Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

plant of Westinghouse Electric during the 1920s and
1930s. Researchers modified many aspects of work-
ing conditions (e.g., lighting, time for breaks) and
measured productivity. They discovered that pro-
ductivity rose after each modification, no matter what
it was. This curious result occurred because the work-
ers did not respond to the treatment but to the addi-
tional attention they received from being part of the
experiment and knowing that they were being
watched. Later research questioned whether the re-
ported worker response had in fact occurred, but the
name is still used for an effect that results from the
attention of researchers.
For external validity concerns, the issue of re-
activity is whether we can accurately generalize

FIGURE 5 Three Types of External Validity Generalization

Entire Population

Real-Life,

Natural

Situations

Generalize to

Generalizes to

Generalize to

Population Generalization

Theoretical Generalization

Naturalistic Generalization

Abstract

Theory

One Study’s

participants

Findings of

Controlled

Experiment

Empirical Data

about a Theory

in a Study

from activities that occur in a setting in which

people are aware they are being studied to natural

settings. Reactivity is most likely to occur in a

highly controlled experiment in which the research

participants know that an experimenter has created

the conditions and is observing their behaviors or

responses.

Let us say that you conduct an experiment in a

college classroom or laboratory in which the par-

ticipants know they are participating in a study. You

ask the participants to engage in some artificially

created tasks (e.g., assemble a puzzle) or create

artificial status using deception (e.g., tell partici-

pants that a confederate working for you has a ge-

nius IQ score). After working on the task, you ask