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WJEC Psychology PY3: Issues in Research

Hello, I'm currently learning the Issues in Research topic, but am slightly confused about what the exam wants. I know you need to give an example from previous research (e.g. PY2 studies) but do you need to do any evaluation e.g. criticism.

e.g. for the disadvantages of the scientific method topic for one disadvantage I put something like "One disadvantage of the scientific method is that it is reductionist, it reduces the cause of human behaviour to several simple categories. This is a disadvantage because it negates the complexity of human behaviour, rendering the researcher unable to study the complex interactions between several different elements, this oversimplification could mean the researcher is not studying what they are wanting to. For example McGuffin studies 177 probands with depression, and concludes depression is reduced simply to genes.

I know the example is not strong (any ideas), but do I need to do any more, e.g. put criticisms of McGuffin + saying why reductionism can be good?

Cheers in advance :-)

Reply 1

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Reply 2

Christie Harding

Original post by Sammy96

hi,
for this i wrote,

" one disadvantage of the scientific method is that i can be reductionist. this is a disadvantage because the result of reductionism is that something is oversimplified that shouldn't be and in doing so, we're no longer studying what was meant to be studied.
in order to conduct psychological research, behaviour must be reduced to a set of individual operationalised variables.
for example, Loftus and Palmer's study reduces memory down to the eye witness of car crashes. "

( apologies for bad grammar i'm typing quick :biggrin:

)

Reply 3

SanyaJb

Is this for py3? (WJEC board)

Reply 4

Christie Harding

Original post by SanyaJb

Is this for py3? (WJEC board)

yes it is

Reply 5

SanyaJb

Original post by Christie Harding

yes it is

I just re-read the answers above.
My example for reductionist is:

"For example, Langer and Rodin's research into well-being, a behaviour that was considered to be undesirable on the measure of well-being is isolation. If the elderly patients did not attend movie night or would stay in their own rooms, then this was considered to deteriorate their well-being. However, when an interview using open questions, which is unscientific was used, it was found that the patients felt they had the most control in their own room and were therefore happier, showing that the quantitative scientific method had missed this.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 6

beanie1995

My example for the reductionist disadvantage is :

a disadvantage of using the scientific method is that 'total control is never possible' as stated by Thomas Kuhn (1970). It is proposed that all scientists are accustom to their own field and think of the world in a certain way. However, this can influence what they investigate, what methods they use and the theoretical explanations they develop to explain the results generated. Therefore it is difficult to maintain true objectivity as there as there is always some regard to subjectivity. An example is HM, a patient who suffered severe memory loss from psychosurgery. There may be subjectivity as a cognitive psychologist would only look at the cognitive aspects. Furthermore, there is also a disadvantage in the ignorance of subjective experience. Participants are treated as passive and there is emphasis on recording one aspect of behaviour, which may lead to superficial or shallow data collection. An example is the schizophrenia/dopamine theory. The distress to the patient and effect on behaviour is not regarded but instead dopamine levels are measured and correlated to this behaviour. Thus other contributing factors to behaviour are possibly ignored due to this oversimplification.