location and experiments

lab location

- artificial environment

- access to scientific equipment

- p's know they're being studied

lab location strengths

- easy to control: limit impact of EV's

- access to specialist equipment

lab location weaknesses

- artificial behaviour: p's more likely to change behaviour

- low ecological validity

field location

- natural setting

- less controlled, carried out in everyday locations

field location strengths

- access to wide range of behaviours due to availability of environments

- less likely to be aware of research taking place: natural behaviour

field location weaknesses

- difficult to control: may impact validity of results

- may not be feasible to study behaviour that needs specialist eqipment

online location

- surveys and experiments most commonly used online

- social media used to find samples

online location strengths

- can access large, diverse samples

- data collected electronically so can be used to collect and analyse

online location weaknesses

- can be difficult to monitor ethical issues as p's not in presence of researcher

- hard to know if p's being honest

demand characteristics

participants change behaviour when they know they are being studied, cannot be sure if behaviour shown is 'true'

mundane realism

the extent to which a study reflects a real like environment

ecological validity

the extent to which findings of the study can be applied into the 'real world'

experiment

research method where causal conclusions can be drawn because an IV has been manipulated to see the causal effect on the DV

lab experiment

- conducted under controlled, artificial

- researcher randomly allocates participants to experimental or control conditions

field experiment

- conducted in natural environment

- participants often unaware they are being studied

quasi experiment

- researcher hasn't deliberately manipulated IV

- IV is a naturally occurring difference between people

- DV is usually measured in a lab experiment

natural experiment

- researcher doesn't deliberately manipulate IV

- they take advantage of naturally occurring DV

- DV may be tested in lab, in the field or online

lab experiment strengths

- high control means cause and effect can be determined, increasing internal validity

- easy to replicate due to standardised procedure

lab experiment weaknesses

- artificial task/ environment unlikely to be reflective of everyday behaviour: low ecological validity

- increased chance of demand characteristics as aware of being studied

field experiment strengths

- less chance of demand characteristics

- everyday environment likely to be reflective of everyday behaviour: high ecological validity

field experiment weaknesses

- hard to control extraneous variables: difficult to establish cause and effect

- ethical issues: p's unaware of being studied, hard to debrief them

natural experiment strengths

- high external validity as study of 'real problems' as they happen

- can be used when not practical to manipulate IV

natural experiment weaknesses

- reduced opportunities for study as events may rarely happen

- hard to establish cause and effect due to lack of control when IV is naturally occurring

quasi experiment strengths

- often carried out under controlled conditions so can compare the difference between people

quasi experiment weaknesses

- cannot randomly allocate people to conditions so likely to be confounding variables

- 'like a lab' environment could be contrived therefore lowering ecological validity