in the example from the book, that people become much more talkative after drinking a sugary drink. So, an aim is stating what we intend to investigate.


Hypothesis

What is a hypothesis? A hypothesis is a testable statement about the assumed relationship between variables. It builds on the initial aims and is a refined and concise statement that clearly states what will be studied/investigated.

Directional hypothesis - states what will happen, e.g. students who write with eyes open will produce better handwriting

Non-directional hypothesis - does not clearly state what the change/difference will be, e.g. 'there will be a difference in the level of handwriting between the students who write with eyes open and eyes closed'. A non-directional hypothesis says there will be a difference, but does not clearly state what that difference will be.

The rule with hypothesis is that you should use a non-directional hypothesis if there is no previous research on the topic. Remember that for the exam!

Variables

Variables? variables are things that can change within an experiment.

The dependent variable is the thing that we are going to measure, e.g. handwriting with eyes closed and what the outcome will be.

The independent variable is the thing that the experimenter changes/manipulates - eyes closed

To have something to compare the independent variable against, a 'control' condition is set up. In this instance, the control condition will be students writing with their eyes opened.

Control groups are widely used in studies. For example, in the covid 19 vaccine trials, the effectiveness of the vaccine was measured against a control group, meaning a group of people who didn't receive the vaccine (but thought they did). So in a study of 100 people, 50 would receive the vaccine and 50 would be given the placebo (fake injection) and the effects on all participants would be measured closely. The control group acts as a comparison for the researchers to see if the treatment is what is causing the change.

Variables in an experiment must remain the same. Researchers do not want extraneous variables coming to to affect the outcome of the study. Ao in our study, we would want each student to use the same pen, sit in the same seat, to not receive verbal cues, etc. Conditions must be the same throughout to ensure the outcome is not affected.

Operationalise

It is important to operationalise to make the study measurable.

In the example above, "neatness of handwriting" can be seen as subjective. So this may need redefined and a new hypothesis is needed as well as a numbered scale for determining handwriting. A new hypothesis could be;

"Students who write the sentence blindfolded will have lower rating for their handwriting than students who complete it with their eyes opened".

It is important to operationalise (define) variables in a study to ensure that another psychologist could replicate the study. So someone who reads the experiment needs to be able to read the IV and DV clearly and be able to repeat the study if needed.



This is a popular exam question and you are often asked to write a hypothesis and to determine whether a directional or non-directional hypothesis would be most appropriate.

Let's practice.

I have noticed that students who write an essay while watching TV do significantly worse than those who do it while sat at a desk in a quiet room. I would like to do a study to see the difference in results. 

Can you write a directional hypothesis for this research?






 

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