Learning Methods

Question 1

describe random sampling

Answer 1

Truly random sampling only occurs when every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected. Each individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member of the population has a known, but possibly non-equal, chance of being included in the sample. For example, putting names of every member of the target population into a hat and pulling a sample out (without looking).

ADVANTAGES

• random sampling (in large numbers) provides the best chance of an unbiased representative sample of a target population as everyone in the target population has a chance of being selected.
• it will be clear from the beginning who the sample is and how it was chosen and each step of the process can be explained understood, this means that any possible bias can be worked out and mathematically taken into account.

DISADVANTAGES

• the larger the target population, the more difficult it is to sample randomly, since compiling An original selection list of everyone becomes more impractical. True random sampling is, therefore, very rare.
• more time consuming and complex than non-representative methods because of the time involved in gathering the target population to sample from.

Question 2

describe stratified sampling

Answer 2

Involves dividing the target population into important subcategories (or strata) and then selecting members of these subcategorise in the proportion that they occur in the target population. For example, if a target population consisted of 75% women and 25% men, a sample of 20 should include 15 women and 5 men. For example, suppose a farmer wishes to work out the average milk yield of each cow type in his herd which consists of Ayrshire, Friesian, Galloway and Jersey cows. He could divide up his herd into the four sub-groups and take samples from these.

ADVANTAGES

• a deliberate effort is made to identify the characteristics of a sample most important for it to be representative of the target population.
• very representative sampling method as every one in the population has an equal chance of being involved and taking part.

DISADVANTAGES

• stratified sampling can be very time consuming, since subcategories have to be identified and their proportions in the target population calculated.
• stratified sampling relies on researchers knowing all the required groups/strata and forces choices of participants which may bias by excluding some.

Question 3

describe self-selecting/volunteer sampling

Answer 3

Consist of those individuals who have consciously or unconsciously determined their own involvement in society, in other words they volunteer. For example, studies or passers by who become involved in field studies ie, in bystander intervention studies. This is often done by advertising in newspapers or on a noticeboard.

ADVANTAGES

• self-selecting/volunteer sampling is quick, convenient and often the most economical method of sampling and is therefore the most common type of sampling.
• useful when the target population is hard to detect ie, those who believe they have been abducted by aliens.

DISADVANTAGES

• often unrepresentative being based on the subject and whether they are free for example and not on the entire population and what is needed.
• self-selecting/volunteer sampling can take a long time if the researcher has to wait for participants to volunteer for example, one advertisement may not be enough to get the sample.

Question 4

describe opportunity sampling

Answer 4

Simply involves selecting those subjects that are around and available at the time, an effort may be made to not be biased in selecting particular types of subject. This may simply consist of choosing the first 20 students in your college canteen to fill in your questionnaire. For example, university psychologists may sample from their own students.

ADVANTAGES

• opportunity sampling is quick, convenient and often the most economical method of sampling, therefore it is quite common, for example, the researcher may use friends, family or colleagues.
• can also be seen as a good way of investigating processes which are thought to work in similar ways for most individuals such as memory processes.

DISADVANTAGES

• gives very unrepresentative samples and is often based on the researcher who may choose subjects who will be “helpful”.
• within opportunity sampling participants may decline to take part and your sampling technique may turn into a self selected sample.

Question 5

describe BPS ethical guidelines

Answer 5

The aim of psychology is to provide a greater understanding of ourselves and, if required, to enable us to use that understanding to predict and control our behaviour for HUMAN BETTERMENT. This will ultimately involve completing research on human participants in order to obtain valid and realistic results.

Humans not only experience pain and anxiety but can also be affected mentally in terms of embarrassment and loss of self-esteem. Humans have rights of protection and privacy and ethical guidelines as much as possible ensure that these are adhered to.

In Britain, the British Psychological Society has published a set of guidelines which guides psychologists when planning and carrying out their research.

