Ans. The experimental method has limited application in social sciences, it provides the model on which many comparatives aspire to base their studies. Simply put, the experimental method aims to establish a causal relationship between two conditions. In other words the objective of the experiment is to establish that one condition leads to the other or influences the other in a particular way.
The investigator may want to study the influence of all these factors or one of them or even a combination of factors then isolates the conditional factors whose influence she wants to study and thereby make precise the role of each condition.
The condition whose effect is to be measured and is manipulated by the Investigator is the independent Variable. Thus, in an experiment designed to study Comparative method and Strategies of Comparison the effect of social background on ability to communicate, social background will be the independent variable and the ability to communicate, the dependent variable.
The investigator works out a hypothesis stated in terms of a relationship between the two conditions which is tested in the experiment viz., children coming from higher socio-economic background display better ability to communicate in English in large group settings.