The first issue is whether the researchers have set out to answer a sensible question. Some research questions may not address an issue that you find interesting. Different people have different agendas, and different priorities. For example, some people approach topics in developmental psychology from the point of view of classroom practice, others have an interest in parenting, and still others are mainly interested in general theoretical questions about the influence of environment on development. Each of these perspectives highlights different issues. A study that aims to improve practice may not ask the type of question that a theoretician is primarily interested in. For instance, a classroom practitioner may want to know whether color illustrations make mathematics textbooks more effective. This may be an important practical question, but knowing the answer may be of limited importance for general theories of development.
Occasionally, a research project may pose a question in a way that is clearly too simplistic given existing knowledge. For example, a research project that asks whether some aspect of behavioral development is caused either by information encoded in DNA or by the environment is almost certainly asking too simplistic a question. Most aspects of development are clearly influenced both by genetic preparation and the environment together. The way that the genetic blueprint unfolds is influenced by the environment.
Another problem you may encounter is when a research project makes assumptions about the world that you do not accept. For example, several research programs have investigated psychological differences between races of people. However, many investigators would not accept that classifying people into races is scientifically meaningful. They would argue that the variation between people within a “race” is as great as variation between races, and they would point to the way that different cultures distinguish races in different ways. Bear in mind that the rejection of assumptions should be made on scientific grounds, rather than political ones. How much genetic and behavioral variation there is within “races” is an empirical issue that can be settled scientifically, and so is a legitimate basis for arguing against race as an important aspect of human classification.
A related criticism is that, even if the research question were answered, it would not get us anywhere to know the answer. This is a criticism made most often of studies of racial differences. A critic would argue that even if we do discover that one race is on average less intelligent than another it could not possibly make any practical difference: What conceivable change to public policy could be justified by such knowledge? Of course, that is a question about the politics of research. That is, what are the implications for choices we make as a society?
Studies can also be criticized for attempting to answer questions that the discipline is not in a position to answer effectively. Some questions just cannot be answered by scientific methods. For example, how much longer would World War II have continued if the US military had not dropped atomic weapons on two Japanese cities? There is no way to know. We cannot rerun the scenario with the same politicians in charge, playing it out alternately, with and without, atomic weapons. Another example with a slightly more psychological flavor is “would John Wayne have become a cowboy or a farmer if he had lived in the nineteenth century?.” The best we can offer is an educated guess: Most probably, an actor.
The first thing to evaluate, then, is the research question. Is it answerable? Are its assumptions scientifically acceptable? Does it ask something interesting? One thing to bear in mind is that studies that have different objectives to your own can still be useful. For example, practical research on colored mathematics books could provide some information that a theorist would find useful if the theory made predictions that distinguished color and black and white images. For example, if you had a theory predicting that people make more use of top down information when interpreting black and white images, data on mathematics learning with black and white or color images could provide some interesting clues. Even if a study does not directly address the questions that interest you most, it can still be valuable to you.
Source of original statements :
George Dunbar. Evaluating research methods in psychology : a case study approach
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