a research strategy in which purposeful observation of a certain process is carried out under conditions of regulated changes in individual characteristics of the conditions for its occurrence. In this case, the hypothesis is tested. In psychology, it is one of the main, along with observation, methods of scientific knowledge in general and psychological research in particular. It differs from observation primarily in that it involves a special organization of the research situation, active intervention in the situation of the researcher, systematically manipulating one or several variables (factors) and recording accompanying changes in the behavior of the object being studied. To conduct an experiment, to experiment, means to study the influence of an independent variable on one or more dependent variables with strict control of the controlled variables. This allows for relatively complete control of variables. If during observation it is often impossible to even predict changes, then in an experiment these changes can be planned and surprises cannot be allowed to arise. The ability to manipulate variables is one of the important advantages of the experimenter over the observer. The main advantage of the experiment is that it is possible to specifically induce some kind of mental process and trace the dependence mental phenomenon from changing external conditions. This advantage explains the widespread use of experiment in psychology. The bulk of empirical facts was obtained experimentally. But the experiment is not applicable to every research problem. Thus, it is difficult to experimentally study character and complex abilities. The disadvantages of the experiment turn out to be the reverse side of its advantages. Thus, it is very difficult to organize an experiment so that the subject does not know that he is a subject. If this fails, then the subject’s stiffness, conscious or unconscious anxiety, fear of evaluation, etc. are more than likely. The results of the experiment may be distorted by certain factors. One of the most common artifacts is due to the Pygmalion effect; subjects may also experience the Hawthorne effect. Using the blind method helps to avoid these effects. There are such types of experiments as laboratory experiments, natural experiments and field experiments. On a different basis, a distinction is made between a stating experiment and a formative experiment. Distinguishing the latter is especially important for developmental psychology and educational psychology; the development of the psyche can be approached either as a phenomenon relatively independent of training and upbringing - then the task is to ascertain the connections that emerge during development; or as a phenomenon driven by training and education - then the learning process itself cannot be ignored. How component The experiment may include observations and psychodiagnostics. Naturally, during the experiment the subject is observed and his condition is recorded, if necessary, by means of psychodiagnostics; but here observation and psychodiagnostics do not act as a research method. A correctly set up experiment allows you to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships, not limiting yourself to stating the connection - correlation - between variables. The experimental plans are divided:

1) traditional - when only one independent variable changes;

2) factorial - when several independent variables change; its advantage is the ability to assess the interaction of factors - changes in the nature of the influence of one of the variables depending on the value of the other; in this case, analysis of variance is used to statistically process the experimental results. If the area being studied is relatively unknown and there is no system of hypotheses, then we speak of a pilot experiment (-> pilot study), the results of which can help clarify the direction of further analysis. When there are two competing hypotheses and the experiment allows us to choose one of them, we speak of a decisive experiment (lat. experimentum crucis). A control experiment is carried out to test certain dependencies. The use of an experiment encounters fundamental limitations associated with the impossibility in some cases of arbitrarily changing variables. Thus, in differential psychology and personality psychology, empirical dependencies mostly have the status of correlations and often. do not allow drawing conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships. One of the difficulties of using an experiment in psychology is that the researcher is usually involved in a situation of communication with the person being examined (the subject) and can unwittingly influence his behavior. A special category of methods for studying psychological influence - formative or educational experiments. They allow you to purposefully form the characteristics of such mental processes as perception, attention, memory, thinking, etc.

Experiment

Manipulating an independent variable to study its effect on a dependent variable. IN in a broad sense, the experimental psychologist manipulates some aspect of a situation and then observes the results of this manipulation on some aspect of behavior. There are three main categories of experiments: 1. Laboratory experiments. The main characteristic laboratory experiments is the researcher's ability to control and change observed variables. With this ability, the researcher can eliminate many external variables that would otherwise influence the outcome of the experiment. External variables may include noise, heat or cold, distractions, or the nature of the experiment participants themselves. - Arguments for: Thanks to the experimenter's ability to neutralize the effects of external variables, cause-and-effect relationships can be established. In a laboratory setting, the experimenter has the opportunity to assess behavior with greater accuracy than in a natural setting. The laboratory allows the researcher to simplify complex situations that arise in real life, breaking them down into simple components (experimental reductionism). - Arguments against: It is argued that laboratory conditions do not correlate well with real life, so the results of laboratory experiments cannot be extrapolated to the outside world. Participants may respond to the laboratory setting by either adjusting to the demands of the experiment (an imperative characteristic) or by acting in an unnatural way due to concerns about the experimenter's judgment (anxious evaluation). The experimenter often has to mislead the participants to avoid the above-mentioned biases in laboratory research. This raises serious questions regarding the ethics of such research. 2. Field experiments. In this category of experiments, an artificial laboratory setting is replaced by a more natural one. Participants are unaware of their participation in the experiment. Instead of examining the effects of an independent variable in a man-made environment or waiting for the required conditions to arise on their own, the researcher creates a situation of interest and watches how people react to it. An example is observing the reaction of passers-by to an emergency situation, depending on clothing and appearance“victims” - i.e. a disguised experimenter. - Arguments for: By focusing on behavior in a natural setting, the experimenter strengthens the external validity of his findings. Because subjects are unaware of their participation in the experiment, the likelihood of anticipatory evaluation is reduced. The experimenter retains control over the independent variable and is therefore still able to establish cause-and-effect relationships. - Arguments against: Because many independent variable manipulations are quite subtle in nature, they may go unnoticed by participants. Likewise, subtle reactions from participants may go unnoticed by the experimenter. Compared to a laboratory setting, the experimenter has little control over the influence of external variables that may disrupt the purity of cause-and-effect relationships. Because participants are unaware of their participation in an experiment, ethical issues arise, such as invasion of privacy and lack of informed consent. 3. Natural experiments. This category of experiment is not considered “real” because the independent variable is not under the direct control of the experimenter and the experimenter cannot direct the actions of the participants during the various stages of the experiment. In a natural experiment, the independent variable is controlled by some external agent (for example, a school or hospital). and a psychologist can only study the result obtained. - Arguments for: Since there is a study of real life situations, the psychologist has the opportunity to study problems of high public interest, which can have important practical consequences. Due to the lack of direct manipulation of experimental participants, fewer ethical problems arise. - Arguments against: Since the experimenter has virtually no control over the variables being studied, establishing cause-and-effect relationships is highly speculative. Because behavior is influenced by various factors unknown or beyond the control of the researcher, natural experiments are extremely difficult to duplicate under the same conditions.

