Question

Dr. M is doing a secret study to see how much anxiety affects performance in a statistics class. He treats two sections of statistics students exactly the same except that one section is taught progressive relaxation skills. It is Dr. M’s hypothesis that these skills will reduce anxiety and thus improve academic performance as measured by the students’ final grades in the course.

What is Dr. M’s independent variable?

What is Dr. M’s null hypothesis?

What is Dr. M’s experimental design?

What type of hypothesis is Dr. M using?

What is an example of a demand characteristic that could pop up in Dr. M’s experiment?

What is an example of a possible experimenter bias that could pop up in Dr. M’s experiment?

How many factors are there in Dr. M’s experiment?

How many levels are there in Dr. M’s experiment?

Answer 1

Independent Variable : ANXIETY

Reason : It is the stimulus that is manipulated or varied by the researcher to create the effect on the dependent variable

Null Hypothesis : There is no relationship between the progressive relaxation skills & students final grade in the course

Reason : A null hypothesis states the existence of no relationship between the independent & dependent variable.

Experimental Design : True experimental design ( Post test only control design )

Reason 1 : ln post test only control design,

No pre test

Only experimental group is receiving treatment ( progressive relaxation skills )

Post trst observation is carried out on both the group

Reason 2 : Here the researcher is able to predict confidently that the observed effect on the dependent variable ( final grade ) is only due to the manipulation of independent variable (Anxiety )

Hypothesis : Progressive relaxation skills will reduce the anxiety and thus improve the final academic performance.

Possible Bias : This study is biased towards those who are in a particular statistics class. It excluded the students in other subjects.