... relationships. However this method also has some disadvantages: - In reality total control is never possible. The results maybe affected by extraneous variables, experimenter bias, volunteer bias, sample bias and demand characteristics. Laboratory experiment is an artificial situation therefore results may not be generalised to real life, it is artificial and lacks relevance to real life. It lacks in ecological validity and external validity, the external validity might be low because there may be other confounding variables, which affect the results of the experiment. The tasks in laboratory experiment may not generalise to the outside world, as in the outside world tasks are more complicated. Participants may react to the laboratory setting either by acting in the way they feel the experiment requires or by displaying artificial behaviour because of their concern that they are being judged in some way. Participants in a laboratory are aware that their behaviour is being ...

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