Experimental Method

Question 1

Aims

Answer 1

Aims are developed from theories, theories tend to be sophisticated and are based on many hours of research. Aims are general statements that describe the purpose of an experiment. For example with energy drinks:

To investigate whether drinking energy drinks make people more talkative.

Question 2

Hypothesis

Answer 2

Hypothesis is a statement that is made at the start of a study and clearly describes the relationship between variables as stated by the theory. For energy drinks this may be

Drinking energy drinks causes people to become more talkative

Question 3

Directional and non-directional hypothesis

Answer 3

-In a directional hypothesis the researcher makes clear the sort of difference that is anticipated between two conditions or two groups of people. Include words like more or less, higher or lower, faster or slower etc.

People who drink energy drinks become more talkative than people who don’t

-Non-directional hypothesis- simply states there is a difference between conditions or groups of people, but nature of condition isn’t specified

People who drink energy drinks differ in terms of talkativeness compared with people who don’t drink energy drinks.

Question 4

Whether to use a directional or non-directional hypothesis

Answer 4

Researchers tend to use directional hypothesis when a theory or findings of previous research studies suggest a particular outcome. When there is no theory or previous research, or findings from earlier studies are contradictory, researchers instead decide to use non-directional.

Question 5

Independent and dependent variables

Answer 5

In an experiment,researcher changes or manipulates the independent variable (IV) and records or measures the effect of this change on the dependant variable. All other variables that could affect the DV should remain constant. Therefore any changes in DV is due to IV alone.

Question 6

Control condition, experimental condition

Answer 6

No energy drink/drink of water

Energy drink

Final hypothesis:the group that drinks energy drinks will be chattier than the group that drinks water.

Question 7

Operationalisation

Answer 7

Clearly defining variables in terms of how they can be measured - make the hypothesis less fuzzy

After drinking 300ml of energy drink, participants say more words in the next five minutes then participants who drink 300ml of water.