INTRODUCTION

It is important that the public can have confidence in the profession of psychology, and researchers must remember that how they treat participants will affect public perceptions of all psychologists.

GENERAL

Psychologists must always consider the ethical implications of their research. Foreseeable threats to the well-being, dignity, health and values of participants should always be eliminated. They should only conduct research in areas where they are competent.

CONSENT

Psychologists carrying out investigations or inventions should always obtain the valid consent of the participants, ensuring that the can make an informed decision about the nature of their contributions and its potential consequences. At times consent is gained this is were participants agree to take part in the research in hand but without knowing what it is truly about, this means that more realistic and valid results can be obtained. Research should give informed consent which tells those involved about the true aim of the research but this means that the results may not always be completely valid, it quite often depends on the topic of research what type of consent is required.

EXAMPLES – within Bandura Bobo doll experiment consent was gained from the children’s parents in order to avoid any issues with them not understanding.

DECEPTION

Guidelines state that participants should not be deliberately misled without extremely strong scientific or medical justification. When it is allowed there should be strict controls over the entire procedure and write-up. Many psychological studies would not receive the results they do if they did not employ deception and so a cost-benefit analysis of the gains versus the discomfort of the participant must be considered.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW

Any participant in a psychological study should be informed that they have the right to withdraw from the testing when every they wish and that afterwards they have the right to withdraw their results if they wish to.

DEBRIEFING OF PARTICIPANTS

At the end of the study participants must be fully debriefed which can include informing them of the true aim and full extent of what went on. During this the researcher must insure that all participants leave in the same mind as they arrived and that they have not come to any psychological harm during the research.

COMPETENCE AND CONDUCT

The personal conduct of psychologist should not be damaged and the recipients of their services or participants in their research. Nor should their conduct undermine public confidence in their own ability or in that of other psychologists or members of related professions, they should refrain from participating in work that would harm individuals, should not accept payment, not exploit trust, maintain professional standards, value others opinions, not claim credit for others work, ensure safety and act responsibly.

CONFIDENTAILITY

It is essential that details about those involved are kept confidential in order to protect them, their identity should not be revealed except with their expressed permission.

PROTECTION

Participants should be protected from harm, including stress. This means that they should be exposed to one more risk than they would normally encounter in their usual lifestyle.

OBSERVATION

Observational studies risk breaching privacy. In observations when participants are unaware they are bring observed they should only be observed in places and situations where they would expect people to observe them.

ADVICE

If a researcher sees signs of a physical or psychological problem the participant is unaware of, but which might threaten their future well-being, they should inform them. Where participants seek professional advice the researchers should be cautious.

COLLEAGUES

Where colleagues are conducting research that falls foul of one or more of the above principles, it is important to inform them and to try and persuade them to alter their conduct.

Question 6

describe reliability

Answer 6

RELIABILITY

An experimental procedure is reliable if it can easily be repeated and the same results are consistently obtained – REPLICABLE. Take the experiment of Bandura BoBo Doll which had clear and specific instructions given to observers in each of the conditions. This standardised procedure is highly reliable because it can be repeated easily with other groups of participants. Replications of the procedure have reliably produced similar findings.

Field studies like that of Memon and Wright with the Oklahoma bombing (1999) do not have the same reliability because they cannot be replicated – they require unique sets of circumstances that cannot be set up artificially.

INTER-OBSERVER RELIABILITY

Observations are naturally occurring events, it can be argued that they are one-off events and so cannot be replicated. However, if there is more than one observer it is possible to compare the results. Their results can be tested to see if there is a CORRELATION (a relationship) between them; if there is then the observation has INTER-OBSERVER RELIABILITY.

Question 7

describe validity

Answer 7

VALIDITY

Experimental validity can be divided into internal and external validity. The internal validity of an experiment is the extent to which we can be sure that changes to our dependent variable or variables are purely a product of our independent variables. This is why we control all variables other than the independent variable we are interested in (this means the environment, timings etc. will be the same in different conditions). Experimenter bias and demand characteristics also threaten internal validity but can be controlled by standard instructions and blind conditions.

