Experiments - Lab and Field Flashcards
What is an Independent Variable?
What the researcher changes.
What is a Dependent Variable?
What the researcher measures.
What is the purpose of an Experiment?
To see whether the dependent variable is affected by the independent variable: establishing causal relationships through correlations. Normally, they produce primary quantitative data.
What is a Lab Experiment?
A research method used in natural sciences to test predictions and create hypotheses.
- Can be replicated, causal relationships, objective, artificial environment.
Example of a Lab Experiment:
Milgram conducted a lab experiment to test obedience - whether administering pain would cause students to learn faster. The teacher administered electric shocks to students (actors) who got questions wrong, and found that participants would administer a fatal electric shock to a stranger if told to by an authoritarian figure.
What is a Field Experiment?
An experiment carried out in the ‘real world’.
Example of a Field Experiment:
Rosenthal and Jacobson labelled some children ‘spurters’ with a fake IQ test in order to investigate the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. They returned a year later to find that the ‘spurters’ had made more progress than the normal children due to teacher labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Strengths of a Lab Experiment:
Right to withdraw, informed consent, produces valid and reliable data, easy to access.
Weaknesses of a Lab Experiment:
Expensive, time-consuming, need specific skills to detach yourself from experiment.
Strengths of a Field Experiment:
Easy to access, cheap, valid.
Weaknesses of a Field Experiment:
Difficult to get informed consent, no right to withdraw, deceptive.
