Issues

Ecological Validity:

The extent to which the setting of a study can be relevant to everyday life. For example, research conducted in a laboratory experiment may be considered low in ecological validity because it is not a setting humans are used to.

The concept is that the more familiar a setting is, the lesser chance that participants are going to act according to demand characteristics. Therefore, this makes the research more reliable.

Another term that may be used to refer to ecological validity is ‘mundane realism’ , which is the extent to which the task given to participants can be relevant to everyday life. 

The Application of Psychology to everyday life:

The extent to which a study is useful to the population and everyday life. 

+ The main advantage is that can be used to improve human behaviour and attitudes in some way. 

– A problem may be that some studies might use unethical methods in order to get more valid results.

– It is difficult to conduct studies with high ecological validity – which would be of more use to society – because of extranous and participant variables.

Ethnocentric bias:

This occurs when psychologists view results and responses of a study that used participants not from their ethnic group through the eyes of their own ethnic experiences. Therefore, they might see their ethnic group as superior, which could lead to a misinterpretation of behaviours and conclusions.

Reliability and Validity:

Reliability refers to whether the researchers can carry out the same study in order to see if similar results are found. Therefore, whether a research is replicable.

Validity refers to how accurate the results from a study are compared to the aims of the study.

Psychometrics:

Paper and pen tasks that measure different things e.g. Intelligent quotient tests. These types of tests are standardised, so people can be compared to the ‘norm’ to see how intelligent they are or how much of a personality they have.

+ They are standardised, so they can be seen as more objective and scientific, which increase the reliability.

– There may be problems with validity, as we cannot be certain that tests are measuring what they are supposed to. 

Generalisations:

Refers to how much the findings from a study can be applied to and are representative of the people in the target population.

Snapshot and Longitudinal Data

A snapshot study occurs when data are collected at one point in time using a group of participants. 

+These are time-efficient as it might only take weeks to complete a study, collect all data and analyse them.

+They can be useful to conduct “pilot research” to see whether the methodology and procedure of a study are feasible.

– These studies are not useful in tracking behaviour developments or long-term changes as they only follow people over a short period of time.

– These studies are generally low in generalisability as they only represent the behaviour/opinion of participants in one point in time.

A longitudinal study occurs when the same participants are followed over a long period of time to analyse behaviour/opinion changes.

+ These studies allows analysis of how behaviours may develop over time and its long-term effects.

+ Findings are usually high in validity as the same people are tracked over the time period, meaning that individual differences are likely controlled.

– Sample sizes tend to be small as participants do not like to be followed around for a long-time and may drop out. This decreases the generalisability and validity of findings.

– Subjectivity may affect analysis of data if researches become attached to participants.

Qualitative and Quantitative Data 

Qualitative data is any form of description in words and sentences. They are rich in detail and allow participants to explain their answers.

+ The data are rich and in-dept, and they represent what participants think. Therefore, it can be argued that they are not reductionist.

– Subjectivity can affect the interpretation of the data.

– Researcher bias may occur as psychologists may only select data that fits with their hypothesis.

Quantitative data is any form of number, which can be analysed statistically.

+ The data is numerical, which allows for easier comparison and statistical analysis.

+ Numerical data is objective, therefore there is a smaller chance that they would be miscalculated. This increases validity and reliability.

– As the data is numerical, important information is missed out since it does not show why participants chose a certain answer. Therefore, it can be seen as a reductionist.

The use of children in psychological research

All ethical issues apply to children, however there are extra rules when using children in psychological research.

• Children under 16 years of age cannot give their own informed consent.
• Children under 16 years of age must get parental permission to participate in studies.

The use of animals in psychological research

There are some ethical guidelines and rules for using animals in psychological research:

• The law – psychologists should follow the law about protecting animals.
• Number of animals – the number of animals used should be kept to the minimum amount allowing analysis to be meaningful.
• Social environment – species that are used to be in groups should not be separated and species that are used to be alone should not be put in groups.
• Caging – putting animals in cages should not lead to increased stress levels.
• Pain – no pain should be induced to animals unless it is necessary. In this case, it should be the minimum amount that allows for data to be collected.

Overall, it can be argued that animal research is useful when psychologists cannot conduct research on humans for ethical reasons e.g. inducing pain. However, animals and humans have different physical and psychological make-up; therefore, it is difficult to generalise results.