PSY 2174 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Western Electric, Internal Validity, Hawthorne Effect
31 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Confounds that can be present in any psychology study--regardless of the design used. Social artifacts--aspects of experiment that influence participant behaviours. This social interaction leads participants to behave in ways that are other than the ones intended by the researchers. Factors other than the ones intended by the researchers. Describe the impact of participant artifacts on internal validity. When behaviour is affected by the knowledge that one is an experiment. Can manifest itself in two different ways. Took place at western electric company in chicago. The women knew they were part of an experiment. They applied facts to encourage production/ good changes/bad changes. No matter what they did, the productivity increased. Productivity increased because they felt flattered by being subjects of investigation. Hawthorne effect: the tendency under conditions of observation for worker productivity to steadily increase. Participants form expectations about hypothesis of study and will involuntarily modify their behaviours to confirm the hypothesis.
