Every psychology student knows the term ‘demand characteristics’ and puts it into their essays. But are they aware of where the term came from and the challenge that it poses to modern psychology? The term was introduced by Martin Orne over 50 years ago in a classic piece of research. His study was a review of various previous studies and so doesn’t fall into the standard pattern of aims, procedure, results and conclusion.
Orne’s review article starts by reminding us that a psychology experiment is a social situation that involves an interaction between experimenter(s) and participant(s). For example, imagine being in a bar, a charity event, a nightclub or a shopping centre. If someone bumps into you in the shopping centre, you are likely to say ‘Oi! Watch out!’, but at a nightclub you wouldn’t even notice it. At a charity event if someone put a box in front of you then you might put money in it, but if the box appeared in a bar you might drop your rubbish in it.
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