Component 2

Psychology: Investigating Behaviour

A Level Psychology – Eduqas

Name: ______________________

TARGETS

Aspirational

Target Grade:

________

The purpose of this component is for learners to acquire the skills of working scientifically. Principles of research The central aspect for this component is that of psychological research, from the initial planning stages through to analysing and evaluating. It is designed to introduce learners to the methodologies used by psychologists and to gain an appreciation of the impact of choices made on the outcomes of the research. Learners should appreciate the limitations of scientific research and when dealing with the complexities of humans as test material, there are several issues which need to be considered. In order to contextualise some aspects of research methods learners are required to consider the methodologies used by both social and developmental psychology A Level only: Personal investigations To ensure true appreciation of the principles of psychological investigation the learners are expected to gain first-hand experience of two research methods. Learners will be required to respond to questions concerning these investigations in the assessment. The two investigations required each year are outlined in Appendix B. Learners are encourages to use ICT in researching, designing, analysing and presenting their investigation. Learners will be expected to apply their knowledge of research methods to each investigation, including the following aspects: hypotheses; variables; methodology (including experimental design if appropriate); sampling; descriptive statistics; graphical representations; inferential statistics; reliability; validity; ethics. Application of research methods to a novel scenario The third aspect of this component is for learners to apply their knowledge and understanding of research methods to novel research scenarios, making judgements on the details of psychological research.

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Assignment Title What you/your

teacher/peer said you did well

What your you/your teacher/peer said you

needed to improve

Your mark/out of Grade

Over/on/ under target grade

1 Aims, hypotheses, IVs and DVs

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2 Experiments

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3 Extraneous variables and sampling

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4 Ethics

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5 Reliability and validity

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Name:

Target Grade:

Class Teacher: Study Buddy’s Name:

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Assignment Title What you/your

teacher/peer said you did well

What your you/your teacher/peer said you

needed to improve

Your mark/out of Grade

Over/on/ under target grade

6 Case studies and observations

__/20

7 Interviews and questionnaires

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8 Correlations

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9 Content analysis

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10 Frequency tables and graphs

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11 Measures of central tendency and dispersion

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12 Peer review and psychological investigation

__/30

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Gra

de

Assessment over time

Create a graph on the space below to track your progress over time. Grades are placed on the y-axis (A-E). The name of the assessment will be placed on the x-axis.

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How is this component assessed?

A Level Written examination: 2 hours 15 minutes 33⅓% of the total A Level qualification

100 marks

AS Level Written examination : 1 hour 45 minutes

50% of total AS Level qualification 80 marks

Principles of research Compulsory questions on how psychological

investigations are carried out (including social and developmental psychology). Personal investigations

Compulsory questions based on two investigative activities carried out prior to the assessment.

Application of research methods to a novel scenario

Compulsory questions requiring a response to a piece of research.

Principles of research Compulsory questions on how psychological

investigations are carried out (including social and developmental psychology).

Novel scenarios Compulsory questions requiring a response to a piece of

research previously unseen.

Introduction

We will be working through this booklet in lesson time; it can also be used as a revision aid nearer to the exam. Inside this booklet are resources that have been designed to help you to understand and revise Component 2 – Psychology: Investigating Behaviour. Three sections are covered;

1. Principles of research 2. Personal investigations (A Level only) 3. Application of research methods to a novel scenario

The booklet also contains a list of the specification requirements which you can use as a checklist to monitor your progress. Past exam questions have also been included so you know what to expect, some of these will be completed during lesson time. These are useful sites which may help you with your revision; some of them have been used within the booklet. ¾ http://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/psychology/ ¾ http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/researchDesign.html ¾ http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/researchMethods.html ¾ http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/researchEthics.html ¾ http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/researchData.html ¾ http://www.simplypsychology.org/research-methods.html When preparing resources, the following textbook has been used:

x Flanagan, C., Hartnoll, L., & Murray, R. (2009) Psychology AS The Complete Companion. Folens (Publishers) Ltd.

x CGP Book (2015) A-Level Psychology: AQA Year 1 & AS Complete Revision & Practice. Elanders Ltd.

Aims and Objectives This WJEC Eduqas A level specification in Psychology is stimulating, distinctive and attractive, providing exciting opportunities for the learners to: x apply psychological information to everyday situations x work scientifically through their own psychological research x demonstrate greater emphasis on the skills of psychology. This specification encourages learners to: x develop and demonstrate a deep appreciation of the skills, knowledge and understanding of scientific methods in

psychology x develop competence and confidence in a variety of practical, mathematical and problem solving skills x develop their interest in and enthusiasm for psychology, including developing an interest in further study and

careers associated with the subject

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Below is a list of criteria that you could be tested on through Component 2. This is why you need a B grade or higher in Maths.

