1. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

2. INTRODUCTION
Is aimed at discovering casual relationship between manipulating the situation under totally controlled conditions.

3. Experiments are carried out in totally Controlled Conditions.
CHARACTERSTICS
Involves manipulation of variables to study their effects on other aspects.
Experiments are carried out in totally Controlled Conditions.
Subjects are assigned to experimental and control group – Randomly.

4. Variables
Any stimulus or event which varies , i.e. it takes on different values and can be measured- VARIABLE.
An object is not A variable , but its attributes are.

5. VARIABLES
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
DEPENDENT VARIABLE

6. EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS
Experimental group
Subjects who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable.
Control group
Subjects who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group.
( RANDOM assigning of participants in each group. )

7. Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research
+ Permit cause-and-effect conclusions
- Lab experiments tend to be artificial and are usually conducted in highly controlled laboratory situations .
- Cannot be used to explore some research questions
- Experiments have low external validity.

8. Field experiments
Field experiments are done in the everyday (i.e. real life) environment of the participants.
The experimenter still manipulates the independent variable, but in a real-life setting (so cannot really control extraneous variables).

9. + Behavior in a field experiment is more likely to reflect real life because of its natural setting.
+ There is less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the results, as participants may not know they are being studied. This occurs when the study is covert.
- There is less control over extraneous variables that might bias the results.
- More time consuming and expensive

10. Quasi Experiments
When variables cannot be manipulated in the laboratory settings; in such a situation –QUASI EXPERIMENTATION is used.
In such experiments , the independent variable is selected rather than varied or manipulated by the experimenter.