There are two 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses using animals or humans in Held and Hein study. First of all, strengths of using animals are animals do not have social influence. Compared to people, they are more likely to be adopted after they carry out the experiment and experimenters also do not have to worry about side effects. People might suffer serious long-term psychological harms after the experiment. In addition, even though it is unethical, we can deprive the animals likeable to remove from mother and littermates. It is much safer than using human participants. For example, when pharmacists develop the new medicine, we should use the animals as we cannot use people for every single drug test.
There are definitely some weaknesses using animals. As animals cannot communicate with people, it is too hard to carry on the experiment sometimes. They might not follow the instructions that the experimenters want or they may die because of too much stress. Due to this communication error, the experimenters may harden to rate the proper results. It is obvious that the reliability is going to drop and the test will mess up. Best of all, both of these weaknesses are unethical so they have to control by themselves.
For the using humans, it is good as they can start, the earlier the age because compared to animals, they bore with eyes opened. Therefore, it is more suitable to start the experiment with clear vision. Secondly, if they use humans, they are able to generalize to others. If we use animals, we are not able to apply to humans because they may have some changes. Moreover, experimenters may able to select the samples through interviews or observation.
However, if they use animals instead of humans, they just can see the appearance or durability of the animals. Same as animals using, there are some ethical concerns which are psychologically harmful and not respect human rights. It is kinds of abusing if the experimenter puts the babies into the carousal and passive group should restrict to move freely. It may cause serious psychological harms, especially, they are still young, so it may influence to their social interactions. Even though, experimenters take care of them carefully, it is too crucial to put them into carousal 3 hours a day. Based on my essay, there are no right or wrong. It depends how the experimenters treat them properly. However, in my opinion, the use of animals is better suited for this study.