Experiment

Word formation. Comes from Lat. experimentum - trial, experience.

Specificity. It is characterized by the fact that it carries out targeted observation of any process in conditions of regulated changes in individual characteristics of the conditions of its occurrence. In this case, the hypothesis is tested.

A natural experiment in which participants are unaware of their role as subjects

A laboratory experiment that is usually carried out in specially equipped rooms and on subjects who knowingly participate in the experiment, although they may not be aware of the true purpose of the experiment.

EXPERIMENT

Modern scientific psychology prides itself (perhaps a little overconfidently) on being experimental. The implication is that psychological principles are based on well-controlled and repeatable experiments. In essence, any experiment is the creation of conditions or procedures for the purpose of testing a hypothesis. When designing an experiment, the focus is on: (a) the antecedent conditions themselves, usually called the independent variables (or experimental variables), and (b) the consequences or results of the experiments, usually called the dependent variables. The main aspect of any experiment is control over independent variables, so that cause-and-effect relationships can be unambiguously discovered. There is a tendency to use the adjective experimental in a broader and looser sense so that it covers casual observations or simple experimental procedures that are not always well controlled. This usage is not incorrect in any etymological sense, although it should be avoided as it diminishes the strictness of the underlying meaning. See control (1), experimental design, scientific method.

Experiment

a method of purposefully manipulating one variable and observing the results of its change. Types of experiment: laboratory, chamber, natural, psychological and pedagogical, formative. The experiment can be individual or group, short-term or long-term.

EXPERIMENT

conducting research under conditions of a pre-planned (in particular, specially created) measurement of reality in order to obtain results that can be generalized: a means of testing an experimental hypothesis. E. refers to both actual research and their mental samples (standards).

Real E. discussed in the book are divided, first of all, into natural (duplicating real world), artificial (improving the real world) and laboratory. The goals of the first two types of E., as a rule, are purely practical, and in the third, the very mechanisms of the behavior being studied are studied, and therefore it is also called strictly scientific:

E., which duplicates the real world, - E., carried out in natural conditions, in which the experimenter changes only the independent variable; this is an individual E. In the sense of extending its results only to this particular subject.

E., which “improves” the real world, or artificial E. - E. in conditions of simulating reality, allowing to achieve relative stabilization of the levels of secondary additional variables;

Laboratory E.-E. under conditions of special isolation of the independent variable and purification of its conditions.

Real E. also differ in the experimental schemes used in them, receiving their names from them:

Individual, or intraindividual E. (see Experimental design);

E. with one subject (single - subject) a private version of individual E.;

Group, intergroup E. (see ibid.);

Cross-individual E. (see ibid.);

Bivalent E, - E. with two conditions of the independent variable;

Multivalent, multi-level E.-E. with several (more than two) levels of the independent variable;

Factorial E. (see ibid.);

Multivariate (multivariate) E. - E. with several (at least two) independent and several dependent variables.

A mental sample for carrying out any possible real E. (the implementation of which is impossible or meaningless) -

Impeccable (perfect) E., the idea of ​​which correlates with the concept of validity of E. Various types impeccable E. (examples of their meaningful interpretations are given in Table 3) correspond to the division of internal and external validity. Thus, samples for achieving high internal validity are:

Ideal E.-E., during which only the independent variable changes, and all other factors remain unchanged; thus, only the relationship between the independent and dependent variables is examined;

Pure (pristine) E. is a type of ideal E., during which the experimenter operates with a single independent variable and its completely purified conditions; mental sample for laboratory E.;

Infinite E. - endlessly continuing E. (i.e. E. with an infinite number of samples, subjects, etc.), which allows averaging the results of inevitable changes in all side factors affecting the dependent variable.

