Due to religious, cultural and political constraints facing psychology, I am going to argue that research is in fact flawed before it even begins.
Attitudes towards alcohol for example, have changed in the UK over time. During the 1930’s women rarely visited pubs; only 16% of pub customers were female (Harrisson, 1943 as cited by Chaplin, 2010.) This is unlike today’s culture where it is the norm to drink for most people; 59% of women drink alcohol once a week- 22% of which drink over the recommended allowance (NHS, 2006). Unlike previously where it may have been difficult to find willing female participants, increased alcohol popularity means opportunity sampling makes data collection quick and easy. However because of society’s attitude change, participants may feel they have to exaggerate how much they actually drink, in order to ‘fit in.’ This is often a limitation of self-report methods of data collection, like the one used in the NHS study described above. A change in cultural norms might make it easier to conduct experiments, but this does not always mean the results will be valid or reliable.
Researching opinions on abortion is still very difficult today, because of the moral stigma and taboo surrounding such a controversial topic. Some countries, such as Mexico have governed legislations prohibiting abortion, unless the new life is the result of a sexual assault. Having an abortion for any other reasons is therefore illegal and results in a prison sentence or fine for the woman. The recent case of the 10 year old Mexican girl, who had to continue with her pregnancy as she could not prove it was caused by rape, brought the government law to light. However researching people’s opinions on such a topic is very difficult because it is not like the western world; freedom of speech is not always apparent. They may be unwilling to participate in a study and express their views in fear of someone finding out. If you do not obtain enough participants any findings may not be truly representative of the target population; research will be unreliable.
However it could be argued such fear is not a reason for participants to resign from participation; psychology ensures anonymity and confidentiality of results. Therefore some may say research is not flawed because of government legislation or religious beliefs. However, when the subject is so sensitive and the consequences (fines and imprisonment) so high, it may be easier to lie or simply not participate in research at all.
To conclude, I believe psychological research is sometimes flawed before it begins. Cultural, religious and legal infringements impose limits on what people want to say therefore prohibiting valid, reliable results and the progression of science. However it could be said the steps psychology has tried to put in place, such as anonymity and confidentiality of results, ensures participants volunteer and give honest answers.
Chaplin, P. (2010, June 4). Interview [Tape recording]. Women, darts and the pub in the interwar period. The National archives.
NHS (2006). Statistics on alcohol: England 2006. Retrieved from http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/alcoholeng2006/StatisticsOnAlcohol300606_PDF.pdf
sarric 
I agree with your blog that research can be sometimes flawed due to cultural restrictions, however I do believe that general psychological research aims to generalise their findings to a ‘normal’ population. A group of individuals that are controlled or regulated by their government or religion does not usually fit into this ‘normal’ band (however unethical that may be). Unless the research aims to study that particular group of people
You drew upon some major ‘worldwide’ concerns in your blog, however, you overlooked the fact that some single individuals can alter a research. i.e. A woman who is highly controlled or abused by her partner would also have problems with expressing their true feelings or opinions due to fear. However, in a normal study this kind of participant would be seen as an outlier, and would probably be removed from the study. Therefore, statistical analysis has a way of monitoring this variance in behaviour and participant responses.
With reference to your comment about female drinking patterns, I do not believe that many people would actually exaggerate their alcohol consumption (not unless you were a swotty student who wanted to be cool amongst their friends), the likelihood is that they would lie about their alcohol consumption, and say that they drank less – seeing as high alcohol consumption is generally frowned upon in western cultures, especially amongst women and specifically mothers.
So, although I believe that you are right in some aspects, I believe that there are ways to eliminate the problems caused by individual difference, and so, although problems can be present at the start of a research, they are not necessarily present at the end.
Your blog makes some very good points in relation to the flaws which come with carrying out different research studies. I want to just add on the point you made about the limited availability of the choice of research carried out and the various opinions on certain research subjects due to culture, religion and ethics. I feel that this is an important issue which should be addressed more often.
For example with relation to different studies and the more in depth research into stem cells, it has been shown to have some flaws. These flaws can not only cause emotional but also physical harm. Stem cell research has been shown to contain a slight risk of allowing for the development of tumours. These tumours can even become more serious/major than the actual disease such as Parkinson’s disease. (http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com).
With relation to research into the likes of abortion or many areas which cover religion, these can be extremely difficult due to the large amount of controversy which is contained within these areas. Therefore, when going into research it is important that the right area is looked at, one which is unlikely to cause conflict before the research has even begun.
