AMITY PRIVATE SCHOOL, SHARJAH

Practical Record
INTRODUCTION (1st page – centre)
(2nd Page)

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Experiments are generally conducted to establish cause-effect relationship between two sets
of events or variables in a controlled setting. It is a carefully regulated procedure in which changes are
made in one factor and its effect is studied on another factor, while keeping other related factors
constant. In the experiment, cause is the event being changed or manipulated. Effect is the behaviour
that changes because of the manipulation.
The Concept of Variable

Any stimulus or event which varies, that is, it takes on different values (or changes) and can
be measured is a variable. An object by itself is not a variable. But its attributes are. The variable may
vary and the variation can be in the quality or quantity of objects/events.
Variables are of many types. Independent variable is that variable which is manipulated or
altered or its strength varied by the researcher in the experiment. It is the effect of this change in the
variable which the researcher wants to observe or note in the study. The independent variable was
presence or absence of other persons in the room. The variables on which the effect of independent
variable is observed is called dependent variable. Dependent variable represents the phenomenon the
researcher desires to explain. It is expected that change in the dependent variable will ensue from
changes in the independent variable. The independent variable is the cause, and dependent variable
the effect in any experimental situation.
The independent and dependent variables are interdependent. Neither of them can be defined
without the other. Also, independent variable chosen by the researcher is not the only variable that
influences the dependent variable. Any behavioural event contains many variables. However, there
are many other relevant or extraneous variables that influence the dependent variable, but the
researcher may not be interested in examining their effects. These extraneous variables need to be
controlled in an experiment so that a researcher is able to pin-point the cause and effect relationship
between independent and dependent variables.
Experimental and Control Groups
Experiments generally involve one or more experimental groups and one or more control
groups. An experimental group is a group in which members of the group are exposed to independent
variable manipulation. The control group is a comparison group that is treated in every way like the
experimental group except that the manipulated variable is absent in it. In an experiment, except for
the experimental manipulation, other conditions are kept constant for both experimental and control
groups. One attempts to control all those relevant variables which can influence the dependent
variable. The distribution of participants to experimental and control groups was done randomly, a
method that ensures that each person has an equal chance of being included in any of the groups.
All relevant variables in experimental studies that might influence the dependent variable
need to be controlled. These are of three major types: organismic variables (such as anxiety,
intelligence, personality, etc.), situational or environmental variables operating at the time of
conducting the experiment (such as noise, temperature, humidity), and sequential variables. The
sequence related variables assume significance when the participants in experiments are required to be
tested in several conditions. Exposure to many conditions may result in experimental fatigue, or
practice effects, which may influence the results of the study and make the interpretation of the
findings difficult.
In order to control relevant variables, experimenters use several control techniques. They are:

