Applying ANOVAS

This week, you are focusing on research designs that require the use of ANOVA for testing research hypotheses. You will be introduced to the concept of controlling for preexisting conditions. For example, if you were interested in knowing whether a new health program was effective in improving health, you could set up an experiment where a sample set of participants is randomly assigned to receive either the new health program or an older health program. Your DV could be their general health after receiving one of the two programs. The problem with this design is that there may be preexisting health conditions that influence the outcome in both of your independent variable groups. Thus, you may choose to control for preexisting health conditions in the analysis so that you are more confident that any differences in health are due to your treatment program and not due to a preexisting condition. Conceptually, the covariate (or control) variable helps to equate participants on the DV before running the analysis. In this discussion, you will provide your own example research study and describe one variable that may need to be logically controlled for because it shares a relationship with the DV being analyzed.

In a minimum of 200 words, answer EACH the following in detail:

• Provide an example study design that would require the use of a two-way ANOVA.
• Clearly describe each independent variable and the number of levels associated with each.
• Describe the DV.
• Describe one possible control variable that you may want to control for in your analysis.
• Discuss how not controlling for the variable could influence results.