Homework Lance
NRS-433V Topic 4 DQ 1
Extraneous variables may have an influence on the dependent variable. In what ways do researchers attempt to control extraneous variables? Support your answer with current literature.
Extraneous Variables are undesirable variables that influence the relationship between the variables that an experimenter is examining. Another way to think of this, is that these are variables the influence the outcome of an experiment, though they are not the variables that are actually of interest. These variables are undesirable because they add error to an experiment. A major goal in research design is to decrease or control the influence of extraneous variables as much as possible. Four ways to attempt to control extraneous variablesare:
Randomization: In this approach, treatments are randomly assigned to the experimental groups. It is assumed that the extraneous factors are present equally in all the groups. This technique is only workable when the sample size is very large.
Matching: Another important technique is to match the different groups of confounding variables. Different confounding variables like gender, age, income etc. could be distributed equally amongst the group. It sometimes does become difficult to extend matching within all the groups and another drawback of the same is that, sometime the matched characteristics may be irrelevant to the dependant variable.
The use experimental designs: In certain studies, the experimental designs may play a crucial role in reducing or completely removing the role and impact of the extraneous variables.
Statistical Control: There may be situations, when all the above mentioned methods to control the extraneous variables do not show any significant outcome. It brings the entire research into question as then causal inferences are difficult to make. Another method that may work to bring down the effect of extraneous variables is the method of statistical control. Among the various statistical tools and techniques, Analysis of Covariance ( ANOVA) helps in reducing the impact of the extraneous factors on the study.
Extraneous Variables. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from http://web.mst.edu/~psyworld/extraneous.htm
Methods to Control Extraneous Variables. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from http://www.dissertationcanada.com/blog/methods-to-control-extraneous-variables/
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