Lab And Field Experiments Flashcards
What studies can be used that had occurred in the lab setting
Milgram
Mayo
What was Milgram study?
He wanted to find out if people would harm others when told by an authority figure, this was influenced by the trials for those involved in the holocaust
Volunteers became teachers in what they thought was an experiment on memory
When the learner who they thought was another volunteer got an answer wrong, they gave increasing levels of electric shock
The electric shocks were not real, and the voice was recorded from an actor
The learner shouts in pain and tells the teacher to stop, the experimenter tells the teacher you must continue
What was Mayo study
He researched into factors affecting workers productivity at Hawthorn plant
5 Female workers volunteered to participate as they knew he was conducting an experiment
Mayo altered different variables such as lighting, heating, and this was to see the effect they had on the volunteers output
Not only did the output continue to go up when he improved the working conditions but it continued to rise when the condition worsened
He concluded that the workers were not responding to the changes he was making in the experimental variables, but they just wanted to please the experimenter
Name examples of field experiments
Rosenthal and Jacobson
Rosenhan
What did Rosenthal and Jacobson do?
They studied a classroom in the 1960s, and IQ tested a class of pupils
They randomly tested IQ on students, and told the teachers that some are spurters
They returned a year later and found out the spurters had made the most progress
They concluded that the teacher had labelled the pupils positively and interacted with them positively and encourage them had resulted in a self fulfilling prophecy
Rosenhan study
He had conducted an experiment in 12 California, mental health, hospitals
Each fake patient said that they had been hearing voices and were admitted into hospitals having been diagnosed with schizophrenia
Once in hospital they stopped complaining about hearing voices
Hospital staff treated them as if they had been still suffering from schizophrenia
Suggested that it was not the patience behaviour that led to them being treated as sick, but the label Schizophonic itself that led the staff to treat them this way