Mental E., which has impeccable external validity - E. full compliance - E. involving such levels of necessary additional variables that coincide with the levels of these variables in the reality being studied.

Experimentation is the most important part scientific research, with the help of which the study of the world around us is carried out. Such a statement requires a definition of the very concept of experiment. However, it should be recognized that it is not possible to do this satisfactorily, since the definition must contain an answer to the only question: how to carry out the experiment?

Here are some definitions of the concept of experiment, taken from various sources published in different years:

“An experiment is a scientifically conducted experiment, the observation of the phenomenon being studied under precisely taken into account conditions, which allows one to monitor the progress of the phenomenon and recreate it each time these conditions are repeated.” (BES, 2nd edition vol. 48, 1957).

“An experiment is a sensory-objective activity in science, carried out by theoretically known means. IN scientific language the term “experiment” is usually used intuitively in a meaning common to a number of related concepts: experience, targeted observation, reproduction of an object of knowledge, etc. “. (Philosophical Encyclopedia, vol. 5, M. " Soviet encyclopedia", 1970)

“An experiment is a way of studying phenomena under precisely established conditions that make it possible to reproduce and observe these phenomena. It is a way of a person’s material influence on an object, a way of practical mastery of reality." (A Brief Dictionary of Philosophy, M. 1982).

“An experiment is a method of cognition with the help of which phenomena of nature and society are studied under controlled and controlled conditions.” (BES, 2nd edition, 1997).

Similar definitions are contained in foreign publications. So in the 1958 Oxford Dictionary. experiment is defined as an action or operation undertaken to discover something new or test a hypothesis or illustrate a known truth. And then again, “an experiment is a procedure, method, or sequence of actions adopted in a state of uncertainty as to whether it suits the purpose.”

Or another definition from the American Encyclopedia (Encyclopedia Americana, v.10, 1944):

“An experiment is an operation designed to discover a truth, principle, or effect, or after its discovery for clarification or illustration. It differs from observation in that observation is an action more or less controlled by a person.”

An analysis of such a small selection of definitions of the concept of experiment shows that none of them contains an answer to the question posed: how can an experiment be carried out?

It is very difficult to perceive the statement that experiment is an objective-sensory activity carried out by cognized means. Firstly, if, for example, a researcher is dealing with radioactive radiation, what does he actually feel? Secondly, experimental setups are not always theoretically understood means, and there is no need to talk about creating precisely taken into account conditions for reproducing the phenomenon under study.

Awareness of the fundamental impossibility of creating accurately taken into account experimental conditions and using installations with fully or partially known characteristics led to the emergence of mathematical theory optimal experiment.

This theory provides an answer to the question posed, if it is reformulated as follows: which experiment should be considered good in terms of the results obtained, and which one should be considered bad?

As for the compact definition of the concept of experiment, it is perhaps better not to look for it, but to use the metaphorical definition given by Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). He defined the objectives of the experiment as follows: “the observer listens to nature, the experimenter questions and forces her to expose herself” (BES, 1st edition, vol. 63, 1933).

Let us only add that this process must be carried out in such a way as to lead to the best results. It is clear that the results obtained will depend both on the completeness of the factors taken into account and on the organization of the experiment itself.

These factors are used in constructing hypothetical models of real processes, phenomena or objects. Usually, mathematical models are used as such models, the construction of which is almost an art in the sense that the question of the equivalence of a model to a real phenomenon is a question that the experimenter asks “nature,” and the answer to it is contained in the results of the experiment.

The organization of an experiment - its planning - is mainly a “technical issue”, which is inextricably linked with methods of mathematical processing of its results.

All experiments based on the “goal of the experiment” can be divided into 2 classes, presented in Fig. 1.1

In extreme experiments, the researcher is interested in the conditions under which the process being studied satisfies some optimality criterion. For example, determining such parameters of an automatic control system (tolerances on parameter values) under which it would solve the problem of optimal performance.

In experiments to clarify the mechanisms of phenomena, the researcher is interested in the questions of finding (confirming the accepted) mathematical models of a process, phenomenon or real object.

In the future, it is this class of experiments that will be of interest, and therefore it is necessary to continue the classification of experiments.

If we use the available amount of a priori information about the phenomenon under study as a classification criterion, then the structural diagram of the classification of experiments to identify the mechanisms of processes occurring in objects takes the form shown in Fig. 2.1.2.

Experiments to identify the structure of mathematical models of phenomena and related problems of mathematical information processing are called structural identification problems.

Experiments to determine the values ​​of the parameters of the adopted mathematical model of phenomena and related tasks are called parametric identification problems.

The problems that arise when organizing such experiments have now been studied with to varying degrees completeness, and the mathematical apparatus used varies in complexity.

Methods for organizing an experiment are not numerous and are associated with the principles of static and sequential planning.

Figure 2.3 shows diagrams of the static and sequential method of organizing the experiment.

