to drive us towards attaining those rewards. This is
evolutionary explanations of human behavior; if we don't have
sex our genes won't be passed on
MAGEC Methodological Considerations:
Strengths:
This is a highly controlled clinical method of obtaining data
and Fisher and her colleagues checked objectivity at every
stage of the procedure.
Identification of the reward centres of the brain support the
idea that human beings may have an evolved brain system
which ensures that they become 'hooked' on an individual,
which increases the possibility of them reproducing.
The standardised procedure means that the study is replicable,
which increases its reliability.
Limitations
The small sample size of 17 participants means that the results
are not very meaningful and may not be robust in terms of
statistical analysis.
The sample comprised relatively young students from the same
university, which also limits generalisability.
Additionally, it is overly reductionist to use brain scans to
determine how romantic love is experienced: there may be a
range of other factors involved, such as similarity, same
upbringing, shared ideals, cultural influences.
So little is really known about the brain that there may be other
explanations for the activation of the reward centres during the
fMRI scan - perhaps the participants were simply excited to be
in a brain scanner for the first time and this stimulated the
dopamine-rich areas.
Scanning participants' brains is clearly an artificial task, which
means that the results are low in ecological validity. Use of fMRI
scans is also an expensive way to collect data, which is
possibly why the sample is so small.
Gender
The gender ratio is almost perfectly balanced and hence the
generalisability is not limited because of Gender.
15
evolutionary explanations of human behavior; if we don't have
sex our genes won't be passed on
MAGEC Methodological Considerations:
Strengths:
This is a highly controlled clinical method of obtaining data
and Fisher and her colleagues checked objectivity at every
stage of the procedure.
Identification of the reward centres of the brain support the
idea that human beings may have an evolved brain system
which ensures that they become 'hooked' on an individual,
which increases the possibility of them reproducing.
The standardised procedure means that the study is replicable,
which increases its reliability.
Limitations
The small sample size of 17 participants means that the results
are not very meaningful and may not be robust in terms of
statistical analysis.
The sample comprised relatively young students from the same
university, which also limits generalisability.
Additionally, it is overly reductionist to use brain scans to
determine how romantic love is experienced: there may be a
range of other factors involved, such as similarity, same
upbringing, shared ideals, cultural influences.
So little is really known about the brain that there may be other
explanations for the activation of the reward centres during the
fMRI scan - perhaps the participants were simply excited to be
in a brain scanner for the first time and this stimulated the
dopamine-rich areas.
Scanning participants' brains is clearly an artificial task, which
means that the results are low in ecological validity. Use of fMRI
scans is also an expensive way to collect data, which is
possibly why the sample is so small.
Gender
The gender ratio is almost perfectly balanced and hence the
generalisability is not limited because of Gender.
15
