Experiments

Question 1

What is a lab experiment ?

Answer 1

One of the three different types of methods sociologists sometimes use as a way of studying human behaviour

Question 2

Why is reliability important with these experiments ?

Answer 2

Other sociologists must be able to follow the same steps and achieve a similar result

Question 3

What are some practical issues ?

Answer 3

Societys complexity
We have no way of studying the past
Difficult to investigate on a larger scale

Question 4

What are some ethical issues ?

Answer 4

Lack of informed consent
Covert Observaion (Is Deceptive)
vulnerable groups
could harm research participants

Question 5

What is the Hawthorne effect ?

Answer 5

It states that a laboratory is not a natural environment, as such studying people here will clearly lead to them changing their behaviour as they know they are being studied

Question 6

What are field experiments ?

Answer 6

An experiment which takes place in the subjects natural surroundings and those involved generally don’t know they are aware

Question 7

What is the comparative method ?

Answer 7

An experiment carried out in the mind of the sociologists mind
the sociologist will identify two groups that are alike in all major ways except for the one variable we are interested in
then compare the two groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect

Question 8

what is an example of the comparative method ?

Answer 8

Emile Durkheim’s (1897) study of suicide