Bio A Methodoloy 1
- Created by: Livbrown
- Created on: 27-04-15 09:26
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- Biological A Methodology
- the BA is nomothetic seeking to make general laws of behaviour.
- Laboratory Experiments on animals are on of the methods used to achieve this
- Lab exp on animals provide an objective and scientific approach to understanding behaviour
- They take place under highly controlled, artificial conditions
- Where the experimenter manipulates the IV in order to see it's effect one the DV
- They take place under highly controlled, artificial conditions
- Selyes research on rats led to the GAS.
- In this lab exp on animals the IV was the stressor (exposureto drugs/excessive exercise)
- The DV was the rats response
- In this lab exp on animals the IV was the stressor (exposureto drugs/excessive exercise)
- One strength of this method is that extraneous variable can be controlled.
- such as the animals diet and the amount of social interaction they have
- this is much easier to do with animals then with humans and helps to increase the validity of results
- such as the animals diet and the amount of social interaction they have
- As the Extraneous variabls have been controlled a cause and effect relationship can be established between the IV and DV
- A further strength is that a aide variety of procedures can be used on animals compared to humans
- For example Selye could not have conducted his experiment on humans as this would have been unethical
- therefore experiments on animals provide a way to explore research that cannot be conducted on humans
- For example Selye could not have conducted his experiment on humans as this would have been unethical
- however one major weakness of this methods is that there are important difference between animals and humans
- regarding brain size and structure
- for example the cortex in much larger in humans relative to our size then in other animals
- therefore questioning whether such research should be generalised to humans
- A further weakness relates to the ethical costs of conducting Lab exp on animals
- For example selyes research on rats caused severe pain and distress to the animals
- Although sellyes research on rats was unethical it did lead to an understanding of the body's reaction to stress
- the BA is nomothetic seeking to make general laws of behaviour.
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