PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: The Control Group, Social Desirability Bias, Sampling Bias

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Curtis

Document Summary

Typically, a researcher conducting an experiment divides subjects into an experimental group and a control group. The subjects in both groups receive the same treatment, with one important difference: the researcher manipulates one part of the treatment in the experimental group but does not manipulate it in the control group. The variable that is manipulated is the independent variable. The researcher can then compare the experimental group to the control group to find out whether the manipulation of the independent variable affected the dependent variable. Often, subjects in the control group receive a placebo drug or treatment, while subjects in the experimental group receive the real drug or treatment. This helps researchers to figure out what causes the observed effect: the real drug or treatment, or the subjects" expectation that they will be affected. Example: suppose a researcher wants to study the effect of drug a on subjects" alertness.