Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 129

The second question asked is whether our results are due to a confound rather than the IV. What is a confound? Almost anything can be a confound. A confound is something that systematically biases the results of our research.

confound: a factor that systematically biases the results of experimental research

It may be the fact that women are more likely to go to their mental health provider than men. Thus, a study that looks at rates of a particular disorder based on provider reports may be biased in terms of a gender difference. Since the amount of sunlight can influence the experience of depression, a confound may be introduced into a depression experiment if one group is studied in the winter when there is less light and another group is studied in the summer when there is more sunshine. A confound may also be introduced when one group is made up of more men than women if the disorder under study shows gender differences. In one treatment study, the control group was instructed by young, inexperienced technicians, whereas the experimental group was instructed by an older, more experienced professional. This difference may have produced a confound in the results.

Some confounds can be prevented or controlled. However, other factors can never be controlled. You cannot control world events, but you can ask whether there is any reason to believe that a particular event that took place inside or outside of the laboratory could have influenced one group more than another and thus introduced a confound.