It says in my sociology book that the 4 steps to an experiment are: (1) State cause and effect, (2) Measure value of effect, (3) expose the effect to the cause, (4) measure effect again for change.
I understand all but step 3. What does step 3 mean?
2007-03-16 17:26:39 · 5 answers · asked by .......... 4 in Social Science ➔ Sociology
The following is an overly simplistic example to explain what it all means:
(1) State cause and effect,
Watching TV makes people stupid.
(2) Measure value of effect
Average grade for students from Strawberry School is "A"
(3) expose the effect to the cause
Let students from Strawberry School watch TV for a whole year.
(4) measure effect again for change.
Now check what is the average grade of students from Strawberry School.
2007-03-17 00:18:22 · answer #1 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Item 3: expose the effect to the cause simply means that the effect actually influences the cause.
e.g.:
You have a hen house, and your hens aren't laying eggs.
You offer a nutritional supplement.
The hens are now laying eggs.
It would seem that the nutritional supplement caused the hens to lay eggs.
On the other hand, it is also known that hens don't lay eggs as much or not at all in winter time, when less natural light is available.
In order to prove your experiment, you would have to also feed the supplement to the hens in winter to make sure that it was the supplement that did the trick, not the change of seasons.
2007-03-16 17:38:08 · answer #2 · answered by flywho 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i believe it is a cloudy way of (re)stating the cause & effect but this time in a kind of reverse. ok, look at it this way. in newton's laws of physics (quite similar to sociology experiments), the push you exert onto some will cause that person to fall back. how far back depends on the am't of push exerted onto that person. since that person didn't just flop over without a cause, you are now going to measure the fall (back) in direct proportion to the forward push given to the pushed subject. hope this helps. it is not always easy to explain right out but sometimes in parables/examples, it becomes clearer. hope it is also true in this case.
2007-03-16 17:44:53 · answer #3 · answered by blackjack432001 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you do not understand step 3 you do not understand an experiment. In short step 3 means this..TEST your theory.
2007-03-16 17:39:00 · answer #4 · answered by Willem V 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
See what happened and and then see why it happened.
2007-03-16 17:29:18 · answer #5 · answered by Santa Barbara 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