1. New Media Research Methods
Week 6&7

2. OUTLINE: Week 6: Basic principles of social experiment
Week 7: Examples & Practice
Week 8: Data analysis

3. Social Experiments

4. Experiments involve: Taking action (Manipulation)
Observing consequences of that action (Measurement)

5. Recall: Requirements for claiming a causal relationship?
Experiment is the only method to justify a causal relationship.

6. Topics Appropriate to Experiments
Well-suited for projects involving limited and well-defined concepts and propositions.
Hypothesis testing
Better suited for explanatory than descriptive
Small group interaction

7. The Classical Experiment
Major Components
Independent and Dependent Variables
Pre-testing and Post-testing
Experimental and Control Groups
Bobo doll experiment
Bandura (1986)

8. Independent and Dependent Variables
Independent – Takes the form of a stimulus (present or absent), cause
Dependent - Effect

9. Pre-testing – The measurement of a dependent variable along subjects.
Post-testing – The measurement of a dependent variable among subjects after they have been exposed to an independent variable.

10. Experimental Group – A group of subjects to whom an experimental stimulus is administered.
Control Group – A group of subjects to whom no experimental stimulus is administered and who should resemble the experimental group in all other respects.

12. Hawthorne Effect: Experimenter Effect
“Placebo Effect”

13. The Double-Blind Experiment – An experimental design in which neither the subjects nor the experimenters know which is the experimental and which is the control group.

14. Selecting Subjects Probability Sampling
Randomization – A technique for assigning experimental subjects to experimental and control groups.
Matching – The procedure whereby pairs of subjects are matched on the basis of their similarities on one or more variables, and one member of the pair is assigned to the experimental group and the other to the control group.

16. Variations on Experimental Design (Campbell & Stanley, 1963)
Pre-experimental Research Designs
One-shot case study – A single group of subjects is measured on a dependent variable following an experimental stimulus.
One-group pre-test post-test design – A pre-test is added for the experimental group but lacks a control group.
Static-group comparison – Includes experimental and control groups, but no pre-test.

18. Validity Issues in Experimental Research
External invalidity – The possibility that conclusions drawn from experimental results may not be generalizable to the “real” world
Internal Invalidity – The possibility that the conclusions drawn from experimental results may not accurately reflect what went on in the experiment itself.

19. Sources of Internal Invalidity:
1. History
2. Maturation
3. Testing
4. Instrumentation
5. Statistical regression
6. Selection bias
7. Experimental mortality (in treatment group)
8. Demoralization (in control group)

20. Example

21. Bystander Intervention in Emergencies: Diffusion of Responsibility
Little Yueyue
Kitty Genovese

22. Hypothesis: The more bystanders to an emergency, the less likely, or the more slowly, any one bystander will intervene to provide aid. What would you do to test this hypothesis?

23. What do you think of this experiment?
Design?
Sampling?
Hawthorne Effect?
Threats of Internal Validity:
History/Maturation/Testing/Instrumentation /Statistical regression/Selection bias/Experimental mortality (in treatment group)/Demoralization (in control group)
Science vs. Art?

24. The Solomon Four- Group Design

25. Web-Based Experiments
Representative samples are not essential…therefore, volunteers may be used.

26. “Natural” Experiments
Experiments that occur outside controlled settings.

27. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Experimental Method
Strengths of Experimental Method
Isolation of experimental variable’s impact over time.
Replication
Weaknesses of Experimental Method
Artificiality of laboratory settings
Weak generalizability/External Validity