Health Psychology Research (Edexcel A-Level Psychology): Revision Notes

Health Psychology Research

Overview of health psychology research

Health psychology research follows the same general principles as other areas of psychological research. However, research in this field often involves animal subjects and raises specific ethical concerns that require careful consideration.

When conducting psychological research, decisions about research design, sample selection, and analysis must prioritize reliability (consistency of findings), validity (accuracy and relevance of findings), objectivity (minimising researcher bias), and credibility (trustworthiness of results). Meeting these standards ensures psychology maintains its status as a scientific discipline.

Use of animals in research into drug use

Rationale for animal research

Animal subjects are used more frequently in health psychology research than in other areas of psychology. This is primarily because research investigating the effects of drugs on the body is often restricted in humans due to ethical concerns about potential harm. Using animal subjects allows researchers to explore important questions without exposing human participants to unacceptable risks.

Applications of animal research

Historically, animal experiments have been conducted to study the effects of drugs on the body and behaviour, including the long-term consequences of drug use. These studies have also been used to explore effective treatments for drug use disorders.

When research aims to examine how drugs affect the brain or to recreate the effects of drugs on brain function, animal subjects are necessary. This type of research typically requires surgical interventions, including damaging or triggering specific parts of the brain to understand drug effects on neurological functioning.

A key advantage of using animals is that researchers can create highly controlled environments such as laboratories, which may not be possible with human subjects. This includes precise control over the amount of drug exposure. However, human drug-taking is often a social activity, and animal research cannot account for the social factors that influence drug-taking, tolerance, and withdrawal as experienced by humans.

Evaluation of animal research

Strengths:

• Environmental control: Researchers can control the experimental environment much more precisely than would be possible with human subjects, including exact dosages of drugs administered.

• Lifespan research: Animals used in research tend to have shorter lifespans than humans, making it possible to conduct studies that examine effects throughout the animal's entire life. This allows researchers to understand the long-term effects of drug use, which may not be practical within a human research population.

• Cost-effectiveness: Using animals can reduce research costs, as they are smaller and require less medication than humans, who are typically larger. This may make certain research more financially accessible.

Weaknesses:

• Social context: Humans taking drugs often do so in social settings, and animal research cannot replicate the social factors that affect drug-taking, tolerance, and withdrawal as humans experience them.

• Species differences: Animals are a different species from humans. While the brains of some animals (such as primates) are similar to human brains, there are fundamental differences. Drugs may therefore affect the behaviour and functioning of humans differently than observed in animal studies. As a result, findings from animal drug research may not be easily applicable to humans.

Animal research ethics

Legislative framework

Animal research in psychology must adhere to several legal and ethical frameworks. Students should be familiar with the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act (1986), the Animal Welfare Act (2006), and the British Psychological Society guidelines for using animals in psychological research. This legislation and regulation applies to the use of animals in drug research studies.

Research practices

Psychologists use animals to study the effects of drugs on behaviour and neurological functioning, including addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal. Although drug research is conducted on various animals, laboratory-bred mice are most commonly used. Research procedures can include:

• Administering a drug to an animal until it becomes addicted, then observing behaviour patterns
• Studying physiological and behavioural symptoms associated with drug withdrawal
• Investigating tolerance levels by administering high doses of a drug under specific conditions

Ethical considerations

Conducting drug research on humans requires a high level of ethical approval due to the potential harm it may cause individuals. Human participants must therefore volunteer to take part in the research. In contrast, guidelines for animal drug research have a lower threshold for ethical approval, as consent is not a relevant issue when researching on animals.

Drugs may cause long-lasting effects on the animals used in research. This goes beyond the ethical guidelines that stipulate causing 'minimal' harm to animals in experiments. It is considered ethically more acceptable to cause long-term negative consequences to animals if this is an unavoidable outcome of the study, than it is to cause the same harm to humans. Furthermore, findings from drug research may not be applicable to humans due to differences in anatomical make-up, making harm to animals unjustifiable or unnecessary.

Human participants in drug research

While animal research provides some answers to the effect of drugs on behaviour, it does not entirely exclude the use of humans in research where ethics allow humans to be used. This addresses one weakness of conducting animal studies – whether findings can be applied to humans. Humans are used in psychological studies looking at the effects of drugs using two specific research methodologies: laboratory studies and surveys.

