Field experiment
The field experiment is a type of research in which an investigation is carried out in the form of an experiment . This is in contrast to another experimental set-up, the laboratory experiment .
definition
In contrast to the laboratory experiment, the field experiment does not take place in a special examination room or laboratory , but in a natural environment. In field experiments with humans, the test subjects do not know that they are participating in an experiment, so that their behavior is completely “natural”.
All available control techniques are used in the field experiment; From the fact of the experimental investigation in the "field", however, there are possibilities of influencing the course of the experiment, which the experimenter cannot or just - z. B. in the case of transferring a fact that has been tested in the laboratory to the "natural conditions" - wants to study. In particular, social-psychological aspects of the experiment have an effect in the field experiment, which may reduce the claim to uncover causalities , but can increase the ecological validity of the experimental findings.
Critical appraisal
The advantages of the field experiment are the high external validity and the realism of the experimental situation. Disadvantages are the lower internal validity , due to insufficient control of the process and the situation by the investigator, as well as ethical concerns in experiments with people, since they are test objects without their consent.
See also
literature
- W. Hager: Basics of a test planning for testing empirical hypotheses in psychology . 1987. In: G. Lüer (Ed.): General Experimental Psychology (43-253). Stuttgart, Gustav Fischer Verlag
- FN Kerlinger: Foundations of behavioral research . 2nd ed., 1979 London, Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Individual evidence
- ^ G. Nieding, P. Ohler: Laboratory experimental methods . 2004. In: R. Mangold, P. Vorderer & G. Bente, (Eds.): Textbook of Media Psychology , Chap. 15. Göttingen, Hogrefe