In an independent measures design internal reliability is threatened by differences between participants in the different groups. This can be controlled by randomly allocating participating to conditions or using matched pairs. In a repeated measures design order effects can be a problem but counterbalancing can control these.

External or ecological validity is the extent to which we can be sure that our results generalise from the experiment to real life. Field experiments are likely to have better ecological validity than lab experiments because they are carried out in a real-life setting. However to have really good ecological validity the tasks participants have to carry out also need to be similar to those were encounter in real life.

Question 8

describe credibility

Answer 8

CREDIBILITY

By ensuring that both of the above are high within observational and other learning methods means that they can be seen as being credible in the eyes of the researcher.

Question 9

describe observations

Answer 9

The observational research method features observation as the MAIN way that data are gathered, without setting up an experiment or using scanning techniques or any other research method. In an observation, behaviour is observed and recorded WITHOUT CONTROLLING ALL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY AND AN INDEPEPNDENT VARIABLE IS NOT MANIPULATED, as it is in an experiment. There might be an independent variable, such as gender, but it is likely to be naturally occurring. There are a few structured observations, but most are naturalistic.

Question 10

describe structured observations

Answer 10

Occasionally observations are structured so that the same situation can be repeated with different participants and researchers. The variables can be manipulated, or the situation and setting – this is the element which makes the observation controlled. For example, Mary Ainsworth used a structured observation to test attachment behaviour of children with their parents. The strange situation involved the mother and child together “normally” in a strange place and then a stranger entering the room. The observations were to see what the child did when the mother was both in and out of the room, with or without the stranger being present.

Question 11

strengths of structured observations

Answer 11

· Structured observations can be easily replicated by other researchers by using the same observation schedule. This means it is easy to test for reliability.

· The data obtained from structured observations can be quantitative (i.e. numerical) if tally charts and coded behaviours are recorded - making this a less time consuming method compared to naturalistic observations.

· Structured observations are fairly quick to conduct which means that many observations can take place within a short amount of time. This means a large sample can be obtained resulting in the findings being representative and having the ability to be generalised to a large population.

Question 12

describe weaknesses structured observations

Answer 12

· Structured observations can lack validity due to the demand characteristics. When participants know they are being watched they may act differently.

· Observations do not provide information about what participants are thinking or feeling when they act in a particular manner, so research evidence may lack depth and detail behind behaviour.

· There is also the problem of observer bias with observational studies. This occurs if the observers see what they expect or want to see.

Question 13

describe naturalistic/unstructured observations

Answer 13

Most observations where there is no manipulation by the researcher are naturalistic observations. These take place in the participant’s natural setting and are the most common form of observation in psychology. Naturalistic observations take place in the environment of the participant and there is no manipulation of the IV because it is naturally occurring.

Question 14

describe strengths of naturalistic/unstructured observations

Answer 14

· There is ecological validity in natural observations because they take place in a natural environment of the participants so the results are more likely to be realistic.

· Naturalistic observations gather in-depth and detailed data that is usually qualitative, but still quite rich even when quantitative and therefore valid.

Question 15

describe weaknesses of naturalistic/unstructured observations

Answer 15

· In naturalistic observations it is possible that the observer is subjective because they choose what to observe and what to record which may be biased depending on their viewpoint.

· Within naturalistic observations data and findings are not generalisable to all people at all times, as the study is a cross-section of one moment in time.

