Theory and methods in context (kirans)

What are laboratory experiments + 3 features?

• Laboratory experiments are a way of studying human behaviour

• Want to establish a cause and effect relationship, have an experimental and control group and replicable experiment

• Takes place in an artificial environment

What are 2 key examples of labratory experiments?

• Milgram’s study of obedience

• Mayos study of worker productivity

What was Milgram’s study of obedience?

• Milgram lied to his participants about the nature of the experiment, telling participants to administer electric shocks to see how willing people are to listen to authority. 65% were ready to administer 450 volt electric shocks, which also caused harm- to participants as they sweat and trembled

• Over 74% of participants said afterwards they had learned something of lasting value justifying the ethical issues such as harm and deception

What was Mayo’s study of productivity?

• Suffered from the hawthorne effect, 5 female volunteers knew he was conducting the experiment so even when working conditions worsened, productivity continued to rise as workers knew they were being watched

What are 2 examples of lab experiments and teacher expectations?

• Harvey and Slating sample of 96 teachers shown 18 photographs of pupils, teachers rated lower class pupils less favourably and used social class labels to pre judge pupils potential

• Charkin et al, Sample of 48 university students each taught a lesson to a 10 year old boy, 1/3 told he was really high performing, another told low performing, another told no information. Those told high performing made more eye contact and engaged whilst low performing did not

Advantages and disadvantages of lab experiements?

• Practical issue, subject matter. Schools are large complex institutions in which many variables impact teacher expectations such as class size streaming etc, difficult to control and measure 1 factor. Large scale processes and institutions cannot be studied on a small scale

• Theoretical advantage, reliability. Replicable due to formulaic experiment approach.

• Ethical disadvantage if participants are lied too or are deceived.

• Theoretical disadvantage hawthorne effect so low validity due to low accuracy.

What are field experiments?

• Takes place in the subjects natural surroundings

• Those involved are usually not aware

WHat is an example of a field experiment?

• Rosenhan’s experiment at 12 California mental hospitals. Said they had been hearing voices, diagnosed as schizophrenic.

• The patient did not act schizophrenic, only labelled as such influencing the way he was treated and viewed by staff.

What is the comparative method?

• Discover cause and effect relationship

• Find 2 groups identical in almost all aspects except for 1 variable interested in, compare the 2 groups to see if this one difference between them has any effect

Durkheims study of suicide

What is an example of field experiments and teacher expectations?

• Rosenthal and Jacobson. ‘Pygmalion in the classroom’

• Research in california primary school called ‘oak school’ where everyone was given iq test as 20% were said to be likely to spurt, not true just wanted to see if labelling influences teacher behaviour

• Turns out after 8 months average pupil progressed by 8 progress points, whereas spurters progressed by 12.

What are advantages and disadvantages of field experiment?

• Ethical issue. 80% of the kids from rosenthal and jacobson’s study may have been negatively impacted, as they received less teacher attention or may have negatively viewed themselves due to lack of progress

• Theoretical advantage of validity, carried out in natural environment where everyone is unaware meaning very high validity

• Practical issue of time, Rosenthal and Jacobson waited 8 months to see a difference. Also takes time in schools to be able to enter due to gatekeepers like headteachers, or legal processed such as requiring a DBS