evaluate experiments (20) Flashcards
intro
-an experiment aims to test the influence of one or more variables upon others
-they can either be lab or field expts, each having their own strengths and weaknesses
-expts can collect qualitative data, but more commonly collect quantitative data, meaning they are preferred by Positivists
practical (weakness)
-the practicality of a research method refers to how easy it is to conduct, looking at access to locations, funding, time, and ppts
-expts are generally not very practical to conduct as they are often time consuming and expensive. Lab expts are conducted on a small scale, usually with small groups over a series of sessions, which takes too much time and limits the scope of the study. Field expts may potentially overcome this but have their own practical issues with access and finding a gatekeeper
ethics (weakness)
-the BSA issues a “statements of ethical conduct” which encourages researchers to consider factors such as harm, deception, privacy and confidentiality of the ppt. Ethical research must consider the impact the study may have on both the ppts and the researcher themselves
-there are lots of ethical issues with experimenting on humans, and many expts in the past have caused psychological harm to ppts. In order to avoid the Hawthorne Effect deception is necessary, but this means that fully informed consent cannot be gained
-example study: Milgram (1963) lab expt that studied obedience levels when inflicting pain upon another person. Ppts were deceived as they did not know the true aim of the study and they dealt with psychological and physical harm as they underwent severe distress and 3 ppts had seizures
theory (strength)
-Positivism is an approach to sociological research based on social facts. They believe we shouldn’t go beyond the boundaries of what is observed and prefer quantitative methods of research (like expts) because statistics are factual and measurable, allowing for comparisons between groups/the findings
-Positivists like expts as a research method as they gather quantitative data, meaning the data will be highly objective and reliable
reliability (strength)
-reliability refers to the repeatability of a study, so if the study were to be replicated it would produce the same results
-expts are highly reliable (especially lab expts) as they follow a standardised procedure. This means that they can be easily repeated to test for consistency in the results. Expts also gather quantitative data, which is highly reliable
-example study: Bandura (1963) conducted a lab expt to observe if violent behaviour is observed and imitated. His expt followed a standardised procedure as there were multiple conditions
representativeness (strength)
-representativeness is the extent to which a sample mirrors the researcher’s target population and reflects it’s characteristics
-field expts are particularly representative. They are conducted in natural settings and the social environment allows for larger groups to be studied
-eg. Wood’s 2010 study into racial discrimination in employment - sent out job applications to 987 real job vacancies in the UK, collecting a wide and representative sample
validity (weakness)
-the validity of a research method refers to how detailed and accurate the study’s results are
-expts are not very valid for a number of reasons. Expts gather quantitative data, which is low in validity as it lacks the detail that qualitative data would provide. Also, expts (esp lab expts)have very artificial conditions and use aritificial tasks, so we don’t know if we can apply the findings IRL. Furthermore, expts often encounter the Hawthorne effect, which is where ppts change their behaviour because they know they’re being studied, which lowers validity even further.
