Data desirability, experimenter expectancy, and the results of psychological research.

Abstract

19 male Es employing a Taffel-type task conducted a verbal conditioning experiment with 60 female Ss. I the Es were led to expect their Ss to show verbal conditioning, and 4 were led to expect no verbal conditioning. 4 the Es in each of these groups were led to feel that it would be desirable if their Ss showed conditioning, and J were led to feel that it would be undesirable. Those Es who (a) both wanted and expected, and (b) neither wanted nor expected their Ss to show increased use of i and WE pronouns obtained significant conditioning (p = .001). Those Es who (a) wanted but did not expect, and (b) expected but did not want increased use of I and WE pronouns obtained no significant conditioning (p = 1.00). Ss high in need for social approval arrived earlier at the site of the experiment, were less "aware" of the contingency but were no more likely to show conditioning. Ss' ratings of Es' behavior during the experiment showed significant differences between Es in different experimental conditions, between Es who were 1st vs. later born, and between Es who were high vs. low in need for social approval.

An fMRI study of imitation: action representation and body schema

“…In addition, we speculate that subjects' knowledge that their behavior was coded on-line by an experimenter who was present in the scanning room could have emphasized their desire to accomplish the task as accurately as possible. The ventromedial prefrontal activity could reflect such a process (Rosenthal, 1964).…”

The computer as experimenter in social psychological research

“…There are a number of reasons why the (Rosenthal, 1964) is reduced when the computer is used; according to Rapoport (1964), Ss regularly find it a more satisfying and confidence invoking experience to interact with a computer-controlled display than with a human-controlled display. Messick and Rapoport (1964) review a number of these advantages.…”

Confrontación epistemológica entre conductismo y psicología cognitiva, y sus repercusiones metodológicas

“…Por lo que se refiere a la metodología, en parte de los casos se recurre a un mismo tipo de investigación manipulativa-experimental, por lo que, hasta un cierto punto, no podría hablarse de un choque de metodologías (Arnau, 1982), habiéndose seguido generando, en consecuencia, los mismos errores y sesgos propios de tal metodología en la época conductista, reflejados en las múltiples críticas y dudas sobre la utilidad y validez de la experimentación (Gadlin y Ingle, 1975;Kruglanski, 1976;Alvira, Avia, Calvo y Morales, 1979), así como en el acuñamiento de conceptos para caracterizar las diversas distorsiones que afectan a la situación experimental, como el efecto de experimentación de Rosenthal (1964), las características de la demanda de Orne (1962Orne ( , 1969, las limitaciones del conocimiento experimental de Harré y Secord (1972), o los límites de la autorreflexión experimental de Gadlin y Ingle (1975), por citar los más conocidos, dejando ya los problemas de la ética de la experimentación o el alcance de las aplicaciones del conocimiento experimental (Mayor, 1982), o en general, el efecto de investigador (Barber, 1976).…”