2. Subjects/Experimental Units
We are choosing to define a savage beast as a
person who has high stress levels(High Blood
Pressure).
Population: People who are stressed
Subjects: Male and Female
3. Treatment Factors
We are going to test stress levels by playing four
genres of music and having a control group(No
music). We will put the subjects into a room for
five minutes with their respective treatments.
Treatment 1: Rap
Treatment 2: Opera
Treatment 3: Control (No Music)
Treatment 4: Hip-Hop
Treatment 5: Symphony
5. Experimental Design (Continued)
250 highly stressed volunteers (140/90 mm Hg) will be
recruited for this experiment. Since people with high cholesterol
also have high blood pressure, we will screen out for people
with high cholesterol by testing every volunteers’ cholesterol
level. Half of the volunteers in of the sample will be male and
the other half female. The 125 male volunteers will be
randomly assigned evenly among each treatment. The first
treatment is Rap music. The second is Opera music. The third is
the control, no music. The fourth is Hip-Hop music. The fifth is
symphony music. The difference in average blood pressures
between treatment 3 and other treatments will be compared for
male volunteers. The 125 female volunteers will also undergo
random assignment into each treatment. Then the difference in
average blood pressures of treatment 3 and other treatments will
be compared for female volunteers.
6. Experimental Principles
Control: This will be treatment group in which the subjects will be put into a room but will spend
five minutes without music. The average blood pressure of this group will then be compared to
the average of the other treatment group’s blood pressures. This control group will serve to try
and figure out whether music does indeed decrease stress levels. We are essentially trying to
make all groups as similar as possible.
Randomization: To randomize people into the treatment groups we will use the Hat Method.
We will put the names of 125 male volunteers onto slips of paper, put the slips into a hat, shake
the hat up, and draw names. The first 25 people will go into treatment 1, the second 25 into
treatment 2 and so on until all 125 people have been assigned to a group. This same process
should be done for 125 females. The randomization will ensures that the groups will be roughly
equivalent.
Replication: We will have enough subjects (250 volunteers), so that any confounding variables
can be limited.
7. Blocking and Blinding
Blocking: We will incorporate blocking into
our experiment. We will block by sex
because gender difference may account for
different responses from the treatments.
Blinding: We will not use blinding
because it is very difficult to mask
the type of music that the subjects
will be exposed to.
