Realism • The aim of any study is to provide information

about how people behave in ‘real-life.’• IF the set-up of the study is too artificial then

the participants may not behave as they normally would (demand characteristics).

• Mundane realism – how an experiment mirrors the real world.

• Mundane = ordinary.

Generalisability• The point of realism in psychological research is to be

able to generalise the results beyond the particular unique research setting.

• In particular to be able to understand behaviour in everyday life.

• Lab study – difficult to generalise to real-life.• Sample – all American students – difficult to generalise

findings to other cultures/ages.

Demand Characteristics• An aspect of the research situation which triggers a predictable

response in participants causing them to respond in a similar way.

• Particular cues in an experimental situation may communicate to the participants what is expected of them and what the researcher hopes to find (may guess the aim).

• The outcome is that the results are biased in favour of research hypothesis, confirming the researcher’s initial beliefs.