SCLY2 - Research Methods - Experiments (AQA AS Sociology)

Once an experiment has been conducted, other scientists can then replicate it. That is, they can repeat it exactly in every detail. The lab experiment is therefore highly __________, producing the same results each time, for two reasons; The original experimenter can specify precisely what steps were followed in the original experiment so other researchers can repeat these in future. Also it is a very detached method: the researcher merely manipulates the variables and records the results. The scientists personal feelings and opinions have no effect on the conduct or outcome of the experiment.

The laboratory experiment has major advantages as the method is used to identify cause and effect relationships in the natural sciences. For this reason, we might expect _________ sociologists to use lab experiments, since they favour a scientific approach.

_________________ favour lab experiments in principle because it achieves their main goal of reliability; Careful control over experimental conditions and experimenter detachment produce reliable data because other researchers can replicate the experiment. Also it allows the researcher to identify and measure behaviour patterns quantitatively and to manipulate variables to establish cause and effect relationships.

___________________ reject lab experiments because they fail to achieve their main goal of validity. It is an artificial situation producing unnatural behaviour. They favour more naturalistic field experiments, but others criticise this method for reducing control over variables.

A ___________ problem of using lab experiments is that they cannot be used to study the past, since by definition it is impossible to control variables that were acting in the past rather than the present.

Lab experiments usually only study small samples. This makes it very difficult to investigate large-scale social phenomena such as religions or voting patterns. The small-scale nature of lab experiments also reduces their ____________.

There are ethical objections to conducting experiments on human beings at least under certain circumstances. As a general principle, the researcher needs the informed consent of the research participants.

Another ethical issue is that it is generally considered wrong to mislead people as to the nature of the experiment. ____________ mislead his participants in his famous study of obedience to authority. He lied to his subjects about the purpose of the research, telling them they were assisting in an experiment on learning, in which they were told by the researcher to administer electric shocks when the learner failed to answer questions correctly. In reality however the purpose of the experiment was to test peoples willingness to obey orders to inflict pain. Unbeknown to his subjects no electric shocks were actually used.

If people know they are being they may behave differently; for example, by trying to second guess what the researcher wants them to do and acting accordingly. This will ruin the experiment, which depends on the subjects responding to the variables that the researcher introduces into the situation, not the fact that they are being observed. What is this known as?

_____________ began conducting research into factors affecting workers productivity at the western electric company's Hawthorne plant in Chicago. Working with 5 female volunteer workers who knew he was conducting an experiment, he altered different variables such as lighting, heating, rest breaks and so on to see what effect it had on the volunteers output. Surprisingly, not only did output go up when he improved their working conditions, but it continued to rise even when conditions are worsened. He included that the workers were not responding to the changes he was making in the experimental variables but simply to the fact that they were being studied and wished to please the experimenter who was showing an interest in them.

____________ sociologists, such as interactionists, argue that human beings are fundamentally different from plants, rocks and other natural phenomena studied by natural scientists. Unlike these objects, we have free will, consciousness and choice. This means our behaviour cannot be explained in terms of cause and effect. Instead, it can only be understood in terms of the choices we freely make. In this view, the experimental method, with its search for causes, is therefore not an appropriate method for studying human beings.

__________________ has two features that distinguish it from a lab experiment; It takes place in the subject natural surroundings, such as school or workplace, rather than in an artificial environment. Also those involved are generally not aware that they are the subjects of an experiment, in which case there is no Hawthorne effect.

Unlike both lab experiment and field experiments the comparative method is carried out only in the mind of the sociologist.

_________________ identifies two groups of people that are alike in in all major respects except for the one variable we are interested in. Then the two groups are compared to see if this one difference between them has any effect.

An example of the comparative method is ______________ classic study of suicide. His hypothesis was that low levels of integration of individuals into social groups caused high rates of suicide. He argued that different religions produced different levels of integration, with Catholicism producing higher levels than Protestantism. From this, he therefore predicted that Protestants would have a higher suicide rate than Catholics. He then tested his prediction by comparing the suicide rates of Catholics and Protestants who were similar in all other important aspects. His prediction was supported y official statistics on suicide, which showed Catholics to have lower suicide rates than Protestants.

The comparative method has 3 advantages over lab experiments; It avoids artificiality, It can be used to study past events and It poses no ethical problems, such as harming or deceiving subjects.