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Assess the Strengths and Weaknesses of Using Experiments in Investigating Power and Authority in Prisons

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Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using experiments in investigating power and authority in prisons (15 marks)

There are two types of experiments which are used by sociologists to study various causes and effects of variables within settings and situations, these include laboratory experiments and field experiments. As favoured by positivists, the laboratory experiments are artificial environments where the researcher controls variables to discover their effect, with the aim to discover a causal law. However, sociologists sometimes use field experiments to overcome the lack of validity of laboratory experiments. Field experiments differ from lab experiments as they take place in the participants' natural surroundings, and the participants do not know they are in an experiment.

Researchers could use laboratory experiments to create a prison situation amongst participants and observe their behaviour in terms of power and authority. However, if prisons itself were to be studied, many practical issues may arise. For example, prisons are closed organisations which mean that access to them may not be gained, and even so, prison guards and other authority figures could be protective over their 'canteen' like culture and thus may deny requests for access. Despite this, previous research has shown that researchers have easier access to organisations such as prisons if they are encouraged by the government. For example, researchers of the 'short, sharp shock' approach gained access by easier means than they would have had without having the support from greater authorities.

In an exception, if access is permitted and a laboratory study is carried out within a prison, guards would be aware of the research taking place thus they may produce behaviour which is not natural or usual to them in order to protect their professionalism. The occurrence of Hawthorne

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