Page 11 - Mind Map_Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

d) Counter-balancing technique is used to minimise the sequence effect.
e) Random assignment of participants to different groups eliminates any
potential systematic differences between groups.

 EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS AND CONTROL GROUPS

1. Any experiment generally involve one or more experimental groups and one or
more control groups.
2. An experimental group is a group in which members of the group are exposed to
independent variable manipulation.
3. The control group is a comparison group that is treated in every way like the
experimental group except that the manipulated variable is absent in it.

 It should be noted that in an experiment, except for the experimental manipulation,
other conditions are kept constant for both experimental and control groups.
 The distribution of participants to experimental and control groups was done
randomly, a method that ensures that each person has an equal chance of being
included in any of the groups.

 STRENGTH OF EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

A well-designed experiment is that it can provide, a convincing evidence of a cause-
effect relationship between two or more variables.

 LIMITATIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

1. Experiments are usually conducted in a highly controlled laboratory situation.
That means they only simulate situations that exist in the outside world. So the
results produced have low external validity i.e they do not generalise well or apply
to real situation.
2. It is not always feasible to study a particular problem experimentally. For example,
an experiment to study the effect of nutritional deficiency on intelligence level of
children cannot conducted as it would be ethically wrong to starve anyone.
3. It is difficult to know and control all the relevant variables.
 FIELD EXPERIMENTS

 When the researcher wants to conduct studies which is not possible in laboratory
settings, then s/he may go to the field or the natural setting where the particular
phenomenon actually exists. This is where, the researcher goes for a field
experiment.