Lesson 8.2.1

8.2.1 Animal and human drug studies and their ethics Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 8

20 questions

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Lesson 8.2.1, Animal and human drug studies and their ethics: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 8: Health psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What does the principle of Replacement mean in the ethics of animal research on drugs?

    • Replacing a laboratory with a field setting
    • Using non-animal methods wherever a suitable alternative exists
    • Replacing the drug with a placebo in every study
    • Replacing the animal with a larger animal of the same species

  2. Which two other principles, alongside Replacement, make up the 3Rs of animal research?

    • Reliability and Validity
    • Retrieval and Recall
    • Reduction and Refinement
    • Randomisation and Replication

  3. Which UK legislation regulates the use of animals in scientific procedures, including drug research?

    • The Children Act 1989
    • The Mental Health Act 1983
    • The Scientific Procedures Act 1986
    • The Data Protection Act 2018

  4. In animal studies of drug reward, what does the self-administration procedure allow researchers to measure?

    • How much the animal weighs at the end of the study
    • How much of the drug an animal chooses to take when it can control its own access
    • How quickly the animal learns to walk
    • The animal's colour preference in a maze only

  5. A researcher gives rats a drug and places them in a distinctive chamber, then measures how much time they spend in that chamber later. Which technique is this?

    • Strange Situation
    • Twin concordance analysis
    • Conditioned place preference
    • Visual cliff testing

  6. Which ethical issue is most significant in animal drug studies that involve long-term dependence?

    • The need for animals to be debriefed about the purpose of the study
    • The potential for pain, distress and harm to the animals, which must be minimised and justified
    • The use of animals as participants in a questionnaire
    • The need for animals to sign a written consent form

  7. Why might findings from animal studies of heroin self-administration be limited when applied to human addiction?

    • Animals always become tolerant faster than humans
    • Animal brains are identical to human brains in every way
    • Animal studies never use drugs
    • Animals cannot report cravings in the same way humans do, and social and cultural factors are absent

  8. Which human research method allows a researcher to test whether a drug causes a change in behaviour?

    • A randomised controlled experiment
    • A cross-sectional survey with no comparison group
    • A content analysis of newspapers
    • A case study of a single participant only

  9. A study uses a double-blind design to test a new drug for alcohol dependence. What does double-blind mean here?

    • Neither the participants nor the researchers who assess outcomes know who received the drug or placebo
    • The drug is given twice a day to all participants
    • The study is carried out in two different countries
    • Both the participants and the animals receive two doses

  10. Which ethical principle requires that a person who takes part in a human drug study must understand what the study involves and agree to take part?

    • Retrospective anonymity
    • Informed consent
    • Debriefing only
    • Protection of animals

  11. Why is it ethically important to assess risk before a study involving a drug given to humans?

    • To ensure that the potential harm to participants is minimised and justified by the value of the research
    • To guarantee that the study will produce significant results
    • To remove the need for informed consent
    • To make the study cheaper for the researcher

  12. A researcher wants to compare the effects of two drugs on human reaction time. Which experimental design avoids participants being affected by previous exposure to a drug?

    • Case study design with one participant
    • Independent groups design with different participants in each condition
    • Matched pairs design with no control
    • Repeated measures design with the same participants in both conditions and no counterbalancing

  13. Which evaluation point about human drug experiments is most valid?

    • Human experiments can never be carried out for ethical reasons
    • Laboratory experiments always have perfect ecological validity
    • Human experiments have no internal validity
    • Laboratory drug experiments can have high internal validity but low ecological validity, as people may behave differently in real life

  14. A researcher asks participants to rate their drug cravings on a scale from 0 to 10 at intervals during an experiment. What type of data is produced?

    • Primary qualitative data only
    • Covert observational data
    • Quantitative data
    • Secondary data from medical records

  15. Why might a researcher choose a case study design when studying the effects of a drug on one individual?

    • It guarantees a control group
    • It allows the findings to be generalised to every person who takes the drug
    • It removes the need for ethical approval
    • It provides an in-depth account of an unusual or rare case, although the findings cannot be generalised widely

  16. Which ethical concern is most relevant when a human drug study uses participants who are dependent on the drug?

    • Their location, which must be kept secret from the researcher
    • Their gender, which is always a reason to exclude them
    • Vulnerability, so consent must be fully informed and participants must be able to withdraw without losing their treatment
    • Their age, which is always a reason to exclude them

  17. A study uses animal and human participants to study the same drug. Which combined limitation is most important to consider?

    • Human studies cannot produce any quantitative data
    • Both species always respond identically
    • Animal studies cannot measure any drug effect
    • Different species may respond differently, so results may not transfer directly between animals and humans

  18. Which statement about the ethics of animal research is most accurate?

    • Animal research is always unethical and should never be carried out
    • Animal research requires no ethical review because animals cannot be harmed
    • Researchers should use as many animals as possible to increase the sample
    • Researchers must weigh potential scientific benefit against harm to animals and use the fewest animals needed

  19. A researcher finds that a drug reduces drug-seeking in rats but that the same effect was not found in human trials. Which explanation best accounts for this difference?

    • The rats were not properly trained
    • The human participants were lying about their use
    • Species differences and the limits of animal models in capturing human motivation and social context
    • The drug had no effect in either species

  20. Why is it important that animal drug studies record welfare indicators throughout the procedure?

    • So that researchers can avoid submitting a licence application
    • So that the animals can be used again in another study without restriction
    • So that suffering can be detected early and procedures stopped or refined if harm exceeds what was justified
    • So that the data can be converted into quantitative measures of consent

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