Issues related to socially sensitive research

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A2 Psychology Mind Map on Issues related to socially sensitive research, created by Hannah Martin on 21/06/2017.
Hannah Martin
Mind Map by Hannah Martin, updated more than 1 year ago
Hannah Martin
Created by Hannah Martin almost 7 years ago
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Issues related to socially sensitive research
  1. Social sensitive research is research that has negative implications for the participants and/or for the group they represent, beyond the study itself. There are areas of research that affect people in more serious ways than others.
    1. Although socially sensitive research can give findings that are a threat to others and upsetting, it is research that should be done. This is because such research is likely to relate to people that are seen as having low status in a society. The issue is making sure that such research is handled carefully.
    2. Socially sensitive research is likely to attract attention of the media and general public, this must be taken into account when planning and carrying out a study.
      1. Ethics for treating participants focus a lot on doing no harm and maintaining confidentiality. Researchers have a duty of care and if a young person reveals something during a study that suggests they or someone else might come to harm, the researcher has to breach confidentiality. The researcher may have to make a judgement about the likely harm and the wish to maintain confidentiality and privacy.
        1. Siber and Stanly 1988 – issue of the context of the research that is carried out. If the institution has power over the participants, they may be affected by any fallout.
          1. Interpretation and application of research findings. Research findings and how they are used can go beyond what the researcher intended. Findings in psychology are used in society and that use is often in a socially sensitive area, which researchers must take into account as far as they can.
            1. McCosker et al 2001 thought that socially sensitive research is important and should be carried out but there must be safeguards, such as careful interviewing and having counsellors on hand to recognise stress in participants and possibly to stop the interview.
      2. Looking for explanations of anorexia nervosa Crisafulli et al 2008 – people judged the illness differently if they read about a biological or genetic cause or if they read about a sociocultural explanation. People who read the biological or genetic explanation tended to blame people with the illness less than if they read that social and cultural reasons caused the illness.
        1. Studying the brains of murderers: Raine et al 1997 The brains were found to differ from the controls and this can be taken to mean there is no responsibility for the violent actions, which would then not have been planned and deliberate perhaps. There are consequences for the participants and for the wider population. These are not necessarily negative consequences because if someone’s biology is to blame perhaps they will be treated better by society.
          1. Research into prejudice and personality It was found that people with a right-wing authoritarian personality trait are more prejudiced, as Chors et al 2012 suggested, then people might turn against those with that personality or the behaviour that personality relates to. Alternatively, prejudice can turn into in-group or out-groups. Guimond et al 2013 found multicultural approaches to other cultures in a country led to less prejudice than countries using an assimilation approach might be criticised or ostracised by societies that wish to reduce prejudice.
            1. Diagnosis of mental disorders Treatment follows diagnosis, so if the diagnosis is wrong, treatment will be wrong as well. If someone is diagnosed incorrectly and if diagnosis leads to labelling, that can cause someone a lot of difficulties. Rosenhan found that people who had basic symptoms of schizophrenia were quickly diagnosed and put on medicine. His research was socially sensitive because as it showed that the staff in a mental hospital did not recognise good mental health in the patients. The study had important implications for such hospitals.
        2. Rosenhan 1973 showed that hospitals labelled people mentally unwell and did not recognise good mental health in people once they were labelled or diagnosed as having a mental disorder.
          1. Raine et al 1997 found the people pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to murder had brain differences compared to a control group. There are social implications in the findings of the study, which were taken to mean that people are not to blame for any violence because their brain structure and functioning are the cause.
            1. Guimond et al 2013 found that multiculturalism led to less prejudice than assimilation, which is a socially sensitive result because it might put pressure on countries using an assimilation approach to change to a multicultural one.
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