Question 16

describe participant observations

Answer 16

This is where the observer is actually involved in the group or activity that they are observing and watching. They become part of the group/individuals lives in order to watch their behaviour. For example a researcher might want to observe gang culture and infiltrate the gang in order to find out how the group works

Question 17

describe strengths of participant observations

Answer 17

• Within a participant observation the observers do not affect what is happening as they are involved in the situation. Therefore there is greater ecological validity as the observers do not make the environment unnatural by taking part in what is happening. .
• In natural observations the observers are involved in the group they can often bring additional data to the observation. They also obtain more data as they as they have greater access to the group and are likely to observe things that non-participant observers would miss.
• The observer is already part of the group so there is no problem in gaining access to participants which can be an ethical problem for some research.

Question 18

describe weaknesses of participant observations

Answer 18

• Where non-participant observers can observe all the time, non-participant observers may have other roles to fulfil and so may miss information. They may also have trouble ‘stepping back’ from the situation to make observations, or observations that are objective – so subjectivity may affect the results.
• Participant observations are hard to replicate as the observer is in a unique situation as part of the group. Therefore there is low reliability.
• It is not possible to gain consent in a participant observation as this may affect the behaviour that is to be observed.

Question 19

describe non-participant observations

Answer 19

This is where observers watch the activity or group from outside and are not part of what is happening. For example, an observer may sit at the back of a classroom to observe the effects of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning on the attentiveness of a class

Question 20

describe strengths of non-participant observations

Answer 20

• Within non-participant observations the observer is impartial and objective as they are focusing solely on their one role: observing.
• Non-participant observers are able to make written notes and record more data, more efficiently than participant observers, therefore mistakes or missed information is reduced.
• Non-participant observers can more easily carry out time sampling and tallying which provides more accurate quantitative data which can be more reliable.

Question 21

describe weaknesses of non-participant observations

Answer 21

• The observer is often noticeable and may affect behaviour in the situation being observed. Therefore, observations may lack validity as they are not recording ‘natural’ behaviour.
• The observer may have less of an understanding of the behaviour they are observing than a participant observer as they may lack background information, so conclusion may not be realistic and valid.

Question 22

describe covert

Answer 22

Is when the participants do not know that the observation is taking place and the observer becomes part of the group and those in the group do not know about it.

Question 23

describe strengths of covert

Answer 23

• covert observations are high in ecological validity as the participants behaviour will be natural as they do not know they are being observed.
• covert observations are allow you to dig deeper into the groups behaviour and find lots of realistic and valid data.

Question 24

describe weaknesses of covert

Answer 24

• covert observations are unethical as there is no informed consent, so if they are not carried out in a public place the go against ethical guidelines
• The participant cannot help the observer to get the best results, for example to find the best place to observe from etc, so covert observations can be less practical.

Question 25

describe overt

Answer 25

Is when the participants are aware of all aspects of the study and know they are being observed by the observer.

Question 26

describe strengths of overt

Answer 26

• Informed consent can be gained from the participants within an overt observation and so they have the right to withdraw, these observations are more ethical.
• Overt observers can get help from participants, such as the best vantage point, to get the best results, so are more practical.

Question 27

describe weaknesses of overt

Answer 27

• The participants within an overt observation may not act in a natural way as they know that they are being watched. Therefore the observation is low in validity.
• The overt observers may be watched by the participants so it may be difficult to carry out the observation and get realistic and valid behaviour.

Question 28

strengths of qualitative data:

Answer 28

descriptive nature
allows more depth of analysis
leads to more meaningful conclusions about the participants views
increases validity

Question 29

describe weaknesses of qualitative data

Answer 29

difficult to draw comparisons between groups
difficult to arrive at a reliable conclusion about a specific thing
more time consuming to achieve
not reliable - cannot replicate and achieve same data

Question 30

strengths of quantitive data

Answer 30

standardised methods of collecting data - able to see if there is a trend and be able to repeat - high in reliability
large sample- able to represent and generalise - high in representative and generalisation
inexpensive and time saving- allows to achieve large sample and doesnt cost much and able to gather more data- practical issues
limited ethical issues- not invading anyone’s ideas, not having to deal with sensitive issues- ethical issues