Laboratory studies

Overview and purpose

Laboratory studies allow researchers to benefit from the controlled setting of a laboratory. This controlled environment is helpful in minimising other variables that may affect results, allowing researchers to have a clear understanding of the effect of drugs on humans. Such studies often examine how drugs affect the way we think or how our body works following intoxication.

Modern technology allows researchers to use brain scans within laboratories to assist with understanding brain function, including the effect of drugs on reaction times or how accurately someone can complete a task. Laboratory experiments provide substantial quantitative data, which can be analysed objectively using statistical techniques. Studies are also likely to include self-report data from participants to provide a qualitative account of experiences that cannot necessarily be captured using scanning or other techniques.

Often these studies will use existing drug users as their participants to ensure the research is ethical. For example, Grant et al. (2000) investigated whether long-term drug use had an impact on decision-making abilities.

Evaluation of laboratory studies

Strengths:

• Direct comparison: Human studies allow researchers to make direct comparisons to how humans react when under the influence of drugs. This is more difficult in animal studies as they are different species from humans. Therefore, the results of human research apply directly to other human drug users.

• Mixed methods approach: Human studies can use a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures to ensure a wide range of effects are captured via self-report and scanning techniques. Using self-report data can lead to socially desirable responses being given, particularly as drug use is not socially acceptable behaviour. This may lead to under-reporting of drug-taking behaviour. It may also not be generalisable to others, as other people may describe their experiences differently.

Weaknesses:

• Ecological validity: Laboratories do not reflect a typical drug-taking environment for participants, which may affect their behaviour. This may result in their drug-taking behaviour being unnatural, which can influence how they respond to the drug and their tolerance levels. This can then lead to questions about the validity of the study.

• Sample limitations: Using only existing drug users means studying a very specific group in society. Their experiences and reactions may not be applicable to non-drug users. This may make it difficult to study certain areas of drug-taking behaviour, such as how the body reacts to substances initially, as those who have previously used the drug may have a different reaction.

• Ethical considerations: Drug research often investigates the influence of a drug on existing drug users. British Psychological Society (BPS) ethical guidelines state that any administration of a drug must be one which is normally encountered. Although this may seem to address ethical issues of consent and harm, it can pose its own ethical dilemmas. If a drug user is participating in drug research to obtain a drug, it may be considered to lack consent, as a drug user may be compelled to participate to receive a drug they crave. A drug user is a vulnerable individual and should be protected from harm.

Surveys

Overview and purpose

Surveys can include the collection of data in various formats, including interviews or use of questionnaires. They can be used to capture a snapshot of attitudes to drugs or form part of a longitudinal study to examine influences on drug-taking behaviour over a longer period. A study such as Mundt et al. (2012) (see Section 8.3, Studies) is an example of a longitudinal study looking at alcohol use in students.

This approach can gather both qualitative and quantitative data. Surveys may gain information about attitudes to a substance or opinions about drug-related issues. This leans towards qualitative data, which is likely to require an analysis of themes within the responses to draw a conclusion (known as thematic analysis). Alternatively, surveys may capture data such as the frequency and severity of substance use (drugs or alcohol or both), which allows for quantitative data to be obtained.

Evaluation of surveys

Strengths:

• In-depth data: Surveys can gather rich, detailed data depending on the type of questions used. In-depth data leads to greater validity in findings. Open questions allow individuals to provide detail to their answers without being restricted to answering 'Yes' or 'No'. This can provide more information if a person has previously used drugs and can gain information about how much they used and why they started using drugs, for example. This produces greater ecological validity as it relates to their actual experiences.

• Representative samples: The use of questionnaires facilitates a large sample size. This makes the conclusions of the study more representative of the wider population, which allows researchers to have a wider understanding of drug use beyond a small sample population.

Weaknesses:

• Self-report bias: As surveys rely on self-report, the data obtained may not always be accurate. People may respond in a socially desirable way as they may not want their true attitudes or behaviour to be known. Individuals may not give an honest account of, for example, why they use drugs for fear of being viewed negatively by the researchers. Socially desirable responses can create inaccurate results.

• Volunteer bias: Those who agree to complete the survey may not be representative of all who originally took part, or of the wider population. The survey may result in a biased population, as only those who are willing to talk about drugs will volunteer to take part, and these individuals may have different attitudes from those who decline to participate.

