Question

Help please!
Researchers posted ads in the newspaper to recruit participants for their study of a new treatment for agoraphobia (the fear of open places). 87 people responded to the ad, but only 60 of those actually reported being agoraphobics. Of the sixty, 20 were randomly placed in a condition (NEW) in which they received the new treatment. It was explained to the NEW participants that the treatment they would be receiving was promising but new, so they would be monitored carefully to watch for any undesirable side effects. Twenty other participants were assigned to a condition (OLD) in which they received an older, more traditional form of treatment. These participants were told that they were not receiving the new treatment but an older treatment that had been around for awhile, so the chances of side effects were minimal. Finally, 20 other participants were randomly assigned to a group (NO) that received no therapy.

After six months of treatment, researchers found that the participants in the NEW condition were exhibiting 64% fewer symptoms of agoraphobia than before they started the treatment. Participants in the OLD condition were exhibiting 42% fewer symptoms, and participants who did not receive therapy exhibited 22% fewer symptoms than six months ago. Researchers were pleased with the results, concluding in an article they were writing that a new treatment had been found that will be more successful with agoraphobics than previous treatments.

Your performance needs to include:

Identify the independent and dependent variables in this experiment.
In a paragraph, describe why the investigators "randomly assigned" the participants to the three conditions.
Do you agree with the conclusion of the researchers? Write a paragraph describing an alternative explanation for the result.
Also, write a paragraph describing how the experiment might have been designed so as to rule out the alternative explanation that you provided.

Answer 1

Just because its a lot of words doesn't mean you don't read it and didn't get it the instructions are literally right there I do the same thing see like long answers and I look it up so just read it

Answer 2

We can't write out the stuff for you, it has to be your own words. However, we can lay out guidelines in order to guide you towards your own answer. That's why this is a homework site, after all.

When it comes down to identifying the independent and dependent variables in this experiment, look for something like "old condition" or "new condition." In some cases, there might be something like "____ per ____." (The blanks represent the independent and dependent variables.

The researchers could obviously have many reasons. I feel like the answer was stated somewhere in the first paragraph from what I read, but I can't specifically give out the answer as that's against the site rules.

Whether or not you agree to the conclusions is entirely 100% up to you. Just simply say "I agree with the conclusions of the researchers because ________." or "I disagree with the conclusions of the researchers because ________." Then, simply explain a alternative situation, as in what would have happened if the opposite situation occurred. Just remember that a paragraph is 4-6 sentences, so you don't have to go into a college-level explanation about it.

When it comes down to how the experiment was designed, look for things that might indicate how the experiment worked to rule out your alternative explanation that you created. This is basically you explaining key factors that kept the opposite of the conclusions that were provided in the passage from happening.

Answer 3

Thank you so much!