Lab experiments
- Created by: greggs25
- Created on: 20-02-15 16:25
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- Lab experiments
- Strengths
- Field experiments
- It takes place in the subjects natural surroundings, such as school or workplace,rather than in an artificial laboratory.
- Weaknesses
- Lab experiments
- Strengths
- Field experiments
- It takes place in the subjects natural surroundings, such as school or workplace,rather than in an artificial laboratory.
- Lab experiments
- positivists favour the laboratory experiment in principle because it achieves their main goal of reliability.
- however, positivists recognise the shortcomings of laboratory experiments:
- it is often impossible or unethical to control the variables
- their small scare means that the results may not be representative or generalisable.
- it is often impossible or unethical to control the variables
- however, positivists recognise the shortcomings of laboratory experiments:
- easy to replicate- the original experimenter can specify precisely what steps were followed in the original experiment so other researchers can repeat this in the future
- control over extraneous variables.
- easy to replicate- the original experimenter can specify precisely what steps were followed in the original experiment so other researchers can repeat this in the future
- easy to replicate- the original experimenter can specify precisely what steps were followed in the original experiment so other researchers can repeat this in the future
- impossible to identify all the extraneous variables when studying society as it is a complex pheonemenon
- Weaknesses
- Lab experiments cannot be used to study the past
- Laboratory experiments usually only study small samples. this makes it very difficult to investigate large-scale social phenomena such as religions and voting patterns
- Weaknesses
- the HawthorneEffect (demand characterises)
- the researcher needs to obtain informed consent.
- interpretivist sociology, such as interactionists,argue that human beings are fundamentally different from plants, rocks and other natural phenomena studied by natural scientists as we have free will consciousness and choice.
- the researcher needs to obtain informed consent.
- this subjects involved are generally not aware that they are the subjects of an experiment, in which case there is no hawthorneeffect.
- David Rosenhans (1973) 'psuedopatient' experiment, a team of eight 'normal' researchers presented themselves at 12 mental hospitals, complaining that they had been herring voices.
- some critics argue that field experiments are unethical as they involve carrying out an experiment without knowledge or consent.
- this subjects involved are generally not aware that they are the subjects of an experiment, in which case there is no hawthorneeffect.
- this subjects involved are generally not aware that they are the subjects of an experiment, in which case there is no hawthorneeffect.
- The comparative method
- It is designed to discover cause and effect
- The comparative method
- Emile Durkheim's study of suicide
- It avoids artificiality
- It poses no ethical problems, such as harming or deceiving subjects
- It avoids artificiality
- The comparative method
- It can be used to study past events
- It avoids artificiality
- It poses no ethical problems, such as harming or deceiving subjects
- It avoids artificiality
- Less control over extraneous variables
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