Strength and Limitation P.E.T - Experiments

Question 1

Strengths for practical

Answer 1

• Lab experiments can be easily replicated, as the controlled environment allows for consistent procedures and conditions. This replicability enhances the reliability and validity of the findings, as other researchers can reproduce the experiment and verify the results
• Lab experiments enable precise measurement and accurate data collection. Researchers can use standardized procedures and instruments, ensuring consistency in data collection across participants. This precision enhances the reliability of the measurements and gives quantitative analysis.

Question 2

Limitation for practical

Answer 2

• Small samples- Laboratory experiments can only study small samples and are not suitable for large scale phenomena
• Hawthorne effect- A laboratory experiment is an artificial environment and any behaviour that occurs in it may also be artificial. If participants know that they are being experimented on they may act differently. For example they may feel self important, anxious about being in the experiment and act differently as a result.
• Its a detached method- the researcher personal feelings/opinions aren’t involved as they’re simply manipulating variables and recording the results.

Question 3

Limitation ethical

Answer 3

Deception, lack of consent and psychological harm- Deception is often used to prevent the people taking part from knowing the real purpose of the experiment. Informed consent would therefore not have been provided by the people taking part. It is considered wrong to deceive or mislead people as to be provided by the people taking part
- In field experiments, the people are unaware they are taking part in a study: again this means they have not given informed consent. There is a possibility that the experiment may cause psychological harm.

Question 4

Strength theoretical

Answer 4

• Positivist favour experiment- Positivists argue that the social world we live in, is made up of many external social ‘variables’ that can influence our behaviour. These social variables can be measured objectively using experiments to gather valid information. This is because experiments according to positivists are reliable and objective, produce quantitative data which they can analyse the numerical findings to see if they can discover cause and effect relationship.
• Reliability- Laboratory experiments are easier to replicate than many other research methods. This means the original experiments can be repeated by other researchers, under the same conditions and following the same procedures to see whether they obtain similar results. Replicability is important for checking other research work. If they are similar we can be confident that the original result has internal validity and reliability. Field experiments are less reliable than lab experiments because they are carried out in natural environment where it difficult to replicate the study under identical condition to the original.

Question 5

Limitation of theoretical

Answer 5

Hawthorne effect: If the participant are aware of what the experiments is about then they may change their behaviour and not act as they usually would. This will distort the result of the experiment and so effect its validity.