Types of experiment

Question 1

what are the different types of experiment

Answer 1

• laboratory
• field
• natural
• quasi

Question 2

what are lab experiments

Answer 2

a high control environment where the researcher can manipulate the IV

Question 3

what are strengths of lab experiments

Answer 3

• high degree of control increasing accuracy and validity
• can be easily replicated
• researcher knows cause and effect within their experiment

Question 4

what are weaknesses of lab experiments

Answer 4

• low external validity- dissimilar to real life which can affect behaviour and results cannot be generalised to others
• tasks they would never normally perform in every day life so low mundane realism

Question 5

what are field experiments

Answer 5

-performed in real life settings/everyday environment and IV is still manipulated

Question 6

what are strengths of field experiments

Answer 6

-high mundane realism as a natural setting is true to life and has real world application

Question 7

what are weaknesses of field experiments

Answer 7

• less control so impossible to limit extraneous variables and can affect validity of results
• difficult to replicate same situation

Question 8

what are natural experiments

Answer 8

can take place in artificial and real life settings where the IV occurs naturally and is NOT manipulated by researcher

Question 9

what are strengths of natural experiments

Answer 9

• high ecological validity as the variables are naturally occurring so are true to life and results have real world application
• no manipulation of IV as ppts are not aware they are taking part in an experiment and therefore behaviour is natural so no demand characteristics

Question 10

what are weaknesses of natural experiments

Answer 10

• less control as variables are naturally occuring so hard to limit extraneous variables
• zero control over variables so difficult to replicate
• ppts are naturally allocated to their groups so may be sample bias

Question 11

what are quasi experiments

Answer 11

have an IV that is based on existing differences between people e.g age or gender and effect on DV is recorded

Question 12

what are strengths of quasi experiments

Answer 12

high control- often control conditions and share strengths of lab experiments

Question 13

what are weaknesses of quasi experiments

Answer 13

confounding variables as conditions cannot be randomly allocated