PSYCH 610 Hawthorne Effect Updated PDF

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Running Head: HAWTHORNE EFFECT

The Hawthorne Effect PSYCH/610 June 9th, 2019

History and definition of

Historically the effect was noticed in the 1920s during an era

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Running Head: HAWTHORNE EFFECT

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Hawthorne Effect

where methods of understanding the complexity of human behavior were being examined and scrutinized. The scientific method was studied and underscored social psychologist’s impact on simple human behavior. The effect had a significant change in evaluating human behavior because researchers realized that complex human behavior is not as simple as researchers realized. Participants in a research project where they are aware, they are being studied will have an impact on behavior more than any other experimental variable.

Example of Hawthorne Effect

An example of the Hawthorne Effect would be if you had two groups of individuals who worked at a call center and the first group of individuals was being monitored on their calls that they were taking while the second group was not. It would make the group that was being monitored or observed to produce more productive work than the ones who were not being monitored or observed.

Why is it important for researchers to know about this?

It is important for researchers to know about the Hawthorne effect so when results are computed the researcher can take into consideration that the participants knew he or she was being observed or were part of an experiment/study and either worked harder or not as hard and as such the results may not be the actual results based on the Hawthorne effect. In an attempted to prevent this type of bias perhaps keep the responses anonymous.

Strategies to avoid the Hawthorne Effect (at least two)

Some qualitative investigators may feel the need to use observational methods which are often recommended in discarding the first time interval of observation and will use the subsequent observations for their actual data analyses another way to avoid the Hawthorne effect would be to make sure that you take a long-term approach as well as be discreet with your observations and to communicate clearly this would be a good way to overcome the Hawthorne effect.

The Hawthorne effect shows that behavior is changed because of the attention researchers give than that of the independent variable. The Hawthorne effect was named after and electric company that needed research conducted to see if there was a relationship between the levels of work and the environments that the workers were in. This effect is widely used in the psychology field, but it very misrepresented. Ways that confound could be minimized is to observe participants in their natural setting, but also understand that natural observation is sometimes impossible to do. Keeping the responses of the participants confidential helping to prevent the participants from altering their behaviors to please the researcher (Cherry, 2018).

Running Head: HAWTHORNE EFFECT Reference Cherry, K. (2018). The Hawthorne Effect and Behavioral Studies. Verywell. Verywellmind.com.

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