Recent evidence has shown that the expectations, as well as other attributes, of the experimenter can significantly affect the results of research on some types of psychological phenomena (cf. McGuigan, 1063; Rosenthal, 1966). The range of phenomena susceptible to experimenter effect is, however, relatively unknown. Rosenthal (1966, pp. 399-400) has discussed the cost versus utility of using expectancy controls, concluding that utility considerations should prevail. As he pointed out, however (p. 307 ff.), much of our research is actually performed by graduate students-experimenters who may be more "outcome" than "procedure" conscious (p. 36).A reasonable and economic solution to the cost of experimenter sampling may be found in the formation (at the departmental level) of a pool of graduate students who are currently running cither their own or their sponsor's research and who would equitably run a portion of each other's subjects. Such a procedure could provide an economic way to (a) test the robustness of the experimenter bias effect on differing types of psychological phenomena, (ft) decrease (or quantify) such effects when present, and (c) provide data regarding validity of generalization to a population of experimenters. Such a procedure would additionally contribute to the educational experience of the graduate student via short-term but intensive exposure to diverse experimental arrangements and data-recording procedures leading to rapid observational learning-an increase in procedure orientation by such experimenters also being expected. As appropriate to individual departmental training programs, such experiences could also provide the basis for seminars in which the appropriateness of the operational definitions, response measures, etc., could be constructively criticized by (he graduate student experimenters after the actual running of the experiment and subsequent debriefing were concluded.
Research evidence indicates that psychology can be taught effectively at the elementary school level and that experiential programs in psychology at that level can promote ego development and selfunderstanding.
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