Mathematical skills Exemplification of mathematical skills in the context of A level

Psychology (assessment is not limited to the examples given below) Arithmetic and numerical computation

Recognise and use expressions in decimal and standard form

Converting data in standard form from a results table into decimal form in order to construct a pie chart

Use ratios, fractions and percentages Calculating the percentages of cases that fall into different categories in an observation study

Estimate results Commenting on the spread of scores for a set of data, which would require estimating the range

Handling data Use an appropriate number of significant figures

Expressing a correlation coefficient to two or three significant figures

Find arithmetic means Calculating the means for two conditions using raw data from a class experiment

Construct and interpret frequency tables and diagrams, bar charts and histograms

Selecting and sketching an appropriate form of data display for a given set of data

Understand simple probability Explaining the difference between the 0.05 and 0.01 levels of significance Understand the principles of sampling as applied to scientific data

Explaining how a random or stratified sample could be obtained from a target population

Understand the terms mean, median and mode

Explaining the differences between the mean, median and mode and selecting which measure of central tendency is most appropriate for a given set of data

Use a scatter diagram to identify a correlation between two variables

Plotting two variables from an investigation on a scatter diagram and identifying the pattern as a positive correlation, a negative correlation or no correlation

Use a statistical test Calculating a non-parametric test of differences using data from a class experiment

Make order of magnitude calculation Estimating the mean test score for a large number of participants on the basis of the total overall score

Distinguish between levels of measurement

Stating the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal or interval) that has been used in a study

Know the characteristics of normal and skewed distributions

Being presented with a set of scores from an experiment showing a normal distribution and being asked to indicate the position of the mean (or median, or mode)

Select an appropriate statistical test Selecting a suitable inferential test for own practical investigation and explaining why the chosen test is appropriate

Use statistical tables to determine significance

Using an extract from statistical tables to say whether or not a given observed value is significant at the 0.05 level of significance for a one-tailed test

Understand measures of dispersion, including standard deviation and range

Explaining why the standard deviation might be a more useful measure of dispersion for a given set of scores e.g. where there is an outlying score

Understand the differences between qualitative and quantitative data

Explaining how a given qualitative measure (for example, an interview transcript) might be converted into quantitative data

Understand the difference between primary and secondary data

Stating whether data collected by a researcher dealing directly with participants is primary or secondary data

Algebra Understand and use the symbols: =, <, ≤, ≥, >, ∝, ≈

Expressing the outcome of an inferential test in the conventional form by stating the level of significance at the 0.05 level or 0.01 level by using symbols appropriately

Substitute numerical values into algebraic equations using appropriate units for physical quantities

Inserting the appropriate values from a given set of data into the formula for a statistical test e.g. inserting the N value (for the number of scores) into the Chi Square formula

Solve simple algebraic equations Calculating the degrees of freedom for a Chi Square test Graphs

Translate information between graphical, numerical and algebraic forms

Using a set of numerical data (a set of scores) to construct a bar graph

Plot two variables from experimental or other data

Drawing a scatter diagram from two sets of data in a correlational investigation

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Milgram (1963) Look on the Psychology website to find a copy of the full article http://socialsci-groby.weebly.com/ Aims: To discover whether ordinary people will obey a legitimate authority even when required to injure another person. He was testing the ‘Germans are different’ hypothesis, which suggested that the Holocaust could not happen anywhere else in the world because Germans were more likely to commit such atrocities. Procedures 40 male volunteers were recruited as participants by advertising to take part in a study of how punishment affects learning, to take place at Yale University. Participants were paid $4.50 and told that they would receive this even if they quit the study. There were two confederates: an experimenter and a ‘learner’ (a 47 year old accountant). The participant drew lots with the confederate and always ended up as the ‘teacher’. He was told that he must administer increasingly strong electric shocks to the participant each time he got a question wrong. The machine was tested on the participant to show him how it worked. The learner, sitting in another room, gave mainly wrong answers and received his (fake) shocks in silence until they reached very strong shocks (300 volts). At this point he pounded on the wall and then gave no response to the next question. He repeated this at 315 volts and from then on said/did nothing. If the ‘teacher’ asked to stop, the experimenter had a set of ‘prods’ to repeat, such as saying: ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’ or ‘You have no other choice, you must go on.’ Milgram’s research is a controlled laboratory study and not a laboratory experiment.

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Findings Before the study Milgram asked psychology students to say how far they thought participants would go. They estimated that fewer than 4% would go to the maximum level. The main finding was that 65% of the participants continued to maximum voltage (450 volts), far beyond what was marked ‘Danger, severe shock’. Only 5 participants (12.5%) stopped at 300 volts, the point when the learner first objected. 100% of participants went up to 300 volts. Conclusions The findings suggest that ordinary people are astonishingly obedient to authority when asked to behave in an inhumane manner. This suggests that it is not evil people who commit evil crimes but ordinary people just obeying orders. In other words, crimes against humanity may be the outcome of situational rather than dispositional factors. It appears that an individual’s capacity for making independent decisions is suspended under certain social constraints– namely being given an order by an authority figure. One of the most striking cases of total obedience

was that of Pasqual Gino, a 43-year-old water inspector. Towards the end of the experiment, he found himself thinking, “Good God, he’s dead. Well, here we go, we’ll finish him. And I just continued all the way through to 450 volts”. Other participants found the experience very distressing. They were seen to “sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their finger-nails into their flesh”. Milgram reported that three participants had “full-blown uncontrollable seizures”.

