Evaluation of Baillargeon
Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 11.1.11
Evaluation of Baillargeon’s Work
Baillargeon’s work had several strengths and weaknesses. Her work continued the work of Piaget, though was not without its controversies.
Strengths
- Baillargeon’s work was done in a laboratory setting; therefore she was able to control extraneous variables.
- This increases the validity and reliability of results.
- Baillargeon provided evidence from her studies to support her theory.
- Compare this to Vygotsky, who conducted few studies and had little scientific research to back his theories.
Weaknesses - subjectivity
- Infants cannot communicate, therefore we cannot know for certain whether looking at an impossible event for longer is actually a sign of object permanence.
- The researchers have to infer their behaviour, which could be subjective.
Weaknesses - subjectivity cont.
- It could have been that the infants were simply looking longer at a stimulus in which they were not habituated.
- Perhaps they were not looking at impossible events for longer, just simply non-habituated stimuli.
Replicability issues
- Several researchers, including Rivera et al (1999), were unable to reproduce her results when they did repeats of her study.
- In other words, they did not find any significant difference between the time infants looked at impossible events to when they looked at possible events.
Criticism
- Based on the failure to repeat her results and the above criticisms, psychologists have suggested that Baillargeon made conclusions beyond what the data showed.
Test yourself on Evaluation of Baillargeon
Which of the following is NOT a weakness of Baillargeon 1987?
Who of the following unsuccessfully attempted to recreate Baillargeon’s 1987 study?