General Evaluations for any Psychology Essay
A weakness of the study is that it is androcentric (a study with only males)/ oestrocentric (a
study with only women) so the results will be less generalisable. This is because only
studying one gender’s behaviour means it cannot be applied to the other.
A weakness of the study is that it is ethnocentric (only one culture was studied), this is a
problem as cultures affect the behaviours of individuals who adopt them. This means the
results will not be generalisable across the general population.
A strength of the study is that it was done in a laboratory setting, meaning it is an extremely
controlled environment where independent and dependent variables can be controlled.
Thus a cause-and-effect relationship can be established. However, laboratory experiments
are not reflective of what occurs in real life so they have low ecological validity.
A strength of the study is that the participants were unaware of the true nature of the
experiment. This reduces demand characteristics and will increase the validity of the study’s
results. However, if the participants are deceived the study isn’t entirely ethical this can be
overcome by giving a debrief after the study is complete and offer post-study counselling is
any psychological harm was inflicted on the participant.
A weakness of the study is the lack of extraneous variables. Due to this lack of control there
is no complete certainty over the cause-and-effect relationship of the variables. This reduces
the reliability of the study’s results.
A weakness of the study is that it lacks temporal validity, meaning the study was conducted
in a different time period to the one the results are being applied to. This reduces the
generalisability of the results as society changes a lot over time and so do the people
meaning the results may not be applicable to those in modern society.
A weakness of the study is that it is androcentric (a study with only males)/ oestrocentric (a
study with only women) so the results will be less generalisable. This is because only
studying one gender’s behaviour means it cannot be applied to the other.
A weakness of the study is that it is ethnocentric (only one culture was studied), this is a
problem as cultures affect the behaviours of individuals who adopt them. This means the
results will not be generalisable across the general population.
A strength of the study is that it was done in a laboratory setting, meaning it is an extremely
controlled environment where independent and dependent variables can be controlled.
Thus a cause-and-effect relationship can be established. However, laboratory experiments
are not reflective of what occurs in real life so they have low ecological validity.
A strength of the study is that the participants were unaware of the true nature of the
experiment. This reduces demand characteristics and will increase the validity of the study’s
results. However, if the participants are deceived the study isn’t entirely ethical this can be
overcome by giving a debrief after the study is complete and offer post-study counselling is
any psychological harm was inflicted on the participant.
A weakness of the study is the lack of extraneous variables. Due to this lack of control there
is no complete certainty over the cause-and-effect relationship of the variables. This reduces
the reliability of the study’s results.
A weakness of the study is that it lacks temporal validity, meaning the study was conducted
in a different time period to the one the results are being applied to. This reduces the
generalisability of the results as society changes a lot over time and so do the people
meaning the results may not be applicable to those in modern society.
