experiments

Practical factors

• cost of labs or materials

• Smaller in scale - volunteers likely social science students who have motive

• Controlling ext variables in field experiments

• Mundane realism - may not actually react way they would in real life in lab

Ethical factors

• Often need to deceive

• Consent in field experiments - alter behaviour if not

• Potential for psychological harm

Theoretical factors

• can lack validity as may not represent real life

• May not provide much depth as only know how not why

• May not be as objective - still need to decide variables to manipulate

Field v lab meaning

Lab is in a controlled environment so able to control others ext factors not needed in experiment - cause and effect

Field is in subjects natural environment - less control over outside variables - get correlations instead of cause and effect as researcher cannot be sure if variables have been influencing behaviour

Examples of field experiments

Paddington station - Sisson = perceptions of social class

Spurter study by Rosenthal and Jacobson to show teachers labellling impacts

Examples of lab experiments

Bobo Doll - Bandura = children imitating violent models

Obedience to authority - Milgram = morally wrong actions meant needing to deceive participants

Hawthorne plant - Mayo = saw that subjects would change behaviour simply being watched