Psychological experiment

A psychological experiment is an experiment conducted under special conditions to obtain new scientific knowledge through the researcher’s purposeful intervention in the life of the subject. This is an ordered study in which the researcher directly changes a factor (or factors), keeps the others unchanged, and observes the results of systematic changes. See Experiment as learning variables

In a broad sense, a psychological experiment sometimes includes, in addition to the actual experiment, such research methods as observation, questioning, testing). However, in a narrow sense (and traditionally in experimental psychology), the experiment is considered an independent method.

The specifics of a psychological experiment

A psychological experiment differs in many ways from experiments in other areas of science.

In a psychological experiment it is very difficult to be sure that we are learning what we want to learn.

If a chemist studies iron, he knows what he is studying. And what does a psychologist study when he studies the psyche? The psyche as a construct cannot be objectively observed, and one can learn about its activity only based on its manifestations, for example, in the form of a certain behavior.

The experimenter wants to study how lighting conditions affect work efficiency. It changes the illumination, and people react not to the amount of light, but to the fact that such a cute experimenter is next to them …

Water does not boil due to the fact that it is poured into another flask. An experiment conducted on a person can influence him so strongly that its results speak more about the reaction to the experimenter and the experiment than about the behavior of a particular person. In a psychological experiment, the personality of the experimenter turns out to be important: often people show one kind of results with one experimenter, others with others. The subject was dictated instructions, but how? It is important for people to relate to them, people subtly react to suggestions from the experimenter, which he himself may not be aware of.

Types of experiments

Psychology uses laboratory experiments, natural experiments, and formative experiments. Depending on the stage of the study, I distinguish between a pilot study and the actual experiment. Experiments can be explicit and with a hidden purpose. See →

Organization of a psychological experiment

A psychological experiment begins with an instruction, more precisely, with the establishment of some kind of relationship between the subject and the experimenter. Another task facing the researcher is the formation of a sample: with whom the experiment should be conducted so that its results can be considered reliable. The end of the experiment is the processing of its results, the interpretation of the data obtained and their presentation to the psychological public. See →

Scientific quality of a psychological experiment

The scientific quality of a psychological experiment is the objectivity, reliability, validity and reliability of the methods used in it. See →

Possibilities and limitations of the experiment as a research method

Experiment is one of the most respected methods of scientific research, but it has its pros and cons. It is reliable but cumbersome, it impresses but is not always ethical. And most importantly, what does he prove? See →

Notable psychological experiments

• Milgram’s experiment
• Stanford Prison Experiment