Variations of Milgram In Milgram’s original study, there were two confederates, an experimenter (the authority figure), and a 47 year-old accountant, who played the part of the ‘learner’. Milgram found that 65% of participants delivered the maximum 450 volts! Milgram later conducted several variations of his experiment. Find out what percentage of people went to the full 450v and complete the table below:

Variation % that went to 450v

Rundown office: The experiment was moved to a set of run down offices rather than the impressive Yale University.

Two teacher condition

Touch proximity condition: The teacher had to force the learner’s hand down onto a shock plate when they refuse to participate after 150 volts.

Absent experimenter condition

Teacher and learner in the same room

Teacher chooses the shock level

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Task: Make notes about the evaluation of Milgram’s research. Use three headings (ethical issues, social implications and methodological issues).

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Kohlberg (1968) Look on the Psychology website to find a copy of the full article http://socialsci-groby.weebly.com/

You're a good man Charlie Brown! You have humility, nobility and a sense of honour that is very rare. You are kind to the animals and every little bird. With a heart of gold, you believe what you're told. You're a good man Charlie Brown! How can morality be studied? Current trends in linguistics and cognitive psychology suggest a new approach which avoids the value-bias and cultural relativity which previous approaches had focused upon. Studies in these fields are now focusing on structures and relationships that seem to be common to all societies and all languages. For 12 years, my colleagues and I studied the same group of 75 middle-class urban boys in the U.S., Taiwan and Mexico, following their development at three-year intervals from early

adolescence. At the start of the study, the boys were aged 10 to 16. We have now followed them through to ages 22 to 28. Inspired by Jean Piaget's effort to apply a structural approach to moral development, I have developed a typological scheme describing general structures and forms of moral thought. The typology contains three distinct levels of moral thinking, and within each of these levels distinguishes two related stages. These levels and stages may be considered separate moral philosophies, distinct views of the socio-moral world. Moral Levels and Stages 1) The preconventional level - the child here is often “well-behaved" and is responsive to cultural labels of

good and bad. This interpretation is in terms of consequences (punishment, reward, exchange of favours) or in terms of the physical power of those who voice the rules and labels of good and bad.

This level is usually occupied by children aged four to 10. The capacity of "properly behaved" children of this age to engage in cruel behaviour when there are holes in the power structure is sometimes noted as tragic (Lord of the Flies) sometimes as comic (Lucy in Peanuts). The stages are Stage 1: Orientation toward punishment and unquestioning respect to superior power. The consequence of behaviour (regardless of meaning or value) determines whether it is good or bad. Stage 2: The right thing to do is whatever satisfies one's own needs and maybe the

needs of others. Elements of fairness, mutual benefits ('you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours') and equal sharing are present. There is no notion of loyalty, gratitude or justice.

2) The conventional level can be described as conformist. Maintaining the expectations and rules of the

individual's family, group or culture is perceived as important. There is a concern not only with conforming to the individual's social order but in maintaining, supporting and justifying this order.

The stages are Stage 3: Good-boy / good-girl orientation. Good behaviour is that which helps others and is approved by them. Behaviour is often judged by intention; "he means well" becomes important for the first time. The individual seeks approval by being "nice". Stage 4: Orientation toward authority, fixed rules and the maintenance of order. Right behaviour consists of doing one's duty, showing respect for authority and maintaining the given social order for its own sake. One earns respect by performing dutifully.

3) The postconventional level is characterised by a drive toward autonomous moral principles which have

validity and application apart from authority of the persons who hold them and apart from the individual's identification with those persons.

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At this level, we have Stage 5: A social-contract orientation, generally with legalistic and utilitarian overtones. Right action tends to be defined in terms of standards which have been agreed upon by the whole society. There is an awareness of the relativism of personal values and opinions. Aside from what is constitutionally agreed upon, right or wrong is a matter of personal "values" and "opinion." The result is an emphasis upon the "legal point of view," but with an emphasis upon the possibility of changing law for the purpose of social utility, rather than freezing it in "law and order” (Stage 4). Stage 6: Orientation toward the conscience and ethical principles appealing to logical universality. These principles are abstract and ethical; they are not concrete moral rules like the Ten Commandments. Instead they are universal Principles of justice, of the reciprocity and equality of human rights, and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.

