- Social: Prejudice links to racism and impact of research on ppts and the groups they represent.
- Cognitive: Issues of memory loss due to dementia and how study of this is socially sensitive to individual and family.
- Biological: Linking biology to behaviour such as aggression or homosexuality is socially sensitive as it has implications for rest of society, ie could be used to justify extremist views and social policies.
- Learning: Power of therapist over client esp. in aversion therapy. Shaping a child’s behaviour through rewards and punishments could be viewed as manipulative and conformist.
- Clinical: Research involves labelling people with an illness, possible negative outcomes for patient taking part, ie Rosenhan made patients part of a study when they were there to be treated.
- Child: Research into day care suggests it can have negative effects on children – leads to parents feeling guilty and responsible for any negative effects. Attachment theory blames rejecting or inconsistent parents for insecure attachments. Most noticeably for mothers who suffer from postnatal depression.