A). - static way of organizing an experiment

b). - a sequential way of organizing an experiment

Analysis of these schemes shows that the presence feedback in the scheme of a sequential method of organizing an experiment, it allows you to change conditions during the experiment to improve the results or terminate it ahead of schedule if the quality of the results has reached the required level.

1) Experiment- (from Lat. experimentum - trial, attempt, experience) - English. experiment; German Experiment. A general scientific method of obtaining, under controlled and controlled conditions, new knowledge about the cause-and-effect relationships between social phenomena and processes. reality.

2) Experiment- (from Lat. experimentum ~ test, experience) - a form of knowledge of objective reality in science, in which phenomena are studied using expediently selected or artificially created controlled conditions that ensure the occurrence in their pure form and accurate measurement of those processes, observation of them These are necessary to establish regular connections between phenomena.

3) Experiment- a method of obtaining data in which conditions and variables are controlled to establish cause-and-effect relationships. It gives researchers the opportunity to test the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable.

4) Experiment- - a method of collecting and analyzing empirical data, with the help of which, through systematic management of conditions, hypotheses about causal connections phenomena.

5) Experiment- - reproduction of a phenomenon experimentally, creation of something new under certain conditions for the purpose of research and testing.

6) Experiment- - a method of obtaining data in which conditions and variables are controlled to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

7) Experiment- (Latin experimentum - test, experience) - a method of empirical cognition, with the help of which, under controlled and controlled conditions (often specially designed), knowledge is obtained regarding connections (most often causal) between phenomena and objects or new properties of objects or phenomena are discovered. E. can be natural and mental. Natural experimentation is carried out with objects and in situations of the reality itself being studied and, as a rule, involves the intervention of the experimenter in the natural course of events. Mental E. involves the creation of a conditional situation that exhibits the properties of interest to the researcher, and the operation of idealized objects (the latter are often specially constructed for these purposes). Model experiments carried out with artificially created models (which may or may not correspond to any real objects and situations) but which involve a real change in these models have an intermediate status. E. as a research and transformation activity can be considered as a special form of practice that makes it possible to establish the (in)conformity of concepts and constructs of cognition, theoretically discovered connections and relationships with reality. In so-called decisive experiments, the theory as a whole can be tested. E. is the most complex and effective method empirical knowledge, which is associated with the formation of European experimental science and the establishment of the dominance of explanatory models in natural science as a whole. It originates from the research of G. Galileo and the Florentine Academy of Experiments founded after his death. Theoretically, E. was first substantiated in the works of F. Bacon, the subsequent development of whose ideas is associated with the name of Mill. E.'s monopoly position was called into question only in the 20th century. primarily in socio-humanitarian knowledge, and also in connection with the phenomenological and then hermeneutic turn in philosophy and science, on the one hand, and the tendency towards extreme formalization (mathematization) of natural sciences, on the other (the emergence and growth of the proportion of mathematical model E.) . Economics involves the creation of artificial systems (or the “artificialization” of natural ones) that makes it possible to influence them by rearranging their elements, eliminating them, or replacing them with others. By tracking changes in the system (which are qualified as consequences of actions taken), it is possible to reveal certain real relationships between elements and thereby identify new properties and patterns of the phenomena being studied. In natural science, changes in conditions and control over them are carried out through the use of devices of different levels of complexity (from the bell in the experiments of I. Pavlov to conditioned reflexes up to synchrophasotrons, etc. devices). E. is carried out to solve certain cognitive problems dictated by the state of the theory, but it also gives rise to new problems that require their solution in subsequent E., i.e. is also a powerful generator of new knowledge. E. allows: 1) to study the phenomenon in its “pure” form, when side (background) factors are artificially eliminated; 2) explore the properties of an object in artificially created extreme conditions or cause phenomena that are weakly or not manifested at all in natural conditions; 3) systematically change and vary various conditions to obtain the desired result; 4) repeatedly reproduce the course of the process under strictly fixed and repeatable conditions. E. is usually used: 1) when trying to discover previously unknown properties in an object to produce knowledge that does not follow from existing knowledge (research E.); 2) when it is necessary to check the correctness of hypotheses or any theoretical constructions (testing E.); 3) when a phenomenon is “showed” for educational purposes (demonstration E.). A special type of E. is made up of social E. (in particular, E. in sociology). In fact, every human action taken to achieve a certain result can be considered as a kind of experiment. According to the logical structure, experiments are divided into parallel (when the experimentation procedure is based on the comparison of two groups of objects or phenomena, one of which was influenced by an experimental factor - experimental group, and the other is not - the control group) and sequential (in which there is no control group, and measurements are made on the same group before and after the introduction of the experimental factor). V.L. Abushenko

Experiment

(from Lat. experimentum - test, attempt, experience) - English. experiment; German Experiment. A general scientific method of obtaining, under controlled and controlled conditions, new knowledge about the cause-and-effect relationships between social phenomena and processes. reality.

(from Latin experimentum ~ test, experience) - a form of knowledge of objective reality in science, in which phenomena are studied using expediently selected or artificially created controlled conditions that ensure the occurrence in their pure form and accurate measurement of those processes, observation of which necessary to establish regular connections between phenomena.

a method of obtaining data in which conditions and variables are controlled to establish cause-and-effect relationships. It gives researchers the opportunity to test the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable.

