How do researchers investigate the human mind and behavior? Although there are a number of different research methods, natural science experiments allow researchers to look at cause and effect relationships. They identify and define key variables, formulate a hypothesis, manipulate variables, and collect outcome data. Extraneous variables are carefully controlled to minimize the potential impact on the result.
A Closer Look at the Experimental Method in Psychology
Experiment, laboratory, natural or otherwise, involves manipulating one variable to determine whether changes in one variable can cause changes in another. This method relies on supervised methods, random assignment, and manipulation of variables to test the hypothesis.
Types of experiments
There are several different types of experiments that researchers coulduse. Each of these may depend on a variety of factors, including participants, hypothesis, and resources available to researchers:
- Lab experiments are very common in psychology because they allow experimenters better control over variables. These experiments may also be easier for other researchers to carry out. The problem, of course, is that what happens in the lab is not always identical to what happens in the real world.
- A natural experiment is a so-called field experiment. Sometimes researchers may prefer to conduct their research in a natural environment. For example, imagine that a social psychologist is interested in researching a certain type of social behavior. This type of experiment can be a great way to see behavior in action under realistic conditions. However, this makes it difficult for researchers to control variables, and may introduce confounding variables that may influence results.
- Quasi-experiments. Although laboratory and natural experiments in psychology represent a group of the most popular methods, researchers can also use a third type, known as a quasi-experiment. They are often referred to as natural experiments because the researchers have no true control over the independent variable. Instead, the level of achievement of the goal is determined by the natural conditions of the situation. This is a good choice in situations where scientists study phenomena in natural, real-life conditions. It's also goodchoice in situations where researchers cannot ethically manipulate the independent variable in question.
Key terms
To understand how the natural experiment method works, there are a few key terms:
- The independent variable is the object being manipulated by the experimenter. This variable is supposed to cause some effect on another variable. If a researcher is studying how sleep affects performance on a math test, the amount of sleep a person gets will be the independent variable.
- The dependent variable is the effect that the experimenter measures. In our previous example, test scores will be the dependent variable.
- Operational definitions are necessary for the experiment. When we say that something is an independent or dependent variable, we need to have a very clear and specific definition of its meaning and scope.
- A hypothesis is a tentative statement or guess about a possible relationship between two or more variables. In our previous example, the researcher might assume that people who get more sleep will perform better on a math test the next day. The purpose of the experiment is to support or not support this hypothesis.
Experimental process
Psychologists, like other scientists, use the scientific method when conductingexperiment. The scientific method is a set of procedures and principles that govern how scientists develop research questions, collect data, and draw conclusions. There are four main stages of the process:
- Formation of a hypothesis.
- Design research and data collection.
- Analyze data and draw conclusions.
- Sharing results.
Natural experiment - what is it?
A natural experiment is an empirical study in which individuals (or clusters of individuals) are exposed to experimental and control conditions independent of the researchers, but the process itself appears to be natural. This is a kind of observational study. Natural experimentation is the most useful method when there is a well-defined exposure with a well-defined subpopulation (and no exposure) so that changes in results can be plausibly attributed to exposure. In this sense, the difference between natural experiment and non-experimental observational research is that the former involves comparing conditions that pave the way to a causal inference, but the latter does not.
Natural experiments are research projects where controlled experiments are extremely difficult to implement or unethical, such as in several areas of research that are subject to epidemiology (for example, he alth impact assessment of varying degreesexposure to ionizing radiation in people living near Hiroshima at the time of the atomic explosion), economics (for example, estimating the economic return on adult education in the United States), political science, psychology, and social sciences.
Natural experiment conditions
Key conditions and features of experimental research include manipulation and control. Manipulation in this context means that the experimenter can control the subjects of the study, as well as how they feel the effects on themselves. You can manipulate at least one variable. Control trials can only answer certain types of epidemiological questions, and they are not useful in investigating questions for which a random task is either not feasible or unethical.
As an example, suppose an investigator is interested in the he alth effects of poor housing. Since it is not practical or ethical to randomly assign people to variable housing arrangements, this subject is difficult to study using an experimental approach. However, if housing policy was changed, such as the subsidized mortgage lottery, to allow some people to move to more desirable housing while leaving other similar people in their former substandard housing, it might be possible to use this policy change to study the impact of housing change. he alth conditions.
In another example, a well-known natural experiment in Helena (Montana, USA), according towho was banned from smoking in all public places for a six-month period. The researchers subsequently reported a 60 percent drop in heart attacks in the study area during the duration of the ban.
Scientific research method
Experiment is the main research method in science. The key functions are control over variables, careful measurement and establishment of causal relationships. This is a study in which the hypothesis is scientifically tested. In an experiment, the independent variable (cause) is controlled and the dependent variable (effect) is measured, and any extraneous variables are controlled. The advantage is that experiments are usually objective. The views and opinions of the researcher should not influence the results of the study. This is good as it makes the data more reliable and less biased.
