Testing
Subjects
Once
you determined your variables, applied the concept
of standardization, and selected your subjects, you
are almost ready to begin the testing process.
The concept of testing refers to the
application or analysis of your independent and
dependent variables.
If there is any manipulation of the subjects
in your study, it occurs during this phase.
Before testing any human subject, however,
some type of consent form is necessary.
Consent forms basically describe the study,
how the results will be used, and any possible
negative effects that may occur.
They also give the subject the right to
withdrawal from the study at any time without
consequence.
Your specific hypothesis does not need to be
disclosed but each subject must be made aware of any
general concerns and be able to ask questions before
testing can begin.
More on consent forms will be discussed in
chapter 2.
If
your hypothesis, for example, asked if there is a
difference in effectiveness of different treatments
for depression, you might assign your subjects to
one of several different groups: cognitive therapy,
dynamic therapy, humanistic therapy and possibly no
therapy.
Each subject would likely be tested prior to
the study to determine a baseline for his or her
level of depression and would then begin a
predetermined and standardized treatment plan.
Because you are standardizing your study,
each subject should get identical treatment short o
the independent variable.
In other words, the only thing you want to be
different between the groups is the type of therapy
received.
The
no therapy group would be considered a control group
and may participate in some type of non-therapy
related activity while the other subjects receive
therapy.
This group is used to determine if time plays
a role in the decrease of depressive symptoms.
Without a control group you couldn’t say
that any particular therapy was more helpful than no
therapy because subjects may have improved merely
because of some outside factor unrelated to
treatment.
If you recall, these factors are called
extraneous variables, and control groups, along with
randomization, help to keep the impact of these
variables to a minimum.
|
