Critically Evaluate the Experimental Methods of Research in Psychology

The first 200 words of this essay...

Jenna Wilkinson

Critically Evaluate the Experimental Methods of Research in Psychology

There are three main experimental methods of research that are used in psychology. These are laboratory experiments, field experiments and natural experiments.

An experiment involves the independent variable (IV) being manipulated by the experimenter or researcher to see what effect it has on the dependent variable (DV) while controlling possible confounding variables. The DV is the measured outcome of the experiment. A variable is anything that can vary or be changed. For example, the IV of the time of day could be manipulated to see what effect it had on the DV of the productivity of workers by testing in two conditions, one in the morning between 8 and 9 am and the other in the evening between 5 and 6 pm on a certain day. However, the researcher would need to control confounding variables, which are variables that could affect the DV but are not the IV, which the researcher is interested in.

The first method of research is laboratory experiments. These are used because they give the researcher more control over the experiment. This is the most scientific method of research because