Previous work on morality In the past, when psychologists tried to answer the question "Is virtue something that can be taught or does it come by practice, or is it a natural inborn attitude?" their answers usually have been come not from research findings on children's moral character, but by general theoretical convictions. Behaviour theorists have said that virtue is behaviour acquired according to principles of learning. Freudians have claimed that virtue is superego identification with parents generated by a proper balance of love and authority within the family. American psychologists who studied children's morality started with labels – the “virtues" and "vices," the "traits" of good and bad character found in ordinary language. The earliest major psychological study of moral character by Hartshorne & May (1928-1930), focused on virtues including honesty, altruism and self-control. To their dismay, they found that there were no psychological personalities which correspond to these virtues. For example, with 'honesty' they found that almost everyone cheats at some time, and that if a person cheats in one situation, it doesn't mean they will or won’t in another. In other words, it is not an identifiable character trait (i.e. dishonesty) that makes a child cheat in a given situation. These early researchers also found that people who cheat express as much or even more moral disapproval of cheating as those who do not cheat. Moral Reasoning In our research, we have found definite and universal levels of development in moral thought. In our study of 75 American boys from early adolescence on, these youths were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas, all deliberately philosophical, some of them found in medieval works.

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On the basis of their reasoning about these dilemmas at a given age, each boy's stage of thought could be determined for 25 basic moral concepts. The stages for some concepts are shown below:

Stage Concept - Reason for obeying rules 1 Obey rules to avoid punishment. 2 Conform to obtain rewards. 3 Conform to avoid disapproval by others. 4 Conform to avoid disapproval by legitimate authorities. 5 Conform to maintain the respect of the impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare. 6 Conform to avoid self-condemnation.

Stage Concept - Value of Human Life

1 The value of a human life is confused with the value of objects and is based on the social status or physical attributes of its possessor.

2 The value of a human life is instrumental to the satisfaction of the needs of its possessor or of other persons.

3 The value of a human life is based on the empathy and affection of family members and others toward its possessor.

4 Life is conceived as sacred in terms of its place in a categorical moral or religious order of rights and duties.

5 Life is valued both in terms of its relation to community welfare and in terms of life being a universal human right.

6 Belief in the sacredness of human life as representing a universal human value of respect for the individual.

I call this scheme a typology. This is because about 50 per cent of most people's thinking will be at a single stage (i.e. of a type), regardless of the moral dilemma involved. We call our types stages because they seem to represent a normal developmental sequence, one at a time and always in the same order. Movement is forward and does not skip steps. Children may move through these stages at varying speeds, of course, and may be found half in and half out of a particular stage. An individual can stop at any given stage and at any age, but if they continue to move, they must move according to these steps. How Values Change As an example of our findings of stage-sequence, consider the progress of two boys on the concept of "The Value of Human Life." The first boy Tom is asked "Is it better to save the life of one important person or a lot of unimportant people?" At age 10, he chooses "all the people that aren't important because one man just has one house, maybe a lot of furniture, but a whole bunch of people have an awful lot of furniture and some of these poor people might have a lot of money and it doesn't look it." Clearly Tom is Stage 1: he confuses the value of a human being with the value of the property he possesses. Three years later (13) Tom's ideas of life's value are most clearly produced by the question, "Should the doctor 'mercy kill' a fatally ill woman requesting death because of her pain?" Tom answers, "Maybe it would be good, to put her out of her pain, she'd be better off that way. But the husband wouldn’t want it; it’s not like an animal. If a pet dies you can get a new one – it isn’t something you really need. Well, you can get a new wife, but it's not really the same.” Here his answer is Stage 2: the value the woman’s life is partly depending on its value to the wife herself but even more dependent on its value to her husband, who can’t replace her as easily as he can a pet. At 16 Tom's idea of life’s value is elicited by the same question, to which he replies: "It might be best for her, but her husband – it's a human life – not like an animal; it just doesn't have the same relationship that a human being does to a family. You can become attached to a dog, but nothing like a human you know." Tom has moved from a Stage 2 instrumental view of the woman's value to a Stage 3 view based on the husband’s human empathy and love for someone in his family. It lacks any basis for a universal human value of the woman’s life, which would be true if she had no husband or if her husband didn't love her. Tom, then, has moved step by step through three stages during the age 10-16. Tom, though bright (I.Q. 120), is a slow developer in moral judgment.

