field experiments

field experiments

1. how field experiments differ from lab experiments

   • it takes place in the subjects natural surroundings
   • those involved do not know they are subjects- avoids the hawthorne effect
   • the researcher isolates and manipuleates one or more of the variables in the situation to see the effect.
     • e.g. rosenthal and jacobsen
       • manipulated teachers expectations about pupils giving them misleading info on pupils' abilities in order to see the effects it would have on educational achievement
   • actor tests and correspondence tests
     • are typed of field experiment. e.g to test a hypothesis that there is racial discrimination in employment Gay and Brown sent a black and white worker to interviews with the same posts .
     • in a correspondence test Wood sent closely mathced job applications to 1000 vacancies apparently from 3 applicants of different ethnicities
     • these studies show the value of field experiments because they are more natural and valid. however, this does mean less control so we are less certain of what we have identified is true. e.g. it may have been that in brown and gay's study the white worker got more jobs but due to the lack of control over the variables we can't be sure
   • critics say that field experiments are unethical due to the deception and lack of informed consent. however, in brown and gay's case not harm was done to participants and something of value was learned as a result

2. comparative method

   • this is carried out in the mind of the sociologist.
     • a thought experiment or natural experiment
   • it relies on re analysing secondary data.
     • it is designed to dscover a cause and effect relationship
   • how it works
     • identify two groups that are alike in all major aspects except for the one variable we are interested in
     • then compare the two groups to seeif this one difference between them has any effect
   • the most famous example was duekheims study of suicide that relied on analysing official statistics. the major difference durkheim was looing at was religion between protestants and catholics and their levels of integration
   • advantages
     • it avoids artificiality
     • can be used to study past events
     • avoids ethical problems
   • disadvantages
     • less control which means we can be less certain whether a cause has been discovered