Human research ethics

As with all research, health studies should follow strict ethical guidelines. These include:

1. Protection of the participant

Asking drug users about their own experiences, including their reasons for drug use, may be distressing for them. This may result in them recalling painful memories. If people use drugs to avoid dealing with painful memories (as can be the case for some), asking these questions may potentially increase their drug use, as they take more drugs to forget the memories brought up in the study.

2. Confidentiality and privacy

The duty of the researcher is to protect the participant and maintain a level of confidentiality. However, depending on the nature of the study, the participant may disclose information about illegal activities, and the researcher needs to have a clear understanding of how they plan to deal with this information. They must communicate such plans to participants before the start of the study.

Disclosure of illegal activities to the police may prevent the participant from disclosing information in the study, resulting in limited information being obtained. This will affect the validity of the findings. Alternatively, the researcher needs to consider their duties as a responsible citizen in terms of disclosing the information potentially to protect the participant and other individuals.

3. Consent

Drug users may not have capacity to make fully informed consent due to being under the influence of substances. This may be temporary at the time of intoxication, and they may be able to give full consent if asked when sober.

Cross-cultural research

Purpose and applications

Cross-cultural research refers to studies that take place in multiple different cultural settings to establish patterns or differences among the differing populations. In health psychology, it is particularly useful in understanding if different attitudes and behaviours influence alcohol or drug use.

One consideration when undertaking cross-cultural research in relation to drugs concerns the different measures used to determine substance use disorders and cultural attitudes towards substance use. As with mental health, there are differences in the symptoms or behaviours required for a diagnosis of substance use disorders.

Cultural variations in substance use

Attitudes towards substances also change among cultures. For example, khat is a stimulant drug producing effects similar to amphetamine. It has been made illegal in England and Wales, and use in such countries is likely to have low levels of social acceptance. In countries such as Yemen and Somalia, however, khat is used in social contexts and dates back thousands of years. Its use is not restricted in many countries.

To attempt to determine attitudes towards khat use is therefore likely to differ among these cultures. The findings of one culture may have limited applicability to other cultures. This may be true of other substances.

Nature-nurture debate

One way in which cross-cultural research can be used is to explore whether a person's substance use behaviour is determined by nature or by nurture. There are ongoing discussions as to whether it is the environment or a person's predisposed characteristics that contribute to substance use. By undertaking twin studies in which individuals have been raised apart in different cultures, it is possible to explore this debate further.

Substance use is relatively universal in most cultures, with individuals across cultures engaging in drug-taking behaviour. The notable difference is the type of drug taken among these cultures. For example, khat has a high level of usage among African populations compared to western cultures. This is noted even when individuals from such cultures moved to other areas. There is an increase in khat use, for example, within the United Kingdom, which reflects the increased African population. This reflects the nurture debate, in which culture is influential on drug choice, even with migration.

Kendler et al. (2012) found a relationship between genetics and drug use when investigating adoptive children. They found a two-fold increase in drug use among adopted children whose biological parents used drugs. Risk also was higher in the biological siblings of adopted children who abused drugs – both full siblings and half siblings. There was a trend towards an increased risk of drug abuse in adopted children if their adoptive parents had abused drugs, but it was not substantial, suggesting some environmental influence but to a lesser extent than genetics.

Data analysis

Quantitative data

Within health psychology research, you will be required to gather information and look for statistical relationships between different variables – that is, the relationship between individual characteristics and demographics and their substance use behaviour. For example, there may be an expectation that you can determine which amount of alcohol intake is more common among young adults by looking at tables that report the frequencies of behaviours (frequency tables).

Similarly, it is necessary to have familiarity with other quantitative data collected, such as range and standard deviation. Imagine you have a table that shows how many alcoholic drinks a group of 30 young adults drink in an average week. It is possible that the answers will vary greatly, with some not drinking any alcohol to others drinking much more often. The range would be the difference between the highest score and the lowest score reported by the participants. In this case, the range could be from 0 units per week to 20 units per week. The standard deviation in this example would show how much the amount of alcohol reported by the participants deviates from the mean number of units drunk by the group as a whole.

Qualitative data

In health psychology, thematic analysis may involve looking at attitudes to people who drink alcohol or use drugs, or possibly analysing some of the self-reported reasons why people chose to take drugs. Qualitative data analysis goes beyond understanding how many people take drugs or other numerical-type data, but is able to more closely examine the underlying reasons why people engage in drug misuse.