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SOLVING PROBLEMS
CONTROLLING EXTRANEOUS
VARIABLES
SUBTOPICS
01 PERSONITY VARIABLES
VOLUNTEER SUBJECTS
02 CONTEXT VARIABLES
.WHEN THE SUBJECTS SELECT THE
EXPERIMENT
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The more the experimenter varies his behaviour, the more
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he is likely to produce variability in the subjects’ responses.
The more variability is the subjects’ responses, the harder
it will be to detect the effect of the dependent variable.
Personality Variable
To reduce the influence of personality variable
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a. use multiple experimenters and make sure that each exp
erimenter runs about the same number of people in each of
the conditions of the experiment
Students can often look over what is available, select one that
seems interesting and make an appointment to participate
When the subjects select the experimenter
Factors involved in the decision:
Am I free at a time when subjects are needed?
What kind of Experiment is it?
Often, the only information that potential subjects are given is the
name of the experiment.
But sometimes, the titles can bias your sample, in which this reduces
the external validity of your experiment
When the subjects select the experimenter
So to avoid biased samples, researchers try to keep names NEUTRAL as
possible “without sounding boring” such as:
The Information Formation Experiment
The Close Relationship Experiment
Instead of “The Sexual Practices Survey”, a questionnaire study could be called
“Contemporary Judgements”.
Why do all of these?
Biased sample = Greatly reducing your ability to generalize your findings
And the experiment will have less external validity
When the subjects select the experimenter
The time for subjects to decide not to participate in your experiment. If
that happens, after the experiment is/has been explained to them at the
beginning of the session.
Therefore, always keep a record of subjects who “DROP OUT” and
what conditions of the experiment they were assigned to for your resear
ch report, even though it is unlikely that your experiment will include con
dition that are noxious enough to produce a subject “mortality threat”
When the subjects select the experimenter
Keep in mind that some subjects who volunteer will probably miss their
sessions for a variety of reasons such as:
Friday sessions (notorious for No-Shows)
Death (most extreme)
No longer willing to take part
No longer available
Geographical move
Negatively impacted by the treatment condition (e.g. anger, apathy, fr
ustration)
When the subjects select the experimenter
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Things to avoid when selecting subjects
ndomly
You must plan on your procedure for acquiring subjects car
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Control for this possible threat by constructing procedure ra
efully
Some folklore about the
subjects
Some folklore about the subjects
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The first can be controlled, somewhat if you become highly pra
cticed before you run any subjects; the second is more difficult
to counteract.