Give three ways of addressing error variance. Explain how one might accomplish each. Apply each to one of the following examples: (a) differential effects of the seasons on male and female depression or (b) the effect of video or lecture transmission of information on retention of information.
What will be an ideal response?
Ans: Error variance refers to score variability not systematic or controlled, nor produced by the independent variable. In a perfect world (maybe, if one values a sterile world), the only thing affecting the dependent variable would be the independent variable. However, we do not live in a perfect world. People differ in ways we do not even know about. The tests we give affect people in ways that we never thought of, and sometimes we ourselves, aka the objective scientists, just have a bad day. At the same time, we should aim for the ideal. So, we make attempts to control the error variance. One way we can do that is through random assignment. If we have a large enough sample size and randomly assign people to groups, some of those weird variations we all have can be balanced across groups. For example, and this is not a weird idiosyncrasy, some men and women have more of a tendency toward depression than others. If we are studying the seasonal effect on depression, then we need to consider the impact of individual differences like that, and we cannot control depressive personalities. Therefore, we hope to balance out the effects. A second way we can control error variance is through increasing the sensitivity of the independent and dependent variables. For example, we could make our independent variable of season more sensitive by not just considering spring, summer, fall, and winter but also the degrees of darkness (e.g., the winter solstice might cause the most depression). In the case of the dependent variable, we should make sure our measure is highly reliable and valid. Finally, a third way to take care of error variance is to be consistent in our treatment of participants. We should always give the same instructions and behave and appear the same in all interactions with our participants. When we administer our questionnaires, we should use a script and give off the same vibe—it would not do to be cheerful with one group and grumpy with the other when we are studying depression.
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