ABSTRACT

Fledgling scholars who want to understand groups by conducting laboratory experiments will find many sources of information about how to design experiments (e.g., Haslam & McGarty, 2004 ; Kirk, 1995 ; Laughlin, this volume; Smith, 2000). Graduate students in social sciences typically learn about experimental design in their research methods courses and benefit from having an advisor or graduate committee assist with their experimental design for a degree-required project. When embarking to conduct the laboratory experiment, however, the fledgling scholar may have few sources of support for how to run it. Graduate students may compare notes with their peers for advice on how to run an experiment or use procedures typically used by the faculty advisor. There appears to be a dearth, however, of published tutorials on how to run a laboratory experiment, let alone one on groups. The purpose of this chapter is to demystify the process of conducting laboratory experiments on groups by highlighting personal research examples and behind-the-scenes procedures that rarely are reported in the method section of a journal article.