SOC221H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Natural Experiment, Field Experiment, Internal Validity
Document Summary
Laboratory experiment: high degree of control over the setting, artificial setting. Less control over the setting, natural setting: go to where the subjects are- lack of control over the environment. Examining how people behave if no one was observing them i. e. used by criminologists- tells us about bystander effect: natural experiment, natural change in society takes place, can measure before and after. Do university students commit suicide less frequently when they have more official breaks during a semester: control group universities without additional holidays, dependent variable variable that is expected to change as result of manipulating independent. Independent variable- number of breaks variable- rates of suicide: pretest, post-test rates of suicides and number of breaks following the experiment, random assignment and matching. Internal validity continued : maturation natural process of growth, boredom, and so on occur to subjects and impact the dependent variable, psychological, physical and emotional things happening to subjects that influence their score on the independent variable.
