Scientific investigation of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.
Experimental Method (p. 679)
Psychology (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 5)
Social Psychology (p. 4)
Field experiment (p. 12)
A set of interrelated concepts and principles that explain a phenomenon.
Theory (p. 4)
Hypotheses (p. 8)
Variable (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 67)
Explanation
Any phenomenon that can differ or vary from one situation to another or one person to another.
Hypothesis (p. 8)
Subject effects (p. 12)
Empirically testable predictions about what co-occurs with what, or what causes what.
Idea
A representative group of participants selected from the population under examination.
Population (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 69)
Sample (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 69)
Control Group (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 79)
Experimental Group (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 79)
When two or more independent variables covary in such a way that is impossible to know which has caused the effect.
Experimenter Effects (p. 12)
Confounding (p. 10)
Subject Effects (p. 12)
Demand Characteristics (p. 12)
When statistics reveal that the effect, or a larger effect, is unlikely to occur by chance more often that 1 in 20 times.
Internal Validity (p. 12)
External Validity (p. 12)
Statistical Significance (p. 15)
Correlation (p. 13)
Intentional manipulation of independent variables to investigate effects on one or more dependent variable/s.
Field Experiment (p. 12)
Random Allocation (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 80)
Double-Blind Procedure (p. 12)
Features of a situation that change of their own accord or can be manipulated by an experimenter to have effects on a measurable variable.
Experimental Variable
Dependent Variable (p. 10)
Independent Variable (p. 9)
Measurable variable/s that change resulting from changes in the manipulated variable.
Similarity between circumstances surrounding an experiment and circumstances in everyday life.
Case Study (p. 13)
Validity of the design itself.
A larger group to whom research findings should be applicable.
Recruitment of participants selected from the population in a relatively arbitrary manner.
Random Sampling (Burton, Weston and Kowalski, 2019, p. 88)
Assigning participants to each of the experimental conditions in a relatively arbitrary manner.
Random Grouping
Group of participants in an experiment who are exposed to the independent variable under examination.
Test Subjects
Group of participants in an experiment who receive a relatively neutral condition to serve as a comparison group.
Placebo Group
Effects that are not spontaneous, owing to demand characteristics and/or participants wishing to please the experimenter.
Confounding (and confounding variable; p. 10)
Features of an experiment that seem to expect a certain response.
Use of Deception (p. 19)
Effects produced or influenced by clues to the hypotheses under examination, inadvertently communicated by the experimenter.
Procedure to reduce experimenter effects, in which the experimenter is unaware of the experimental conditions.
Respect for Privacy (p. 19)
Method that does not involve the manipulation of independent variables against a background of random assignment to condition.
Laboratory Experiment (p. 11)
Non-Experimental Method (p. 12)
Where changes in one variable reliably map onto changes in another variable, but it cannot be determined which of the two variables caused the change (or whether a third variable causes an interaction effect).
Archival Research (p. 13)
Non-experimental method involving the assembly of data, or reports of data, collected by others.
In-depth analysis of a single case (or individual).
Ensuring participants are not exposed to physical harm.
Physical Welfare of Participants (p. 18)
Informed Consent (p. 19)
Debriefing (p. 20)
Ensuring that data obtained from individuals are entirely confidential.
Hiding the true nature of the experiment until data is collected.
A way to safeguard participants’ rights in experiments.
Detailed explanation of the experiment and its broader theoretical and applied context.