3. Assess Practical Issues In The Design And Implement Of Research In Psychology Flashcards
Define the AO1 concept of generalisability
The extent to which findings of a study can be applied to explain universal behaviours taking into account the context of the research. For a study to be generalisable it’s must also ensure sampling method is not biased
Define the AO1 concept of internal validity
How likely the manipulation of the independent variable causes the change in the dependent variable. High internal validity means a trustworthy cause and effect relationship can be established. This is usually achieved through high control over extraneous variables
Define the AO1 concept of control of variables
Extraneous variables are variables which aren’t being investigated but which could potentially affect your study, and become confounding. They can be situational such as light, time of day, noise, weather, distractions; personal such as age, height weight, gender, IQ ; or experimenter. High control usually correlates to high internal validity
Define the AO1 concept of operationalisation of variables
This is the extent to which the variables are tested
Define the AO1 concept of external validity
There are 2 types of external validity, ecological validity is how representative the experimental setting is of natural society, e.g lab experiments have low ecological validity due to the high level of control of the environment, whereas field experiments have high ecological validity. Mundane realism is how artificial the procedure task is of how the behaviour being studied is seen naturally in society
Define the AO1 concept of reliability
Reliability increases when procedures are standardised so that they can be repeated and reproduced to produce consistent results
What is the structure for this debate?
-Describe and define practical issue (AO1)
-explain why it is/isn’t an issue (AO3)
-explain why this is important/ it’s impact on society
Cognitive topic example- case studies- strength and weakness
Strength:
-AO1: Case studies can have high reliability; although each one is very different in duration and procedure, the experiments and procedures that take place as part of the case study are all standardised. For HM, one experiment which was repeated was the mirror task, conducted by Milner, where he had to trace the shape of a star in the mirror. This was repeated every day and results showed improvement, suggesting his procedural memory was still working.
-AO3: this is a strength for society as the internal procedures being used were standersided making these findings highly reliable and beneficial for society as they could be analysed and compared.
Weakness
-AO1: Use of case studies in cognitive psychology has low generalisability. For example HM was a brain damaged patient who had his hippocampus surgically removed to see if it cured his severe epilepsy. As a result of this, his epilepsy did mildly improve however he suffered with memory loss, unable to form new long term memories.
-AO3: this is a weakness because although knowledge was found out the role of the hippocampus in memory, due to how unique HM was, his results are not generalisable to the wider population as can’t prove that the removal of the hippocampus alone was what caused his memory loss, as suffered a motorbike accident as well. This is an issue as it makes case studies not as good a research method as results and findings can’t be applied to other people in society
Cognitive topic example- strength and weakness
Learning topic example- animal research- strength and weakness
Strength:
-AO1: High internal validity in animal research. Pavlov was able to control the dogs environment very easily, controlling extraneous variables like noise, distractions, temperature, drafts by having double steel doors, extra thick glass on windows, and sanding the floor that the dog was stood on.
-AO3: this high internal validity is a strength as it means a trustworthy cause and effect relationship can be established between the classical conditioning process and the dogs salivation response, making the results gathered highly valid.
Weakness
-AO1: low generalisability occurs in animal research. E.g Pavlov used a dog to test classical conditioning. The dog was in a different room to him, and each time he’d sound the metronome he would prevent some food to the dog, causing it to salivate. This process was repeated until just the sound of the metronome was enough to cause the dog to salivate in response.
-AO3: Low generalisability means that the results Pavlov found are not applicable to humans due to the biological differences in brain structure and functioning. Also, the dog Pavlov used may have produced a different response to the process to other dogs, depending on age, breed, intelligence etc.
Learning topic example- strength and weakness
Bio topic example- brain scans- strength and weakness
Strength
-AO1: high standardisation and replication of brain scans. E.g in Raine et al experiment he used PET scans on the brains of murderers who pleaded NGRI and non murderers. He followed same procedure of allowing ppts 10 minute practice on continuous performance task, then 30 seconds before real task started they were given the FDG injection and monitored for 32 minutes, taking 10 images at 10mm intervals.
-AO3: the standardisation of the procedure and the use of a scientific brain scan makes this scientifically credible with highly beneficial applications to society in reduced sentencing for NGRI murderers
Weakness
-AO1: Although brain scans are fairly objective data, there will always be a degree of subjectivity. Especially for PET scans used in Raine’s procedure, as the images that are produced are coloured. Warm colours show high levels of activity, and cold colours show low levels of activity. However it would be Raine’s opinion on HOW hot or cold the colours are in the different brain areas, meaning a different researcher may have a different opinion on the scans images.
-AO3: this is an issue as it lowers the validity of the results if they’ve been interpreted subjectively, limiting their scientific credibility
Bio topic example- strength and weakness
Social topic example- strength and weakness
Strength
-AO1: Sherif’s experiment has very high external validity. It took place in Robber’s cave state park in America. The boys were in a completely natural, not artificial environment as this was a field study. The boys were unaware that they were being observed, but the IV of the ingroup outgroup friction was still able to be manipulated, and extraneous variables controlled
-AO3: strength as it increases the ability to generalise the findings and results to other external environments and situations in society. The boys behaviour was completely natural and no demand characteristics would have been displayed, so could be generalised.
Weakness
-AO1: however the generalisability of Sherif’s experiment was limited by his sample. He used a very narrow sample of 24 11-12 year old boys, who were all from Oklahoma, were middle class, and Protestant.
-AO3: This sample is not generalisable to the wider population therefore as there is almost no variety, so can’t be sure wider population would produce same results.
Social topic example- strength and weakness
