Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 92

An experiment is an attempt to test a hypothesis under highly controlled conditions established by the investigator. Experiments are commonplace in the natural sciences and psychology, as they offer major advantages over other research procedures. In an experimental situation the researcher directly controls the circumstances under study. Psychologists examining individual behaviour use laboratorybased experimentation extensively. However, in comparison with these disciplines, the scope for experimentation in sociology is severely restricted. Most sociological studies, even those of individual actions, look to investigate the relationship between micro- and macrosocial phenomena. To remove individuals from their social context for the purposes of experimentation would make little, if any, sense to many researchers.

Yet, sometimes sociologists want to explore group dynamics – the way individuals behave when in groups – and experiments may then be feasible. Even so, only small groups can be brought into a laboratory setting, and in such experiments people know they are being studied and may behave differently. Such changes in the behaviour of research subjects are referred to as the ‘Hawthorne effect’. In the 1930s, researchers conducting productivity studies at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne plant near Chicago found to their surprise that worker productivity continued to rise regardless of which experimental conditions they imposed (levels of lighting, break patterns, work team size, and so on). Workers were conscious of being under scrutiny and accelerated their normal work pace, thereby undermining the experiments. Nevertheless, as ‘Classic studies’ 2.1 shows, it is possible to learn things about social life from small-scale experiments in social psychology.