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Another boy, Lee, shows us sequential movement through the remaining three steps. At age 13, Lee said about the mercy-killing, "If she requests it, it's really up to her. She is in terrible pain, just the same as people are always putting animals out of their pain". He shows a mixture of Stage 2 and Stage 3 responses to the value of life. At 16, he said, "I don't know. In one way, it's murder; it's not a right or privilege of man to decide who shall live and who should die. God put life into everybody on earth, and you're destroying something that is sacred, it's part of God and it's almost destroying a part of God when you kill a person." Here Lee clearly displays a Stage-4 concept of life as sacred in terms of its place in a categorical moral or religious order. The value of human life is universal; it is true for all humans. It is still, however, dependent on something else, upon respect for God and God's authority; it is not an autonomous human value. At age 20, Lee said to the same question: "There are people in the medical profession who think it is a hardship on everyone, the person, the family, when you know they are going to die. When a person is kept alive artificially it's more like being a vegetable than a human. If it's her own choice, I think there are certain rights and privileges that go along with being a human being. I am a human being and have certain desires for life, I think everybody else does too. You have a world of which you are the centre, and everybody else does too." Lee's response is clearly Stage 5, in that the value of life is defined in terms of equal and universal human rights in a context of relativity and of concern for welfare consequences. At 24, Lee says: "A human life takes precedence over any other moral or legal value, whoever it is. A human life has inherent value whether or not it is valued by a particular individual. The worth of the individual human is central where the principles of justice and love are normative for all human relationships." This young man is at Stage 6 in seeing the value of human life as absolute in representing a universal and equal respect for the human as an individual. He has moved step by step through a sequence culminating in a definition of human life as centrally valuable rather than derived from or dependent on social or divine authority. The Final Step The person at Stage 6 has separated his judgments of human life from status and property values (Stage 1), from its uses to others (Stage 2), from interpersonal affection (Stage 3), and so on; he has a means of moral judgment that is universal and impersonal. The Stage 6 person’s answers use moral words like "duty" or "morally right," and he uses them in a way implying universality and ideals: He thinks and speaks in phrases like “regardless of who it was," or ". . . I would do it in spite of punishment." Across Cultures When I first decided to explore moral development in other cultures, I was told by anthropologist friends that I would have to throw away my culture bound moral concepts and stories and start from scratch learning a whole new set of values for each new culture. My first try consisted of two villages, one Atayal (Malaysian aboriginal) and the other Taiwanese. My guide was a young Chinese ethnographer who had written about the moral and religious patterns of the Atayal and Taiwanese villages. Taiwanese boys in the 10-13 age group were asked about a story involving theft of food. A man's wife is starving to death but the store owner won't give the man any food unless he can pay, which be can't. Should he break in and steal some food? Why? Many of the boys said, "He should steal the food for his wife because if she dies he'll have to pay for her funeral and that costs a lot." My guide was amused by these responses, but I was relieved: they were of course "classic" Stage 2 responses. In the Atayal village, funerals weren't such a big thing, so the Stage 2 boys would say, "He should steal the food because he needs his wife to cook for him." This shows that there are subtle cultural variations in the responses but that the fundamental reasoning remains the same across cultures. The above examples of reasoning indicate the cultural universality of the sequence of stages which we have found. Tom and Lee present the age trends for middle-class urban boys in the U.S., Taiwan and Mexico. At age 10 in each country, the order of use of each stage is the same as the order of its difficulty or maturity. In the United States, by age 16 the order is the reverse, from the highest to the lowest, except that Stage 6 is still rarely seen. At age 13, the 'good-boy' stage (Stage 3) is not seen. The results in Mexico and Taiwan are the same, except that development is a little slower. The most noticeable feature is that at the age of 16, Stage 5 thinking is seen more in the United States compared with Mexico or Taiwan. Nevertheless, it is present in the other countries, so we know that this is not purely an American

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democratic construct. Trends for lower-class urban groups are intermediate in the rate of development between those for the middle-class and for the village boys. In the three cultures that I studied, middle-class children were found to be more advanced in moral judgment than matched lower-class children. This was not due to the fact that the middle-class children heavily favoured one type of thought corresponding to the usual middle-class pattern. Instead, middle-class and working-class children move through the same sequences, but the middle-class children move faster and farther. This sequence is not dependent upon a particular religion or any religion at all in the usual sense. I found no important differences in the development of moral thinking among Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Moslems and atheists. Religious values seem to go through the same stages as all other values. The Role of Society All the societies we have studied have the same basic institutions – family, economy, law, government. In addition, however, all societies are alike because they are societies - systems of defined complementary roles. In order to play a social role in the family, school or society, the child must implicitly take the role of others toward himself and toward others in the group. These role-taking tendencies form the basis of social institutions. They represent various modelling of shared expectations. Behaviourist psychology and psychoanalysis have always upheld the view that moral words are one thing and moral deeds another. Morally mature reasoning is quite a different matter, and does not really depend on "fine words." The man who understands justice is more likely to practice it. In our studies, we have found that youths who understand justice act more justly, and the man who understands justice helps create a moral climate which goes far beyond his immediate and personal acts. The universal society is the beneficiary.

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Task: Make notes about the evaluation of Kohlberg’s research. Use three headings (ethical issues, social implications and methodological issues).

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Operationalise In order to make a hypothesis testable we need to operationalise the DV and the IV, this means to make

them measurable. For example in statement 3 - People who take vitamin B supplements are more intelligent than people who

don’t take vitamin B, what do we mean by more intelligent? We need to specify this behaviour further in order to measure it.

Using an IQ test would help us to quantify intelligence thus making it measurable.

Aims and Hypotheses All research studies have to start with an aim. An aim is a general statement of why the study is being carried out. A good aim should start with ‘To investigate...’ or ‘To compare...’ The aim of the study then leads onto the hypothesis. A hypothesis is: ¾ A clear statement ¾ A prediction ¾ Testable ¾ Formulated at the beginning of research Psychologists start off with a theory which is a general idea about behaviour and then develop a hypothesis so they can test these ideas. A hypothesis can be directional or non-directional depending on the direction we think the outcome of the research will be. • A non-directional hypothesis (otherwise known as a ‘two-tailed’ test) proposes that there

will be a difference in the relationship but it doesn’t state the direction. E.g. There will be a difference between the number of words children and adults can recall in a list of 20 words. Just think – a cat with two tails is non-directional

• A directional hypothesis states what the difference will be. E.g. Adults will recall more words than children when given a list of 20 words to remember.

