It also means the research has ecological validity and can be applied to the wider world. However, the student lifestyle of having little sleep and poor accommodation may have been an alternative source of stress. Another disadvantage is that there was a biased sample used of students. It may not be possible to generalise students’ response to stress compared to the general population. It is seen that having
For example it would be almost impossible to control the variables that may influence a situation and although being able to control the environment/variables may seem like a good thing all its creating is an artificial environment. This is the reason why field experiments are better favored by an interpritivist as an experimental method. There are also many ethical issues regarding the conduction of experiments on human beings as informed consent is necessary from the participants and it is difficult or impossible to get consent of somebody who has learning difficulties or is a baby. Many sociologists choose not
She measured the stress in NK cell activity. Furthermore, she gave the pupils questionnaires to assess psychological variables. This was a good idea because it can control life events and loneliness which improves the validity. From the blood results the NK cell activity was reduced during the exams and especially in participants who reported high level of life events and loneliness in the questionnaire. This proved Kiecolt-Glaser’s theory that stress reduces the immune function.
These findings support the biological explanation as it suggests that depression has a genetic factor. However, as all the pairs twins which were used in the study were raised in the same environment, the depression may have been learned or copied from another family member; therefore, this piece of research cannot be seen as valid. Also, this study could be said to lack reliability as it used a small sample size. Furthermore McGuffin et al’s research could be seen as reductionists as they are over simplifying the complexities of depression. In addition to this, some psychologists also argue that the genetic explanation to depression is deterministic as it claims that if an individual’s family members have depression, then they are definitely going to have depression.
The results showed that those who saw the violent version were less accurate in recalling information about the crime. This links back o Yerkes Dodson Law as it says that the more anxious you are, the less you are able to recall. The disadvantages of Loftus and Loftus and Burns are that they aren’t methodologically valid as it was a lab experiment and not a real life situation; also it wasn’t ethically valid as they were making people upset and deceiving people. Although there is research evidence to back up the Yerkes Dodson Law, there is also research evidence going against it. Yuille and Cutshall wanted to investigate eyewitness testimony in a real life setting.
This means that it is expensive and can only be commenced with specialist supervision. The aim with biofeedback is to reduce symptoms associated with stress, such as reducing heart rate or muscle tension. This can be a disadvantage as it does not treat the source of stress. However, it does provide the patient with longer lasting means of dealing with stress symptoms by applying relaxation
1) Describe one way in which Milgrams research is unethical. Milgram did not obtain informed consent from his participants and deceived them. Milgrams participants did not know the true purpose of the experiment as they thought the study was investigating punishment on learning rather than obedience. They therefore could not give informed consent. This is a limitation because it raises ethical concerns and would not be acceptable under the current BPS (British Psychological Society) guidelines for conducting research.
HPSY401 – HEALTH BEHAVIOUR CRITICALLY EVALUATE ANY MODELS ON HOW TO BREAK BAD NEWS Bad news may be defined as “any information which adversely and seriously affects an individual's view of his or her future”. (Placek JT, Eberhardt TL 1996). Buckman (1984) considers bad news to be ‘news that alters a person’s view of the future: drastically and negatively’, Bad news is always, however, in the “eye of the beholder,” such that one cannot estimate the impact of the bad news until one has first determined the recipient's expectations or understanding. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in developing specific educational initiatives to prepare healthcare professionals in breaking bad news. While most initiatives have previously focused on medical staff, some now offer training to a wider range of healthcare professionals (Blok et al, 1999).
It has been criticized to be too complex and sophisticated for some of the sex offender population. It has been argued that the treatment’s main focus should not be to avoid certain triggers, but to set goals and healthy coping mechanisms (Saleh, et al., 2009). Avoidance strategies can be very difficult and hard to stick with, and results in lowering the self esteem of the offender. Another weakness of the didactic treatment models is that they do not take into account individual factors and treatment may not be really effective because of this (Saleh, et al., 2009). Chemical castration is aimed to reduce recidivism in sex offenders, as it has been thought that reducing or suppressing the production of testosterone will suppress an individual’s deviant fantasies, sex drive, sexual behavior, and
The immune system is there to protect the body from infections and viruses and research has been carried out that shows that, stress can suppress the immune system. The immune system may become under-vigilant; which lets in infections or over-vigilant which could make us ill. A study that tried to test the idea of stress suppressing the immune system was the Marucha et al experiment in 1998. Marucha was trying to test the effect an acute stressor had on the immune system. They inflicted a ‘punch biopsy’ in the mouths of students during the summer holidays and recorded how long it took to heal, then did the same thing 3 days before an exam. The results were that the wounds inflicted 3 days before the exam took 40% longer to heal than the holiday wounds.