15 Mark essays

Question 1

What are 4 advantages of the scientific method?

Answer 1

Empirical, Objective, Falsifiable and Controlled

Question 2

What does empirical mean?

Answer 2

Information is gained through direct observation, it is seen and not theorised.

Question 3

Why is being empirical and advantage?

Answer 3

Without experiencing through our own eyes we cannot actually prove a theory to be true, it therefore makes theories more credible as you have seen it firsthand.

Question 4

What is an example of the scientific method being empirical in psychology?

Answer 4

Pavlov’s experiment on classical conditioning as watched the dog become conditioned to salivate when a bell rang which meant the dog did as he theorised.

Question 5

What does objective mean?

Answer 5

Theories and conclusions produced are fact not opinion and are not affected by bias in any way.

Question 6

Why is objectivity an advantage?

Answer 6

Because without this there would be no way of us being certain that data collection is actually valid and not just something someone wants to be true.

Question 7

What is an example of the scientific method being objective in psychology?

Answer 7

Asch’s study on conformity used the length of lines to determine if people would confirm. There was no other reason for participants answers as the answer was obvious therefore showing clear conformity.

Question 8

What does Falsifiability mean?

Answer 8

This is when, rather than trying to prove the truth of a theory, you are trying to prove the theory wrong.

Question 9

Why is falsifiability an advantage?

Answer 9

Because it is much easier to be able to disprove a theory. For example if I theorised all swans are white, it would be much easier to disprove by finding one black swan rather than going and finding all swans in the world.

Question 10

What is an example of the scientific method being falsifiable in psychology?

Answer 10

Adorno et al theorised after WW2 that Germans were different from everyone else because of how much they obeyed authority. Milgram falsified this by finding that actually American people would obey just as much.

Question 11

What does control mean?

Answer 11

This is when we are able to show cause and effect, so we know no other variables other than the IV is causing a change in the DV.

Question 12

Why is control an advantage?

Answer 12

If we do not have control then we cannot demonstrate a cause and effect relationship as the change in the DV could quite easily be caused by extraneous variables.

Question 13

What is an example of the scientific method being controlled in psychology?

Answer 13

Peterson and Peterson did a lab experiment testing memory where they gave participants a memory test and tested their recall. There was nothing else there to actually make them forget this information, so it was highly controlled.

Question 14

What are 4 disadvantages of the scientific method in psychology?

Answer 14

Lack of internal validity, lack of external validity, reductionist and ethical issues.

Question 15

What is a lack of internal validity?

Answer 15

This includes things like participant variables and demand characteristics which can cause a lack of a causal relationship.

Question 16

Why is lack of internal validity a disadvantage?

Answer 16

This is because observed effects may be due to variables other than IV meaning that results are meaningless and cannot be generalised.

Question 17

What is an example of the scientific method having a lack of internal validity in psychology?

Answer 17

Milgram found that demand characteristics came into play in his experiment as some people pretended to press the button, this meant that results looked like everyone obeyed when in actual fact they did not.

Question 18

What is lack of external validity?

Answer 18

This is most commonly known as ecological validity which is a problem when research is done in an artificial setting.

Question 19

Why is lack of external validity a problem?

Answer 19

This means that data is ungeneralisable to real world phenomena as it does not accurately represent their natural setting meaning that participants may not act naturally.

Question 20

What is an example of the scientific method having a lack of external validity in psychology?

Answer 20

In Peterson and Peterson’s study they conducted it in a lab setting with a very artificial task, meaning the thing they had to do did not represent how they use memory in real life. This means it is likely the results gained do not represent how our memory actually works in day to day life.

Question 21

What is reductionism?

Answer 21

This is when operationalised variables reduce the complexities of behaviour down to one small theory.

Question 22

Why is reductionism a disadvantage?

Answer 22

This can mean that explanations of behaviour become oversimplified therefore meaning we can produce applications that are not helpful at all.

Question 23

What is an example of the scientific method being reductionist in psychology?

Answer 23

Bandora’s bobo doll missed out lots of other potential explanations for aggressive behaviour like genes or maybe they just found it fun and thought it was a game.

Question 24

What are ethical issues?

Answer 24

These are things like lack of protection form harm, lack of informed consent or deception which can harm or upset participants in some way.

Question 25

Why are ethical issues a disadvantage?

