How to Design an Experiment
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Psych. 101
Designing an Experiment
1. If twelve year old girls, who normally eat sugary foods, where intoduced to thirty minutes of exercise each day, then I think that over a six month period of time they would not only benefit physically, but would also benefit psychologically from increased self-esteem.
2. I am studying the effects what just thirty minutes of exercise a day would do for the self-esteem and physical attributes of twelve year old girls, possibly keeping them from becoming obese in their teens. I would go to the local middle school, with parents permission, and select my experimental group by asking girls selective questions regarding their eating habits of sugary foods.
3. Experimental Group – the subjects who receive the treatment.
I will populate this group by introducing them to thirty minutes of exercise each day for the next six months.
4. Control Group – subjects who undergo all the same procedures as the experimental subjects do, ecept that the control subjects do not receive the treatment.
5. Variables – any factor or item that can change.
a.) independent – a treatment or somethingelse that the researcher controls or manipulates; the independent variable in my experiment would be the thirty minutes of exercise
a day.
b.) dependent variable – one or more of the subjects behaviors that are used to measure the potential effects of the treatment or independent variable; the dependent variable in my experiment would be the raise in self-esteem and confidence in themselves.
6. I would measure how the independent variable (treatment) effects those behaviors that have been selected as the dependent variables.
7. Analyze all the data and if my hypothesis is correct I need to have it replicated by other researchers, psychologists, etc.
8. No, because I would get parental consent before questioning the subjects or proceeding with the experiment