A-Level Psychology Essays | Student Resources

Strengths and Weaknesses (Bandura et al.)

Using PEEL method (Point-Explanation-Example-Link)

📘

AS Level

Paper 1 Evaluation Essays

P – The study was a lab experiment
E – Experiment has high level of controls to increase the validity of findings
E – For example, the placement of toys in modelling room, aggression arousal room and test for delayed imitation room were kept the same for every session
L – Control reduces the effect of extraneous variable, ensuring that the causal relationship established is more valid

P – The study has high reliability
E – Inter-rater reliability was increased by having two observers to check for consistency between findings
E – Two observers, male model and independent observer observed and scored behaviour of children. It is found that reliability was high, around r = 0.9 for different categories of behaviour
L – The replicability of findings increases

P – The study collected quantitative data
E – Quantitative data allowed for easier statistical analysis and comparison
E – For example, the study found that there is a significant increase in mean aggression scores for aggressive group compared with non-aggressive group
L – Researches can draw more valid conclusions due to lower chances of misinterpretation

P – Participants were at risk of psychological harm
E – Children might experience change in their psychological state after the experiment
E – For example, children might feel distress and frustration for not being able to play with toys in the modelling room and also being told that the toys were reserved for someone else in the aggression arousal room
L – The study does not fully comply to the ethical guidelines as it might have induced aggression among children

P – The study is conducted in an artificial setting
E – Children were not in their usual playing area and this might not fully reflect their natural behaviour
E – For example, all children had to went through three different rooms that is modelling room, aggression arousal room and test for delayed imitation room
L – The findings have lower ecological validity because it lacks mundane realism

P – The sample of the study was small
E – Participants might be all of the same type, reducing the generalisability of findings
E –For example there were only 6 children in each group
L – The findings are less representative of the target population