How to Evaluate a Study

How to Evaluate a Study:A good way to remember how to evaluate a study is GRAVE. This stands for Generalisability, Reliability, Application, Validity and Ethics. You need to make at least one point about each of these in an evaluation although you may be able to make two or even three.Generalisability refers to how well the results of a study can be used to represent the target population. For example, Milgram's original study is not generalisable as it only uses men and so the results cannot represent women.Reliability is about how easy it is to repeat an experiment to produce the same results. Remember: if a study has not been repeated, you cannot say that it is reliable (e.g. Money from the Biological Approach) but if there is a set procedure and so it could be repeated, you can say that it can be tested for reliability which is still a strength.Application refers to whether or not a study can be used in the real world. This means that the results of the study need to support an idea or can be used to create systems that improve the world. Milgram's study has high application as it has been used to change systems in the military and prisons.Validity refers to how true the results are to real life and can be divided in a few different ways. The most important two for your studies are Ecological Validity, whether the context or task change behaviour, and Experimental Validity, whether the participants behave differently because they know they are in an experiment. If you are not sure which of these categories a point fits into, or if you think it fits into a different kind of validity, you can just refer to validity without a more specific label.Ethics are about whether the study kept the participants safe. There are ethical guidelines in psychology that studies must obey and how ethical they are is determined by how well the studies stick to these guidelines.When evaluating a study, you need to remember that you are talking about how the procedure affects the results.So now you know what you need to write, you need to know how to write it.For this, you use a PEE structure. This is Point, Evidence and Explanation. A good way to structure you point is to use three sentences to make sure you have covered each of the three points. For example:Point: Milgram's original study has low generalisability.Evidence: In the original study, Milgram only used men with a high school education. (Note that your evidence must be specific to your study. You cannot say 'the sample was unrepresentative' as this will be true for ALL ungeneralisable studies.)Explanation: This means that the results of the study cannot apply to women or people from a less educated background.The point refers to GRAVE, the evidence refers to the study, and the explanation proves you know why the point is right.And that's it. These are the basics of any study evaluation. A good habit to get into is to make each of these three points in your notes on a study so you will be used to writing them by the exam.