Question 31

weaknesses of quantitative data

Answer 31

cant understand ‘why’ something is changing/ happening- cant go into detail because of statistical data- low validity
researcher imposition- leading questions- cant gain a true picture of society- low validity
truthfulness of findings- dont know who is filling it in. dont know if someone is lying- low validity

Question 32

describe tallying

Answer 32

This is involves marking an appropriate category each time a behaviour is observed. There needs to be an initial observation in order to decide what the categories are in the first place. For example, if an observation was being carried out on gender specific behaviour in a nursery, the observers would first need to look for gender specific behaviour in that particular nursery. They would need to see what toys were available in order to decide on their categories. When they have decided on the categories they can then draw up a table such as the one below. Observers should be trained before the observation to ensure that they are noting the same behaviour.

Question 33

describe event tallying

Answer 33

Event sampling consists of the researcher recoding an event every time it happens. For example, ticking a box every time somebody plays with a toy car. The observer decides in advance what types of behaviour (events) she is interested in and records all occurrences. All other types of behaviour are ignored.

Although behaviours should not be missed as in time sampling, if too many observations happen at once it may be difficult to record everything.

Event sampling is recorded using a tally chart in structured observations when a specific behaviour is being researched.

Question 34

describe time sampling

Answer 34

Time sampling occurs when the researcher decides on a time, say 5 seconds, and then records what behaviour is occurring at that time – this can be a narrative record where holistic behaviour is being recorded – or they observe a predetermined behaviour and whether this is happening at the specified time – this would be recorded quantitatively.

The observer decides in advance that observation will take place only during specified time periods (e.g. 10 minutes every hour, 1 hour per day) and records the occurrence of the behaviour during that period only.

A problem with time sampling is that some behaviours will be missed and therefore the observation may not be representative.

Question 35

what is content analysis

Answer 35

A content analysis is an indirect way of investigating the meanings and messages of a variety of forms of communication. It can be used to analyse speech e.g. interviews and media sources such as TV, web pages and books. It is possible to use this technique to produce either qualitative or qualitative data depending on the ways the material is assessed.

The researcher begins by familiarising themselves with the range of ideas that are expressed in the data. To produce in-depth qualitative data, concepts or themes of interest are identified so that the day can be organised within these themes preserving the diversity of the findings. This is different from purely putting the data into simple categories. Importantly, it can retain unusual but significant examples of responses.

Imagine a researcher exploring transcripts of television news programme.

The transcript might include comments such as:

• The chaos and uncertainty in the country has risen since the war began.
• Aircraft have been grounded and flights cancelled.
• Relief has been evident in all the people who have arrived safely in the country.
• There is a responsibility to help those people who need it.

Some themes might include,

• Fear
• Conflict
• Loss
• Charity

This qualitative analysis is more than just listing examples within themes. The researcher can identify comments which demonstrate each particular theme clearly as well as retaining examples which are uncommon. They look for themes or issues that link to what they are looking for and use them to support or criticise the key ideas.

Data from a content analysis can also be quantitative. Here, too, it is important to operationalise categories but these are used to count up the number of examples falling into each one. For example, in

an analysis of the content of children’s television programmes, a researcher might look for instances of gender stereotyped or gender neutral behaviours.

These categories would need to be clearly defined and the definitions between all raters assessing the material to improve reliability.

An example content analysis is Cumberbatch and Gauntlett (2005).

Using the information on pages 370-371 in Brain, C (2015), summarise this study with a focus on how they conducted their content analysis and give the strengths and weaknesses of their use of this method.

