Essay
Essay DD210 - TMA04
- Module
- DD210
- Institution
- The Open University (OU)
Write a brief report addressing the scenario provided below, drawing on psychological principles, theories and examples to support your explanation.
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Enrique Sarabia Sánchez - personal identifier: G6533073DD210 - TMA 04 - PART 1
Write a brief report addressing the scenario provided below, drawing on
psychological principles, theories and examples to support your explanation.
WORD LIMIT – 1000 words
Title - Evaluation of scientific evidence of the Capricrown shampoo claimed benefits
Introduction
The study has been conducted to investigate how to evaluate the scientific evidence on the
benefits of using the shampoo Capricrown. The report will be used for a journalism students’
workshop to know how to evaluate scientific evidence.
This report will be reflected some psychological theories and key concepts but always keeping
in mind that science never thinks in terms of absolute truth, instead of science always thinks in
terms of “provisional conclusions based in the weight of evidence” (Turner J. 2017).
Explanation
Among the claims made by the creators, one of them is that goat's milk proteins promote hair
development and prevent male pattern baldness, which is an assumption that, coming from a
website without any scientific peer review or science department review, we would
automatically have to review with great caution.
It’s very important the psychological concept of how we evaluate the “claims and arguments”
from any sources and much more the non-academic sources as Capricrown Shampoo. First of
all, in this kind of claims, it’s very important to consider the “who” and “why”.
The claims done by Capricrown are done through the internet so we can begin to have an idea
about the “who” and “why” and evaluate if it’s a trustworthy source.
The purpose of the website can also rightly point us, even if the information in it looks
academic or written down by an author that has an academic qualification. This doesn’t mean
that the information published online is trustworthy. Most of the times these type of sites that
promote to have medical benefits are trying to sell us something. Usually, the trustworthy and
most ethical information is peer-reviewed as the information that use to be published in
scientific journals or academic websites.
A good way is to consider if the arguments provided in this case by the product are logical and
convincing through (Internal tests). Can we be sure of the pieces of evidence showed? Have
they a scientific checked validity?, through (Evidence and theory tests).
We must also consider whether the effects that we are supposed to achieve with this product are
homeopathic or placebos, as both are key psychological concepts that we should take into
account when verifying the actual scientific evidence.
Capricrown claims that goat's milk proteins promote hair growth and prevent male pattern
baldness, but there seems to be no scientific evidence for this. The best way to know if these
affirmations are true is to carry out serious experiments to know the value of effective
experimental design and the main importance of carrying out the experiments under control. A
well-controlled experimental design is fundamental to avoid experimenter bias and to have
more security about the results, we should use double-blind procedures (e.g. Hirst et al., 1993
Ovelgonne et al., 1992).
, A double-blind study is a research that does not allow participants or researchers to know who
will receive a particular treatment.
Some studies threw positive results for the homoeopathy validations for example Linde et al.
(1997), but these studies have no double-blinded procedures.
Another key concept to validate these claims of Capricrown must be to keep in mind what is
homoeopathy and what are its claims. Homoeopathy encompasses several disciplines and each
of these disciplines has its ideas about what is homoeopathy for example:
Biology and Medicine: homoeopathy claims to treat symptoms but the truth is that
homoeopathy was invented before that science discover the elements that cause the
illnesses that cause the symptoms. (Turner J. 2017).
Logic and Mathematics: homoeopathy is based on successive dilutions of the substance
in alcohol or water defending that this makes it stronger but as we automatically
perceive looks to don't have any logic at all.
Physics: homoeopathy claims that the water has memory and can remember in some
way the substances that have been in contact with it but there is no scientific evidence
of it.
Chemistry: all homoeopathic remedies are the same so how can they claim to cure
different symptoms?
As we have seen it’s very important to carry out experiments under control and follow
procedures that give us a guarantee that there is no bias or any other issue that makes the results
to be less trustworthy. All the science fields know why homoeopathy or placebo effect can’t
have scientific evidence but just the psychological studies allow us to know why people even
with such a little scientific evidence still believe in them.
Recommendations
I would recommend in the study group to look into the work of (Hahnemann S. 1796) inventor
of homoeopathy.
I would also recommend further research about the homoeopathy processes and try to read the
information related to homoeopathy dilution and investigate further the technical term (The
Avogadro Limit).
As we have seen, a well-controlled experimental design is fundamental to avoid experimenter
bias, and to have more security about the results we should use double-blind procedures (e.g.
Hirst et al., 1993 Ovelgonne et al., 1992). This mechanism is used to prevent fraud in research
results. Double-blind trials are particularly effective in preventing bias caused by demand
properties or the placebo effect.
About research on experiment Bias, I would recommend checking the journal Nature (1998)
where it was published an experiment of (Davenas et al., 1988) and the replication of this study
in which a very clear experimenter Bias was found by (Maddox J., Stewart W. And Randi J.).
For further information on this kind of experiments, we can check the book “Trick or
Treatment” (2008) of (Singh S. And Ernst E.).
WORD COUNT: 933
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