Psych Essay

419 Words2 Pages
1. What contribution did the research of psychologist Kenneth Clark (p. 44) from City College make to the American culture? Psychologist Kenneth Clark reported that when African American children are given the choice to play with a Black or White doll, the children are most likely to choose the white doll. He concluded from this that there is an internal anti-Black prejudice. Ultimately, this had an effect on the U.S. 1954 desegregation decision. 2. a) Explain the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable. Consider an experiment in which attention is measured on a rating scale before and after participants receive either a new drug for increasing attention or a placebo. b) What is the independent variable in this study? c) What is the dependent variable? a) An independent variable is the experimental factor that is manipulated, while a dependent variable is the measurable behavior which could be affected by changes in the independent variable. b) The independent variable is the drug that is assigned to the person; whether it is the placebo or the new drug. c) The dependent variable is the attention rating. 3. a) What does it mean to manipulate a variable? b) What does it mean to control a variable? c) What is the difference between a controlled variable and a control group? a) To manipulate a variable is the ability to turn a potential cause on or off willingly. b) To control a variable is to make it so the variable cannot influence the experimental results. You can do this by holding a variable constant or by random assignment. c) A control group is the group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment but is used to compare to the group that does receive the treatment. A controlled variable is a variable in the experiment in which you control how it is. 4. The research method in which people or
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