observational vs. experimental research
Observational research (o)
● observing
● study natural variation
○ frequency: what percentage of children have ADHD
○ association: do children with ADHD bully more?
○ adhd does not cause bullying, it is an association
Experimental research (e)
● manipulate the cause and study the effect
● how something affects the behavior of people
○ causal: stress affects short term memory performance
3 types of claims:
1) frequency claims (o)
2) association claims (o)
3) causal claims (e)
Advantages Disadvantages
Observational Experimental Observational Experimental
easier to do control → over the confounds → you impossible → you
environment to keep can only research 2 can't just change
other variables variables someone's gender
constant
natural behavior causality no casualty → no impractical → you
causal claims can’t let someone
live in another
country
unethical → one
half of a group gets
placebo even though
the medicine works
unnatural →
behavior of
participants take
place in an
unnatural/ controlled
environment
, different types of observational research
There are 4 types of observational research
1. case studies
2. direct observation
3. surveys
4. participant observation
Case studies
● you only study a single case
○ phineas gage (1823-1860): how certain parts of the brain works → iron rod
through the orbitofrontal cortex
○ personality changes → more cursing, bad planning, restless etc
Advantages Disadvantages
high degree of depth generalizability → we can not generalize it to
other people
generates a lot of new ideas for they rule out alternative explanations
further research
prove that some phenomenon can ad-hoc reasoning
occur (e.g. face blindness)
Direct observation
● researcher directly observes behavior in a certain setting
○ in natural environment → observing how children play in a classroom
○ in artificial environment → group of applicants for a certain job are first
given a negotiation task
Advantages Disadvantages
you observe exactly where you are less control on the participants,
interested in (generalizability to the compared to experimental studies
real world) you are not manipulating factors.
Observational research (o)
● observing
● study natural variation
○ frequency: what percentage of children have ADHD
○ association: do children with ADHD bully more?
○ adhd does not cause bullying, it is an association
Experimental research (e)
● manipulate the cause and study the effect
● how something affects the behavior of people
○ causal: stress affects short term memory performance
3 types of claims:
1) frequency claims (o)
2) association claims (o)
3) causal claims (e)
Advantages Disadvantages
Observational Experimental Observational Experimental
easier to do control → over the confounds → you impossible → you
environment to keep can only research 2 can't just change
other variables variables someone's gender
constant
natural behavior causality no casualty → no impractical → you
causal claims can’t let someone
live in another
country
unethical → one
half of a group gets
placebo even though
the medicine works
unnatural →
behavior of
participants take
place in an
unnatural/ controlled
environment
, different types of observational research
There are 4 types of observational research
1. case studies
2. direct observation
3. surveys
4. participant observation
Case studies
● you only study a single case
○ phineas gage (1823-1860): how certain parts of the brain works → iron rod
through the orbitofrontal cortex
○ personality changes → more cursing, bad planning, restless etc
Advantages Disadvantages
high degree of depth generalizability → we can not generalize it to
other people
generates a lot of new ideas for they rule out alternative explanations
further research
prove that some phenomenon can ad-hoc reasoning
occur (e.g. face blindness)
Direct observation
● researcher directly observes behavior in a certain setting
○ in natural environment → observing how children play in a classroom
○ in artificial environment → group of applicants for a certain job are first
given a negotiation task
Advantages Disadvantages
you observe exactly where you are less control on the participants,
interested in (generalizability to the compared to experimental studies
real world) you are not manipulating factors.
