Psychology Research Methods Essay Questions

(Problems are split into Point/ Example/Concluding comment) 

Problem 1 

P - Realistic research conducted in real settings may involve distressing or embarrassing participants 

E – Milgram’s electric shock machine and fake screams were so realistic that participants really believed that they were administering electric shocks on another person. Participants found this distressing. 

C – Distressing participants breaks the ethical guidelines laid down by the British Psychological Society. 

Problem 2 

P - What do we mean by realistic situations? 

E- Zimbardo attempted to create a realistic prison, but Participants may have different ideas on what constitutes a realistic prison. 

C- One participant may experience an artificial experimental situation as if it was real and another may not. 

Problem 3 

P - Often ecologically valid research is conducted in real situations and may use methods such as observation and field experiment. 

E- Piliavin set his research on a real life train. The scenarios therefore couldn’t be easily controlled 

C- This means that there is a lack of control over the situation and this can make drawing conclusions very difficult. 

Problem 4 

P - It may be difficult to replicate the study 

E- Recreating Piliavin’s study would have been difficult as it was set in the field and it would be difficult to recreate those exact surroundings 

C - It is important to be able to replicate a study to check and expand findings. 

Informed Consent: Some experiments wouldn’t work if participants knew the full aim. 

E.g. – In Milgram’s study, if Participants knew that the study was about obedience, rather than learning and punishment, they would focus on obedience and their behaviour would be unnatural. 

Deception: Sometimes it is necessary to deceive Participants in order to make an experiment work 

E.g. – If the participants in Milgram’s study had known that the electric shock machine was fake, the task would not have worked. Obeying the authority figure would have been meaningless. 

Protection from Physical and Mental Harm: Sometimes unintentionally harm is caused to participants. 

E.g. – Milgram never expected Participants to obey the authority figure and administer strong electric shocks. Any harm was unexpected. 

Right to withdraw: Reminding Participants of the right to withdraw may affect the validity of some experiments. 

E.g. – Milgram could not remind the participants of the right to withdraw because his experiment was on obedience and the nature of the task was to encourage participants to continue to give electric shocks. 

The experiment would not have worked if he had both urged them to continue and at the same time told them that they could withdraw from the experiment.