AP Psych Barrons

eal-world violence” as the variables she will correlate. She could operationally define these variables
by being careful how she observes them. If she observes them in a controlled way in her lab, then they
will be operationally defined. What she would have to do is, again, have people play violent
videogames in her lab in a controlled way. But in the correlational study, she would organize her
people to get her data by interviewing them after she times how long they play the games to see if
their attitude toward real-world violence has changed. She would use these interviews to figure out if
their attitude toward real-world violence changed after playing the videogames. Then she could look
at how long they played the games and how much their attitude changed. After she got all her data,
she should be able to figure out if there is a correlation between playing video games and attitude
change. She might find a positive correlation, which means that the people who played violent video
games the most also changed their attitudes the most. Correlation does not imply causation, but she
might find this correlation relationship between these variables in this study.
This might be a lot of work for Professor Willborn, but if she really wants to figure out what
playing violent video games does to people, she’s going to have to do something like this.
Psychological studies are often complicated and take a lot of time.
Sample Essay Scoring
Notice that the first paragraph of this (fictional) student’s essay does not score any points. This student
introduces the topic with a short paragraph, which is fine but does not answer any part of the essay
question directly. It’s not necessary to provide an introduction paragraph in your AP Psychology
essay—just dive into answering the question in order. This student chooses to answer all of the
questions about the experimental design in one paragraph and all of the questions about the
correlational method in a separate paragraph. This organization works well. The student could have
also chosen to answer the questions in paragraphs grouped by the pairs of questions listed within the
question.
The points this fictional student essay scores and doesn’t score are:
Point 1 — What variables would Professor Willborn examine in her experimental study?—Does
NOT score, because the student incorrectly identifies the independent variable as video games.
The rubric requires that students identify the independent variable as playing violent video
games. Defining the independent variable as video games is too vague to score.
Point 2 — What variables would Professor Willborn examine in her correlational study?—Scores
in the second sentence of the third paragraph when the student identifies the two variables to be
correlated correctly: “the variables playing violent video games and attitude toward real-world
violence as the variables she will correlate.”
Point 3 — How could Professor Willborn operationally define at least one of the variables in her
experimental study?—Does NOT score. The student does not explain specific operational
definitions of either variable. Stating that “being careful how she observes them…in a
controlled way in her lab” is not specific enough to earn the point for operational definitions.
The student does not provide possible operational definitions of both variables, so the point is
not awarded.