The Stress Level during the Public Speaking - Lab Report Example

Psychology Lab Report In an experiment conducted at UCLAN, 3,000 were selected from a data base of enrolled Every tenth student was selected to take part of the study, by means of the student data base. The students which were involved in the study were asked to answer three questions: 1) What was their parental income band on a scale of 10,000 - 500,000. 2) What ethnic group did they belong to and 3) If either of their parents had been treated by a cardiologist, yes or no. From the 3,000 students, 300 students were then allocated to groups to investigate whether or not family history was associated with increased blood pressure as a response to stress as well as whether public speaking was identified as more stressful than a math test. In this particular study, the independent variable is the stress level experienced by the students in the study by means of the public speaking assignment or the math test. By utilizing these two situations as stress causing independent variables, the researchers could measure the resulting blood pressure to obtain quantitative information pertinent to the study. The blood pressure of the students, is then the dependant variable as it is a function of the amount of induced stress as well as other factors including family cardiological history. It is important to note that although stress is the independent variable, it is not as accurately quantitative as medication (organic chemicals, macromolecules such as lipids and carbohydrates, or vitamins) or other tangible, measurable variables which might exist in other studies. Two appropriate hypotheses based on the information about this study, are as follows: 1) In individuals with lower parental incomes ( Read More