Natural experiment

A natural experiment in psychology is organized directly in the context of real activity. Not so long ago, it was believed that a laboratory experiment, as compared to the natural, wins in the accuracy of recording measurements of the phenomena studied, in the ability to accurately dose and vary the influence of stimuli, eliminate interfering factors and create comparable conditions. Now this opinion can not be considered true in all cases. Modern technology opens up opportunities for transferring the positive aspects of a laboratory experiment in the natural.
At the same time there is no main and very significant drawback of the laboratory experiment - the artificial nature of the conditions, which makes drastic changes in the course of mental processes. In a natural experiment, a person works, learns, sometimes without even knowing, and most often forgetting that he is the object of research.
Natural experiment has many forms and various techniques. In its simplest form, it is widely used in the form of introductory problems. These tasks can be set by the manager verbally (“Did something happen?”) Or by introducing a deviation into his work unnoticed by the employee.
Already one observation of such a natural experiment gives valuable facts, allows you to test one or another hypothesis of the researcher.
Formative (teaching or educating) experiment in which the skills or qualities of a person are studied in the process of their formation and development is widely used in practical psychology.
A peculiar methodical method is purposeful change in the structure of professional activity.
The meaning of this technique is that when performing a certain activity, individual analyzers are turned off according to a pre-planned plan, the posture or the “grasp” of the control levers is changed, additional stimuli are introduced, the emotional background and motives of activity change, etc. conditions allows us to assess the role of certain factors in the structure of the studied activity and the flexibility of relevant skills.