Throughout this course, many opportunities are available to post an initial response to a Discussion topic as well as to respond to your classmate’s responses. After you have completed the reading, and without reviewing your classmate's responses, post your initial response to the following Discussion. Your post should be at least 300–350 words in length and should extend the discussion of the group supported by your course materials and/or other appropriate resources. After you have submitted your initial post, review some of your classmate’s posts and post at least two substantial responses to peers. Refer to the Discussion Board Rubric in Course Resources for specific grading requirements.

Researchers use single factor experimental designs to try to study causal relationships. For example, if researchers want to know if an exercise intervention reduces depression, they might randomly assign some participants to receive the exercise intervention and others to not. They could collect baseline and post-intervention data and compare the two groups. If the treatment group showed a significantly greater reduction of depression than the control group, the researchers would conclude that the exercise intervention reduced depression.

Think of a topic of interest.

1. Create a research question and hypothesis.
2. Summarize how you would construct a study to test your hypothesis.
3. Discuss if you want to study this using a between subjects or within subjects design? Explain.
4. Discuss if you want to use random assignment or random sampling. Explain why or why not. Chapter 8: “Single-Factor Experimental Designs” Passer, M. W. (2013). Research Methods: Concepts and Connections. Worth Publishers .