Psychology

Experimentation always requires an empirical basis in order to back up the study that is being conducted. The scientific method is a useful process for many researchers however, since they can also be driven to bias because of certain preconceptions (Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research). This is where the significance of human research can be most beneficial.

Human research either descriptive, correlational or experimental, while systematic, each have their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on what kind of study is being performed. Some research approaches are more effective than the other however, there are difficulties that encompass human research in general. Some of these include the procurement of consent, observer effect (how representatives behave differently when informed of the experiment) technical limitations and inconsistencies like locations and other conditions.

Descriptive research, which is either done through observation (in laboratories or otherwise), case studies and surveys are probably the most common ways to conduct a human research. Surveys, although fast and easy to accomplish, and also can also provide data from a large population, are prone to inaccuracies because people might want to answer what they think is socially acceptable and desirable as a courtesy bias, and representatives can also forget about their true habits, or not take the survey seriously. This will especially be detrimental to sensitive issues, such as sexuality, when a representatives views are attempted to be made known through a series of questions in a survey. Some approaches that makes use of a survey are especially discouraged for example, a lengthy questionnaire on sexuality in particular, can be tedious and uncomfortable to answer, and may lead to unreliable answers that wont be useful to the study.  It must then be made sure that the length and kind of questions to be answered must be reasonable and fitting for the group to be surveyed. Another disadvantage is having to make sure that different groups of people are represented, otherwise, the information ends up concentrated in a certain domain.

There are many ways to make use of the participation of people in an experiment. The path to gaining insight from human research as part of the scientific method is a tedious hurdle to overcome, but genuinely rewarding when done with the right approach and attitude.