Field experiments

• Field experiments

  • Real life environment
  • Limited level of control
  • IV manipulated to observe effects on the DV
• A strength of field experiments is that they take place in natural settings unlike lab experiments. Therefore participants are more likely to display natural behaviour than in lab experiments. Because of this, findings and conclusions drawn can be applied to everyday life thus increasing the ecological validity
• A weakness of field experiments is that they have lower levels of control compared to lab experiments. As a result, you cannot control all variables that occurred in the experiment and cannot make them occur in the same way when repeating. Therefore you cannot establish a standardised procedure and cannot repeat the experiment to test for consistent findings. Thus decreasing the reliability
• A weakness of field experiments is that they have lower levels of control compared to lab experiments and therefore, EVs may influence the participants behaviour. As a result you cannot be sure the cause and effect relationship between the IV and DV is only the IV affecting the DV. Thus decreasing the validity