Research Evaluation Essay

Research Evaluation Essay – Marishka Nicol Magness

Counting the time it takes for the subjects to lie with open-ended questions, yes/no questions and also counting the time within answering the questions with a lie. The weakness of this method in general would be that the subjects have knowledge about the experiment and this might affect their behavior while carrying out the experiment due to nervousness and/or conscious or subconscious changes to their natural actions and reactions. But this method allows the experiment to show the difference, although not entirely clear, between the time difference of a lie and the truth. The reliability of the experiment was fairly strong due to the fact that questions asked ranged from common questions to questions that required the exposure of personal and possibly embarrassing information of the subject’s life. The contrast of open-ended questions to yes/no questions also generalizes the experiment and increases the reliability of it. More than one observer was used but we do not know if their judgments were similar due to the fact that the results were calculated using a computer software. The research was done with more than one participant and the study is replicable The researchers measured what they wanted to measure generally but they did not measure it entirely due to the fact that they only used a specific races for this experiment, therefore the cultural and environmental variables was not excluded and could’ve or maybe has interfered with the results.The participants are aware of the nature of the research and they could’ve changed or altered their behavior unnaturally which could’ve interfered with the results as well.The researcher only used psychology undergraduates of a certain race, therefore there was researcher biasness. The results that they have achieved might not be applicable to the general public. The sample used in the study was not entirely appropriate due to the fact that the culture and the gender of the subjects were not random or genera, therefore the results cannot be applied to the general public. The location used was artificial and therefore could’ve affected the results. The research has told us that we require more time to think and decide before we lie and that has led us to a slightly deeper understanding to the human behavior, and might have a practical application in our daily life. There was no violation of the BPS/APA guidelines. The subjects were asked about personal information and they were required to provide embarrassing information. I found it to be unethical.