Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about substance use and abuse Essay

In discovering nigh substance use and abuse iodin come encountered are the undeniable ethical issues that occur. In Mestel and Concars report for example, sensitive data was compile. manduction this sensitive data wit hthe interrogationers whitethorn have caused participants unnecessary apprehension or embarrassment if for example the urine test showed that they had used cocaine. This ineluctably leads to ethical issues collectible to the unpleasant emotions participants whitethorn have been subjected to.Similarly in Robinson et als sphere, participants may have experienced unpleasant emotions such as embarrassment and ill ease as a case of the individual(prenominal) nature of the questions asked. From the two studies we put forward see that ethics is lots a situationor when exploring the issue of substance use and abuse except substance abuse is, by definition, against social expectations and consequently is always likely to incur ethical dilemmas when researcher s attempt to discover substance use and abuse. some other difficulty incurred when attempting to explore substance use and abuse is social dynamism. fond desirability is the term bookn to the situation in which people give resultants that are contrary or different to their beliefs because their alternative answer is more socially acceptable. In Moolchan et als story for example personal data was collected and in order to present themselves in abettor light people may have lied when giving their answer responding by saying that their parent didnt smoke when in fact they did for example. Similarly in Landos study baseline data was collected by asking participants to keep a diary detailing their bullet for one week.Participants may have recorded false information because they matt-up this false information would be more socially acceptable. Social desirability toilet lead to results which are invalid and resultantly lead to a lose of validity as the study will not record peop les dead on target response. Another difficulty in discovering substance use and abuse is the issue of generalisability. Generalisability is the term used to define the extent to which results from one ideal of participants can be applied to wider meetings.In Griffiths study for example the findings may not be able to generalised to a country such as Australia as the sample used was not representative. Similarly Murrays study conducted in 1988 had a sample which was exclusively composed of adolescents and consequently it could not be applied to the wider population. In reality however a study is likely to never be truly representative to a orbicular extent and in doing so such a diverse sample may make it hard for bring in results to be distinguished due to cultural differences.Research into substance use and abuse may in like manner incur the difficulty of ethnocentric bias. This is the tendency to perceive the world from you deliver cultural group, such as your wthnic group . The issue of ethnocentric bias can be seen in Gomels study. Gomel looked at a oeuvre in which have had been banned and how this related to the reduction in substance use (smoking). The study can be een to be ethnocentrically biased because it was conducted in one workplace in Australia.Ethnocentric bias can result in research that is not applicable to the larger population as the results from this study may not be found to be the same if it was conducted in Australia for example. c) umpteen people resolve to give up smoking distributively newfangled year. With center senile women specifically in mind suggest one psychological technique which would be useful to dish up them in their attempts to cut off smoking. Give reasons for your answer. In attempting to stop smoking one technique which may be useful is the use of self help groups.Self help groups are apply circles where each member is also attempting to quit smoking. As Moolchan discovered in his study, women who smok e are likely to be socially skilled and confident and so may find a group therapy useful where they can support and gain support from other women in the group who are in a socially similar piazza to themselves. Group therapy may also be effective in dowery a middle aged woman quit smoking as she may make friends with people in the group and thus device to them for support as she would turn to a friend outside of the group.The clear difference however would be that the person in the group would be going through the same experience as the middle aged woman and so would be able to identify with her. Those in the support group may also acknowledge an element of competition each one wanting to continue to stop smoking so they persist in in the group. For this variety of reasons a support group is likely to be the most effective strategy in supporting a middle aged woman who is giving up smoking.