Field Experiments - PERVERT Flashcards
Practical factors
Strengths: Field experiments take place in real-world settings, providing a high degree of ecological validity. This allows researchers to study behaviour in natural environments, enhancing the relevance of their findings.
Weaknesses: However, conducting field experiments can be challenging due to the lack of control over external variables. Researchers may struggle to manipulate conditions or ensure consistency across participants and settings.
Ethical factors
Strengths: Field experiments often involve minimal deception and allow participants to behave naturally, reducing ethical concerns compared to laboratory experiments.
Weaknesses: Despite this, ethical dilemmas can still arise, particularly if participants are unaware they are being studied or if their privacy is compromised in public settings.
Reliability
Strengths: Field experiments can demonstrate high ecological validity, as they capture behaviour in real-world contexts, increasing the likelihood of replicating findings in similar settings.
Weaknesses: However, the variability inherent in natural settings may reduce the reliability of results, as researchers have less control over extraneous factors that could influence outcomes.
Validity
Strengths: Field experiments often exhibit high external validity, as they reflect real-life behaviors and interactions, making it easier to generalize findings to broader populations.
Weaknesses: Nevertheless, field experiments may suffer from lower internal validity compared to laboratory experiments, as researchers have less control over potential confounding variables.
Examples
Strengths: Field experiments demonstrate the power of studying behaviour in natural settings to reveal social dynamics and psychological processes.
Weaknesses: However, these examples also underscore the ethical and practical challenges associated with conducting experiments outside the controlled environment of a lab.
Representativeness
Strengths: Field experiments conducted with diverse samples in various real-world contexts can enhance the representativeness of findings, capturing the complexities and nuances of human behaviour across different populations.
Weaknesses: Yet, despite efforts to increase representativeness, certain demographic groups or environments may still be underrepresented, limiting the generalizability of results.
Theoretical factors
Strengths: Field experiments allow researchers to test theoretical concepts in natural settings, providing valuable insights into how social phenomena operate outside the confines of a laboratory.
Weaknesses: However, the lack of control over external variables in field experiments may make it difficult to isolate specific causal mechanisms, potentially complicating theoretical interpretations.
