ASSIGNMENT | Analyzing Politics

POL GEN 2010: Analyzing Politics
HW #4, Due Friday

Researchers want to know if humor desensitization treatment is an effective way to reduce the fear of spiders. Subjects in the researchers’ study are a group of 40 college students who are randomly assigned to two groups of 20 each. Both groups of students take the Behavioral Approach Test (BAT), a paper-and-pencil test that provides a measure of each student’s fear of spiders. The first group of students take part in the humor desensitization treatment and the second group does not. Three months later, both groups take the BAT again and changes in the BAT scores for each group are compared.

(a) In this example, what is the independent and dependent variables?

(b) In this example, is there any experimental group? If so, what is it?

(c) In this example, is there a control group? If so, what is it?

(d) How were individuals assigned to groups?

(e) Was there a pretest conducted? If so, describe it.

(f) Was there a post test conducted? If so, describe it.

(g) Is this an example of a true experiment? Explain.

(h) If it is not a true experiment, is it a quasi-experiment? If so, what type?

SAMPLE SOLUTION

POL GEN 2010 Analyzing Politics
Independent variables are defined as variables that are controlled or changed in scientific experiments. They present the cause or reason for outcomes. On the other hand, dependent variables are variables that depend on other factors, including independent variables (Bakker et al., 2020). In the case study provided, fear of spiders is the dependent variable while humor desensitization treatment is the independent variable.
The experimental group in this example comprises the first group of college students who undergo a behavioral approach test (BAT) to measure the level of fear of spiders from each of the 20 students. On the other hand, the control group from the…