Research Methods: Experiments Flashcards
What are the
experimental group
control group
Experimental group:
Why must an experiment be reliable
(lab)
Once an experiment has been conducted other scientists can then replicate it (repeat it exactly in every detail). The laboratory experiment is highly reliable because
the original experimenter can specify the steps followed so they can be repeated.
It is a very detatched method the researcher merely manipulates the variables and records the results. There are no feelings and opinions involved taht would affect the results of the experiment.
Positivists prefer laboratory experiments as they favour a scienetific approach.
What are the practical problems revolving around lab experiments
Lab experiments cannot be used to study the past since it is impossible to control variables that were acting in the past.
In society because of how advanced it is it is impossible to identify and control all factors/controls that may influence results.
Lab experiments only use small amples making it very difficult to investigate large scale social phenemomna like religion. reducing represenatativeness
What are the ethical problems to conducting experiments
(Conducting experiments on human beings)
Lack of informed conesent: informed consent may be difficult to obtain from groups such as children or people with learning difficulties who may be unable to understand the nature and purpose of the experiment.
Deception: Milgram (1974) studies of obdience to authority he lied to the participants of the purpose of the research. (told them it was about learning and allowed them to shock the learner when they failed a question no shocks were acctually used).
Harm: In milgrams experiment many participants showed signs of anxiety.
What is the hawthorne affect
When participants change their behavior/response as they are aware what the research is about, they may act accordingly to what the researcher wants them to.
1927 elton mayo researched the factors affecting workers productvity at the western electric company’s hawthorne plant
working with five female volunteer workers who knew that he was doing a study. he altered different varibales such as restbreaks lighting heating etc but there wasnt a large difference in their productivity.
Free will and experiments
Interpretivists argue that we have free will, choice and conciousness. Our behavior cannot be explained by cause and affect only understood in terms of the choices we make. given this there are two alternatives field experiments and the comparitive method
What is a field experiment
It takes place in the subjects natural surrounding rather than an artifical lab
Those involved are genreally not aware that they are the subjects of an experiemnt.
The researcher manipulates one or more variables in the situation to see what the effect has. Example@ rosenhans pseudopatient experiment, researchers went to 12 california mental hospitals saying they has been hearing voices each one was admitted and diagnosed as schizophrenic,
these experiments are more valid realistic and natural, allthough it can be argue dthat they are unethical
what is the comparative method
Carried out only in the mind of sociologist, does not involve the researcher actually experimenting on real people at all.
step 1: identify two groups of people that are alike in major resoects except for the variable we are intrested in
step 2: then compare the two groups to see the differences.
Describe Durkheim suicide study
An example of the comparative method is Emile Durkheim’s
(1897) classic study of suicide. Durkheim’s hypothesis was that low levels of integration of individuals into social groups caused high rates of suicide. He argued that Catholicism produced higher levels of integration than Protestantism. From this, he therefore predicted that Protestants would have a higher suicide rate than Catholics.
Durkheim then tested his prediction by comparing the suicide rates of Catholics and Protestants who were similar in all other important respects (e.g., in terms of where they lived, whether they were married or single etc). His prediction was supported by the official statistics, which showed Catholics to have lower suicide rates.
Evaluation In seeking to discover cause-and-effect relationships, the comparative method has three advantages: it avoids artificiality; it can be used to study past events and it poses no ethical problems, such as harming subjects.
However, the comparative method gives the researcher even less control over variables than do field experiments, so we can be even less certain whether a thought experiment really has discovered the cause of something.
What are the issues surrounding artificiality and lab experiments
the artificiality of lab experiments may mean that they tell us little about real world of education.
Charkin used uni students instead of teachers.
harvey and slatin used photos of pupils rather than actual pupils
it is unlikely that uni students behave in the same way as experienced teachers and teachers expectations are based on more than just pupils appearance such as accent and parent impressions.
(Methods in context) Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations examples
Harvey and slatin examined whether teachers had preconcieved ideas about the pupils different social class. Using a sample of 96 teachers each teacher was shown 18 photographs of children from different social class bakgrounds. teachers were asked to rate them on performance parental attitudes and education etc. lower class students rated less favourably.
Charkin et al sample of 48 uni students who each taught a lesson to a 10 yr old boy. 1/3 told the boy was highly motivated 1.3 told he has a low iq 1/3 told no info. those in high motivated group made more eye contact and were more encouraging.
Mason: looked at whether positive or negative expectations had a greater eddexr teachers were given posiitve nehative or neutral reports on student. then the teachers observed them do a test and predicted their end of year achievemnt. negative reports had greater impact.
what are ethical problems surrounding lab experiments in context
Lab experiments that do not involve real pupils have fewer ethical problems. Mason and harvey and slatin didn’t use real students where as charkin et al used real pupils which raises more ethical problems.
Young people’s vunreability and their more limited ability to understand means there are more issues about deception, lack of informed consent and pschological damage.
Issue of narrow focus of experiments in context
Lab experiments usually only examine one specific aspect of teacher expectations, such as body language. This is useful as it allows the researcher to isolate and examine this variable more thoroughly.
However this means tat teacher expectations are not seen within the wider process of labelling and self fulfilling prophecy. Although charkin et al identified the exsistence of positive and negative body language, they di s not examine how it might then affect the pupils performance
practical problems of conducting experiments on teachers
schools are large complex institution in which many variables may affect teacher expectation. E.g class size, streaming, type of school and etc.
What is n example of a field experiment in context of teacher expectations
Rosenthal and jacobsons pygmalion in the classroom illustrates the difficulties of using field experiments to study teacher expectations.
california primary school.
pupils given an iq test and teachers were told that this identified the ‘spurters’ and the non spurters.
aims: to plant in teachers minds a particular set of expectations about their pupils. to see if it had any affect on students performance. spurters were randomly selected. pupils retested and spurters gained 12 iq points.
what are tehical problems of field experiments in educational settings
substantial impact of students. spurter benefitted but the remianing 80% of pupils did not. However children have more rights now and the legal duty of care scjools have today mean that this tsudy is less likely to be carried out today.
Requires deception
evaluate the reliabilty of rosenthal and jacobson’s research
research design was relatively simple and therefore easy to repeat. it has been repeated 242 times hwoever given all the many differences between school classes for example in terms of the age of pupils, teaching styles etc
Evaluate the validity of rosenthal and jacobsons field experiement study
they claimed that the teachers expectations were passed on through differences in classroom interactions but they did not observe the classroom so they had no data to support this claim.
studies such as claiborn did not suggest these claims were true
rosenthal and jacobsons field experiment broader focus
they did look at the whole labelling process from teacher expectations through to their effect on pipils. there study was also longtitudional which allowed them to identify trends.
