experiments Flashcards
What is an independant group
There are 2 groups in 2 different conditions
What are the advantages of an experimental design
- Fewer demand characteristics - participants may only know their condition
- No order effects - only take part in one condition, so don’t get bored
What are the disadvantages of an experimental design
- More participants needed
- Individual differences as the people taking part in each condition are different - one group might simply be better at that task
What is a matched pair
Two separate groups, but this time they are matched into pairs for certain qualities such as age or intelligence. One of each pair takes part part in condition a and the other takes part in condition b
What are the advantages of matched pairs
- No order effects
- Control for individual differences can be more sure in IV caused differences in DV rather than big differences between the two groups
yeahhh I’m not going to lie to you i don’t think that makes sense, but u two are smart I’m sure u can figure it out :D
What is the nature and use of field experiment
Take place in a natural environment; outside the lab
Give an example of a field experiment you have studied
Bickman
What are some advantages of a field experiment
- Less artificial than a lab; represents reality
- Can be completed in natural environments; avoids participant affects
What are some weaknesses of a field experiment
- Extraneous variables less easy to control, therefore less able to show cause and effect
- Ethical issues - participants unlikely to know they are being studied
What is the nature and use of a laboratory experiment
- Controlled artificial environment
- Independent variable is manipulated
What are some advantages of laboratory experiment
- Controlled environment - minises problems with extraneous variables
- Can be easily repeated; high in reliability
What are some weaknesses of laboratory experiments
- Artificial environment (low mundane realism)
- Participants may behave differently than normal or to be affected by the environment
- It therefore may lack generalizability
What is the nature and use of natural experiments
Independent variable not manipulated taking advantage of naturally occurring event
Give some advantages of natural experiments
- High in ecological validity (represents real-life experiences and provides the opportunity for research)
- Enables psychologists to study ‘real problems’
- Few ethical issues
- Objective research method
Give some disadvantages of natural experiments
- A naturally occurring event may happen very rarely which limits the opportunity to investigate
- Many extraneous variables
- Participants are not randomly allocated to biased conditions