Research Methods I Don't Enjoy

Laboratory experiment - testing hypothesis in an artificial environment

Advantages:

  • Reliable

  • Objective

  • Controlled environment - allows isolation of key variables

  • Protection from physical harm

  • Confidentiality

Disadvantages:

  • Lack consent if covert

  • Deception if covert

  • Expensive

  • Hawthorne effect if it is overt

  • Not representative

Example:

Bandura - BOBO dolls

Field experiment - testing hypothesis in real environment

Advantages:

  • Valid

  • Generalisable

  • Cheaper

Disadvantages:

  • Less protection from harm

  • Subjective

  • Less controlled

  • More difficult to gain access

  • Less confidential

  • Lacks representativeness

Example:

Rosenthal and Jacobson - Pygmalion

OS - secondary data usually published by the government

  • Hard data - can be trusted e.g. birth rates

  • Soft data - can’t be trusted as sometimes it goes unreported e.g. crime statistics

Advantages:

  • Not biased

  • Can make trends and patterns - reliable

  • Ethical

  • Accessible

  • Cheap

Disadvantages:

  • Invalid

  • Outdated

  • May be distorted or irrelevant info

  • Data is being used for reasons beyond intention

Example:

Waddington stop and search - found that officers weren’t targeting certain ethnic groups but were simply taking from the available population.

  • Considered potentially unreliable as stop and search data can be manipulated