Advantages and Disadvantages of research methods.

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view all our essays on Psychometrics that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

Advantages and Disadvantages of research methods

Laboratory experiments, the features of this research method is that the IV is usually manipulated to cause an effect on the DV, advantages of laboratory experiments is that variables can be controlled easily, the experiment is taken place in a highly controlled environment, choice of participants could be random. With laboratory experiments they can be replicated easily, they also establish a cause and effect, but the disadvantages are that they are low in ecological validity; they are set in artificial environments so therefore effected by mundane realism.

The opposing experiment is field; this is set in a natural setting, either familiar surroundings, field experiments are similar to laboratory experiments as they involve control of IV, the use of participants and surroundings, field experiments can also be replicated. Example of Field experiment Abernethy(1940) showed that students performed better if they were tested in the same room where they were taught and tested by the same person. The context same room, same teacher must have been a recall trigger.

The main advantage of laboratory experiments is that it is easier to control confounding variables; also another advantage of laboratory