Psychology Year 1

    Cards (12)

    • Laboratory experiment- defined by the high level of control the researcher has over all the variables in the study
    • in a Laboratory study the experimenter will control environmental factors such as noise and temperature as well as the experience each participant has by using standarised procedures
    • Strengths of Laboratory experiment:
      • Confidence is establisting a cause and effect relationship
      • high internal validity
      • Lab studies easily replicated by using standardised procedure
    • Weaknesses of using laboratory experiments:
      • lack of ecological validity
      • lacks mundane realism
      • participants may alter behaviour due to demand characteristics
    • Laboratory experiments

      Experimenter has full control over what happens in the experiment, environmental factors and instructions are highly controlled, only one factor (independent variable) changes between conditions
    • Laboratory experiments

      • High internal validity, highly replicable
      • May lack external validity, ecological validity, and mundane realism, can suffer from demand characteristics
    • Field experiments
      Conducted in the real world, natural setting
    • Field experiments

      • Increased external validity and ecological validity, reduced demand characteristics
      • Lack of control over extraneous variables, reduced internal validity
    • Natural experiments

      Levels of independent variable have already happened naturally, researcher just measures change in dependent variable
    • Natural experiments

      • Allow research in areas not possible otherwise, high external validity
      • Lack of control over extraneous variables, reduced internal validity, not replicable
    • Quasi-experiments
      Researcher cannot randomly assign participants to different levels of independent variable
    • Quasi-experiments

      • Only way to study certain factors like gender, age, mental health conditions
      • Confounding variables that differ systematically between conditions