Case Study

Identify the element of this study that represents blind administration and explain why this setup successfully minimizes the experimenter expectancy effect.

Case context: A psychologist studying social anxiety wants to test if a warm, welcoming intake session reduces participant anxiety during a subsequent task. The psychologist strongly expects that it will. To collect the data, the psychologist hires a research assistant to administer the anxiety questionnaire. The assistant is told how to run the sessions and score the questionnaire but is not told the hypothesis or what the study is investigating.

Question: Identify the element of this study that represents blind administration and explain why this setup successfully minimizes the experimenter expectancy effect.

Sample answer: The blind administration element is hiring a research assistant who is unaware of the study's hypothesis to administer the anxiety questionnaire. This setup works because the assistant cannot accidentally communicate the psychologist's expectations to the participants, thereby preventing researcher expectations from biasing the participants' responses.

Key points:

  • Identify the research assistant administering the questionnaire as the blind administration component.
  • Explain that the helper is kept unaware of the study's intent or hypothesis.
  • Demonstrate comprehension of how keeping the administrator unaware prevents the transmission of researcher expectations.
  • Connect this prevention to the minimization of the experimenter expectancy effect.

Rubric: Students should identify that the unaware research assistant administering the questionnaire is the blind administration component. They must explain that since the assistant doesn't know the hypothesis, they cannot transmit expectations or bias participant behavior, which minimizes the experimenter expectancy effect.

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Updated 2026-05-26

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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