PY4 - EXPERIMENTAL METHODS - FIELD EXPERIMENTS Flashcards
What are field experiments?
Field experiments are studies using experimental design that occur in a natural setting. These are carried out in a natural setting, in which the researcher manipulates the independent variable to see the effect of this on the dependent variable. Field experimentation attempts to simulate as closely as possible the conditions under which a causal process occurs, the aim being to enhance the external validity, or generalizability, of experimental findings.
What are the strengths of field experiments?
- One strength of a field experiment is its high ecological validity.
The setting in which field research is conducted is a natural one and the task is usually something that would normally be done in that particular setting.
Therefore, behaviour in a field experiment is more likely to reflect real life because of its natural setting.
For example, Sherif’s Robbers Cave study observes boys forming teams and competing in a summer camp where such activities normally go on.
- Additionally, field experiments may also be low in demand characteristics if the participants are not aware they are in an experiment and think the task they are doing is just part of normal life.
What are the weaknesses of field experiments?
- One weakness of a field experiment is that its lack of control over the setting can introduce too many extraneous variables that might bias the results.
If these variables interfere with the dependent variable, then they are confounding variables and they will lower the internal validity of the experiment.
For this reason, cause-and-effect conclusions from field experiments will always be a bit more tentative as you cannot be so confident about accepting or rejecting the null hypothesis.
