experiment

Examples of experiment in the following topics:

• Obedience

  • The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures (1963) was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram.
  • The experiments involved a "teacher" who conducted the experiment, a participant, and a confederate who pretended to be a volunteer.
  • If the participant still wished to stop after all the verbal prods, the experiment ended.
  • A fraction of the way through the experiment, Zimbardo announced an end to the study.
  • Illustration of the setup of a Milgram experiment.

• Ethical Guidelines for Human Research

  • One of the most infamous instances of unethically-performed experiments was the Tuskegee experiment.
  • The 1961 Milgram experiments examining obedience to authority figures was a notable series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram.
  • The experiments were controversial and considered by many to be abusive.
  • The experiment even affected the head researcher himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue until the experiment ended after only six days.
  • A process of informed consent is used to make sure that volunteers know what will happen in the experiment and understand that they are allowed to quit the experiment at any time.

• Defining Emotion

  • Emotions are subjective experiences that involve physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal.
  • As we move through our daily lives, we experience a variety of emotions (which we often call "feelings").
  • Our psychological appraisal of a situation is informed by our experiences, background, and culture.
  • Therefore, different people may have different emotional experiences of similar situations.
  • Mood, on the other hand, refers to a prolonged, less intense affective state that does not necessarily occur in response to something we experience.

• Cannon–Bard Theory of Emotion

  • The Cannon–Bard theory of emotion argues that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously but independently.
  • While the James–Lange theory proposes that emotions arise from physical arousal the Cannon–Bard theory argues that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously, yet independently (Lang, 1994).
  • The Cannon–Bard theory states that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously, yet independently.

• Schachter–Singer Theory of Emotion (Two-Factor Theory)

  • More specifically, this theory claims that physiological arousal is cognitively interpreted within the context of each situation, which ultimately produces the emotional experience.
  • These cognitive interpretations—how a person labels and understands what they are experiencing—are formed based on the person's past experiences.
  • What you would actually experience, then, would be the feeling of fear.
  • They found that injecting the drug did not lead participants to experience any given emotion.
  • Contrary to the James–Lange theory, therefore, which asserts that emotions arise from physiological arousal, this theory argues that bodily changes can support conscious emotional experiences but do not necessarily cause them.

• Experimental Research

  • In a simple experiment, a researcher might hypothesize that cookies will make individuals complete a task quicker.
  • An experiment can have more than one independent variable.
  • The purpose of an experiment is to investigate the relationship between two variables to test a hypothesis.
  • Sometimes experiments may not be possible or ethical.
  • After designing an experiment to test the hypothesis and collecting data from the experiment, a scientist will draw a conclusion.

• Dissociation

  • In psychology, the term "dissociation" describes a wide array of experiences, from mild detachment from immediate surroundings to more severe detachment from physical and emotional experience.
  • Although some dissociative experiences involve memory loss, others do not.
  • Dissociative experiences can be placed on a continuum from non-pathological to pathological, where pathological means "caused by a mental disorder."
  • Daydreaming is a mild form of dissociation in which a person experiences a short-term detachment from one's immediate surroundings.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

  • Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one's ability to cope or integrate the emotions involved with that experience.
  • A traumatic event can involve one experience or repeated events or experiences over time.
  • PTSD is believed to be caused by the experience of a traumatic event.
  • While men are more likely to experience a traumatic event, women are more likely to experience the kind of high-impact traumatic event that can lead to PTSD, such as interpersonal violence and sexual assault.
  • Not everyone who experiences trauma will develop PTSD: according to the National Center for PTSD, approximately 20% of women and 8% of men who experience a traumatic event will develop PTSD.

• Defining Learning

  • Learning involves a change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience.
  • In contrast, learning is a change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience.
  • Skinner researched operant conditioning by conducting experiments with rats in what he called a "Skinner box."
  • Albert Bandura noticed that children often learn through imitating adults, and he tested his theory using his famous Bobo-doll experiment.
  • Through this experiment, Bandura learned that children would attack the Bobo doll after viewing adults hitting the doll.

• Descriptive Research

  • In these situations designing an experiment would be premature, as the question of interest is not yet clearly defined as a hypothesis.
  • Often a researcher will begin with a non-experimental approach, such as a descriptive study, to gather more information about the topic before designing an experiment or correlational study to address a specific hypothesis.
  • It has the advantage of studying individuals in their natural environment without the influence of the artificial aspects of an experiment.
  • While descriptive research cannot be generalized beyond the specific object of study, it can help psychologists gain more information about a topic, and formulate hypotheses for future experiments.