LAB EXPERIMENTS

Key features - 

• takes place in a controlled artificial setting 
• standardised procedures are used 
• experimenter will be manipulating the IV and measuring the DV 
• There should be 2 or more conditions 

Stregnths - 

• lab studies follw standardised procedures and are therefore easier to replicate 
• This also means that they have a higher reliabilty 
• They also take place in a an artificial setting, which means the experimenter has lots of control of the experimenting environment 
• Internal validity is high 

Weaknesses - 

• normally one EV is difficult to control 
  
• lacks internal validity due to lack of mundane realism 
• Tasks are often artificial and simplified resulting in low ecological validity and limits generalisability 
• often uni students are used for the experiments so results are not generlised to target population 

key features - 

• experimenter will be manipulating at least one IV and measuring one DV 
• two or more conditions will be used 
• participants do not know that theyre in the study 

stregnths - 

• higher mundane realism so a higher ecological validity 
• experimenter can control IV to measure the DV 
• reduced chance of participant effects leading to more valid behaviour 

weaknesses - 

• it is much harder to control the EV as experimenter doesnt have complete control which can be reduced internal validity 
• risk of demand characteristics, participants may guess the aims 
• can raise ethical issues not full consent is given 
• harder to replicate and therefore less reliable 

• Technically not experiments as the experimenter cannot manipulate the IV because they don't have control over the conditions 
• There are still 2 conditions which they look for a difference between. so they are still experiments 
• Quasi experiments - resembeling or having some - psychologists can't assign participanst to conditions.

stregnths - 

• allows research or phenomena that for ethical and practical resons cant be studied any other way 
• allows psychologists to study real problems/issues 
• Takes place in natural environment, no directs manipulation or variables, high in mundane realism. 

weaknesses - 

• IV not directly manipulated, cant draw definitive cause and effect conclusions 
• participants cant be randomly allocated to groups can't control participant variables
• replication is very difficult or impossible 
• issues with generalisability as events arent likely to happen the same