PSYB01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Cerebral Cortex, Selection Bias, Amygdala
Document Summary
When particular individual characteristics are used for the bases of selecting research participants, an experimenter is often interested in studying the effects of these subject variables on a dependent measure. When exposures to events, situations, or settings that emanate from the real world define how participants are selected, we refer to this type of independent variable as a natural treatment. In studies of the effects of a natural treatment on a dependent variable, exposure and nonexposure would form two levels of the independent variable. Quasiexperiment is one that investigates the effects of a quasi-independent variable on a dependent variable. Quasiexperiment resembles a true experiment except for the degree to which an experimenter can directly control and manipulate one or more of the independent variables: can randomly assign participants to experimental and control conditions. Quasiexperiments offer a fertile research design for investigating some of the most important and creative questions in psychology.
