TYPES OF EXPERIMENT

~LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS~

→ conducted in highly controlled environments

+ Strengths

  • have high control of extraneous and confounding variables

  • easy to replicate the study

- Limitations

  • low mundane realism as the study does not represent everyday experiences

  • low external validity as behaviour cannot be generalised beyond the research setting

~FIELD EXPERIMENTS~

→ the IV is manipulated in a natural, more everyday setting

+ Strengths

  • high mundane realism

  • high external validity as participants may be unaware that they’re being studied

- Limitations

  • lack of control of extraneous and confounding variables

  • harder to replicate the study

~NATURAL EXPERIMENTS~

→ the researcher has no control over the IV, and cannot change it

+ Strengths

  • provide new research opportunities

  • high external validity as they involve the study of the real-world issues and problems as they happen

- Limitations

  • happens rarely, and so it’s hard to generalise findings

  • hard to determine cause and effect

~QUASI EXPERIMENTS~

→ the IV is based on a pre-existing difference between people. The IV cannot be manipulated (e.g. age or gender)

+ Strengths

  • carried out under controlled conditions, and can therefore be more easily replicated

- Limitations

  • cannot randomly allocate participants to certain conditions