Question

One of the factors affecting a study's validity is the setting. For instance, a researcher would want to consider whether a laboratory setting is ideal for a study. There are numerous reasons why a laboratory can be ideal but also many reasons why a laboratory is not the best situation to run an experiment. As with most things we discuss, it really depends on the situation. For instance, some of the things to consider are accuracy, reliability, and consistency. These characteristics can apply to many types of studies, such as naturalistic studies or case studies, in addition to laboratory studies. If you had a study in which you needed to know how people would genuinely react, you might choose a naturalistic study as a laboratory study might cause subjects to be self-conscious about their behavior. At the same time, if you wanted to be able to see how subjects react to various stressors, you would need to manipulate the stressors in the laboratory. There's a trade-off, therefore, and one needs to consider which is more important. If you had a study in which you wanted to know if the color of a room caused others to feel better or worse in their moods, what pros and cons can you see in using a laboratory study?

Answer 1

Often , color of a room explains a lot about a person's preferences, moods and to some extent his or her personality. The color of a room test is something which can be done in a naturalistic setting such as home or a therapy room while can also be conducted in a laboratory setting, For the experiment to be conducted in a lab setting, it has the following pros and cons.

Pros

1. The laboratory setting is the best way to avoid the external variables and where the focus of the participant is totally on the concerned stimuli, i,e here the room color.

2. A lab setting ensures more valid and reliable test results if done appropriately since then the focus and attention of the researcher is on extracting the best test results.

Cons

1. Room color is something which is preferred by everyone , though some people are not totally attentive to that. In a lab setting the focus will ideally be towards the perception of the ideal stimulus which is the color while ignoring other variables such as light maybe, temperature etc. Such factors majorly determine the mood and its affect on the person.

2. If done in a naturalistic setting the participant behaves in a usual manner since now he or she is actually present in the actual situation while lab conditions can produce a more powerful effect and can disturb a person's actual reaction to it.