Drinking Alcohol as a Form of Addiction - Essay Example

The inability to limit one’s drinking on any given occasion; physical dependence: Withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety, occur when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking; and tolerance: The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol to “get high.” (2001, 1)

          In this regard, the objective of the essay is to design an experiment to test whether drinking alcohol influences people's tendency to become socially aggressive. An experimental hypothesis would be specified and both dependent and independent variables would be identified. Likewise, experimental and control conditions would also be stated. Finally, any experimental procedures that would help to ensure the reliability of your research would be proffered.

Suggested Experiment: Shy teenagers would be asked to drink different levels of alcohol to determine if they would have the courage to express romantic feelings toward the girls of their dream.

Experimental hypothesis: Increased consumption of alcohol would give greater courage for shy teenagers to express their love and even lose timidity to possibly take aggressive moves towards their object of desire.

Sample: A group of 5 shy and timid teenagers afraid to approach girls they have feelings for would be asked to drink varying amounts of alcohol.

Control Group: 5 shy teenagers asked not to drink any alcohol.

Experimental Groups: 2 sets of 5 teenagers; one set would drink within legal limits (about 3 to 4 drinks) and another set would drink way above legal limits (5 to 7 drinks).

Independent Variable: Amounts of alcohol consumed depending on the sample group.

Dependent Variable: Kind and frequency of aggressive acts.

Experimental Process: Three separate samples indicated above would be asked to drink (or not drink) alcohol depending on the amounts indicated above. Then, samples would be asked to approach girls they have feelings for to express their feelings. The kind of expression of feelings (words, actions, behavior) would be measured, noted, and identified depending on the amount of alcohol consumed.

Validity: The sample should be of the same age group and chosen randomly. A screening process would identify almost the same variables except for the ones to the manipulated during the experiment.