AS Psychology Experiments in Psychology PROCEDURE & CONTROL

AS Psychology By the end of this lesson you should... Be able to explain the concept of control and it’s importance in experiments Be able to describe ways of maximising control in experiments Be able to discuss the relationship between control, realism and generalisability

AS Psychology What is control?

AS Psychology In groups: Discuss the kinds of things that experimenters need to control or have control over

AS Psychology The independent variable Extraneous variables Control as a baseline Forms of control…

AS Psychology Why do we need to be able to control the IV? The independent variable

AS Psychology Extraneous variables – The stuff that gets in the way… Participant variables Situational variables

AS Psychology Participant variables People are tricky…

AS Psychology Participant variables People are tricky… Share your design with another group. In your OWN group, discuss what participant variables they may encounter and prepare to feed back to them

AS Psychology Controlling participant variables  Repeated measures design  Matched pairs design  Independent groups design (with random allocation to groups)

AS Psychology Situational variables Situations have an influence…

AS Psychology Situational variables Situations have an influence… Share your design with another group. In your OWN group, discuss what situational variables they may encounter and prepare to feed back to them

AS Psychology Controlling situational variables  Independent groups design (order effects)  Control the environment  Single blind study  Standard instructions

AS Psychology Control as a baseline The “control group”

AS Psychology Control as a baseline The “control group” In YOUR groups, discuss what the fundamental difference would be between the control group and the experimental group in YOUR study

AS Psychology Control vs. Realism vs. Generalisability

AS Psychology Control / Realism/ Generalisability Choose a group that you have talked with before about their study Evaluate their study in terms of it’s control vs. realism How generalisable is their study? – Prepare to feed back

AS Psychology Round-up Think of a question for someone in the group…

AS Psychology Homework! Design, carry out and write up an experiment You will need to cover ALL 7 of the components of an experiment Use the correct terminology!!! Deadline is Monday 20 th September