Another reason why some sociologists may choose not to use experiments when conducting their research may be due to the practical issues such as time and money etc... It could be argued that lab experiments may be expensive- this may stop some sociologists from using experiments as their research method, so instead they may choose a slightly cheaper research method such as observations. Interpretivists may also choose not to use lab experiments because since they focus on a small number of people, they may decide to use an observation method- they may decide to observe a small group of people which would be cheaper than using a lab experiment when conducting their research.
However, despite the fact that lab experiments can be expensive, positivists may still use lab experiments because lab experiments tend to be quicker than field experiments or interviews etc, so this may mean that they can use a lot of participants which can benefit them because if they use a large number of participants, they can be able to make generalisations.
It can be said that field experiments can be cheaper than lab experiments, but they can also be time consuming. Some sociologists may choose not to use field experiments as they may have a limited time period of which they can use to conduct their research- if they did use a field experiment then this may mean that they may not be able to finish their research on time. Also, positivists may decide not use field experiments because they may argue that if they had to replicate a study that they did, it would take a rather long time for the same or similar event to occur again. For example, if they carried out a study on an event that only takes place on a Saturday, they would have to wait until the following Saturday for them to do the study again. This may be an issue for the research, especially if they have used a lot of participants in their study because there is a possibility of attrition, where participants drop out of the experiment, so the researchers may not be able to get the same results, which would make their results that they got previously unreliable.
However, some sociologists may choose to use a field experiment because it may be cheaper than lab experiments and this may be beneficial for them, especially if they were planning to spend a small amount of money to conduct their research.
Another reason as to why some sociologists may choose not to use experiments when conducting research may be due to the ethical issues. When using experiments, particularly lab experiments, sociologists may have to tell (brief) the participants about the nature of the study in order for the participants to give informed consent. Some sociologists may argue that by telling the participants about what they are trying to find out, this could potentially mean that the participants may show demand characteristics. This is obviously an issue because the results that they get may not be reliable and they may lack validity as the participants may be lying in order to prove or not prove a hypothesis, so this may be a reason why some sociologists may not want to use lab experiments. However, other sociologists may still use lab experiments because they may say that if they used other research methods and lied to the participants about the nature of the study then that would be deception and the participants could potentially sue them when they find out about the real purpose of the study.
Some sociologists may not want to use field experiments as they may feel that it would be rather hard to get consent from the participants. However, other sociologists may choose to use field experiments when conducting their research because they may argue that they would still be able to carry out the study without the participants knowing, but then at the end they could debrief the participants- they may choose to do this because they may feel that if they did tell the participants about the nature of the study before they conducted the research, the participants may refuse to take part in the research.
There is no doubt that there are many factors that could influence a sociologist’s choice to either use an experiment or not when conducting their research. The type of sociologist (i.e. whether they are positivists or Interpretivists) could influence the type of research method they would use. Also other factors such as ethical issues and practical issues could also influence the researcher’s choice to either use experiments or not when conducting a research.