Introduction to Experimental Psychology Concepts and Methods

Experimental Psychology

• The branch of psychology that utilizes experimental methods to study process underlying behavior and cognition.

• It is the study of psychological issues that uses experimental procedures. It focuses on understanding and predicting behavior through empirical research and data analysis.

Early Beginnings

The roots of experimental psychology can be traced back to the mid-19th century with the work of Wilhelm Wundt.

Wilhelm Wundt

• He established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, marking the birth of experimental psychology.

• also known as Father of Modern Psychology

• He did experimented the sensation, emotion, feelings, ideas, and reaction time

Heinrich Weber

A German Physician who is founder of experimental psychology. His main experiment was on sense of touch, pressure, and temperature.

Gustav Fechner

• Founder of Psychophysics

• He was the student of Weber and rediscovered Weber’s law and saw it a way to unite body and mind.

Word Experiment

derived from a Latin word Experimentum meaning trial or test

Eysenck (1956)

According to him, “An experiment is the planned manipulation of variables in which at least one of the variables that is independent variable is altered under predetermined conditions during the experiments.”

Postman and Egen

According to them, “Variable is defined as those attribute, qualities, and characteristics of object, events, things, and beings which can be measured and manipulated, controlled or observed by the experimenter.”

Variables in Experimental Psychology

• Intelligence

• Anxiety

• Aptitude

• Income

• Education

• Achievements

Types of Variables

1. Independent Variable

2. Dependent Variable

Independent Variables

• Experimental Variable, Controlled Variable, and Treatment Variable

• manipulated by the experimenter in his attempt to ascertain its relationship to an observed phenomena

• It is the cause whose effects are being studied.

Dependent Variables

• Behavioral Variables

• It is concerned with response that participants make in response to the experimental variables.

Experimental Group

Independent variable is manipulated in experimental study to analyze its effects. These subjects receives treatment during study.

CONTROL GROUP

• Independent variable is held constant or controlled such that it does not changes in study.

• It is used as a comparison