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Summary meeting 2 Consumer Understanding and Behaviour HFV1003
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Research workshopSOURCE: WILSON
Correlational vs. Experimental studies
- Testing causal hypothesis: the researcher needs to have enough control over the situation to
manipulate the independent variable while keeping everything else constant. Although that
is sometimes possible to do in field studies, it is much easier to accomplish in an
experimental laboratory setting.
- Correlation studies demonstrate a correlation between variables, but it creates no evidence
of a causal relationship between these variables. Correlation studies are susceptible for
confounding. An example of an correlation study is checking whether students who were
cognitively busy due to building noises around the classroom are more stereotyping about
their teacher than students who were not cognitively busy. In this study it is not possible to
show a possible relationship because:
o (a) differences in their level of cognitive busyness
o (b) the fact that different students took classes in the different buildings, and these
students differed in their endorsement of the Asian stereotype
o (c) the fact that different instructors taught in the different buildings, and these
instructors had different personalities.
- Advantages of an experimental studies:
o The ability to ensure that the stimuli in experimental conditions are similar.
o The ability to randomly assign people to conditions. Everyone has an equal chance of
being in either condition. Random assignment is the great equalizer: As long as the
sample size is sufficiently large, researchers can be relatively certain that differences
in the personalities or backgrounds of their participants are distributed evenly across
conditions. Any differences that are observed, then, are likely to be due to the
independent variable encountered in the experiment.
- There is one way in which experiments are often inferior to observational and correlational
studies: They are typically done in the “artificial” confines of a psychology laboratory and
involve behaviours that seem to have little to do with the kinds of things people do in
everyday life.
Types of validity
Internal validity: refers to the confidence with which we can draw cause - and - effect
conclusions from our research results. To what extent are we certain that the independent
variable, or treatment, manipulated by the experimenter is the sole source or cause of
systematic variation in the dependent variable?
most easy to maintain high internal validity in experimental studies.
o Threats to the internal validity of research results arise when the conditions under
which an experiment is conducted produce systematic sources of variance that are
irrelevant to the treatment variable and not under control of the researcher (for
instance conditions are not randomly assigned and the groups differ from each
other).
- External validity: refers to the robustness of a phenomenon. The extent to which a causal
relationship, once identified in a particular setting with particular research participants, can
safely be generalized to other times, places, and people. External validity refers to the extent
to which a particular causal relationship is robust across populations, cultures, and settings.
, it is not always the goal to obtain an external validity which is as high as possible,
sometimes researchers just want to test a theory of which has little to do with how much the
results can be generalized, it can still result in a proof of principle. (Voorbeeld van babyaapjes
die in kooien worden gezet met een stoffen moeder om te onderzoeken of de aapjes kiezen
voor eten of liefde, de aapjes waren niet random geselecteerd uit het wild en de conditie was
totaal niet vergelijkbaar met real-life settings, toch kon de theorie wel getest worden).
o Threats to external validity arise from potential interaction effects between the
treatment variable of interest and the context in which it is delivered or the type of
participant population involved. For instance, if a study was conducted among
students (who are young and have a relative high intelligence), study results cannot
be generalized for a whole population.
- Construct validity: refers to the correct identification of the nature of the independent and
dependent variables and the underlying relationship between them. To what extent do the
operations and measures embodied in the experimental procedures of a particular study
reflect the theoretical concepts that gave rise to the research in the first place?
o Threats to construct validity derive from errors of measurement, misspecification of
research operations, and, in general, the complexity of experimental treatments and
measures. One of the most difficult parts of experimental design is constructing a
concrete independent variable (e.g., memorizing an eight - digit number) that is a
good instantiation of the conceptual variable (cognitive busyness).
We can now see that the experimenter is faced with a daunting task: designing a study that is well
- controlled (high in internal validity), includes independent and dependent variables that are good
reflections of the conceptual variables of interest (high in construct validity), and is generalizable to
other settings and people (high in external validity).
On the one hand, we want maximal control over the independent variable, to maintain
internal validity. But, by maximizing internal validity, we often reduce external validity (e.g.,
by conducting our study in the lab instead of the field).
Mudane realism = the term “realism” can refer to the extent to which events occurring in the
research setting are likely to occur in the normal course of the participants’ lives, that is, in the “real
world.” Mudane realism can be very boring and unimportant in lives of observers and actors, it can
put an participant to sleep if the mudane realism is high and the experimental realism is low.
Experimental realism = an experiment is realistic if the situation is involving to the participants, if
they are forced to take it seriously, if it has impact on them.
Mundane realism and experimental realism are not polar concepts; a particular technique
may be high/low on both mundane realism and experimental realism.
Psychological realism = the extent to which the psychological processes that occur in an experiment
are the same as psychological processes that occur in everyday life. It may be that an experiment is
nothing like what people encounter in everyday life (low in mundane realism) and fails to have much
of an impact on people (low in experimental realism). It could still be high in psychological realism,
however, if the psychological processes that occur are similar those that occur in everyday life.
There is some overlap between experimental and psychological realism, in that many of the
psychological processes of interest to psychologists are ones that occur when people are
reacting to impactful events in their environments, so it is needed to design experimental
settings that are equally impactful. Such studies would be high in both experimental and
psychological realism. However, more and more studies are interested in psychological
processes that occur when people are not actively engaged or motivated to process
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