OUTLINE OF AN EXPERIMENT

(or How to Kick Butt on the AP Psychology FRQ)

    I. Identify your subjects

    1. Provide a reasonable number (ex: 100-300 subjects AT MOST)
    2. Provide any subject characteristics that are important (ex: 100 subjects suffering from depression)
    3. While it often is not possible, talk about selecting a random sample (or representative sample) of subjects who AGREE to participate in your study.
  1. RANDOMLY ASSIGN your subjects to a:
    1. CONTROL GROUP and an
    2. EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
    3. Mention that random assignment will make the groups equivalent with respect to PRE-EXISTING SUBJECT VARIABLES.
  1. Identify the:
    1. Independent Variable (the variable you will manipulate and that you believe will cause a change in the dependent variable
    2. Dependent Variable (the variable you will measure and that you believe will be AFFECTED by the I.V.)

    IV.    Operationalize (provide an operational definition for) the:

    1. Independent Variable: Explain how you will MANIPULATE it. Explain how the two groups will be treated DIFFERENTLY with respect to the I.V.
    2. Dependent Variable: Explain SPECIFICALLY how you will MEASURE the D.V.
  1. Discuss CONTROL techniques you will use and the CONFOUNDING VARIABLES they will eliminate. ALWAYS include:
    1. Random Assignment to the control and experimental groups.

                          This controls pre-existing subject variables

                  B.     Use of a control group.

                           This controls for history, maturation, and testing effects

  1. Other Control Techniques: (Discuss these when they are appropriate for the experiment)
    1. Single or double-blind design to control subject and experimenter biases
    2. Use of a placebo to control the placebo effect (which includes experimenter and subject biases)
    3. Any other EXTRANEOUS variables you want to be the SAME in both groups. This allows you to rule out alternative explanations for your results.
  1. Describe how you would EVALUATE your results
    1. Explain that you will COMPARE the control and experimental groups with respect to the DEPENDENT VARIABLE
    2. Explain that you need to find a STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE (not a correlation) between the scores of the two groups.
    3. Explain that to be sure of your results, you would probably want to REPLICATE your experiment.
 


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