RM 3: science and animal research (LT)

Question 1

Strengths

Answer 1

• Animals such as rats and mice breed quickly. This means that we can create large samples of participants and can more easily investigate the heritability of conditions (the extent to which diseases and disorders are passed from parents to children) than we can in humans.
• Animals are often more practical to use in experiments because their behaviour can be monitored closely in controlled situations over long periods of time, which allows experimenters to reduce extraneous variables e.g. the Skinner Box.

Question 2

Weaknesses

Answer 2

• There are considerable differences between the physiology of humans and other animals e.g. humans have a much larger cerebral cortex. This means that we cannot easily generalise the results from animals to humans as their higher executive functioning might lead to differences in behaviour exhibited.
• Human participants can provide qualitative data (e.g. their thoughts, opinions and emotions) during a laboratory experiment that cannot be measured in animal studies in the same way. This means that animal studies are limited in what they can tell us about the causes of behaviour.