PSY 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Dependent And Independent Variables, Psych, Institutional Animal Care And Use Committee
Document Summary
We can not manipulate for ethical reasons. We can not infer causality; we need experimental methods. Researcher carefully manipulates a limited number of factors (independent variables) and measures the impact on other factors (dependent variables) Looking at the effect of the experimental change on a behavior or mental process. Manipulate hours studied for a quiz, measure performance on the quiz. Chocolate vs no chocolate before quiz (take into account if the student is hungry; hunger could be a component that affects results) Independent variable- the thing we are manipulating. Ex: pretest experimental intervention posttest. Pretest could have helped us gain enough knowledge for posttest. Make sure you have something to compare to. People are different, and it varies from case to case. People do not like to disclose things about themselves. People are highly variable that it"s hard to come up with a general conclusion. People sometimes act differently when they know they"re being studied.
