To come to an accurate and safe conclusion, researchers often use different scientific methods. This is the main area of interest of experimental psychology. Experimental psychology explores basic concepts, such as memory and motivation, in areas such as child, social and educational psychology.
Almost all the work of experimental psychology is carried out in controlled environments, such as research laboratories. Experimental psychologists manipulate research variables to discover the relationship between cognition and behavior.
- While each branch of psychology strives to understand human thought and behavior.
- Experimental psychology focuses on conducting controlled experiments with designated variables and statistical results.
For some, it was Charles Darwin, with The Origin of Species, who started the field of experimental psychology. On the one hand, there is no doubt that Darwin’s revolutionary theory has aroused an interest in the relationship between biology and psychology. 1900, psychologists began using the natural sciences to analyze and explain the human mind.
However, this inaccurate understanding of the human mind as a machine has been replaced by functionalist theories. For example, William James, the father of American psychology, was strongly influenced by evolutionary biology and promoted the idea that the mind is naturally adaptable, sensitive, and intelligent.
In the end, it was conductism and other branches of modern psychology that contributed to the formation of what we now call experimental psychology.
Experimental psychologists want to study the behaviors as well as the different processes and functions that support those behaviors. Guinea pigs are tested to understand and learn about different topics, including perception, memory, sensation, learning, motivation and emotions.
To better understand the purpose of experimental psychology, there are four fundamental principles in which researchers tend to agree that psychological studies are considered reliable. These principles are:
To these principles, it is possible to add the definition of operational or operationalism. Operational definition implies that a concept is defined in terms of specific and observable procedures. Experimental psychologists attempt to define currently un observable phenomena, such as mental events, by reacting them to observations through chains of reasoning.
Reliability measures the consistency, verifiability, or repeatability of a study. If the survey can be repeated and produces the same results (either in a different group of participants or in a different time period), then it is considered reliable.
On the other hand, validity measures the accuracy or relative accuracy of the conclusions drawn from a study. To determine the validity of a measure quantitatively, it must be compared with a criterion.
Several types of validity have been distinguished. Are
Although experimental psychology is sometimes considered a branch of psychology, experimental methods are widely used in all fields of psychology.
For example, developmental psychologists use experimental methods to study how people grow during childhood and throughout life.
Social psychologists, on the other hand, use experimental techniques to study how people are influenced by groups, while health psychologists also use experimentation to better understand the factors that contribute to well-being and disease.