Lecture
In general terms, experimental planning is the organization of the conduct of an experiment in accordance with the assumed experimental model, with a mental comparison against a flawless model of its embodiment, in order to obtain reliable data.
Planning presupposes that the IV and DV are specified in the experimental hypothesis and, at the methodological level, operationalized.
Formal planning is the basis for the conclusion about the experimental fact. Here internal and operational validity are assessed.
Formal planning is directed at the choice of scheme, the plan for organizing interactions, and the specification of the minimal effect (in the differences of the DV).
Substantive planning – at the stage of formulating the hypotheses, the specific character of the psychological reality under study, made concrete in the basic processes singled out for study, must be preserved.
Here the type of variables is determined from the point of view of the given hypothetical constructs and the resolution of questions about the operationalization of the variables and the choice of methodological means.
Substantive planning is also connected with the transition from formulating a theoretical hypothesis to an experimental one, with determining the type of experiment, and with assessing operational, construct, and external validity.
Substantive planning precedes formal planning.
It is interconnected with formal planning, and therefore cannot always be singled out as a separate stage. The stages of substantive planning:
1. formulating the experimental hypothesis; in the case of theoretical hypotheses, assessing construct validity;
2. controlling the type of variables, as well as deciding on the type of experiment: laboratory, artificial, field.
3. substantiating all the interpretational components within which an understanding of the established relationship is attained, which is connected with introducing the notion of hypothetical constructs.
4. control over the conclusion as the organization of reliable generalizations.
In an experimental study, at least two techniques must be present: for setting the IV and for measuring the DV. Both of them are assessed in terms of representativeness – the correspondence of the constructs of the IV and DV to real conditions.
Operational validity – the assessment of an experiment from the point of view of the degree of correspondence of the techniques for setting and measuring the variables used in the study to the empirically loaded concepts of the IV, DV, and additional variable.
The stage of substantive planning includes the substantiation of changes in the index (the DV indicators).
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