Elementary Psychology - Methods of Experimental and Corelational Studies

Methods Paper The two scenarios explained in the prompt given are examples of both experimental and correlational studies. These being the main two methods of psychological study, it’s important to be able to understand and analyze all of the significant information in either situation. In the first example, a researcher begins her study by forming a hypothesis – or an educated guess or assumption which an experiment can be based from. The hypothesis for Study 1 considers the idea that students who watch a fire safety video will be more likely to know more about fire safety procedures than those who watch a different video. This hypothesis poses a question that is able to be studied experimentally. In an experimental study there are two necessary components, an independent variable and a dependent variable. The variable in an experiment that is able to be manipulated by the researcher is the independent variable and the dependent variable is the one that changes due to the presence (or absence) of the manipulated variable. In Study 1, the independent variable is the video that the children are shown and the dependent variable is the amount of knowledge about fire safety procedures gained after the videos are shown. Another important aspect of an experimental study is the presence of both an experimental group and a control group. This allows the researcher to compare the information gained from either group to better analyze the study. In this situation, the experimental group are the children who are shown the fire safety video and the control group are the children shown the princess video. But there’s more to experimental studies than just including the necessary pieces. The design of the study is a major factor in whether or not the study can be seen as accepted, including making sure there’s no bias present or that there isn’t anything skewing the results of the study. The major problem with the design of Study 1 is the way the groups have been split.