Disadvantages Of Sciene

Question 1

Give an example of a study where investigator effects has occured

Answer 1

In milgrams obedience study, the experimenters manner when he greeted the participants may have affected how likely they were to obey. If for example he smilied and was very reassuring they may have felt that he was so nice he wouldnt have allowed them to kill anyone, therefore they may have been happier to go up to the full 450v than if he had behaved differently. Therefore data obtained may not be a true reflection of behaviour

Question 2

Lacks ecological validity

Answer 2

Futhermore scientific methods tend to lack ecological validity due to the artificial setting and manipulation of variables

Question 3

Give an example of an experiment that lacks ecological validity

Answer 3

Kayson et al - found the attractiveness influenced the sentencing of an individual. Using mock juries and trials they found that mock jurors recommended harsher sentences in instances of burglary for unattractive defendants compared to attractive ones. But in real life trails kayson found that attractiveness did not effect whether the defendant was more harshly punished or not

Question 4

Demand characteristics

Answer 4

Yet again another disadvantage of using scientific methods is that demand characteristics can occur as participants know they are taking part in research

Question 5

Give an example of a study where demand characteristics have occurred

Answer 5

Hilgaard - got 2 groups of ppants to put their hand onto ice cold water, known as the cold pressor test. One group was hypnotized to feel no pain. Non-hypnotized group reported high pain and stopped after 30 secs, hypnotized group reported low pain and could continue to keep their hands submerged. It could be that the hypnotized group were “playing along” due to demand characteristics, as they guessed the aim of the study and wanted to avoid social embarrassment and please the researcher

Question 6

Confirmatory bias

Answer 6

Another issue with scientific methods is the tendency to ignore or rule out data which does not support hypothesis

Question 7

Give an example of confirmatory bias

Answer 7

Found a 55% relapse rate for those who were given a placebo compared to a 19% relapse who were on anti-psychotic medications. A conclusion was then drawn that psychotic medication is effective, despite the fact that 1 in 5 ppants relapsed on antipsychotics. Researchers using the scientific method can often ignore contradictory evidence. Therefore data needs to be treated with caution.

Question 8

Conclusion - ethics

Answer 8

The scientific method raises ethical issues

Question 9

Investigator effects

Answer 9

One disadvantage of the scientific method is that it can suffer from investigator effects as the researcher has face to face contact with the participant