Experiments Flashcards
What is a laboratory experiment?
A test carried out in controlled conditions and an artificial setting
What is an independent variable?
The factor that is manipulated by the researcher
What is a dependent variable?
The outcome of manipulating the IV
What is a control group?
- The group that isn’t exposed to the variable under investigation, and will be identical to the experimental group in all other respects
- This groups provides a baseline against changes in the experimental group
What is an experimental group?
The group that will be exposed to the variable under investigation
What does the experimental method lead to?
- When manipulating variables, they can discover what effect they have, establishing a cause-and-effect relationship
- This allows them to predict accurately what will happen in the future under specified conditions
What are practical problem of laboratory experiments?
- As society is complex, it’s hard to identify and control all variables that affect what you’re investigating, e.g. a child’s educational achievement
- They can’t study the paso, as you can’t control variables that were acting in the past
What are ethical issues to consider of experiments?
- Informed consent to obtain from vulnerable groups
- It’s wrong to deceive participants about the nature of the experiment
- The experiment may harm participants
Give an example of an experiment that harmed participants (unethical)
- Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment was set in a mock prison at Stanford University.
- Students were either guards or prisoners and were given uniforms
- They adopted their roles, the guards became more sadistic and the prisoners felt the prison was real
- Experiment had to end after 6 days due to psychological damage
What are problems with the validity of laboratory experiments?
- If people know they’re being studied, they may behave differently, e.g. as they guess what the researcher wants them to do.
- If people don’t behave naturally, the experiment won’t produce valid results
- Known as the Hawthorne Effect
Give an example of an experiment that was affected by the Hawthorne Effect
- Mayo studied factors affecting workers’ productivity.
- Working with 5 females workers who knew he was conducting an experiment. Mayo altered variables like lighting, heating, rest breaks etc, to see what effect they had
- He found output when he improved working conditions but also rose when conditions worsened.
- Mayo concluded the workers weren’t responding to changes but only to the fact they were being studied
How do laboratory experiments have good reliability?
- The original experimental can specify what steps were followed in the original experiment so others can follow it
- It’s a very detached method as the research only manipulates variables and records results. Feelings and opinion shave no effect on the conduct or outcome
Why are interpretivists against the experimental method?
Interpretivists argue behaviour can’t be explained through cause and effect, but can be through free will.
What is a field experiment?
Carried out in a natural setting. The people involved are unaware they’re in an experiments. Researcher will manipulate variables to see effects
Give an example of a field experiment
- Rosenhan sent mentally healthy confederates to psychiatric hospitals claimed they heard voices and were all diagnosed as schizophrenic
- Once in the hospital, they didn’t complain about voices and acted normally, but they were still treated as if they were mentally ill
- Suggested it wasn’t patient behaviour to being treated as sick, but the label ‘schizophrenic’