 Elimination of the extraneous variable

 To hold the extraneous variable constant so that their effect remains the same throughout the
experiment
 Matching is used - the relevant variables in the two groups are equated or are held constant by
taking matched pairs across conditions of the experiment
 Counter-balancing technique is used to minimise the sequence effect.
 Random assignment of participants to different groups eliminates any potential systematic
differences between groups.
The strength of a well-designed experiment is that it can provide, relatively speaking, a
convincing evidence of a cause-effect relationship between two or more variables. However,
experiments are often conducted in a highly controlled laboratory situation. In this sense, they only
simulate situations that exist in the outside world. They are frequently criticised for this reason. The
experiments may produce results that do not generalise well, or apply to real situations. In other
words, they have low external validity. Another limitation of the laboratory experiment is that it is not
always feasible to study a particular problem experimentally. The third problem is that it is difficult to
know and control all the relevant variables.
Field Experiments and Quasi Experiments
If a researcher wants to have high generalizability or to conduct studies which are not possible
in laboratory settings, s/he may go to the field or the natural setting where the particular phenomenon
actually exists. In other words, s/he may conduct a field experiment. Many variables cannot be
manipulated in the laboratory settings. In such situations, the researcher adopts the method of quasi
(the Latin word meaning “as if”) experimentation. In such types of experiments, the independent
variable is selected rather than varied or manipulated by the experimenter. A quasi experiment
attempts to manipulate an independent variable in a natural setting using naturally occurring groups to
form experimental and control groups.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
Assessment of individual differences has remained one of the important concerns of
psychology from the very beginning. Psychologists have constructed different types of tests for
assessment of various human characteristics, such as intelligence, aptitude, personality, interest,
attitudes, values, educational achievement, etc. These tests are used for various purposes, such as
personnel selection, placement, training, guidance, diagnosis, etc., in multiple contexts including
educational institutions, guidance clinics, industries, defence establishments, and so forth.
A test contains a number of questions, called items, with their probable responses, which are
related to a particular human characteristic or attribute. It is important here that the characteristic for
which a test has been developed, should be defined clearly and unambiguously, and all items
(questions) should be related to that characteristic only. Certain tests are meant for a particular age
group. It may or may not have a fixed time limit for answering the questions.
Technically speaking, a psychological test is a standardised and objective instrument which is
used to assess an individual’s standing in relation to others on some mental or behavioural
characteristics. Two things are worth noting in this definition: objectivity and standardisation.
Objectivity refers to the fact that if two or more researchers administer a psychological test on the
same group of people, both of them would come up with more or less the same values for each person
in the group. In order for a psychological test to become an objective measure, it is essential that items
should be worded in such a manner that they communicate the same meaning to different readers.
Also, the instructions to the test takers about how to answer the test items should be specified in
advance. The procedure of administering the test such as environmental conditions, time limit, mode
of administration (individual or group) should be spelt, and the procedure for scoring of the
participants’ responses need to be described.
The construction of a test is a systematic process and involves certain steps. It involves
detailed analysis of items, and estimating reliability, validity, and norms of the whole test.
Reliability of the test refers to the consistency of scores obtained by an individual on the same
test on two different occasions. One way to compute reliability is test retest method which indicates
the temporal stability. It is computed by finding out co-efficient of correlation between the two sets of
scores on the same set of persons. Another kind of test reliability is called split-half reliability. It gives
an indication about the degree of internal consistency of the test. This is based on the assumption that
items of a test if they are from the same domain should correlate with each other. If they are from
different domains, then they would not. For finding out internal consistency, the test is divided into
two equal halves employing odd even method and correlation is computed between the scores of odd
and even items.
For a test to be usable, it should also be valid. Validity refers to the question: “Does the test
measure what it claims to measure”?
A test becomes a standardised test when norms are developed for the test. As mentioned
earlier, norm is the normal or average performance of the group. The test is administered on a large
number of students. Their average performance standards are set based on their age, sex, place of
residence, etc. This helps us in comparing the performance of an individual student with others of the
same group. It also helps in interpreting individuals’ score obtained on a test.
Types of Tests
Psychological tests are classified on the basis of their language, mode of administration, and
difficulty level. Depending upon the language, we have verbal, non-verbal, and performance tests.
Literacy is required for taking verbal tests as the items have to be written in some language. In non-
verbal tests, items are made of symbols or pictures. Performance tests require movement of objects
from their respective places in a particular order.
Depending upon the mode of administration, psychological tests are divided into individual or
group tests. An individual test is administered by the researcher to one person at a time, while group
tests can be administered to large number of persons at the same time. In individual tests, the
researcher administers the test face to face and remains seated before the test taker and notes down the
responses. In the group test, the instructions about answering the items, etc., are written on the test,
which the test taker reads and answers the questions accordingly. The test administrator explains the
instructions to the entire group. Individual tests are time consuming, but are important ways of getting
responses from children, and from those who do not know the language. Group tests are easy to
administer and are also less time consuming. However, the responses are fraught with certain
limitations.
Psychological tests are also classified into speed and power tests. In a speed test, there is a
time limit within which the test taker is required to answer all the items. Such a test evaluates the
individual on the basis of time taken to answer the items accurately. In a speed test, all the items are
of the same degree of difficulty. On the other hand, power test assesses the underlying ability (or
power) of the individuals by allowing them sufficient time, i.e. these tests do not have any time limit.
In a power test, the items are generally arranged in an increasing order of difficulty. Majority of the
tests are a combination of both speed and power.
While tests are often used in research and for making decisions about people, tests must be
selected and used with great care. The test user or the decision maker should not rely on any single
test. Test data should be combined with information about a person’s background, interests, and past
performance.