In this method research hypothesis is tested with help of experiment. Experiment is based on the concept of, “cause and effect” if one event is a cause the other occurring event is the effect. Experiment is conducted for the purpose of testing social theories. In experiment method, researcher manipulate one variable to see the effect on other variable, this helps the researcher to determine the relationship amongst two variable. Let’s take a general example; if someone consume carbonated drinks every day and suddenly start experiencing stomach problems. When he stops drinking carbonated drinks, his stomach problem goes away. In the given example stomach and carbonated drinks are two variables; the manipulated variable in the example is carbonated drinks. Subject consuming carbonated drinks is a “cause” and the “effect” is subject having problems in his stomach. Experiments are conducted in a lab and in field as well, as far as, data is collected without researcher interference.
Lab experiment is initiated by, creating an artificial environment in lab by researcher; which helps him to manipulate variables. After setting the lab, researcher select a few people with similar demographic information as subjects of experiment. Furthermore, People are randomly divided in to two groups; one group is controlled group and another is experimental group. Difference between both groups is that experimental group is exposed to independent variable and controlled group is not being exposed to the independent variable. In the above example “carbonated drink” can be categorized as independent variable and “stomach” as dependent variable. Suppose, if researcher wants to analyze “the impact of tutoring on children academic performance” from experiment method. If Researcher want to conduct experiment in lab, he has to set a lab and create artificial environment in which he is able to manipulate variable. Moreover, participants will be selected for conducting experiment, with similar academic performance, age and grade. Furthermore, participants will be divided into two groups randomly. Both group will have to prepare the same chapters of same subjects, nonetheless, controlled group will be only taught by school teacher, whereas. experimental group will be taught by school teacher and tutor, for the time period of one month. Both groups will be tested after a month, same paper would be drafted for the test. However, test result will conclude the experiment result as well. If the score of experimental group was more than controlled group, the research will be concluded as tutoring have influence on enhancing academic capabilities of a children. Researcher has to set parameters in choosing the participants because if subject of experiment is not qualified as participant, it will affect the reliability of experiment. For example considering the tutoring experiment, if researcher select participants from different standards, the result of the experiment will be unreliable because same material will be provided to all participants for preparation, in a specific duration. Students studying in high standard might score high without any help whereas, students of lower standard may score low with tutoring. Participants should be of same standard, and academic performance should be similar as well.
