CLASS EXPERIMENTS

PSYCHOLOGY CLASS

MR. CONANT

OVERVIEW:

You are doing a "formal" experiment of your own creation and need some form of structure to follow. The bold items can serve as headings for your write-up. Follow these steps, similar to those used in science classes, to complete your project:

1. Write an informal statement describing the experiment and what you intend to accomplish. Include “background” information about your concept i.e. published experiments, or other articles that generated your idea.

2. Write a formal hypothesis (measurable and testable statements) for each of the relevant items in #1.

3. Write down your testing procedures (for consistency).

4. Write down (speculate) what you believe may be some of your possible difficulties in the experiment and what your results may be like. Make changes above if needed.

5. Take a few test samples. Modify your procedures as needed. You may test other class members to save time.

6. Actually testing twenty or more actual subjects is your next step.(MORE IS BETTER)

7. Compile your results. Chart raw data, compute percentages. Use hand made charts on graph paper or use computers. Include any “anecdotal evidence” you gathered as well, but separate it into it’s own section. Note any sources of error.

8. Write your conclusions about your actual results as compared to your hypothesis. This should be a significant writing but about a page is sufficient. Include any relevant research you have done to compare this work to actual work already done by someone “in the field”. Again, sources of error need to be included because of the effect they had on the outcome.

9. Present all of the above to class. Use your own style of presentation but be creative and original.

10. Include all of the written work describing the above, and your notes, in a “report” to turn in at presentation time.