Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1 Delineate the between-subjects design and the between-subjects experimental design.

2 Distinguish between an experimental group and a control group.

3 Distinguish between a natural and a staged experimental manipulation.

4 Explain how random assignment, control by matching, and control by holding constant can make individual differences about the same between groups.

5 Explain why it is important to measure error variance in an experiment.

6 Identify the appropriate sampling method and test statistic for independent samples to compare differences between two group means.

7 Identify the appropriate sampling method and test statistic for independent samples to compare differences among two or more group means.

8 Identify and give an example of three types of measures for a dependent variable.

9 Name two advantages and one disadvantage of the between-subjects design.

10 Compute a two-independent-sample t test and a one-way between-subjects analysis of variance using SPSS.