TASK: Decide whether the hypotheses are directional or non-directional: 1. Students studying AS Psychology are happier than those studying AS Politics.

2. There will be a significant difference between the number of times male and female drivers fail to stop at a pedestrian crossing.

3. People who take vitamin B supplements are more intelligent than people who don’t take vitamin B. 4. Smokers will cough more times when asked to sit in silence, than non-smokers.

TASK: Try writing directional and non-directional hypotheses with the key words given:

Students, revision, music Alcohol, reaction time, driving

Exam results, Xbox One, students

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The final type of hypothesis you must know is a null hypothesis. This predicts no difference between two sets of data (one variable does not affect the other). It should always start with there will be no difference... Write a non-directional hypothesis for each of the key words below: Memory, Dementia, Crossword Chimpanzees, Humans, Basketball TASK: You will be divided into two groups: x Group 1 will be given a packet of finest cookies x Group 2 will be given an economy packet of cookies

Aim

Directional hypothesis

Non-directional hypothesis

Null hypothesis

Results

Group 1 (Finest): Number of chocolate chips in each cookie Cookie 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

No. of chips

Group 2 (Economy): Number of chocolate chips in each cookie

Cookie 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

No. of chips

Descriptive statistics

Mean Mode Median

Group 1 (Finest)

Group 2 (Economy)

Pilot Studies

Often psychologists carry out a ‘dress rehearsal’ of their study before they go out into the world and conduct the research on a large number of people. This is called doing a pilot study. There are many reasons why a psychologist might choose to do a pilot study:

¾ It enables researcher to check for design faults ¾ It is done to check that all elements of the study work ¾ To check the participants understand the instructions ¾ Checks no one can guess the true aim of the study ¾ It saves a lot of time and money in the long-run!

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Independent and Dependent Variables In an experimental study, the researcher manipulates an independent variable (IV) whilst measuring a dependent variable (DV). All other extraneous variables that might affect the DV are held constant, to prevent them from becoming confounding variables and making the experiment invalid.

The variables the researcher is actually interested in are typically psychological ones, which cannot be manipulated or measured directly. For the research to be considered empirical (scientific), the researcher must come up with operational definitions of each variable, which specify how they will be measured. ¾ The IV is manipulated (changed) by the researcher. ¾ The DV is measured by the researcher.

TASK: Identify the IV and DV in the following... Children that go to nursery before the age of 1 speak earlier than children that don’t.

IV = DV =

Children who watch violent cartoons will get into more fights at school. IV = DV =

Adolescents are more likely to take part in risky behaviour when in a group than when they are alone. IV = DV =

New drivers have more accidents than people that have been driving for more than two years.

IV = DV =

People that care for elderly relatives are more likely to have a low immune system.

IV = DV =

Students that are rewarded for positive behaviour behave better than those that are not rewarded.

IV = DV =

Children in nursery are more sociable than children who attend a childminder’s. IV = DV =

Teenagers have a faster reaction time than retired OAPs.

IV = DV =

Men are better at playing darts than women.

IV = DV =

Babies born to mothers who smoke have a lower birth rate than babies whose mothers do not smoke. IV = DV =

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Location of Research Experiments: The main characteristic of an experiment is that the researcher manipulates an IV (independent variable) to measure the effect on the DV (dependent variable). This allows the researcher to measure cause and effect Quasi experiments: These experiments are when the researcher makes use of a naturally occurring IV instead of manipulating it due to ethical or practical reasons. These are sometimes called ‘natural experiments’ although they are not true experiments because of the fact that no one has manipulated the IV. There are a few different kinds of experiment. Make notes on these in the table below:

Definition Advantages Limitations

Labo

rato

ry

Fiel

d

Onl

ine

Qua

si-

19

Experimental Design

Design Our class experiment Description

Diagram to illustrate technique

When should it be used? Advantages Disadvantages Controls

Rep

eate

d m

easu

res

desi

gn

When there is only a small number of

participants, so you use all of the

participants in both conditions.

Order effects can be controlled through counterbalancing (all conditions are experienced first

and second – ABBA).

Single blind techniques can be used to overcome

demand characteristics.

Inde

pend

ent

grou

ps

desi

gn

If a small sample

is used then there is the risk

that any differences

between the conditions are

due to individual differences of the

participants.

Participants are randomly allocated

to the different conditions.

Mat

ched

pai

rs d

esig

n

When you have a lot of time, money and

participants as they need to be

carefully matched.

Identical (monozygotic) twins

are useful for researchers when

matching participant variables.

20

Confounding Variables and Extraneous Variables When psychologists carry out an experiment they must control all other factors apart from the IV. This is so that they know that the changes in the IV cause the changes in the DV. An extraneous variable is one which might interfere with the DV. A confounding variable is one which has definitely interfered with the DV, and “confounded” the result.