Question 36

describe levels of measurement

Answer 36

· Nominal data: This is when the data are in forms of categories, simply putting the data into sets. For example ‘yes’ and ‘no’ are categories, so is the data that is tallied in the table earlier. This is the lowest level of measurement

· Ordinal data: are ranked data, such as ratings. When data are put into a hierarchy (such as rating how much an item is liked on a scale of 1-10) they are ranked and are ordinal data. This is the ‘middle’ level of measurement

· Interval/ratio data: are data where real measurements are involved for example, temperature, time, height, blood pressure are all examples of interval/ ratio data and they have mathematical meaning. This is important because the inferential tests for interval data involve calculations and provide the highest level of measurement

Question 37

describe carrying out the chi-squared test

Answer 37

A Chi-squared test is used when

· The level of measurement of data is NOMINAL. This is when the data are in forms of categories, simply putting the data into sets. For example ‘yes’ and ‘no’ are categories, so is the data that is tallied in the table earlier. This is the lowest level of measurement

· The hypothesis predicts a DIFFERENCE

· The design is INDEPENDENT MEASURES. This is where different participants are used for each part of the study

The formula to find the Chi-squared result is:

c2 = S (O – E)2

E

Where S = the sum of

O = the observed results

E = the expected results

A Chi-squared test can test lots of different factors, but the most straightforward test is using a two-by-two table.

Question 38

describe levels of significance and degrees of freedom

Answer 38

Degrees of freedom (df): refers to the number of values in the final calculation that are free to vary.

Degrees of freedom are calculated as:

R = number of rows

C = number of columns

So for our table: df = (2x1) x (2x1) = 1 x 1 =1

SO: FOR A TABLE WITH TWO ROWS AND TWO COLUMNS df IS ALWAYS 1

LEVELS OF SIGNIFICANCE:

In Psychology if anything occurs due to chance more than 1 in 20 times then it is not accepted as true.

The statistical tests workout this likelihood for you:

· Results are often accepted as statistically significant if there is a 1 in 20 likelihood or less of the results being due to chance

· Results are nearly always accepted if there is a 1 in 100 likelihood or less of the results being due to chance

· If your results are significant at the probability that 1 in 1000 or less are due to chance then your results will be highly significant

· If your results are more than 1 in 20 likely to be due to chance then you would not accept them as they are not statistically significant

Instead of using 1 in 20 or 1 in 100 levels of significance are usually expressed as decimals:

· 1 in 20 (5 in 100) = 0.05

· 1 in 100 = 0.01

· 1 in 1000 = 0.001

The way of expressing ‘the probability that the results are equal to or less than 1 in 20 due to chance’ is:

p≤0.05

where p = the probability of the results being due to chance.

≤ means less than or equal to and

0.05 means 1 in 20

The probability that results are less than or equal to 1 in 100 due to chance is: p≤0.01

The probability that results are less than or equal to 1 in 1000 due to chance is: p≤0.001

These are all examples of LEVELS OF SIGNIFICANCE

Choosing a level of significance will depend on what is being tested.

If the test has previously been found to be true then p≤0.01 may be used as it would be expected that 1 in 100 or fewer results would be due to chance. If the study has not been done before and it is not known what is expected then a result of 1 in 20 being due to chance (p≤0.05) may be used.

Question 39

describe the bps guidelines for working with animals

Answer 39

Psychologists work with animals for a variety of reasons. The most obvious use is in research, and it is this that has commanded most attention in the general media. Animals are also sometimes used in practical teaching within psychology degree programmes. However, these do not exhaust the possible ways in which psychologists, in their professional capacity, may work with animals. For example, there is increasing use of animals in various forms of psychological therapy with people, or to advise on therapy for animals whose behaviour appears disordered in some way.

Psychologists may also find themselves involved in the training and use of animals for commercial purposes. Many psychological studies involve no more than the observation of the animals, but some research questions cannot be answered adequately without more invasive studies; and all studies of captive animals necessarily involve keeping animals in confinement. Even studies of free-living animals in their natural habitat may involve disruption of their environment, or brief capture for marking or attachment of a tracking or telemetry device.

