Answer

Advantage 1

P – Cognitive Psychology is very scientific

E –Baron and Cohen’s study is scientific. It is set in a laboratory and it is very controlled.

C – Being scientific increases Psychology’s status as a science

Advantage 2

P – Cognitive Psychology has practical applications

E – Loftus and Palmer’s study tells us that when interviewing witnesses we should be careful about the wording of the question as it can distort memory.

C – Practical applications justify time and money spent on research.

Disadvantage 1

P - Cognitive Psychology uses lots of lab research which is low in ecological validity.

E – Seeing car crashes on television in Loftus and Palmer’s study is a very different experience from seeing real car crashes

C – Low Ecological validity = Less easy to apply results to everyday life.

Disadvantage 2

P – Cognitive Psychology uses the case study method to look in more depth at cognition. The disadvantage here is that case studies lack generalisability

E- Gardner and Gardner’s research involved just one Chimpanzee. It is possible that this Chimpanzee was different to other Chimpanzees.

C-Case study information can only be applied to that participant and therefore findings are less applicable to the whole population = less useful

P = Point / E = Example / C = Concluding point