A method of collecting and analyzing empirical data, with the help of which, through systematic management of conditions, hypotheses about the causal relationships of phenomena are scientifically tested.

Reproducing a phenomenon experimentally, creating something new under certain conditions for the purpose of research and testing.

– a method of obtaining data in which conditions and variables are controlled to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

(Latin experimentum - test, experience) - a method of empirical cognition, with the help of which, under controlled and controlled conditions (often specially designed), knowledge is obtained regarding connections (most often causal) between phenomena and objects or new properties of objects or phenomena are discovered. E. can be natural and mental. Natural experimentation is carried out with objects and in situations of the reality itself being studied and, as a rule, involves the intervention of the experimenter in the natural course of events. Mental E. involves the creation of a conditional situation that exhibits the properties of interest to the researcher, and the operation of idealized objects (the latter are often specially constructed for these purposes). Model experiments carried out with artificially created models (which may or may not correspond to any real objects and situations) but which involve a real change in these models have an intermediate status. E. as a research and transformation activity can be considered as a special form of practice that makes it possible to establish the (in)conformity of concepts and constructs of cognition, theoretically discovered connections and relationships with reality. In so-called decisive experiments, the theory as a whole can be tested. Economics is the most complex and effective method of empirical knowledge, which is associated with the formation of European experimental science and the establishment of the dominance of explanatory models in natural science as a whole. It originates from the research of G. Galileo and the Florentine Academy of Experiments founded after his death. Theoretically, E. was first substantiated in the works of F. Bacon, the subsequent development of whose ideas is associated with the name of Mill. E.'s monopoly position was called into question only in the 20th century. primarily in socio-humanitarian knowledge, and also in connection with the phenomenological and then hermeneutic turn in philosophy and science, on the one hand, and the tendency towards extreme formalization (mathematization) of natural sciences, on the other (the emergence and growth of the proportion of mathematical model E.) . Economics involves the creation of artificial systems (or the “artificialization” of natural ones) that makes it possible to influence them by rearranging their elements, eliminating them, or replacing them with others. By tracking changes in the system (which are qualified as consequences of actions taken), it is possible to reveal certain real relationships between elements and thereby identify new properties and patterns of the phenomena being studied. In natural science, changes in conditions and control over them are carried out through the use of devices of different levels of complexity (from the bell in I. Pavlov’s experiments on conditioned reflexes up to synchrophasotrons and other devices). E. is carried out to solve certain cognitive problems dictated by the state of the theory, but it also gives rise to new problems that require their solution in subsequent E., i.e. is also a powerful generator of new knowledge. E. allows: 1) to study the phenomenon in its “pure” form, when side (background) factors are artificially eliminated; 2) explore the properties of an object in artificially created extreme conditions or cause phenomena that are weakly or not manifested at all in natural conditions; 3) systematically change and vary various conditions to obtain the desired result; 4) repeatedly reproduce the course of the process under strictly fixed and repeatable conditions. E. is usually used: 1) when trying to discover previously unknown properties in an object to produce knowledge that does not follow from existing knowledge (research E.); 2) when it is necessary to check the correctness of hypotheses or any theoretical constructions (testing E.); 3) when a phenomenon is “showed” for educational purposes (demonstration E.). A special type of E. is made up of social E. (in particular, E. in sociology). In fact, every human action taken to achieve a certain result can be considered as a kind of experiment. According to the logical structure, experiments are divided into parallel (when the experimentation procedure is based on the comparison of two groups of objects or phenomena, one of which was influenced by an experimental factor - experimental group, and the other is not - the control group) and sequential (in which there is no control group, and measurements are made on the same group before and after the introduction of the experimental factor). V.L. Abushenko

An experiment is one of the methods of understanding the surrounding reality available to the scientific worldview, justified by the principles of repeatability and evidence. This method is built individually depending on the chosen area, based on theories or hypotheses put forward, and occurs under specially controlled or controlled conditions that satisfy the research request. The experimental strategy involves purposefully structured observation of a selected phenomenon or object under conditions predetermined by a hypothesis. In the psychological field, an experiment involves joint interaction between the experimenter and the subject, aimed at completing pre-developed experimental tasks and studying possible changes and relationships.

The experiment belongs to the section of empirical methods and acts as a criterion for the truth of an established phenomenon, since an unconditional condition for the construction of experimental processes is their repeated reproducibility.

An experiment in psychology is used as the main way to change (in therapeutic practice) and study (in science) reality, and has traditional planning (with one unknown variable) and factorial (when there are several unknown variables). In the case where the phenomenon under study or its area seems insufficiently studied, a pilot experiment is used to help clarify the further direction of construction.

Distinguishes from observational and hands-off research method active interaction with the object of study, the intentional evocation of the phenomenon being studied, the possibility of changing process conditions, the quantitative relationship of parameters and includes statistical data processing. The possibility of controlled changes in the conditions or components of an experiment allows the researcher to study a phenomenon more deeply or notice previously unidentified patterns. The main difficulty in applying and assessing the reliability of the experimental method in psychology lies in the frequent involvement of the experimenter in interaction or communication with subjects and indirectly, under the influence of subconscious thoughts, can influence the results and behavior of the subject.

