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    Experiments (Lab and Field)

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    Jana Sherif
    Experiments can be conducted in either field or laboratory settings. Field experiments take place in natural environments and have higher validity but less control, while laboratory experiments have more control but lower validity. Both methods have strengths like establishing causation or reducing bias, but also limitations such as inability to control all variables or lack of representation. The document contrasts the key aspects of field versus laboratory experiments.

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    Experiments (Lab and Field)

    Uploaded by

    Jana Sherif
    46 views2 pages
    Experiments can be conducted in either field or laboratory settings. Field experiments take place in natural environments and have higher validity but less control, while laboratory experiments have more control but lower validity. Both methods have strengths like establishing causation or reducing bias, but also limitations such as inability to control all variables or lack of representation. The document contrasts the key aspects of field versus laboratory experiments.

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    Experiments can be conducted in either field or laboratory settings. Field experiments take place in natural environments and have higher validity but less control, while laboratory experiments have more control but lower validity. Both methods have strengths like establishing causation or reducing bias, but also limitations such as inability to control all variables or lack of representation. The document contrasts the key aspects of field versus laboratory experiments.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    46 views2 pages

    Experiments (Lab and Field)

    Uploaded by

    Jana Sherif
    Experiments can be conducted in either field or laboratory settings. Field experiments take place in natural environments and have higher validity but less control, while laboratory experiments have more control but lower validity. Both methods have strengths like establishing causation or reducing bias, but also limitations such as inability to control all variables or lack of representation. The document contrasts the key aspects of field versus laboratory experiments.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Experiments:

    - Involves studying the effect of different variables


    - Researcher manipulates independent variables to see if they produce a change in
    dependent variables
    - Relationship can be one of two types-
    Correlations: two or more things happen at the same time
    Causation: relates to the idea that when one thing occurs the other must follow it

    Field experiments:
    - An experiment which takes place in the subject’s natural surroundings.
    - Those involved are less likely to be aware that they are being studied, in which case
    there is no Hawthorne effect.
    - More common than laboratory experiments

    Strengths:
    - More valid:
    It allows the researcher to test behavior in a real-life setting. This means the research will
    give a truer picture of real life and the subject’s natural behavior.

    - Not affected by the Hawthorne effect if participants are unaware that they are being
    experimented on.

    - Tend to establish correlations rather than causations

    Limitations:
    - Impossible to control all variables:
    (e.g. if you are using passers-by, your sample will not be representative). This makes it
    harder to identify cause and effect.

    - Ethical issue of deceit:


    usually not possible to gain consent beforehand without affecting the results (though it
    should be gained afterwards).

    - Experimenter bias:
    Unintended affect researcher has on the study. People will act in terms of how they
    perceive others and will therefore respond differently if the experimenter is
    old/young/male/female etc. They are also influenced by how others expect them to act, so
    the researcher’s expectations may ‘rub off’ on them.
    Laboratory experiments:
    - An experiment which takes place in a highly controlled environment where the
    researcher has a high level of control over variables.
    - Don’t confuse experiments with observations. In observations you just observe natural
    behavior, in experiments you alter variables to in order to observe whether behavior is
    affected.

    Strengths:
    - Experimenter can manipulate variables to establish cause and effect.

    - Patterns can be measured quantitatively.


    Positivists prefer

    - Removes experimenter bias:


    it is a detached method where the researchers’ feelings are not involved.

    - Highly reliable:
    method can be repeated using the same steps. Standardized method

    Limitations:
    - Lacks validity:
    Labs are an artificial environment. Society cannot fit inside a laboratory so it is not true to
    life.

    - Many extraneous variables can’t be controlled:


    Participant background and life history

    - Hawthorne effect (subject alters their behavior as a result of being studied)

    - Small sample sizes mean unrepresentative data, difficult to apply to large-scale


    phenomena.

    - Often requires deception about true purposes of study

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