The Experimental psychology Is a stream that studies the psychological phenomena using an experimental methodology based on observation.
It guarantees a scientific practice and involves the observation, manipulation and registration of the variables that affect a subject under study.
Experimental psychologists are interested in studying human behavior by manipulating variables in controllable situations and in unnatural environments that affect and influence behavior.
Gustav Theodor Fechner Was one of the pioneers in the use of the experimental when trying to prove the relation between physical and sensorial magnitudes, in 1860.
However, it was in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt , Considered one of the founders of this current, created the first laboratory of experimental psychology.
Definition of experimental psychology
This current of psychology defends the experimental method as the most suitable form for the study of human behavior.
Experimental psychology considers that psychological phenomena can be analyzed by experimental methods consisting in the observation, manipulation and recording of dependent, independent and extraneous variables that influence the object of study.
Many psychologists have used this method when carrying out their work to address multiple issues such as memory , Learning, sensation, perception, motivation and development processes, among others.
Professionals who adopt this method want to know the behavior of a subject by manipulating variables in controlled environments. The contexts in which they are carried out are the laboratories and instruments are used that guarantee a control and an exhaustive precision in their investigations.
The experiments can be performed in humans but mostly animals are used, because many times for ethical reasons people can not be used to perform such tests. In addition, animals provide greater availability and control to researchers.
The most scientific part of psychology is unified with experimental psychology, because the use of its methodology guarantees a scientific practice through observation and experimentation, removing the laws of behavior and mental processes.
History
With its emergence in the nineteenth century, psychology begins to focus and become interested in the study of observable phenomena, thus giving rise to an empirical science, that is, based on observation and experience of events.
Later, experimental psychology would use rigorous methods and instruments to carry out the measurements in its investigations.
Experimental psychology emerges in Germany as a modern discipline with Wundt, who created the first experimental laboratory in 1879 and introduced a mathematical and experimental approach to research.
Earlier in 1860 Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German psychologist, attempted to test and reason the link between physical and sensory magnitudes through experimental data in his work Elements of psychophysics .
Other authors who contributed to this growing science were Charles Bell , A British physiologist who investigated nerves; Ernst Heinrich Weber , A German physician and considered one of its founders and Oswald Külpe , The principal founder of the Würzburg School in Germany, among others.
The appearance of different schools was due to this tendency to the experimentation of the time, whose purpose was to try to observe the degree of relationship between the biological and the psychological.
Among these schools is the Russian who was interested in neurophysiology and was initiated by Pavlov Y Bechterev . Functionalism, which seeks to demonstrate the biological laws that delimit the behavior and behaviorism of Watson .
In the twentieth century behaviorism was the predominant school within psychology in general and especially in the United States. It is the branch of psychology that set aside mental phenomena within experimental psychology.
In Europe, however, this was not the case, since psychology was influenced by such authors as Craik, Hick and Broadbent who focused on subjects such as attention, thought and memory, thus laying the foundations of cognitive psychology.
In the last half of the century, psychologists used multiple methods, not only focused and limited to a strictly experimental approach.
In addition, the experimental method is used in many different fields within psychology such as social psychology and developmental psychology.
Experimental method
Experimental psychology considers that psychological phenomena can be studied through this method, thus constituting one of the bases of psychology as a science.
It involves the observation, manipulation and recording of dependent, independent and extraneous variables that are the object of study, in order to be able to describe and explain them in terms of their relation to human behavior.
This method aims to identify the causes and evaluate the consequences, the researcher tries to find a causality between different variables.
On the one hand, there is the medium variable that would act as an independent variable. The dependent would be that which is related to the behavior of the subject. Finally, all external factors influencing this would be weird variables.
The experiment is carried out in a controlled environment such as a laboratory, where the experimenter can manipulate variables and control those that can affect the others. In addition, it can thus form specific experimental groups of subjects according to their study interests.
The researcher is the one who creates the necessary conditions to be able to carry out the study and to apply the independent variable when he sees fit. In addition to this method can be repeated conditions to check the results as well as alter them to see the differences of behavior to study between different situations.
In this approach, the experimenter manipulates circumstances to control their increase or decrease as well as their effect on the observed behaviors, to be able to describe why that situation or change occurs.
Many times before carrying out an investigation one resorts to pilot experiments that are tests of the experiment to study some aspects of him. In addition the experiments have another positive part because being carried out in these controlled contexts can be replicated by other researchers in future situations.
Characteristics of experimental research
Some of the characteristics of experimental research are as follows:
- Subjects are randomly arranged into equivalent groups, giving rise to statistical equivalence so that the differences between the results are not due to initial differences between groups of subjects.
- Existence of two or more groups or conditions to be able to carry out the comparison between them. Experiments can not be performed with a single group or condition to be compared.
- Management of an independent variable, in the form of different values or circumstances. This direct manipulation is done to be able to observe the changes that it produces in the dependent variables. In addition, the assignment of values and conditions must be done by the researcher, because if this were not so, it would not be considered a real experiment.
- Measure each dependent variable by assigning numerical values so that the result can be evaluated and thus speak of an experimental investigation.
- Have a design with which you can control to a greater extent the influence of the foreign variables and to avoid that the results are affected by them.
- Use inferential statistics to make generalizations of research to the population.
Phases of an experiment
1- Approaching a knowledge problem
Choosing the problem to be investigated depends on the experimenter and what you want to study, the research questions have to be able to be solved through an experimental process.
Depending on the problem, the methodological approach to be followed will be delimited.
2- Hypothesis Formulation
The hypotheses are statements that are formulated and that anticipate the results that could be obtained from the research, relate at least two variables and must be described in empirical terms, being able to be observed and measurable.
3- Making an appropriate design
With the design, the procedure or work plan of the researcher is plotted, indicating what is going to be done and how the study will be carried out, from the variables involved to the assignment of the subjects to the groups.
4- Collection and analysis of data
For the collection of data there are multiple instruments that are valid and reliable, and techniques that will be better or worse adapted and that will present advantages and disadvantages.
The analysis of the data is carried out by organizing the information so that it can be described, analyzed and explained.
5- Conclusions
In the conclusions, it is developed the fulfillment or not of the hypotheses raised, the limitations of the research work, the methodology that has been followed, implications for the practice, generalization at the population level, as well as future lines of research.
Objective and conditions of the experimental method
Its objective is to investigate the causal relationships between variables, that is, to analyze the changes that occurred in the dependent variable (behavior) as a consequence of the different values presented by the independent variable (external factor).
The conditions to be able to conclude that there is a relationship between variables are:
- Temporal contingency between variables. The variable cause that would be the independent, has to precede the variable consequence, that would be the dependent one.
- Covariation between variables. In order for there to be a relationship between the two, a change in the values of one would imply a proportional change in the values of the second.
- The correlation between variables should not be attributable to the effect of foreign variables.
In short, the researcher must manipulate the independent variable, establish a temporal order among variables and have to eliminate the effect that is exerted as a consequence of extraneous variables.
References
- Experimental psychology. Recovered from ecured.cu.
- Experimental psychology. Retrieved from wikipedia.org.
- Experimental psychology. Retrieved from wikipedia.org.
- Definition of experimental psychology. Recovered from definicion.de.
- Definition, characteristics and objective of the experimental method. Retrieved from psikipedia.com.