Question: Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour. Psychology has adopted the scientific method which means that it studies questions that can be tested in a precise, objective, publicly verifiable fashion. The first step in doing psychology scientifically is learning how to ask testable questions.

Please come up with a question and turn it into a hypothesis by stating it as truth, and then identify the Independent Variable and the Dependent Variable.

Independent Variable: This is the variable that you manipulate to see how it will affect the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable: This is the variable that you will measure.

Is there a Control group? You should be able to rule out alternative explanations for the differences between your experimental and control groups.

Research Participants: Who are your participants? Random assignment? Make sure you consider how representative your sample is.

Is it a Double-Blind Study or Single-Blind?: Single blind means that the participants do not know what your hypothesis is. Double blind is one step beyond. In a double-blind study, participants and the actual people running the experiment (i.e., the experimenters) do not know the hypothesis.