Practical issues in the design

• (social) demand characteristics are common issue with results.
• (social) milgram's research lacked mundane realism
• (social) questionnaires have problems with social desirability bias.
• (learning) many studies involve animals which are different to humans so may not be representative of human behaviour.
• (biological) Brain scans take place in artificial and controlled settings so the brain may respond differently in naturalistic setting.
• (clinical) Access of sample causes issues as participants are often limited number or vulnerable.
• (clinical) Diagnosis issues with the DSM or ICD linking to reliability and validity of diagnosis.
• (child) ainsworth's strange situation study is ethnocentric.
• (child) most research conducted into autism is on children, not adults. So treatment focuses on child brain not adult which may be different.
• PRACTICAL ISSUES IN ANIMAL RESEARCH

  • Cost
  • Danger
  • Space
  • Supervision
• Supervision: Researchers can go home for the weekend and human participants can have “time off” but animals need to be cared for continuously, so someone has to visit them, feed and water them and possibly release them and interact with them for social time.
• Space: Animals are typically small and take up less space than human participants. However, if they are to be given the space suitable to the needs of their species, so that they can maintain territory and feel secure, then much more room needs to be set aside for them.
• Danger: Animals can bite and scratch and even lab-raised animals can carry diseases (indeed, research animals may be deliberately infected with diseases). This can be a danger to human researchers. Connected to this is the need to keep the research area clean and the animals free from stress that would make them aggressive.
• Cost: Animals don’t have to be paid, unlike human participants. However, the cost of buying lab animals from a Home Office approved supplier can be considerable. Then there is the cost of feeding them and keeping their housing at the right temperature.