Answer 25

Thi is because it can cause participants a lot of harm and distress which brings psychology into disrepute. People don’t like being harmed and it could make them loose faith in psychology.

Question 26

What is an example of the scientific method having ethical issues in psychology?

Answer 26

Asch’s study on conformity made people think that they actually had problems with their eyes and also caused a lot of embarrassment which greatly upset people and made the loose faith, probably making it likely that they wouldn’t participate in a study again or may even take their findings out.

Question 27

What are 4 ethical problems with using human participants?

Answer 27

Informed consent, deception, protection from harm and privacy.

Question 28

Why do ethical problems arise with human participants?

Answer 28

Because there is a clash between what the researcher needs to do to obtain valid results and the rights of the participants.

Question 29

What is informed consent?

Answer 29

This is when a researcher gives the participants all the information and aims of a study so they know exactly what they are consenting to.

Question 30

Why is informed consent an ethical issue?

Answer 30

This is necessary to participants as they will want to know what they’e signing up to, also if they are not fully informed then they will not be able to give informed consent. this becomes a problem as it can cause demand characteristics which therefore makes results less valid.

Question 31

What is an example of informed consent being an ethical issue with human participants?

Answer 31

When Asch conducted his study on conformity he told participants they were taking part in an eye test when it wasn’t. This made them think they had problems with their eyes which made them embarrassed because of the fact they did not know the true aims, but if they had then the study would not have worked.

Question 32

What is deception?

Answer 32

This can be active, so you’re lying throughout or passive, so they are just not told the true aims of the study.

Question 33

Why is deception a problem?

Answer 33

This is because people generally do not like being lied to so it can cause them to feel let down, embarrassed or even stupid therefore causing psychological stress. This becomes a problem as without deception demand characteristics can occur which causes results to be less valid and unnaturalistic and therefore ungeneralisable

Question 34

What is an example of deception becoming a problem for human participants?

Answer 34

Hofling conducted a study which looked at nurses obedience to authority even when breaking key hospital rules. They did not know they were obeying to a confederate and most of them did obey despite the rules. This caused a lot of distress to the nurses knowing they broke these important rules.

Question 35

What is protection from harm?

Answer 35

This is when the researcher has an obligation to prevent psychological and physical to the participant.

Question 36

Why is protection from harm an ethical issue?

Answer 36

If a participant is harmed then then it can be quite traumatic for them and actually lessen their quality of life. However harm is not always anticipated by the researcher to ethical committees making it hard to avoid and some even feel that it is justified.

Question 37

What is an example of protection from harm being an issue for human participants?

Answer 37

Milgram’s study on obedience raised major ethical issues as people thought they were actually killing humans. This caused them to have major psychological and physiological problems like heart palpitations and seizures.

Question 38

What is privacy?

Answer 38

Privacy refers to parts of our lives that we would not want invaded or on display.

Question 39

Why is privacy a problem?

Answer 39

If someone invades our privacy it can make us feel embarrassed unsafe and exploited and it is just disrespectful to do that to someone. However if we are not observing people in their natural setting, results can be much less naturalistic causing them to be ungeneralisable.

Question 40

What is an example of privacy becoming a problem for human participants?

Answer 40

Laud Humphrey observed gay people having sex in toilets when it was illegal and followed people home finding them to be in a heterosexual relationship. This caused many problems for individuals involved.

Question 41

What are 4 ways of dealing with ethical issues in psychology?

Answer 41

BPS Guidlines, Ethical Committees, Presumptive consent and debriefing

Question 42

What are the BPS Guidelines?

Answer 42

These are like a code of conduct made by the british psychological society for psychologists to follow when conducting research. They are, informed consent, no deception, protection from harm, confidentiality, debriefing, and privacy.

Question 43

What is a problem with the BPS Guidelines?

Answer 43

they are not law that you have to stick to they are just guidelines meaning people could quite easily change them to suit themselves or avoid them altogether.

Question 44

What is an example of where BPS guidelines could have dealt with ethical issues in psychology?

Answer 44

Zimbados study was conducted before the BPS guidelines were formed and participants were uninformed about being arrested, were made to be guards and prisoners had no real right to withdraw and were harmed. this is a prime example of how they could have avoided major ethical issues if following the bps guidlines

Question 45

What is an ethical committee?

