Generate a hypothesis. Psychology professor and author Bernard C. Beins explains that most hypotheses begin as a question. Determine the question you want to answer and formulate an educated guess for the answer.
Develop a structure for your experiment by choosing a sampling method. Decide what population would best address the research problem you are studying. Choose a sampling method for your population. Beins states that representative samples provide necessary validity to your experiment. You will need to choose enough people to ensure your results are statistically significant and valid. However, be careful not too choose too many people, as the results many to become unwieldy. In addition to selecting people to participate in your experiment, you will also need to decide on experimental method. Common designs include pretest-posttest, the use of control groups, randomized control trials, between and within subject design, matched subjects and double-blind designs. Present your experiment design to school faculty and to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure your experiment is ethical and legal.
Conduct the experiment with care to avoid any researcher bias. Collect and analyze the data. Measure the results of your data against your hypothesis.
Report your results. Write the research project, including a literature review in your experiment subject, your hypothesis, the method of your experiment, the results and your conclusions.