The BPS, with the active co-operation and involvement of the Experimental Psychology Society, has produced the following guidelines for the use of all members who are engaged in psychological activities involving living animals. The majority of animal use in psychology is in research, and this is covered by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Any scientific procedure that may cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm to a ‘protected’ animal is governed by this Act. Protected animals comprise all non-human vertebrates and a single invertebrate species.

These guidelines will provide an outline of the legal responsibilities of members of the Society whose research is governed by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986; the guidelines should also be taken into consideration where any work is not governed by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, as they may indicate best practice. Psychologists working with animals in ways that are not covered by this legislation should aim to maintain standards at least as high as those suggested here for research use, and should follow the spirit of these guidelines even where the letter cannot strictly be applied.

In addition, especially where work in the UK is not covered by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, psychologists should be aware that they have a more general duty of care towards any protected animal under the Animal Welfare Act (2006).

Our recommendations are general in scope, since the diversity of species and techniques used in psychology preclude giving specific details about appropriate animal care and treatment. Thus members of the Society are reminded of their general obligation to avoid or at least minimise discomfort to living animals. It should be noted that permission to perform procedures regulated under the 1986 Act will not be granted unless the researcher can justify the costs to the animals in relation to the likely benefits of the research.

In addition, when permission to perform a regulated procedure is requested, the researcher is also required to demonstrate that consideration has been given to replacing animals with non-sentient alternatives whenever possible, reducing the number of animals used, and refining procedures to minimise suffering.

Psychologists who work with animals should, therefore, keep abreast of new developments in animal welfare, with new ways of reducing the numbers of animals required for the procedures, and with refining the procedures so as to enhance the welfare of the animals concerned.

These guidelines will be used by the editors of the journals of the Society in assessing the acceptability of submitted manuscripts. Submitted manuscripts may be rejected by an editor if the content violates either the letter or the spirit of the guidelines and the reasons communicated to the author. Members of the Society using animals should consider the guidelines before embarking on a regulated or non-regulated procedure, since any breach may be considered professional misconduct.

The BPS guidelines cover the following key elements of the use of non-human animals in psychological research.

1. Legislation
2. Replacing the Use of Animals
3. Choice of Species and Strain
4. Number of Animals
5. Procedures
6. Procurement of Animals
7. Animal Care
8. Disposal of Animals
9. Animals in Psychology Teaching
10. The Use of Animals for Therapeutic Purposes
11. Clinical Assessment and Treatment of Animal Behaviour

Question 40

strengths of using non-human animals in research

Answer 40

Control: Variables like environment and genetics can be tightly controlled for reliable results.
Short Lifespan: Enables study of development and generational effects quickly.
Biological Similarity: Provides insights into human brain and behavior.
Ethical Alternative: Allows invasive procedures that would be unethical on humans.
Evolutionary Insights: Helps understand shared and unique behaviors across species.
Medical Advances: Leads to treatments for psychological and medical conditions.
Naturalistic Observation: Enables study of behavior in natural settings.

Question 41

weaknesses of using non-human animals in research

Answer 41

Ethical Concerns: Procedures may cause harm or suffering to animals.
Generalizability Issues: Differences between humans and animals may limit applicability.
Reductionism: Oversimplifies complex human behaviors by focusing on biological mechanisms.
Limited Consent: Animals cannot consent, raising ethical dilemmas.
Alternative Methods: Modern technology (e.g., computer models) may replace animal use.

Question 42

ethical benefits of using non-human animals

Answer 42

Ethical Benefits of Using Non-Human Animals
Avoids Harm to Humans: Risky or harmful studies can be done without endangering people.
Informed by Welfare Standards: Research is regulated to minimize unnecessary suffering.
Medical Advancements: Justified by potential benefits to both humans and animal

Question 43

ethical limitations of using non-human animals

Answer 43

Potential Suffering: Animals may experience harm or distress during studies.
Lack of Consent: Animals cannot agree to participate in research.
Speciesism: Raises questions about treating animals as less valuable than humans.