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I agree that research may be flawed before it even begins. You talk about how female participants may exaggerate in regards to how much they drink in order to fit in, but they also understate how much they drink so they escape ridicule from peers and try to avoid labels such as “alcoholic”. Either way, we cannot believe results are valid or reliable as participants may not always disclose true answers. This shows good evidence of research being flawed before it begins.
However, the research you talk about is mainly to do with qualitative research, it doesn’t take into account quantitative research. Quantitative research is much more structured, and uses measures that control reliability and validity a lot more closely. Experiments using FMRI scanners and EEG’s use brain activity to find results, therefore participants are less likely to be able to lie. This argues against the theory that research is flawed before it even begins.
Your blog made some interesting points on research being flawed and particularly in relation to people lying for example to fit in however I think the lying can work both ways, in your example about alcohol and women the women could just as easily have lied they don’t drink much, their social circle may disapprove of drinking or they may not want to be seen as someone who drinks too regularly, it’s still a point about research being flawed though.
There are also things like mental illness diagnoses suffering cultural or religious backgrounds for example hearing voices is generally seen as a sign of mental illness, in face it can be labelled as an ‘auditory hallucination’ and be used as part of a diagnosis for schizophrenia however some religions claim they are able to talk to and hear the voice of God, this is even encouraged by some religious practices as a way to get closer to your faith and beliefs, people are praised for hearing the voice of God and actively seek spiritual experiences. Surely this is still, technically speaking, hearing voices and an auditory hallucination? Is this person categorised as suffering from hallucinations simply due to their beliefs and religion? What makes someone hearing the voice of God different to someone hearing the voice of the devil or the voice of a dead relative or a malicious unknown voice?
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hey your blog was very interesting and raised some good points. You made your points come across clearly and it was easy ro read which really helps when we have to do these comments. I agree with your opinion on their being limits to research because there are so many legal and cultural implications to what could be revealed. I think you could have used more quantitative research just to further back up your view point.
psuc98 think the point you made about religion and hearing voices was good. Where is the line between a behaviour that could be perceived as a behaviour linked to mental illness in one situation and from another social circle’s perspective be perceived as normal? For example, I like to talk to my pet rat, I’ll have full conversations with her asif she’s replying, Some would view this as strange, but as my dad talks to the dog and my friends talk to themselves, this is perfectly appropriate behaviour. The point I’m trying to make I guess is, although results can have high external validity and can statistically be generalizable to the public, The results of a study does not necessarily apply for you. I am not mentally Ill, I just like to talk to my pet rat. It is very difficult to generalize results to the public. This is easier, however, if the study is measuring increase in brain activity or reaction time rather than a a behaviour or attitude which is more subjective. So to conclude, I agree that some research is flawed but depending on what sort of research it is.
I compeltely agree with you. For example, if there is a psychological research which is about sexuality or sexual preferences, it is not easy to find muslim participant for this research. Because their religious tell them not to talk about private things ( like sexuality) with others. In this case how can we get reliable and valid results? For Turkey ( where I am from) being a gay or lesbian still not acceptable thing for the population. Researchers want to focus on same sex relationships in muslim countries but most of the research is cancelled by the government.
I feel that you have chosen a very interesting, but also controversial topic, and handled it well. However, I feel that you have only looked at one side of research, and to a certain extent I agree that when dealing with some topics that are taboo in areas of the world it becomes more difficult to conduct the study, and there are experimenter bias from the start, and this can be seen in some areas of research that aren’t controversial, for example, things like funding bias have been shown to effect research from the start.
At the same time tho, there are things people can do to stop this, and that is doing things like double blind experiments. Also not all experiments have bias in place on them, and the amount of experiments that are influences by bias’ is minimum.
So, to conclude, there are influences on some research, but i wouldn’t say research was flawed from the word go…
I tend to agree with your blog, research is flawed before it begins. Yes I agree with the fact that people lie, but it is often not a one way process, as you state people may exagerate alcohol consumption, but they may also not and state they drink less, so this could eventually create a balance. I believe that research, especially psychological is flawed because of representability. Most subject are students, and students do not represent the general public, although they do more now than 30 years ago.
Your blog I believe was more focused on qualatative research, quantative research wouldn’t raise as much of the issues that you mentioned, it is more structured and considerations of validity and reliability are of upmost priority, although this would lead to another discussion about which is best qualatative or quantative research (personally a combination of both is required to get closer to the truth). Both have advantages and disadvantages, and methods to address and lessen complications to research.