Alternative Methods

Cognitive Psychology
Loftus & Palmer (1974)
Aim: To investigate if leading questions can distort memory in a lab experiment.
Alternative: Observation in a real courtroom to see if people’s memory can be affected by leading questions.

Baron-Cohen (1985)
Aim: To investigate ToM in high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome.
Alternative: Use real people instead of photos to increase the ecological validity of the study.

Savage-Rumbaugh
Aim: Investigating spontaneous symbol acquisition and communication use by pygmy chimpanzees showing that they have the
cognitive ability to learn a language.
Alternative: Field study in the wild increasing ecological validity.

Developmental Psychology
Samuel & Bryant (1984)
Aim: See if asking two questions influenced the findings in relation to a child’s ability to conserve.
Alternative: You could use a case study of one child over a few years and see exactly when they gain the ability to conserve
and use more recognisable items.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961)

Aim: To see if children will imitate aggressive behaviour of different role models.
Alternative: Longitudinal study of children who have been exposed to violence in the home and compare against children who
haven’t. This could include self-report, observations and looking at official statistics.

Freud (1909)
Aim: Investigating the progression through the Oedipus complex.
Alternative: A snapshot study looking at different groups of children between 4 and 12 and use self-reports to see what their
experiences of the Oedipus complex is.

Individual Differences
Griffiths (1994)
Aim: To investigate the role of cognitive bias and skill in fruit machine gambling.
Alternative: Look at a different form of gambling which includes a more balanced gender profile (bingo) and covertly listen
into the verbalisations of those while playing.

Rosenhan (1973)
Aim: To investigate the reliability of psychiatrists’ diagnosis of insanity.
Alternative: Using a self-report questionnaire we could send to all doctors giving them scenarios (I’m hearing voices – hollow,
thud, empty) and asking on a scale of 1-10 how likely they would be to put them into the hospital.

Thigpen & Cleckley (1954)

Aim: To investigate MPD
Alternative: Observe loads of people with MPD in a mental institution and see what happens to them – how many personalities
they have etc …

Physiological Psychology
Dement & Kleitman (1957)
Aim: To look at correlations between REM sleep and dreaming.
Alternative: Observations in the home of the participants rather than in a lab setting to improve the ecological validity.

Sperry (1968)
Aim: To investigate the effects of hemisphere disconnection and the lateralisation of function.
Alternative: Compare the epileptic patients who have had a split brain operation with other epileptics rather than ‘normal’
people.

Maguire (2000)
Aim: To investigate the relative size of the hippocampi of London taxi driers compared to non-taxi drivers.
Alternative: Use a case-study or longitudinal study method to investigate the changing of the size of hippocampi over the
duration of a career driving taxies. From pre-‘the knowledge’ to retirement.

Social Psychology
Milgram (1963)
Aim: To investigate obedience to authority figures.
Alternative: Observation of students in a classroom to requests of a teacher.

Reicher & Haslam (2006)

Aim: To investigate the effect of social roles, legitimacy, permeability and cognitive alternatives on behaviour in a prison.
Alternative: Observation / self-reports from real prisoners and prison guards. Case-study or longitudinal approach.

Piliavin (1969)
Aim: To investigate diffusion of responsibility
Alternative: Use a questionnaire asking people on a scale of 1-10 how likely they would be to help out in different situations.