Experiment as a research method

When studying phenomena, it is possible to use several types of methods: active (experiments) and passive (observation, archival and biographical research).

The experimental method implies the active influence or induction of the process under study, the presence of the main and control (as similar as possible to the main, but not influenced) experimental groups. According to their semantic purpose, they distinguish between a research experiment (when the presence of a relationship between the selected parameters is unknown) and a confirmatory experiment (when the relationship between the variables is established, but it is necessary to identify the nature of this relationship). To construct a practical study, it is necessary to initially formulate definitions and the problem being studied, formulate hypotheses, and then test them. The resulting results are processed and interpreted using mathematical statistics methods that take into account the characteristics of the variables and samples of subjects.

The distinctive features of experimental study are: artificial independent organization conditions for the activation or appearance of a certain psychological fact being studied, the ability to change conditions and eliminate some of the influencing factors.

The entire construction of experimental conditions comes down to determining the interaction of variables: dependent, independent and secondary. An independent variable is understood as a condition or phenomenon that can be varied or changed by the experimenter (selected time of day, proposed task) in order to trace its further influence on the dependent variable (words or actions of the subject in response to the stimulus), i.e. parameters of another phenomenon. When defining variables, it is important to identify and specify them so that they can be recorded and analyzed.

In addition to the qualities of specificity and recordability, there must be consistency and reliability, i.e. the tendency to maintain the stability of the indicators of its registration and the preservation of the obtained indicators only under conditions that repeat the experimental ones regarding the chosen hypothesis. Secondary variables are all factors that indirectly affect the results or course of the experiment, be it lighting or the level of alertness of the subject.

The experimental method has a number of advantages, including the repeatability of the phenomenon being studied, the ability to influence the results by changing variables, and the ability to choose the beginning of the experiment. This the only method, giving the most reliable results. Among the reasons for criticism this method there is impermanence, spontaneity and uniqueness of the psyche, as well as subject-subject relationships, which by their presence do not coincide with scientific rules. Another negative characteristic of the method is that the conditions only partially reproduce reality, and accordingly, confirmation and 100% reproduction of the results obtained in laboratory conditions in real conditions is not possible.

Types of experiments

There is no unambiguous classification of experiments, since the concept consists of many characteristics, based on the choice of which further differentiation is made.

At the stages of hypothesis formulation, when methods and samples have not yet been determined, it is worth conducting a thought experiment, where, taking into account theoretical premises, scientists conduct an imaginary study seeking to detect contradictions within the theory used, the incomparability of concepts and postulates. In a thought experiment, it is not the phenomena themselves that are studied from the practical side, but the available theoretical information about them. The construction of a real experiment involves systematic manipulation of variables, their correction and choice in reality.

A laboratory experiment involves the artificial recreation of special conditions that organize the necessary environment, in the presence of equipment and instructions that determine the actions of the subject; the subjects themselves are aware of their participation in the method, but the hypothesis can be hidden from them in order to obtain independent results. With this formulation, maximum control of variables is possible, but the data obtained are difficult to compare with real life.

A natural (field) or quasi-experiment occurs when the research is carried out directly in a group where complete adjustment of the necessary indicators is not possible, under natural conditions for the selected social community. It is used to study the mutual influence of variables in real life conditions; it occurs in several stages: analysis of the behavior or feedback of the subject, recording the observations obtained, analyzing the results, compiling the resulting characteristics of the subject.

In psychological research activities the use of a establishing and formative experiment in one study is observed. The ascertainer determines the presence of a phenomenon or function, while the formulator analyzes changes in these indicators after the training stage or other influence on the factors selected by the hypothesis.

When several hypotheses are formulated, a critical experiment is used to confirm the truth of one of the put forward versions, while the rest are considered refuted (implementation requires high degree development of a theoretical basis, as well as rather complex planning of the production itself).

Conducting an experiment is important when testing test hypotheses and choosing a further course of research. This testing method is called piloting, it is carried out by connecting a smaller sample than in a full experiment, with less attention to the analysis of the details of the results, and seeks to identify only general trends and patterns.

Experiments are also distinguished by the amount of information available to the subject about the research conditions themselves. There are experiments where the subject knows complete information about the progress of the study, those where some information is withheld, those where the subject does not know about the experiment being conducted.

Based on the results obtained, a distinction is made between group (data obtained are characteristic and relevant for describing phenomena inherent in a particular group) and individual (data describing a specific person) experiments.

Psychological experiments

An experiment in psychology has a distinctive feature from the peculiarities of its conduct in other sciences, since the object of research has its own subjectivity, which can contribute a certain percentage of influence both to the course of the study and to the results of the study. The main task set before a psychological experiment is to bring to the visible surface the processes hidden within the psyche. Reliable transmission of such information requires full control of the maximum number of variables.

The concept of experiment in psychology, in addition to the research sphere, is used in psychotherapeutic practice, when problems that are relevant to the individual are artificially posed in order to deepen experiences or study the internal state.

