Feasibility of the Investigation: Meaning and Examples

The feasibility of the investigation It is the aspect of a scientific project that is related to whether it can be carried out in real life or not. If an idea of ​​research is not considered viable, it will be impossible to do so and, therefore, should be discarded.

The viability of the research has a lot to do with the resources available to carry it out. Among the different types of resources that may be needed to carry out an experiment or scientific research successfully, materials, humans and economic or financial stand out, among others.

In other contexts, even the available time and information can be considered necessary resources for an investigation. Therefore, within science there must be a balance between the relevance of what is studied and the feasibility of the experiments necessary to do so.

Meaning

Feasibility literally means"ability to function or maintain itself over time." In the case of a scientific investigation, this concept is related to the possibility of carrying it out in practice or not.

In all fields of science the theoretical developments and speculations on the different fields of knowledge must be supported by research carried out following the scientific method. However, sometimes it is very complicated or directly impossible to carry out these experiments.

This is where the concept of viability comes into play. In these specific fields of scientific knowledge, researchers must think about how to carry out a viable experiment, but one that allows answering the most important questions posed by the theoretical development of science.

Similar concepts

Feasibility should not be confused with feasibility, which is another word that is sometimes used practically interchangeably with it. However, in the academic field, both concepts are differentiated.

While viability seeks to answer the question"is it possible to carry out this research?", Feasibility tries to find the strengths and weaknesses of an experiment that has already been given the go-ahead.

Due to this, the feasibility has to take into account factors such as the relevance of the research in relation to the subject to be studied, the efficiency of the same and the probabilities of success of the experiment.

Types of viability

Within the scope of the feasibility of an investigation we can find different types. The most important are the following:

Technical viability

It is related to the existence of the resources necessary to carry out an experiment or investigation.

For example, in the case of neuropsychology, until very recently there were not the necessary devices to measure in real time the functioning of the human brain .

Economic feasibility

Sometimes, despite the technical means necessary to carry out an investigation, these are very expensive and can not be implemented.

One example is the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland: the economic effort required to build it makes it unfeasible to develop a second identical device.

Temporary feasibility

Some types of research have to be carried out over many years, sometimes even decades. These investigations can be very complicated to carry out due to this factor and, therefore, in many cases it is considered that they are not viable.

Ethical feasibility

Finally, even if all the necessary resources are available to carry out an investigation, sometimes the methods that should be used to develop it go against ethics or morals. In general, these experiments end up being discarded.

Examples in real investigations

Below you can find examples of several investigations that could not be carried out due to feasibility problems.

Construction of a nuclear fusion reactor

Although nuclear fusion energy has been mentioned many times as the definitive energy, the reality is that its properties have not yet been properly investigated due to the technical impossibility of building a nuclear reactor that produces it in a controlled manner.

Scientists have known for decades how to cause a nuclear fusion reaction (for example, inside a hydrogen bomb).

However, due to the high temperatures necessary to begin the process of fusion of hydrogen atoms, with the materials that we currently have, we can not replicate this in a controlled environment. This would be a case of lack of technical feasibility.

Study on the influence of genetics vs. the environment

At a time when the debate over whether human beings are more influenced by our biology or by the society in which we live, a large number of experiments were proposed to try to find the answer once and for all. However, most of these could never be carried out.

One of the most radicals involved taking a large number of newborn children and isolating them in a closed environment, in which they could not have any contact with an adult person. The idea was to provide all the resources they needed to develop properly, but to do so without any social influence.

In this way, we could observe exactly how we humans would be if we were not exposed to the society in which we live. But, obviously, the experiment violated the laws of morality and ethics, so it could never be carried out.

The Zimbardo experiment

The last example is an experiment that was possible to carry out in the past, but due to its results it is very likely that we will never be able to replicate again.

It is the well-known experiment of Philip Zimbardo: in this the researcher wanted to study the effects of social roles in people.

To achieve this he divided a group of volunteers into two teams: prisoners and prison guards. The idea was to see to what extent having power would corrupt the false guards.

The experiment had to be stopped when the second group got out of control and began to use physical violence against the volunteers who were serving as prisoners.

This experiment could no longer be carried out in the current era, because, again, it violates the rules of ethics and morals.

References

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4. "Feasibility and feasibility in research"in: Prezi. Retrieved on: March 30, 2018 from Prezi: prezi.com.
5. "10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Never Happen Today"in: Mental Floss. Retrieved: March 30, 2018 from Mental Floss: mentalfloss.com.