Extraneous variable Examples How does it affect validity? How can it be overcome?

Situational variables (anything to do with

the environment of the experiment).

Time of day: Temperature: Order effects: Noise levels:

Something about the situation of the experiment could act as an EV if it has an effect on the DV. For example, poor

lighting could affect participants’ performance on a memory test.

Standardised procedures:

Participant variables (anything to do with

differences in the participants).

Age: Gender: Intelligence: Skill and past experience: Motivation:

It may be that the differences between the participants cause the change in the DV. For example, one group may

perform better on a memory test than another because they are younger, or more motivated.

Repeated measures design: Matched pairs design:

Researcher effects: how the behaviour and

language of the researcher may

influence the behaviour of the participants.

The way in which an researcher asks a question might act as a cue for the

participant. Also known as researcher bias.

Leading questions from the experimenter may consciously or unconsciously alter how the participant responds. For

example, the experimenter may provide verbal or non verbal encouragement when the participant behaves in a way

which supports the hypothesis.

Double blind technique:

Demand characteristics:

participants are often searching for cues as to

how to behave in an experiment.

There could be something about the experimental situation or the behaviour of

the experimenter (see investigator effects) which communicates to the

participant what is “demanded” of them.

The structure of the experiment could lead the participant to guess the aim of the study. For example, participants may

perform a memory test, be made to exercise, and then given another memory test. This may lead the participants to guess that the study is about the effect of exercise on

memory, which may cause them to change their behaviour.

Single blind technique:

Participant effects: participants are aware

that they are in an experiment.

Due to being aware of the experiment they may behave unnaturally, for example

they might try to look more appealing (known as social desirability bias)

They may be overly helpful and want to please the experimenter leading to artificial behaviour. Alternatively,

they may decide to go against the experimenter’s aims and deliberately act in a way which spoils the experiment. This is

the “screw you” effect.

Again, by designing a study so that the participants cannot guess the aims, participant effects can be reduced.

21

Sampling Sampling refers to the process by which research psychologists attempt to select a representative group from the population. We can’t study the entire popular it would take forever, so instead a smaller group of participants must act as a representative sample. In an attempt to select a representative sample and avoid sampling bias (e.g. over representing one category of participants in a sample such as students), psychologists use different sampling techniques. What is a target population? What is a sampling frame?

Key words: BIAS and GENERALISE. I.e. are the findings biased? Can you generalise the findings to the target population?

Name Description and how to do it Advantages Disadvantages Effect on population validity

Random

Every individual has an equal chance of selection.

Give every participant in the target population a number. Use a calculator, spreadsheet or

random number tables to select the individuals in the sample - or more informally, pull

numbers out of a hat.

Simple method. Data analysis simple and has sound mathematical

basis. Most standard statistical

techniques assume simple random sampling.

If the population is very heterogeneous the

results can vary considerably.

May be difficult to do for large/dispersed

populations.

This is a representative sample and has high population validity

Self-selected (or volunteer)

Participants from the target population select themselves – e.g. by responding to an

advertisement. Experimenter merely has to check they are in the target population.

All participants are willing to be involved. Sampling frame not

needed. Quick and easy to do.

Self-selected participants are very unlikely to be

representative – in many cases they may have a

particular "agenda". No conclusions can be

drawn.

Research has found that a particular type of person is likely to

volunteer for research; thus this type of

sampling has a very high chance of bias. This

means that we cannot

generalise to the target population leading to low population validity

Opportunity

Uses participants from the target population who are available at the time (e.g. outside a

train station or in a supermarket).

Quick and easy to do. Sampling frame not

needed.

Unlikely to be representative of the

population. No conclusions can be

drawn.

High chance that the sample will be biased

leading to low population validity

22

Name Description and how to do it Advantages Disadvantages Effect on population validity

Snowballing

Participants recruit their friends, family, colleagues etc. Imagine how difficult it might

be to study people with eating disorders. Once one or two people have been identified you ask them to direct you to other people with similar

characteristics.

Allows the researcher to test participants which

might be difficult to assess.

Lower search costs.

This research is prone to bias because researchers are only in contact with a small number of the

population.

Stratified

The population is divided up into non-overlapping categories called strata. So first decide how to stratify the population. This will

depend on what factors are likely to be significant for the investigation - e.g. age, sex, socioeconomic group, place of residence etc.

Ascertain what percentage of the entire population is in each of the strata.

The size of the sample from each of the strata is proportional to the number of participants from the population in it. Obtain a sample from

each of the strata using simple random sampling.

If the population is very diverse it gives a more realistic picture than simple random, and

ensures representation of minority strata.

Produces more consistent estimates of population parameters (such as means and

variances) than simple random.

Detailed information about the population is required to define the

strata. It is crucial to choose

the correct stratification according to factors that affect the investigation -

this may need to be refined during the

investigation.

Quota

As for stratified sampling, decide how to stratify and calculate the sample required from each of the strata. Obtain the individuals from

each of the strata by whatever means are convenient.

