What is the difference between experimental and emperical psychology? And Why is this important to psychology?

-- samiyyah muhammad (samiyyahkm@hotmail.com), January 26, 2004

Answers

Empirical (note the spelling) means only that it is based on observation. Experimental implies that the observations have been made under particular, controlled conditions. In psychology, the term experimental usually means that the independent variable has been directly manipulated by the experimenter and the effect of this manipulation on the dependent is observed (as opposed to the observation of a simple correlation between the "IV" and "DV"). In several other sciences (and in psychology's past), the term "experiment" is not so strictly constrained. See:

Winston, Andrew S. and Blais, Daniel J. (1996) What counts as an experiment?: A transdisciplinary analysis of textbooks, 1930-1970. American Journal of Psychology 109(4):599-616.

which can be found on-line at: http://eprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000034/00/WHATCOUNTSOCR.htm

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), January 26, 2004.