Field Experiment: Research Methods

Practical Disadvantages

- Harder to control all the variables so it is uncertain what the root cause is

Theoretical

- Interpretivists favour field experiments because they are less artificial - Positivists say that they don't help to establish a cause-and-effect because of the lack of control over the variables

Ethical Disadvantages

- Lack of informed consent when the field experiment is covert, this also leads to DECEPTION - Rosenthal & Jacobson's field experiment at Oak School was seen as unethical because it meant that some students were held back educationally due to the lack of attention that the teacher's gave them

Validity Disadvantages

- Rosenthal & Jacobson didn't participate in any observation in the classroom so their claim that teacher expectations were passed through classroom interactions lacked validity. Later observations showed that the claim was false

Reliability Advantages

- Rosenthal & Jacobson's experiment was relatively simple so it was easy to repeat

Reliability Disadvantages

- Schools are complex institutions so it's hard to control all the variables especially with field experiments so it is unlikely that the experiment is replicated exactly

Validity Advantages

- There is no Hawthorne Effect

Representative Advantages

- They are larger-scale

Rosenhal Pseudopatient study

12 researchers presented themselves at mental hospitals saying they were hearing voices, they were labelled as schizophrenic, even after they said that they were not hearing voices the nurses still treated them the same, it was the label of schizophrenic that led to the nurses' treatment of the researchers

Field Experiments: Definition

Experiment that takes place in the subject's natural surroundings

Rosenthal & Jacobson

kids labelled intelligent and would succeed scored higher due to teacher higher expectations