Alcoholic Beverages.
I went to bar with some friends the other and they were telling me stories of being under the influence and how it influenced their test taking. Also I was reminded of Professor Sitt’s story about his friend who studied whilst under the influence.
I would like to see how people the same age who have never gotten drunk before do on the SAT’s while drunk compared to when they are sober. I think the results might be interesting.
This would be an experimental research project where we have two combined groups of people randomly selected. For the first group we have those that will take this exam both times while sober BOTH times. The other group of people would then take the test once while sober and then another time while under the influence. The main challenge here is how to get the test group the alcoholic beverages without confusing the other people. As was showcased by our professor, some people tend to act drunk even when they are not. That is something that I haven’t really quite figured out yet. For this kind of experiment, how it would be conducted depends on the way in which the alcohol would be given to the group of students participating. I would say naturalistic observation if there is some way to add chemicals to alcohol to make it taste like water. In which case I would have the study in two different parts. One where they take the SAT the first day sober. However, before the test we have two different colored cups, both containing water that they drink not knowing what they are supposed to be drinking (blind study). One the next day one of those cups would have the alcohol in it, if there is a way to make alcohol taste like water. The others will get a placebo. My dependent variable would be the SAT test. Independent variable would be cups with alcohol in them.
I think I may find out different things depending on the kind of alcohol used. Mostly, I’ll probably see that the kids with alcohol doing worse on the SAT. The people that would gain from a study like this are people who drink all the time who are in posiitons to take exams. Form this they can deduce whether it would be smart to possibly take an exam while under the influence.
Coming up this was really really really really hard. I couldn’t think of anything I was particular interested in to use for this reflection. I don’t think I’ll be becoming a psychology scientist any time soon. This was much harder than I expected.