A psychologist randomly divides patients experiencing social anxiety into three

Question

A psychologist randomly divides patients experiencing social anxiety into three groups, each of which receives a different treatment believed to reduce social anxiety. A research assistant, who knows nothing about the study, measures each patient's level of social anxiety using a standard questionnaire once before and once after their treatment. The psychologist analyzes the data afterwards, and finds that group 3 is the only group who showed a reduction in their social anxiety scores, from pre-treatment to post-treatment. 1 Is this an experiment? Why or why not? 2. Identify the independent and dependent variables 3. How are potential confounds minimized in this design? Explain your answer. 4.Can the psychologist conclude that the treatment administered to Group 3 caused a reduction in their social anxiety scores? Justify your answer.

Explanation / Answer

(1)

Yes this is an experiment because here the sample is divided into different groups and each group is given a separate kind of treatment, which means that there is control over the variable, so this is en experiment.

(2)

The independent variable is treatment being allotted, and the dependent variable is the social anxiety level.

(3)

The sample is divided into three groups randomly, so there is no bias because allotment is random. Also the assistant asking the questions in not aware of the study, so this also prevents the occurrence of a confounding variable. Hence the confounding effects in this study are minimized.

(4)

It cannot be directly concluded, because you need to conduct a hypothesis test here, and use the p-values to reach to any conclusion. The decrease shown by group 3 could also have occurred by chance.

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