Issues and debates

Question 1

Define: ecological validity

Answer 1

How applicable a study is to everyday life

Question 2

Strengths and weaknesses of ecologically valid research

Answer 2

Weaknesses
Difficult to control variables in the natural environment. • Could be unethical as participants do not know they are in a study. • Can be unreliable as difficult to replicate.
Strengths
Useful as the study is naturalistic so can be applied to everyday life. • Participants do not know they are in a study so results are more natural. • Participants do not know they are in a study so results are more valid.

Question 3

List the advantages of ecologically valid research

Answer 3

a

Question 4

Define: ethics

Answer 4

Guidelines put in place in order to protect the rights of research participants, and protect them from physical or psychological harm

Question 5

Can breaking ethical guidelines be justified?

Answer 5

No:
- Participants will find the experience upsetting
- Will give Psychology a bad reputation
- In the future, people will not want to participate in psychological research
- Studies may not get funding easily
Yes:
-May avoid demand characteristics/social desirability as participants do not know they are in a study
- May be able to study anti-social behaviour as participants will be placed into uncomfortable situations
- Research may be more useful as the studies will be more realistic

Question 6

Define: ethnocentric bias

Answer 6

A distortion caused by a focus on the researcher’s own culture which narrows the appropriateness of the methods when used with participants from other cultures and causes a lack of generalisability of the finding to other cultures.

Question 7

List the problems faced when trying to avoid ethnocentric bias

Answer 7

• difficult to find generalisable sample
• experimenter bias may interfere
• leading questions, social desirability, demand characteristics
• researchers may not realise procedures are irrelevant or impossible to complete due to language or culture problems
• difficult to make reliable study as different cultures may produce different results

Question 8

Explain: individual and situational explanations

Answer 8

A situational explanation is where our behaviour is explained in terms of the situation we are in. For example, we might be aggressive because we were raised in an aggressive home.

An individual explanation is where our behaviour is explained in terms of a person’s disposition and personality. For example, we might be aggressive because that is part of our natural personality.

Question 9

List problems with investigating situational or individual behaviour

Answer 9

• May be difficult to create studies that are ecologically valid.
• May create unethical studies.
• May be difficult to find a representative sample.
• May be difficult to create a valid measuring device.
• Participants may respond to demand characteristics if the study is unnatural.
• The findings may offer a reductionist explanation of social behaviour.
• Difficult to control/identify individual differences.

Question 10

Explain: nature and nurture debate

Answer 10

Whether behaviour is due to biological influences or learning

Question 11

List the problems with investigating whether behaviour is due to nature or nurture

Answer 11

Difficult to distinguish whether behaviour is due to nature or nurture. Studies are often on children which may be unethical. Studies may lack ecological validity. Validity/reliability of measuring devices used. Sample may not be representative. Difficult to find a representative sample. If very realistic may be unethical. If informed consent obtained may be unrealistic. Difficult to control the variables in very realistic studies. Difficult to replicate due to lack of control.

Question 12

List the strengths in investigating nature/nurture

Answer 12

• Provide useful explanations
• Can provide simple explanations of behaviour which are easy to understand
• If research is done in a lab has good control so more reliable and / or valid
• If studies are done on young children / animals lack of demand characteristics / social desirability
• Can show a cause and effect link

Question 13

Define: psychometric test

Answer 13

Mathematical measure of the mind

Question 14

List the advantages of using psychometric tests

Answer 14

Can be ethical as participants are often asked to carry out a straightforward test.
Produces numerical data so comparisons can be made between groups.
Reliable as easy to repeat test at a later stage.
Useful as a diagnostic tool.
Tests have gone through lengthy processes to be created so are valid.
Objective as the responses of the participants are not judged by the psychologist.
Can test a large number of participants easily.

Question 15

List advantages of collecting quantitative data

Answer 15

Easy to compare groups of participants.
Easy to apply statistical tests to the data.
Sometimes easier to interpret
Easy to summarise results
Sometimes faster for the participants to do the study

Question 16

List problems with collecting qualitative data

Answer 16

• Interpreter bias
• Difficult to summarise data
• Social desirability/demand characteristics
• Difficult to analyse data.

Question 17

Define: generalisations

Answer 17

The extent to which one group’s results can be applied to the general population / the situation in the study is realistic

Question 18

List the problems faced when trying to make generalisations from research

Answer 18

• Studies can lack ecological validity
• Samples may be small and not varied - not representative of target population
• Cannot generalise animals to humans
• Data collection methods may be invalid or unreliable
• Operalisation may be invalid
• Not useful
• May get demand characteristics/social desirability if participants know they are in a study.

Question 19

Define: application to everyday life

Answer 19

This is whether research is useful and can improve the lives of people in their day to day lives.

Question 20

Define: snapshot data

Answer 20

Data collected over a short period of time in one place

Question 21

List the advantages and disadvantages of data collected using the snapshot method

Answer 21

Does not show change over time.
Often lab studies as these are quick.
May not be time to give a full debrief.
Cannot collect detailed data.
Often reductionist as data is simplistic.

Question 22

Longitudinal

Answer 22

a

Question 23

adv disadv

Answer 23

a

Question 24

List the problems with using children in research

Answer 24

• Children have poor concentration.
• Cannot do very much when very young (cognitive developments)
• Language/communication problems/difficulty understanding the instructions
• Demand characteristics/social desirability.
• More vulnerable so more ethical issues.
• Difficult to get children as parents may not wish to volunteer their child.

Question 25

List the strengths and weakness of using animals in research

Answer 25

Strengths: - animals do not understand, so no demand characteristics/social desirability - may be better than performing on humans when unethical Weaknesses: - cannot explain their own behaviour - cannot generalise findings to humans - cannot give them right to withdraw / debriefing

Question 26

Define: reductionism

Answer 26

An approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to more fundamental things, resulting in overly simplistic explanations.

Question 27

List the problems faced by psychologists when carrying out reductionist research

Answer 27

- Effect of extraneous variables prevent reductionist explanations / difficult to implement controls - May lack ecological validity - DV in study may not be valid as too simplistic - A complete picture of behaviour not given - Conclusions are not useful as too simplistic

Question 28

Define: determinism

Answer 28

The view that all behaviour is caused by preceding factors (e.g. biological, environmental) and is thus predictable

Question 29

List the problems of deterministic views

Answer 29

- Inconsistent with society's ideas of responsibility and self control that form the basis of our moral and legal obligations. - Studies are often reductionist - Cannot completely predict behaviour due to extraneous variables

Question 30

List the strengths of reliable research

Answer 30

- Studies are often done in a laboratory so therefore are controlled/standardised - Can be replicated at a later date to check consistency - Equipment is often used which is more scientific/accurate - Can be more valid if standardised - Often uses quantitative data which means comparisons can be made/statistics easily used.

Question 31

List the weaknesses of reliable research

Answer 31

- Can lack ecological validity if very standardised as this will be false - Often has quantitative data which lacks depth - Can lead to social desirability/demand characteristics as the standardisation may give away the nature of the study.

Question 32

List the difficulties in carrying out valid research

Answer 32

- Demand characteristics, social desirability Difficult to make studies ecologically valid and reliable - May break ethical guidelines in order to be valid - Quantitative data may not give full picture of behaviour/thoughts and feelings - Qualitative data may be difficult to summarise and important information may be left out