What are the Advantages of Experimental Method of Psychology?

Advantages of Experimental Method:

1. The experimental method, in many respects, is the best way of gathering scientific information that is the information, which is empirical, reliable, systematic, and verifiable. It is possible because the experimenter plans his research carefully and observes under controlled conditions so as to eliminate the influence of extraneous variables.

2. Among ail the methods, the experimental method exercises greater control over the independent variable. The researcher can manipulate the independent variable as he wishes in order to examine its effect on the dependent variable. In doing so, the experimenter attempts to determine the cause and effect relationships among the variables.

3. Since, the method is clearly laid out, one can replicate the experiment elsewhere to examine whether similar results are obtained, it is not wise to draw conclusions from a single experiment. In fact, several experiments by different investigators should be conducted to arrive at a universal principle. The steps in experimental method are so clearly laid out that many experimenters can repeat the same procedures with a high degree of exactness.

4. The method is so objective that there Is a very little scope for the experimenter’s bias and personal opinions to affect the results. Use of modern equipments and technological devices to record the behavior of the subjects eliminates, in a large measure, the role of experimenter’s personal opinion and competence in influencing the outcome of the study.