Transcript Experimental Design

The Experimental Method
Steps in the Scientific Method
 Research question
Step One
 What aspect of human
behavior do you want
to study?
Form a Hypothesis
 Tentative statement
about two variables
that need to be tested.
 Phrase in an if/then
statement
Design a study
 Participants (Who)
 Random Selection
 Data Selection
technique
Variables
 Independent variable:
the variable we want to
change to provoke a
response (behavior)
 Dependent Variable:
the variable that we
measure to see if the I.V.
made a difference.
Did we provoke a
behavior? This is how we
can tell.
The Groups
 Experimental
Group/Condition:
receives the treatment
 Control
Group/Condition does
not
Data Collection
 Step 4: Collect Data (make
a chart!)
 Step 5: Analyze & Draw
Conclusion: Did it have an
effect?
– Watch out for Extraneous
Variables: These are
unforeseen influences on our
experiment
Results
 Report Results to
Journal.
 Replication is always
a good idea.