Strengths and Weaknesses (Baron-Cohen et al.)
Using PEEL method (Point-Explanation-Example-Link)
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AS Level
Paper 1 Evaluation Essays
Strengths
- P – The study was a quasi experiment
- E – Experiment has high level of controls to increase the validity of findings
- E – All participants completed the reading the mind in the eyes test which consists of 36 pairs of eyes with even number of male and female eyes
- L – Controls reduce effect of extraneous variable, allowing researchers to ensure it is only the IV (experimental group and control group) affecting the DV (performance on reading the mind in the eyes task)
- P – The study collected quantitative data
- E – Quantitative data has lower chances of misinterpretation as it is easier to be analysed and compared statistically
- E – For example, Scheffe’s test showed that group 1 performed significantly worse than other 3 groups
- L – Researches can draw more valid conclusions
- P – The study has high confidentiality
- E – Personal data of participants were not disclosed to the public
- E – For example, real names of participants were not known
- L – The study followed the ethical guidelines
Weaknesses
- P – The study consisted of a small sample size
- E – The variability of participants is limited as they might all have similar characteristics
- E – For example, there were only 14 AS/HFA males in group 1
- L – Findings might not be fully representative of the target population, reducing generalisability of findings
- P – Gender bias sample was used
- E – Findings are harder to be applied to both sexes
- E – For example, all the participants in group 1 were AS/HFA males
- L – The sample is not fully representative of the target population
- P – The study used questionnaires
- E – Self report might have low return rate
- E – For example, among 113 participants in group 3 there were 24 unreturned AQ test
- L – The findings have lower validity as it is collected from a smaller size of self-reports