Scientific Method In Psychology

The Scientific Method is often used throughout day to day activities and events, this is proves to be no different after reading the article written by Riege & Sigureirsson. After reading the article and applying the Scientific Method Tutorial presented in the required content, I applied what I personally know of the method. A hypothesis is an educated guess and according to the article, the educated guess was a “stress-gradient” one by stating, “Facilitative effects will increase under conditions of abiotic stress and will decrease in a natural succession as stress diminishes over time”. (Riege & Sigurgeirsson, 2009). The investigators wanted to know whether lupine and mulch will grow with different situations. For instance, a plant not in

Treatment groups are the opposite of control groups, as its name states, the group that receives the treatment. The treatment groups given in the article are, the seedlings that were moved in the lupine covers. For instance, “lupine cover, depressions in lupine cover, and black plastic mulch in non-lupine cover” (Riege & Sigurgeirsson, 2009). The black plastic mulch, the depression in lupine and the regular lupine were tested and compared to the seedlings without covers to test survival and

The investigators made an observation based off survival and growth and then formed a hypothesis. Afterward, the investigators tested the hypothesis with an experiment once data stood collected. The experiment followed the Scientific Method by adding a control group and treatment group. Various variables were accounted and factored in such as, covers and non covers, as well as the stands used to plant the seedlings specific distances apart. The dates on which the seedlings growth was measured was consistent and all groups were tested on the same days. On those days the measurement was taken, each of the three hypothesis were tested and recorded. Unfortunately, a small amount of bias was factored into my opinion of this study, however it was also recorded into the data. There were a few that had a low amount of seedlings and I believe that attributes to lack of growth and survival. Overall, that is not a problem with the general study and experiment conducted.

Lastly, the hypothesis seems to be supported based on the method and the data recorded. The investigators did not seem to factor in the competition of grasses before starting the experiment but it begins to partially support their hypothesis. As stated, “These studies of lupine facilitation of tree seedlings in Iceland partially support the stress-gradient model…facilitation will decrease and competition increase with density of the nurse plants.” (Riege