On the Metamethodological Dimension of the “Expectancy Paradox”

Abstract

When an experimenter uses the experimental method to investigate the effects of the experimenter's expectancy it may be that this research, too, is affected by his expectancy and thus there is an expectancy paradox. To the extent that the experimenter expectancy effect accounts for the variation in the dependent variable and is general, that is to say, universal in psychological research, the expectancy paradox is ineluctable. However, an analysis of the research reviews extant in this area yields the conclusion that expectancy effects are neither inexorable nor highly general in psychological research and this provides the basis for its extrication from the expectancy paradox.