Experiments

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Evaluate the practical, ethical and theoretical problems faced by sociologists when using laboratory experiments (16 marks)

A laboratory experiment is a test carried out in controlled conditions in an artificial setting to establish cause and effect relationships between two or more variables.  This method is rarely used by sociologists because there are a range of practical, ethical and theoretical problems.

Firstly, there are a range of practical problems with laboratory experiments.  Society is very complex and so it can be very difficult to identify and control all the possible variables that can influence an individual.  For example, if you were studying reasons for educational underachievement it would be impossible to find out all the factors that could have an impact (material, cultural, in school, home, peers etc) and even more difficult to control these variables.  A further issue is that it is impossible to investigate the past.  In a questionnaire you can ask people about their experiences in the past but it is not possible to control variables acting in the past.  These issues may mean that an experiment is not practical for the purposes of some research.

A further issue with experiments is the ethical issues surrounding them.  Milgram used lab experiments to research obedience to authority.  He told participants that the research was focused on learning, in which they were ordered to give shocks when a learner failed to answer a question correctly.  However, the participants were lied to as the real purpose was to see if the participants were willing to follow orders and no real shocks were used.  This experiment was therefore unethical as participants were deceived.  This experiment also caused harm to the participants as it caused them distress and harm as they believed they were hurting someone with the electric shocks.  Such ethical issues have lead to many sociologists avoiding the use of lab experiments in Sociology.  However, supporters of Milgram would argue that his experiments can be justified as the findings regarding obedience outweigh the harm caused.  It can be used to explain why Nazi's followed instructions from Hitler and more recently why terrorists follow instructions from ISIS leaders.  Small short term pain for a few can therefore help us to understand an issue that can result in long term gains for all.

There are also a range of theoretical problems with lab experiments.  Lab experiments lack validity as they take place in a false environment and so do not give a true picture.  Interpretivist sociologists argue that humans are different from plants and rocks studied in labs by scientists because humans have free will and choice.  This means our behaviour can not be understood in terms of cause and effect and so are critical of lab experiments for failing to give a valid picture.  Futhermore laboratory experiments are often small scale and so have a small sample size.  This means that they lack representativeness and are not typical of the target population.  However, positivists would argue that lab experiments are scientific and are standardised and so are reliable.  The original experimenter can write down each step clearly and so the original experiment can be easily repeated to check the results of the original experiment.