Topic 3: experiments

• Laboratory experiments

  research method with a reacher searcher looks to manipulate one factor to see if it will cause a change in behaviour

  • It uses variables (factors that can be measured, manipulated and quantified)
  • Research looks to manipulate independent variable to see if it causes a change in the dependent variable which is then measured
• Laboratory experiments

  All varies apart from the independent variable are controlled

  • casual relationship between the independent variable being manipulated and dependent variable changing
• Field experiments

  Natural environment, less control over extraneous variables

  • Research are still looks to see if a manipulation of independent variable causes a change in dependent variable
• Laboratory experiments

  Reliability- Highly reliable, produces the same results each time the original experimenter can write each step so it can be repeated. It’s also a detached method meaning scientists feelings have no effect on the conduct of the research.

  • Practical problems, can be difficult to control all variables, cannot be used to study the past, usually only small scale which reduces representativeness
• Laboratory experiments

  Ethical problems

  • Lack of informed consent- researchers must get informed consent of participants but it maybe difficult to get off kids or people with learning disabilities
  • Deception- it’s wrong to lie to people about the nature of the research, however some research is must have to do it such as millgram who lied to the research participants about the purpose of the research
  • harm- the experiment may also harm the participants in millgrams experiment using electric shocks. Research participants were observed to sweat, tremble and grown and have seizures
• Laboratory experiments

  Hawthorne effect- laboratory experiments is not normal or in a natural environment it’s likely that participants may act differently e.g. trying to second-guess what the researcher is asking them to do and act accordingly. This will ruin the experiment.
• Laboratory experiments

  Free will— interpretivist argue humans are fundamentally different from plants rocks and other stuff studied by natural scientists unlike objects we have free will and choice meaning of behaviour can’t be explained through cause of effect. In their view The experiment method isn’t an appropriate method for studying humans

  • Given these problems, sociologist have two alternatives to laboratory experiments: field experiments and the comparative method
• Field experiments

  Differs from laboratory experiments as It Takes place in the subject natural surroundings rather than in an artificial laboratory environment and those involved are generally not aware that they are subjects of an experiment so there’s no Hawthorne effect

  • Researcher manipulates one or more of the variables in the situation see what affect it has on the subjects
• Field experiments

  In Rosenhans ‘pseudopatient’ experiment research is presented themselves at 12 California mental hospital saying they’ve been hearing voices, each was admitted and diagnosed as schizophrenic, once in hospital they stopped complaining of hearing voices but hospital staff treated them all as if they were mentally ill. None was found out.

  • Suggesting it wasn’t the patience behaviour the lead of them being treated as sick but the label as schizophrenic itself
• Field experiments

  Evaluation

  • Rosenhan’s study shows the value of field experiments, then more natural, valid and realistic and avoid the artificiality of laboratory experiments
  • However the more realistic the situation is the less control we have over the variables so we can’t be certain that the causes we have identified other correct ones
  • Critics argue field experiments are unethical as they involve carrying out an experiment on subjects without their knowledge/consent
• Comparative method

  Carried out only in the mind of the sociologist, it is a thought experiment. Designed to discover cause in effect relationships. Works as follows:

  • Step one- identify two groups alike in all major respects except from the one variable we interested in
  • Step two- compare the two groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect
• Comparative method- study of suicide

  Durkheims hypothesis was that low levels of integration of individuals into social groups caused high rates of suicide

  • He argued Catholicism produced higher levels of integration than protestantism so predicted that protestants would have a higher suicide rate in Catholics
  • He then tested the hypothesis by comparing the suicide rates of Catholics and protestants who are similar in all other respects. His prediction was supported by the official statistics showing Catholics had lower suicide rates.
• Comparative method- evaluation

  Discovering cause effect relationships, the comparative method has three advantages

  • It avoids artificiality
  • It can be used to study past events
  • It poses no ethical problems such as harming subjects
  • However, the comparative method gives the researcher even less control over variables than field experiments so we can be even less than whether a thought experiment has really discovered the cause of something