Sociology-RM-Experiments

Question 1

What are the three types of experiments that sociologists sometimes use?

Answer 1

Laboratory experiments, field experiments, and the comparative method

Question 2

What two types of group are needed in lab experiments?

Answer 2

An experimental group (where the IV is manipulated), and the control group (to compare results with)

Question 3

What is the aim of a lab experiment?

Answer 3

To discover a cause-and-effect relationship

Question 4

What is the logic of the experimental method?

Answer 4

That the scientist manipulates the variables in which they are interested, in order to discover what effect they have. By following this method, the scientist can establish a cause-and-effect relationship. In turn, this will allow them to predict accurately what will halogen in the future under specified conditions

Question 5

How is reliability tested in lab experiments?

Answer 5

Once an experiment has been conducted, other scientists then replicate it. With lab experiments they can repeat it exactly in every detail. The lab experiment is therefore highly reliable, producing the same results each time

Question 6

What are the two reasons why lab experiments are high in reliability?

Answer 6

The original experimenter can specify exactly what steps were followed in the original experiment so other researchers can repeat these in the future. Also it is a very detached method: the researcher manipulates the variables and records the results - the scientists’ personal feelings and opinions have no effect on the conduct of outcome of the experiment

Question 7

What type of sociologist may favour lab experiments?

Answer 7

Positivist sociologists as they favour a scientific approach. The lab experiment has major advantages as it is the method used to identify cause-and-effect in the natural sciences

Question 8

What are the practical problems of lab experiments?

Answer 8

Society is very complex phenomenon so in practice would be impossible to identify and control all possible variables that might exert influence on something. Also it can’t be used to study the past, as by definition it is impossible to control variables that were acting in the past rather than present. In addition, lab experiments usually only study small-scale social phenomena which reduces representativeness

Question 9

What are the ethical problems with lab experiments?

Answer 9

Lack of informed consent (difficult with children or other groups who may not understand), deception (Milgram in psychology), and harm (distressed participants in Milgram’s study, though it can be justified by the things we have learnt from it )

Question 10

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Answer 10

A lab isn’t a normal/natural environment so it’s likely any behaviour in these conditions is also unnatural/artificial. If people do not behave in true-to-life ways, the experiment will not produce valid results. If people know they are being studied, they may behave differently eg trying to guess what the researcher wants them to do and acting accordingly. This seriously impacts the validity of the results. This is the Hawthorne effect

Question 11

When was the Hawthorne effect first discovered?

Answer 11

Mayo began research into factors affecting workers’ productivity at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne plant. Working with five female volunteer workers who knew he was conducting an experiment. Mayo altered different variables such as lighting, heating, rest breaks etc to see the possible effect on volunteers’ output. Productivity actually rose even when conditions were worsened as well as improved, which is why Mayo concluded they were not responding to the variables, but to the fact they were being studied and they wished to please the experimenter

Question 12

What do interpretivist sociologists argue about lab experiments?

Answer 12

Humans are fundamentally different from plants, rocks and other phenomena studied by natural scientists as we have free will, consciousness and choice. This means our behaviour cannot be understood in terms of cause and effect. Instead it can only be understood in terms of the choices we freely make and so the experimental method is not appropriate for studying humans

Question 13

What two solutions do interpretivist sociologists give to the problems of lab experiments?

Answer 13

They offer two alternatives. These are field experiments and the comparative method (or ‘thought experiment’)

Question 14

What two features of field experiments distinguish it from lab experiments?

Answer 14

It takes place in subject’s natural surroundings rather than in an artificial lab environment. Also those involved are generally not aware they are the subjects of an experiment and so there is no Hawthorne effect

Question 15

What happens in a field experiment?

Answer 15

The researcher manipulates one or more of the variables in the situation to see what effect it has on the unwitting subjects of the experiment. Eg in Rosenhan’s ‘pseudopatient’ experiment where researchers presented themselves at 12 California mental hospitals saying they had been hearing voices - each was then admitted and diagnosed as schizophrenic

Question 16

What happened during Rosenhan’s experiment?

Answer 16

Once in hospital, they ceased to complain of hearing voices and acted normally. Nevertheless, hospital staff treated them all as if they were mentally ill. This suggests it wasn’t the patients’ behaviour that led to them being treated as sick, but the label ‘schizophrenic’ itself that led staff to treat them in this way

Question 17

Based on Rosenhan’s study, Noe can field experiments be evaluated?

Answer 17

The study shows the value of field experiments. They are more ‘natural’, valid and realistic, and avoid the artificiality of lab experiments. However the more realistic we make a situation, the less control we have over variables that might be operating. If so, we cannot be certain that the causes we have identified are the correct ones. Also, some critics argue filed experiments are unethical as they involve carrying out an experiment on subjects without their knowledge or consent

Question 18

What is the comparative method?

Answer 18

Unlike other experiments, the comparative method is carried out only in the mind of the sociologist. It is a ‘thought experiment’ and does not involve the researcher actually experimenting on real people. However, like lab and field experiments, it too is designed to discover cause-and-effect relationships

Question 19

What is the process for the comparative method?

Answer 19

Identify two groups of people that are alike in all major respects except for the one variable we are interested in. Then compare the two groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect

Question 20

What is an example of the comparative method?

Answer 20

Durkheim’s study of suicide. Durkheim’s hypothesis was that low levels of integration of individuals into social groups caused higher 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

Question 21

How did Durkheim test his predictions?

Answer 21

By comparing the suicide rates of Catholics and Protestants who were similar in all other important respects (eg 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

Question 22

What is the evaluation for the comparative method?

Answer 22

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 it gives the researcher even less control over variables than field experiments s we can be even less certain whether a thought experiment really has discovered the cause of something