Research Challenges
Ethics of Research
Human behavior is derived from all kinds of motives. Ethical motivations, perhaps based on religious or philosophical perspectives, persuade us that subjects of research shouldn't be harmed, physically or psychologically, by the research pro- cedure. A common principle of ethical research is called informed consent. People should be told what the research is for and what discomforts, if any, may be involved. A basic principle of informed consent is that prospective research subjects can "just say no."
Should Animals Be Used in Research?
In fact, quite a lot of psychological research has been based on findings derived from observing animal behavior.
Behaviorist B.F. Skinner based a lot of his theoretical concepts on the behavior of lab rats and pigeons. Two main questions are raised by reliance on animals in research: To what extent can we generalize animal behavior to human behavior? What constitutes cruelty to animals? There are no simple and easy answers to either question.
Experimental Validity
Research findings may or may not be valid. As an informed information "consumer," you should understand this. Science can't be based on opinion; it must be based on empirical (observable and measurable) data. The purpose of the research must be clear. If it's meant to support or refute a theory,
for example, that must be made explicit. The study must be properly conducted-as in the proper procedures for conducting an experiment. The results or findings must represent the actual data, not the researcher's opinion or bias.
Experimental bias may weaken the validity of research findings. Basically, bias means seeing what we expect to see. In the case of experimenter expectations, findings may be biased when a researcher "telegraphs" what he or she expects to see from research subjects. Since research subjects are typically
in a "peasant-to-lord" relationship, this sort of thing may lead to participant expectations bias. That is, the subjects will tend to produce behaviors and responses that the researcher seems to favor. And this sort of thing, which results from human impulses to conform to social expectations, may happen below the level of conscious awareness.
Sometimes circumstances that we don't expect influence the outcome of experiments. The placebo effect is one these unexpected circumstances. The placebo effect occurs mostly in medical experiments, although it has also occurred in psychotherapy. In the placebo effect, people who take a placebo (a fake medicine) experience the same benefits from the drug as the people who are taking the real medicine. In other words, people who think they're getting a remedy (though they're not) may still show signs of improvement.
To overcome the confusion caused by the placebo effect, subjects may not be informed as to whether they're taking the placebo or the actual drug. This is called a single-blind experiment. In a double-blind experiment, neither the patient nor the experimenter administering the pills knows who's getting a drug or who's getting a placebo.
Reference
Psychology_and_your_Life_Ch04.pdf
Psychology_and_your_Life_Ch121.pdf