First steps on the way experimental activities consist in establishing certain relationships with subjects, determining the characteristics of the sample. Next, subjects receive instructions for execution, containing a description of the chronological order of the actions performed, presented in as much detail and in a concise form as possible.

Stages of conducting a psychological experiment:

— formulation of the problem and derivation of a hypothesis;

— analysis of literary and theoretical data on the selected topic;

— selection of an experimental tool that allows both to control the dependent variable and record changes in the independent one;

— formation of a relevant sample and groups of subjects;

— carrying out experimental experiments or diagnostics;

— collection and statistical processing of data;

— research results, drawing conclusions.

Carrying out psychological experience attracts the attention of society much more often than experimentation in other areas, since it affects not only scientific concepts, but also the ethical side of the issue, because when setting conditions and observations, the experimenter directly intervenes and influences the life of the subject. There are several worldwide famous experiments, concerning the characteristics of human behavioral determinants, some of which are recognized as inhumane.

The Hawthorne experiment arose from a decrease in the productivity of workers in one enterprise, after which diagnostic methods were undertaken to identify the causes. The results of the study showed that productivity depends on the social position and role of a person, and those workers who were included in the test group began to work better only from the awareness of the fact of participation in the experiment and the fact that the attention of the employer and researchers was directed to them.

Milgram's experiment was aimed at establishing the amount of pain that a person can inflict on others, completely innocent, if it is their duty to do so. Several people took part - the subject himself, the boss, who gave him the order in case of a mistake to direct a discharge of electric current to the offender, and directly the person to whom the punishment was intended (this role was played by the actor). This experiment revealed that people are capable of inflicting significant physical harm on other innocent people out of a sense of the need to obey or disobey authority figures, even when confronted with their inner beliefs.

Ringelman's experiment tested how productivity levels varied depending on the number of people involved in a task. It turned out that the more people participate in the work, the lower the productivity of each person and the group as a whole. This gives grounds to assert that with conscious individual responsibility there is a desire to give maximum effort, whereas with group work can be transferred to someone else.

The “monstrous” experiment, which its authors successfully hid for some time for fear of punishment, was aimed at studying the power of suggestion. During it, two groups of children from a boarding school were told about their skills: the first group was praised, and the second was constantly criticized, pointing out shortcomings in their speech. Subsequently, children from the second group, who had not previously encountered speech difficulties, began to develop speech defects, some of which persisted until the end of their lives.

There are many other experiments where moral issues were not taken into account by the authors, and despite the supposed scientific value and discoveries, they are not admired.

An experiment in psychology is intended to study mental characteristics to improve one’s life, optimize work and combat fears, and therefore the primary requirement for the development of research methods is their ethics, because the results of experimental experiments can cause irreversible changes that alter a person’s subsequent life.

