Question

“Even if psychological research cannot be completely objective, psychologists should try to make their research as objective as possible, and should try to minimize the influence of their values in the research process.”  Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What do you think are the advantages and the disadvantages of this point of view? Include an example of possible psychological research (this could be something you make up) when discussing the merits and limits of objectivity in research.

Answer 1

Yes, I agree to the point that Pyschological research should be as much objective as possible though it's not quite possible to make it completely objective. We also need subjective research as well but we should rely more on objectivity and less on subjectivity though both should be present.

Advantages of objective reasearch are that they are based on facts and figures, are measurable and can be observed and analyzed.

Disadvantages are that they are completely based on data but lack emotions, personal opinions, and views of the Psychologist doing the study. There are many times where the experience of the Psychologist and their views count and we cannot just merely reduce a Psychological research to just facts and figures. Human beings carry emotions, and its important to study them as well.

An example of an objective study where we can discuss the merits and demerits are the study of serial killers.

Merits of objective research:

If we make an objective research and go by numbers, we will find that majority of the killers have gone through severe traumatic experiences in their childhiood and adolescence. For example, a serial woman killer would have gone through severe traumatic experiences from women in childhood like a harsh and cheating mother, a mother stabbing her husband with the child witnessing it etc and that same child becomes a serial woman hater and killer. So, if we consider facts and figures and metrics, we can on an average come to the conclusion that serial killers have traumatic psychological conditions and bitter experiences in their childhood and adolescence period.

Limitations of objective research:

An objective study is not enough. This is because, many times the serial killers simply kill for sadistic and intense thrill and pleasure and it is necessary to study the emotions and personality traits of the serial killers. Going by numbers does not always help.