Socially Sensitive Research

Question 1

What is socially sensitive research?

Answer 1

1. Findings from psychological research may highlight social issues that creative negative effects or reactions in society,
2. Might lead to certain groups of people being stigmatised, or even to laws being passed that put some people at a disadvantage,
3. This is known as socially sensitive research. It can be defined as research that may have implications for the individuals in the research, or for groups in society.

Question 2

Issues raised from research into genetic influences?

Answer 2

1. Research into whether there are genetic influences on criminal behaviour could have important consequences. For example, genetics could be used as a defence against being convicted for a crime, or could be used to stigmatise people who have the relevant genes even if they haven’t shown any antisocial behaviour,
2. Also, there is the possibility of compulsory genetic testing to identify people with a particular gene,
3. Such screening could also identify genes linked to psychological disorders such as schizophrenia,
4. Although this may potentially help people it could also lead to anxiety and social stigma, especially as people may have a genetic vulnerability for a disorder but not actually develop it.

Question 3

Race as an independent variable; problems caused?

Answer 3

1. Some studies using IQ tests have shown possible racial differences in intelligence,
2. The issue is whether this is an appropriate topic for research because of social tensions that the results and conclusions may produce,
3. Such research is often discredited because of methodological problems with the IQ tests that were used. For instance, they may have been biased towards some social-cultural groups. An example of this is an IQ test developed by Yerkes (1917). Many of the questions in the test required cultural knowledge of the US, therefore, lower scores were due to a lack of culturalisation, rather than low intelligence.