EXPERIMENT(Latin experimentum - test, experience) - a type of experiment that has a purposefully research, methodological character, which is carried out in specially specified, reproducible conditions through their controlled change. E. in a strict - historically and logically - sense is a form of research determined by the logic of scientific knowledge of the New Age. E. is not just a “method of cognition” and the architectonic beginning of the entire cognitive strategy of modern European science, but a constitutive moment of modern thinking, according to which it as a whole can be called experimental thinking. It is no coincidence that I. Kant outlined the plan of the “Critique of Pure Reason” as philosophical reflection experimental knowledge. The new European mind thinks experimentally both in the sciences of nature and in the sciences of man, including those where experiments are impossible. “Natural scientific experiment corresponds to criticism of sources in the historical and human sciences” (Heidegger M. Time and being. M., 1993. P. 42). The experimental nature of the new European sciences lies not in the fact that speculation in them was placed on the basis of experience, but in a fundamental change in the logic of speculation and, accordingly, the meaning and structure of experience itself. Any experience (Latin - experientia; Greek - eunepia) has the meaning and power of discovery, evidence, confirmation or refutation because it fragmentarily reveals a certain structure of the world as a whole, assumed (foreseen, anticipated) by a certain form of constructive thought. Vision in theoretically oriented experience becomes understanding (smart) vision, and the “smart” (imaginable) image of the whole becomes visible. Grech, theoretical “physiology” is no less experienced (“empirical”) and no more speculative than the “natural philosophy” of I. Newton. However, they differ both in the logic of speculation and in the nature of the experimental basis. The “eidetic” logic of understanding (to understand means to perceive a being in the indivisible form of its existence) and the image of the Aristotelian cosmos is fully consistent with the art of “eidetic” experience, i.e. perception of existence in its own “eidos” (ideal form). The logic of new European science (to understand means to know the essential law that determines the possibilities of the existence of things and phenomena) and the “imagelessness” of infinite nature corresponds to the technique of experimental research: “disorganization” of the existing to penetrate into the essence of things. A special logic also characterizes medieval experience: R. Grosseteste and his student R. Bacon demand that scholastic argumentation be supplemented with direct evidence of experience, but this is not about research E., but about seeing in the experience of the “external” world an analogue of the “internal” mystical experience. The principles and structure of science cannot therefore be understood outside of metaphysics, which lies at the basis of modern European scientific thinking. The main characteristics of the experimental strategy, which determines the place and meaning of particular types of experimentation (research, testing, demonstration, decisive, model, mental), can be reduced to the following. 1. E. explores the change in the state of the observed object depending on the changing conditions of its existence; it looks for natural phenomena a diagram of functional dependence, considering them as examples of the operation of a single law; one "nature". Energy becomes a method of cognition when nature itself is understood as a method of action. The beginning of the revision of the Aristotelian (and scholastic) concept of form in the spirit of the experimental method was laid in the “New Organon” by F. Bacon. 2. Of decisive importance in E. is the study of the subject in “constrained” (F. Bacon) - extreme, borderline, critical - states. Changing conditions in economics is constructed as a series of successive approximations to a limiting state, as a kind of limiting transition. In economics, there is an exit beyond the objective (experiential) horizon of the original theory into the world of new (imaginable) entities and, at the same time, the experimental discovery of these entities as ultimate (paradoxical) forms of experience. Thus, G. Galileo discovers the existence of the Copernican world, experimenting with the extreme forms of the Aristotelian world. The principle of correspondence formulated by N. Bohr only reveals this feature of the development of theoretical thought, which is always E. above itself. 3. Since in experience the visible is given along with a certain way of seeing and understanding, experimenting with the subject of experience also transforms the constructive imagination of the subject. Discovering new objects, E. simultaneously opens his eyes to them: he creates and invents the ability to see corresponding to them. Just as the Aristotelian Simplicio in Galileo’s Dialogues learns to see events from a “point of view” infinite universe, physicist of the 20th century. learns to see events in stereoscopy of the principle of complementarity. This function of E. is called Socratic (L. Olshki). 4. E. is directed towards the limit in which the phenomenon under study (for example, the fall of a body, a chemical transformation, the inheritance of a trait) appears in its “pure form”, in isolation. The transformative action of E. is aimed at dividing complex system interactions in order to highlight and isolate the elementary connection “cause-action” and, further, the action-free (inertial) existence of an object. The idea of ​​extreme isolation of elementary interaction and a free state defines theory as a procedure of idealization, as the ultimate transition to mental psychology with ideal objects (to which alone the statements of the theory relate). E. is therefore far from natural observation. Using special technical means, conditions are created in it that are as close as possible to ideal (absolute emptiness, absolutely solid, ideal gas, simple reflex, social type and etc.). At the same time, he indicates the path to the “realization” of the ideal - the empirical interpretation of ideal objects and the causal explanation of real phenomena. Any real E. makes sense only in the horizon of mental E. with ideal objects. In the same way, any theoretical construct receives the meaning of a real concept only as an ideal project of a real E. Mental E. in a special sense, i.e. fundamentally unrealizable, imaginary E. (which played such a significant role in understanding the meaning of quantum reality), only reveals the internal experimentalism of theoretical thinking itself. 5. Playback real event in the ideal limit, it presupposes exceptional, artificially created conditions of ecology. Since idealization in ecology is aimed at identifying elementary actions (as causes and consequences), ecology finds support in technology. On an experimental basis experimental physics lies not in the observation of natural nature, but in the study of the flight of projectiles, the action of hydraulic mechanisms, the heat exchange of a steam engine, etc. Experimental science is done in laboratories (see Laboratory). E. considers technology as a form of discovery of the essential laws of nature and opens nature as a possible technology. The experimental technique (method) is homogeneous with the reproducible phenomenon (subject); it represents the link through which a theoretical discovery becomes a technical invention, and technological advances allow advances in research. Basic Research are both the most technology-intensive (for example, a modern accelerator) and the most technically efficient (nuclear energy, Genetic Engineering). 6. The homogeneity of the technical means and the subject under study in electronics is reflected in the fact that a theoretical discovery immediately leads to the improvement of experimental technology. In an experimental setup built on the basis of a theory, the latter loses the character of an objective picture of reality, as if peeled off from the world, and takes on the form of a research tool aimed at the world. Non-classical physics of the 20th century. (relativistic and quantum mechanics) obna; lives the internal boundaries of E. as a method of cognition. The principles of observability, uncertainty, and complementarity fix the irreducible participation of cognitive action in determining the existence of a cognizable object. An essentially new concept of being (being-event, being-possibility) and new idea a mind different from the mind of an objective cognizer, and accordingly a new, non-experimental understanding of experience. A.V. Akhutin Lit.: Galileo G. Selected works: In 2 vols. M., 1964; Mach E. Mechanics. St. Petersburg, 1909; Olshki L. Story scientific literature in new languages. T. 3. M., 1933; Born M. Experiment and theory in physics // Born M. Physics in the life of my generation. M., 1963; Bibler B.C. Kant - Galileo - Kant. M., 1991; Akhutin A.V. History of the principles of physical experiment: from antiquity to the 17th century. M., 1976; Akhutin A.V. The concept of “nature” in antiquity and modern times. M., 1988; Hacking Ya. Presentation and intervention. M., 1998.

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