Strengths and Weaknesses (Holzel et al.)
Using PEEL method (Point-Explanation-Example-Link)
📘
AS Level
Paper 1 Evaluation Essays
Strengths
- P – The study collected quantitative data
- E – Quantitative data allow easier statistical analysis and comparison
- E – For example, it is found that MBSR participants spent an average of 22.6 hours engaging in formal homework exercise which consist of mindful yoga, sitting meditation and body scan
- L – Researchers can draw more valid conclusions as quantitative data has lower chances of misinterpretation
- P –The study is an experiment
- E – Experiments has high level of controls
- E – For example, all participants participated in eight weekly MBSR sessions 2.5 hours each and one full day session lasting 6.5 hours during the sixth week
- L – Control reduces the effect of extraneous variable, ensuring that the causal relationship established is more valid
- P – All participants gave informed consent
- E – They participated in their own will and is aware of the aim of the study and what they will be going through
- E – All participants were from four MBSR courses at the Centre for Mindfulness and they gave written consent to participate
- L – The study comply with the ethical guidelines
Weaknesses
- P – The study used opportunity sampling to recruit participants
- E – Participants might be all of the same type, reducing the generalisability of findings
- E – All participants were from four MBSR courses in Centre for Mindfulness either self referred or recommended by physician due to stress
- L – Findings are less representative of the target population due to sample not diverse enough
- P – The use of questionnaires
- E – Participants might give social desirability answers that exaggerates the effect of the course
- E – For example, both MBSR and control group participants completed FFMQ consisting of 39 questions twice, before and after the MBSR course
- L – Lower validity of findings as it is a subjective measure
- P – All closed-questions given to the participants
- E – Participants were forced to choose an answer, as they cannot give any elaboration
- E – For example, the FFMQ uses a five point likert scale with 1 being never or very rarely true and 5 being very often or always true
- L – The responses might not reflect their true opinion