PSYC 2030 Study Guide - Final Guide: Causal Inference, Design Of Experiments, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2030
• Professor: Raymond A Mar

Document Summary

Psychologists choose to investigate research questions by conducting experiments; these attempt systematically to manipulate theoretically relevant variables and to examine the effect of these manipulations on outcome variable. In other words experiments are attempts to change some aspect of a person"s situation or mental state which is both of interest to the researcher and capable of being altered. Then the experimenters look at the effect of this change on an aspect of the person"s behaviour that can vary and on which the first aspect is believed to have some impact. Experimental group: participants in an experiment who are subjected to a particular level of a relevant treatment. Treatment: experimental intervention that is the basis of the independent variable and therefore differentiates between participants in different conditions or phases of an experiment. Control group: participants in an experiment who are not subjected to a relevant treatment.