We are going to be discussing the claim that technology has played a decisive role in the development of psychological research. We will be looking at, the different ways in which advances in technology have influenced the ways in which we conduct psychological research and also consider alternative viewpoints regarding the role of technology in psychology. First, we will be looking at Stanley Milgram (banyard, 2012, p.69) and his work on the obedience studies and the replication studies that followed. Second, we will be looking at research on friendship by Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) and the role technology has influenced the way people engage with their friends. Third, we will be looking at research on the structure and functions of the brain,
…show more content…
Some of the following replications involve the use of technology and some do not. First, Milgram 's research was carried out on a sample that consisted entirely of men, so Milgram himself addressed this issue by carrying out an identical study to the original one, but with female participants with further replications of Milgram 's study being conducted, with varying results. Second, Don Mixon (1972) carried out a study where he used a role playing method with participants acting out the parts of 'learner ' and 'teacher '. Third, Charles Hofling et al. (1966) investigated how far nurses would go in giving patients a fatal dose of medication on demand from a doctor (Banyard, 2012, p. 85). A bottle of dummy pills were put into a medicine cabinet in the ward, remarkably even though this request broke hospital procedure, twenty one out of twenty two nurses followed the order and prepared the fatal dose for the patient. It seems that the word of an authority figure is enough to override hospital rules. Finally, Mel Slater and colleagues (2006) replicated the obedience study in a virtual environment, just like in the obedience study. This virtual experiment allowed the researchers to observe the behaviour of people in real situations, although the participants were fully aware …show more content…
Comparably the development of internet technologies means that individuals can communicate online in various ways such as email, forums and webcam video, this means that it has become easier to maintain and even develop relationships online over long distances. The emergence of social networking websites has created new ways of developing and maintaining friendships online, this use of technologies may lead to the questioning of our understanding of friendship and the potentially damaging effects of excessive use of social networking sites (Brownlow, 2012, p. 266). Something else to consider is the cultural differences in understanding, friendship and how online friendships show this as most of the communication online is still conducted in English, as is the research in this area, if such research was limited to online methods, these populations would be excluded (Brownlow, 2012, p. 267). However, Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) could not have known that sometime in the future children would be as likely to interact with online friends as friends in the playground, this is an example of the way new technologies and the changing way of how people interact, brings about new challenges for psychologists to address. We will now look at research on the structure and
Some of the following replications involve the use of technology and some do not. First, Milgram 's research was carried out on a sample that consisted entirely of men, so Milgram himself addressed this issue by carrying out an identical study to the original one, but with female participants with further replications of Milgram 's study being conducted, with varying results. Second, Don Mixon (1972) carried out a study where he used a role playing method with participants acting out the parts of 'learner ' and 'teacher '. Third, Charles Hofling et al. (1966) investigated how far nurses would go in giving patients a fatal dose of medication on demand from a doctor (Banyard, 2012, p. 85). A bottle of dummy pills were put into a medicine cabinet in the ward, remarkably even though this request broke hospital procedure, twenty one out of twenty two nurses followed the order and prepared the fatal dose for the patient. It seems that the word of an authority figure is enough to override hospital rules. Finally, Mel Slater and colleagues (2006) replicated the obedience study in a virtual environment, just like in the obedience study. This virtual experiment allowed the researchers to observe the behaviour of people in real situations, although the participants were fully aware …show more content…
Comparably the development of internet technologies means that individuals can communicate online in various ways such as email, forums and webcam video, this means that it has become easier to maintain and even develop relationships online over long distances. The emergence of social networking websites has created new ways of developing and maintaining friendships online, this use of technologies may lead to the questioning of our understanding of friendship and the potentially damaging effects of excessive use of social networking sites (Brownlow, 2012, p. 266). Something else to consider is the cultural differences in understanding, friendship and how online friendships show this as most of the communication online is still conducted in English, as is the research in this area, if such research was limited to online methods, these populations would be excluded (Brownlow, 2012, p. 267). However, Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) could not have known that sometime in the future children would be as likely to interact with online friends as friends in the playground, this is an example of the way new technologies and the changing way of how people interact, brings about new challenges for psychologists to address. We will now look at research on the structure and