Answer 45

Group of people in a university who conduct cost-benefit analyses to decide on wether a study should go ahead on ethical grounds.

Question 46

What is a problem with Ethical Committees?

Answer 46

They are completely subjective so could easily justify something that is very unethical. It is also sometimes very hard to predict what harm could come about from a study.

Question 47

What is an example of ethical committees being used to deal with ethical issues in psychology?

Answer 47

Reicher and Haslams BBC study similar to zimbados had a 24/7 ethical committee which eventually stopped the study before ethical issues could arise.

Question 48

What is presumptive consent?

Answer 48

This is when the researcher gives people not involved in the real study all aims and asked them if they would be happy to take part even with deception etc. If enough say yes then they go ahead.

Question 49

What is a problem with presumptive consent?

Answer 49

It is very difficult to predict the outcome and issues from a study without actually doing it. It is also not informed consent, you are not gaining real consent from individuals therefore it is not solving just getting around.

Question 50

What is an example of presumptive consent not solving ethical issues in psychology?

Answer 50

Milgram asked 14 people how high they would go on electrocuting confederates and they predicted people would not go over 45 volts, however most ended up going far beyond this which caused major psychological and physical harm. This shows how you cannot predict outcomes of a study.

Question 51

What is debriefing?

Answer 51

This is when you tell participants the true purpose of the study after it has all been done. You tell them that they can withdraw there information at any time and if they need it they can get psychological help.

Question 52

What is the problem with debriefing?

Answer 52

If people withdraw afterwards this can heavily mess with the results causing big problems for the psychologist. You also cannot undo any harm that has already been caused.

Question 53

What is an example of debriefing not solving ethical issues in psychology?

Answer 53

Asch’s study on conformity was not solved by debriefing as even though people realised they did not have eye problems they were really embarrassed about the fact that they had conformed and people have witnessed them conforming.

Question 54

What did Gray say in 1987?

Answer 54

We have a moral obligation to help humans which is why we sometimes need to use animals to aid in our understanding of human behaviour.

Question 55

What is an example of using animals in psychology to help humans?

Answer 55

Skinner conducted an experiment by giving electric shocks to rats when they pressed a lever in a box. This was very distressing for the rats but its greatly helped in our understanding of how reinforcement conditions our behaviour, which is applied in places like schools and prisons.

Question 56

What is wrong with Skinners box and using animals to help humans?

Answer 56

We can clearly see that using animals in research can e very distressing as you can see the rats obviously didn’t like being electrocuted. Surely we don’t really need to use animals in order to help ourselves.

Question 57

What is an example of pointless suffering caused to animals in psychological research?

Answer 57

Hadlow’s Rhesus monkeys were in an experiment looking at children attachments with mothers. However Haslow separated these monkeys from their mothers at birth and later on presented them with a cuddly toy or food, they then scared the monkey. They monkey just stayed shivering in the corner, which is unnecessary harm to the monkey.

Question 58

What is the problem with Haslow’s rhesus monkeys?

Answer 58

Is the distress on animals really worth it here, we didn’t really find out much more than we already knew and we cannot generalise to humans anyway.

Question 59

What is it good that we can do things to animals that we can’t do to humans?

Answer 59

It means that we avoid issues that would be hard to avoid if using humans, it helps us do things that would be very unethical to do to humans but doesn’t cause as much harm when animals used.

Question 60

What is an example of a psychological study which avoids big ethical issues with humans when using animals?

Answer 60

Jouvet conducted a study on how necessary our REM sleep is by putting cats in upside plant pots and placing them over a pool of water. The cats couldn’t go through REM sleep otherwise they would fall in which caused them to eventually die.

Question 61

Why is Jouvets study good?

Answer 61

It helps us understand how necessary REM sleep is without us actually having to experience dying from lack of it.

Question 62

What did Singer say about using animals in psychological research?

Answer 62

Singer said we should not be specisist as we are not any better than animals. We are also qualitatively different to animals meaning there is no point in us conducting research on animals as we can’t apply it to humans anyway.

Question 63

What is an example of animal research not being able to be applied to humans?

Answer 63

Seligman conducted a study on helplessness with dogs. He electrocuted a fence and found after a while the dog stopped trying to jump over and just became helpless. However we do not know that humans would act the same in this situation meaning it cannot be applied to humans at all.