“Drawing on examples from Chapters 2, 4 and 8 of Discovering Psychology, examine and assess the contribution of psychological experiments to our understanding of human behaviour and performance. Year of study – 2011/2012 Psychology Undergraduate Degree. Graded 2.1”

Human behaviour and performance has been studied by many psychologists using a variety of techniques, including experiments. It is known that Experiments are designed to test hypotheses that are derived from theory or previous experiments (Edgar, 2010 p. 347). I will look at the experimental work of psychologists studying within this aspect. The contribution to our understanding of human behaviour and performance will be discussed and evaluated looking at points such as ethics, methods and any disadvantages that arise when using experiments.

The first experiment to be examined and assessed is that of social psychologist Stanley Milgram. He was interested in researching how far ordinary people would go when they were obeying instructions. This sort of influential behaviour was conducted by Germans in World War Two and with this behaviour in mind Milgram wanted to know the level …(short extract)