random assignment

Examples of random assignment in the following topics:

• Experimental Research

  • There are key components that must be included in every experiment: the inclusion of a comparison group (known as a "control group"), the use of random assignment, and efforts to eliminate bias.
  • This helps to ensure that there are no random variables also influencing behavior.
  • Random assignment is used to ensure that any preexisting differences among the subjects do not impact the experiment.
  • By distributing differences randomly between the conditions, random assignment lowers the chances that factors like age, socioeconomic status, personality measures, and other individual variables will affect the overall group's response to the independent variable.
  • Another strength of experimental research is the ability to assign participants to different conditions through random assignment.

• Research Methods for Evaluating Treatment Efficacy

  • A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a type of scientific (often medical) experiment, where the people being studied are randomly allocated to one or another of the different treatments under study.
  • Random assignment of intervention is done after subjects have been assessed for eligibility and recruited, but before the intervention to be studied begins.
  • In a randomized controlled trial, people are randomly assigned to different groups that are receiving different treatment or no treatment at all, in order to study the effects of various treatment interventions.

• Correlational Research

  • Even a seemingly strong correlation, such as .816, can actually be insignificant due to a variety of factors, such as random chance and the size of the sample being tested.
  • If a researcher was to look at the psychological effects of long-term ecstasy use, it would not be ethical to randomly assign participants to a condition of long-term ecstasy use.
  • An experiment is also not feasible when examining the effects of personality and individual differences since participants cannot be randomly assigned into these categories.
  • Correlational research allows a researcher to determine if there is a relationship between two variables without having to randomly assign participants to conditions.
  • Since there is no random assignment to conditions, a researcher cannot rule out the possibility that there is a third variable affecting the relationship between the two variables measured.

• Genetic and Environmental Impacts on Intelligence

  • Stereotype threat is the idea that people belonging to a specific group will perform in line with generalizations assigned to that group, regardless of their own aptitude; this threat has been known to affect IQ scores both positively and negatively.
  • That is, if a person belongs to a group that is told they are intelligent, they will appear more intelligent on IQ tests; if they are told they belong to a group that is unintelligent, they will perform worse, even if these distinctions are random and fabricated (as in lab studies).

• Gender as a Spectrum and Transgender Identities

  • In Western cultures, those who identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth based on their biological sex (for example, they are assigned male at birth and continue to identify as a boy) are called cisgender.
  • Individuals who identify with a gender that is different from the one they were assigned based on their biological sex (for example, they are assigned male at birth but feel inwardly that they are a girl, or a gender other than a boy) are called transgender.
  • Many will maintain their original anatomy but may present themselves to society as a different gender, often by adopting the dress, hairstyle, mannerisms, or other characteristics typically assigned to a certain gender.
  • It is important to note that people who cross-dress, or wear clothing that is traditionally assigned to the opposite gender—such as transvestites, drag kings, and drag queens—do not necessarily identify as transgender (though some do).
  • Those that identify with a gender that is different from the biological sex they were assigned at birth are called transgender.

• Basic Inferential Statistics

  • Researchers will ideally want to strive to ensure that their sample is truly random.
  • In a “random sample,” every element of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample.
  • Collecting a true random sample helps the researcher ensure that the statistics they are using to make inferences about a population are accurate.
  • Although random samples are the ideal, researchers will often end up using samples of convenience instead (e.g., volunteers from an Introduction to Psychology class) because truly random samples are difficult to obtain and often impractical.
  • We would first collect our sample from the population, ideally a random one.

• Gender and Sociology

  • From birth, children are assigned a gender and are socialized to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex.
  • When babies are born, they are assigned a gender based on their biological sex—male babies are assigned as boys, female babies are assigned as girls, and intersex babies are usually relegated into one category or another.
  • From birth, children are socialized to conform to certain gender roles based on their biological sex and the gender to which they are assigned.
  • Children learn at a young age that there are distinct expectations for them based on their assigned gender.
  • Even people who identify as cisgender (identifying with the sex they were assigned at birth) and straight (attracted to the opposite sex) face repercussions if they step outside of their gender role in an obvious way.

• Development of Gender Identity

  • In most societies, there is a basic division between gender attributes assigned to males and females.
  • In all societies, however, some individuals do not identify with some (or all) of the aspects of gender that are assigned to their biological sex.
  • Those that identify with the gender that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth (for example, they are assigned female at birth and continue to identify as a girl, and later a woman) are called cisgender.
  • Sex-typed individuals process and integrate information that is in line with their assigned gender.
  • Cross-sex-typed individuals process and integrate information that is in line with the gender opposite to the one they were assigned.

• Defining Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

  • Gender, on the other hand, denotes social and cultural characteristics that are assigned to different sexes.
  • Typically, babies born with male sex characteristics (sex) are assigned as boys (gender); babies born with female sex characteristics (sex) are assigned as girls (gender). 
  • Because our society operates in a binary system when it comes to gender (in other words, seeing gender as only having two options), many children who are born intersex are forcibly assigned as either a boy or a girl and even surgically "corrected" to fit a particular gender.
  • Individuals who identify with a role that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth (for example, they were born with male sex characteristics, were assigned as a boy, and identify today as a boy or man) are cisgender.
  • Those who identify with a role that is different from their biological sex (for example, they were born with male sex characteristics, were assigned as a boy, but identify today as a girl, woman, or some other gender altogether) are often referred to as transgender.

• Gender Dysphoria

  • Gender dysphoria is a controversial diagnosis characterized by a person's discontent with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.
  • Gender dysphoria, formerly classified as gender identity disorder (GID) in the previous version of the DSM (DSM-IV-TR), is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe people who experience significant dysphoria (discontent) with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.
  • Symptoms of gender dysphoria in children include discomfort with their genitalia, feeling that they are a different gender than the one they were assigned, social isolation from their peers, anxiety, loneliness, and depression.
  • In order to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a person must experience, for at least 6 months, a noticeable difference between how they experience/express their own gender and the gender which they were assigned at birth.