Topic 2- Research Methods Flashcards
What are the three types of experiments?
Laboratory, field and the comparative method
What is the Hawthorne effect?
Due to abnormal environments it can lead to artificial or unnatural behaviour. This can lead to invalid results.
Explain laboratory experiments
The sample is split into the control group and experimental group. They will alter variables such as the dependent and independent to find a cause and effect.
What are the advantages of laboratory experiments?
Practical, 3
Ethical, 3
Theoretical, 1
Practical: funding bodies respect lab experiments. No need for personal characteristics from experimenters. Easier as there are detailed instructions.
Ethical- informed consent is given, don’t ask people to do anything illegal, findings benefit society
Theoretical- reliability, easy to replicate, specific instructions and is a detached method so less impact from researcher
What are the disadvantages of laboratory experiments?
Practical, 4
Ethical, 3
Theoretical, 2
Practical- sample size are usually small, its impossible to control all variables, time consuming as it takes participants attending and studies individually, expensive as there is the cost of the lab and lab equipment
Ethical- can be difficult to get informed consent, can lead to deception as researchers have a lot of authority, they can be deceived into doing harmful activities such as milgrams
Theoretical- validity is low as they gain statistical results as it is a positivist method, representativeness is low as they take small sample sizes
What is evidence for lab experiments?
Milgram- studied obedience to authority and deceived participants.
Elton mayo- mayo looked at factors affecting workers productivity, after changing variables to worsen and improve the environment he found they were reacting to the fact they were being observed.
What are field experiments?
Take place in natural surroundings, and participants dont know they’re being observed. Its an experiment as a factor is changed.
What are advantages of field experiments? Practical, ethical and theoretical
P- sample size is is large as its in the natural environment, setting already exists, it is cheaper
E- confidentiality and privacy, unintrusive
T- valid data as its qualitative, and representative as large sample and real world
What are the disadvantages of field experiments? Practical, ethical and theoretical
P- time consuming if required outcomes arnt observed due to a lack of interaction, cant control environment or variables as its a natural setting
E- consent, covert
T- reliable as its easy to repeat
What is evidence for field experiments?
Rosenhan- pseudo patient experiment, researchers admitted themselves into mental hospitals being labelled as schizophrenic and when they acted normally they were still treated like they were mentally ill. This was due to the label.
Zimbardo- prison experiment, students put into prisoners and guards randomly, guards were given quazi-powert and gave psychological abuse to prisoners and the experiment was changed.
What is the comparative method?
It is done in the sociologists mind, they identify 2 groups with one variable different and compare if the difference has any effect.
What are the advantages of the comparative method?
Avoids artificiality, used to study past events, no ethical problems
P- no money needed, not time consuming
E- no ethical problems
T- it is reliable as it is easy to repeat
What are the disadvantages of the comparative method?
P- access can be restricted as it may be restricted, may be language barriers and misunderstandings of stats
T- validity as bias is a factor, representativeness as we only look at a small group
What is evidence for the comparative method?
Durkheim- suicide study- studied how low levels of intergration in social groups caused higher rates of suicide.
