Welcome to Psych IRL.
My name is Donna.
Today I'm going to be explaining the experimental
method to you through a study Facebook may
be doing to you right now.
The experimental design is the only design
that allows you to identify cause and effect
relationships.
Let's take a look at the famous controversial
facebook study as an example.
Step 1 of the experimental design is to ask
a question.
In this case, "can someone's emotions by what
their friends post on social media"?
So, like I can be happy one minute, I log
onto facebook, see my friends posting depressing
stuff, and then I start posting depressing
stuff.
Step 2, Do background research.
Studies have shown this emotional contagion
in face to face interaction.
Step 3 Formulate a Hypothesis.
Predict what will happen based on the research
you found.
I think that if my friends post more sad things
then I will be sad.
Step 4 Experiment.
Figure out your independent variable.
This is the variable you will manipulate.
In this case it will be emotional content
expressed on facebook newsfeed.
Next figure out your dependent variable or
what you will measure.
In this case it will be emotionality expressed
in one's own status updates.
Who your experiment will affect refers to
the population.
In this case, it's facebook users.
We then take a sample of the population and
randomly assign them into 2 groups, the control
group or the experimental group.
The experimental group will have the variable
manipulated.
Participants in this group will either have
positive statuses shown to them or more negative
statuses shown to them.
this is the defining characteristic of what
makes this an experimental design.
You're able to randomly assign participants
to either condition.
If the experiment asked, "are males more aggressive
than females after playing violent video games"
then the independent variable would be males
and females, but since you can't assign people
to gender, this wouldn't be an experimental
design.
The control group will be used as a comparison
to the experimental group.
They will have the same number of positive
and negative statuses shown to them.
Step 5 analyze the data and make conclusions.
So, people who had positive content reduced
in their news feed, a larger of their words
in their own status updates were negative
and a smaller percentage of their words were
positive.
when the negativity was reduced the opposite
pattern occurred.
So, how did facebook get away with this you
ask.
Well you know that thing where you accept
the terms and use when you first sign up.
Yup, that pretty much gives them clearance
experiment on you and other stuff.
So, this is just a brief overview of the facebook
study, if you want to read more about it,
check out the article in the description below.
I've also linked more articles about the experimental
design below, if you're still confused.
I will see you next time.
