EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ... Joseph Luzzi, Ph.D.

, Educational Psychologist
Research designs are either experimental or non-experimental. Experimental research is
conducted mostly in laboratories in the context of basic research. he principle ad!antage of
experimental designs is that it pro!ides the opportunity to identify cause-and-effect relationships.
"on-experimental research, e.g., case studies, sur!eys, correlation studies, is non-manipulati!e
obser!ational research usually conducted in natural settings. #hile laboratory-controlled
experimental studies tend to be higher in internal !alidity, non-experimental studies tend to be
higher in external !alidity.
$ne ma%or limitation of experimental research is that studies are typically conducted in
contri!ed or artificial laboratory settings. Results may not generalize or extrapolate to external
settings. &o exceptions to this rule are natural experiments and field experiments. "atural
experiments document and compare the beha!iors of sub%ects before and after some natural e!ent'
e.g., floods, tornadoes, hurricanes. (ield experiments in!ol!e manipulating conditions in the
natural setting for the purpose of determining their influence on beha!ior. he field experiment is
uni)ue insofar as it tends to be moderately high on both external and internal !alidity.
*n experimental research, the in!estigator manipulates conditions for the purpose of
determining their effect on beha!ior. +ub%ects should be una&are of their membership in an
experimental group so that they don,t act differently -.a&thorne Effect/. *n the simplest
experimental design, in!estigators administer a placebo to the control group and a treatment to
the experimental group. Experimental designs !ary in terms of sub%ects, assignments to different
groups, &hether sub%ects &ere pre-tested, &hether different treatments &ere administered to
different groups, and the number of !ariables being in!estigated.
Experiments are typically structured in terms of independent, organism, and dependent
!ariables. he independent !ariable is a manipulated en!ironmental stimulus dimension, the
organism-!ariable is some dimension -e.g., sex, race/ of more or less stable characteristics of the
organism, and the dependent !ariable is a beha!ioral dimension that reflects the influence of the
independent and organism-!ariables. he general ob%ecti!e in experimental research is to define
the relationship bet&een the antecedent -independent and organism/ !ariables and the conse)uent
-dependent/ !ariables.
Research Ethics
0onsiderable attention has been gi!en in recent years to the influence of experimenter bias
&hich threatens the internal !alidity of the research. *f the experimenter is a&are of the
hypothesis of the experiment, it is more li1ely that the hypothesis &ill be confirmed. he
experimenter-bias effect can be controlled by 1eeping not only the sub%ects -single-blind/ but also
the experimenter blind to the hypothesis. his is called the double-blind procedure.
he principle ethical dilemma that in!estigators face is deciding between
the costs to the human and animal subjects stemming from
conducting the research and the possible benefits to humankind.
This dilemma is currently being played-out in the public arena
regarding human embryonic stem cell research. Other ethical
issues include: obtaining subjects consent to participate in the
study (especially if children are involved! maintaining
anonymity and confidentiality! and debriefing subjects if
deception was used.