Much quicker and easier than stratified sampling.

Sampling frame not needed.

Cannot use inferential statistics.

Within quota the sampling may be unrepresentative

Assessment of e.g. social class may be

subjective.

Systematic

This is a technique which uses a predetermined system of selection for participants. Such as selecting every 10th person from the phone

book.

This is unbiased as participants are selected

using an objective system.

This is not truly random, unless you select a

number from a random number generator and

then start with this person, and then collect

every 10th person.

TASK: Play the sampling match up game. Your teacher can email you a copy if you would like to use it as part of your revision.

23

Ethical Issues Ethical issues are:

Ethical issue Explanation/definition Problems for

researchers Ways of dealing with this issue

Info

rmed

co

nse

nt

What should participants be told about the study? The information given

might help the participants guess the aim of the study and

therefore change their behaviour (participant

effects).

Give details of the study. Get consent in writing.

Sometimes the researcher hides information from the participant and then gives a debrief at the end, what is this?

Dec

epti

on

This causes a problem as the participants cannot give fully informed consent.

Debriefing (although they may still feel shame and embarrassment about taking

part). Presumptive consent (ask a group of similar people whether they would be OK

with the deception). Ethical committees can be asked, they decide on the costs and benefits and if the

deception in the study is acceptable.

Rig

ht t

o w

ithd

raw

If certain people want to leave the study, this may bias the sample and the results if the

ones who leave are the most intelligent or

confident.

When are participants told they can withdraw?

Any money/rewards are still paid

Pro

tect

ion

from

har

m

This should be for both psychological effects (lowered self-esteem, humiliation, anxiety, stress, or embarrassment) and

physical effects (injury or pain).

They should avoid any risks encountered that are greater than those in everyday life. Researchers should also stop the

study whenever distress is encountered.

Con

fide

ntia

lity How does the Data Protection Act protect

participants?

Written consent: Securely hold all data: No names are to be recorded (use numbers of false names).

Pri

vacy

Participants have the right to control the flow of information about themselves.

Each person has the right to decide who knows and who doesn’t know personal

information about them.

24

TASK: Watch a selection of the videos or read the articles below by downloading a QR scanner app. Make some of your own notes about the ethical issues that were broken and why.

Ethical Issues: Risk to the participants’ values, beliefs, relationships, status or privacy

Ethical Issues: Working with vulnerable individuals (including children) When working with vulnerable people psychologists have to consider: x Inability to give informed consent (e.g. if cognitive functioning is under-developed) , and ability to

comprehend the situation and purpose of the tasks given to allow giving informed consent x Susceptibility to psychological harm (e.g. more prone to stress if compared with others) x Increased risk of physical harm (e.g. if there are physical demands in the task) x Context of the research (e.g. in a familiar setting and / or a familiar person present) x Monitoring their reactions during the research paying attention to signs that they are not willing to continue

with the data collection x Short term and long term effects of the research (e.g. anxiety regarding their performance)

Five worst medical experiments

David Reimer

Milgram Guardian article – South African

Aversion Therapy

Abu Ghraib and Zimbardo

Male urination at the urinal

Little Albert video Bobo doll The Strange Situation

This ethical issue requires psychologists to not just consider the participant as part of the research, but also the impact that the research may have on the participant.

Researchers need to make sure that the participants’ attitudes and opinions are not demeaned or that their associations with others are not damaged by their participation in research.

Their position within an organisation or society must also not be jeopardised. This can all be dealt with by ensuring the privacy of participants is maintained through confidentiality arrangements.

25

Ethical issues when working with non-human animals Why might a psychologist use non-human animals in research?

¾ ¾ ¾ ¾

Moral justification of using animals in research

x Sentient beings – do animals experience pain and emotion? There is evidence they respond to pain, but is

this the same as conscious awareness? Some humans are not sentient (e.g. brain damaged) but we still wouldn’t experiment on them without consent.

x Speciesism – discrimination on the basis of species is no different from gender or culture (Singer, 1990), thus you should be careful with the species chosen for research.

x Animal rights – some views are utilitarian (whatever is best for greater number is ethically acceptable), so if results of the research can justify the pain caused then it is acceptable. Regan (1984) said that this is unacceptable and that animals should be treated with respect and never used in research.

While the BPS has guidelines, there is also important legislation; the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (1986). This act requires that animal research is only carried out in licensed laboratories, with licensed researchers, on licensed projects. Licenses are only granted under certain conditions, these are:

x x x x

The 3 R’s: Reduction (of the number of animals) Replacement (use alternative methods where possible) Refinement (use improved techniques to reduce stress) An example of an animal experiment - Monkey Drug Trials (1969) While animal experimentation can be incredibly helpful in understanding man, and developing life saving drugs, there have been experiments which go well beyond the realms of ethics. The monkey drug trials of 1969 were one such case. In this experiment, a large group of monkeys and rats were trained to inject themselves with an assortment of drugs, including morphine, alcohol, codeine, cocaine, and amphetamines. Once the animals were capable of self-injecting, they were left to their own devices with a large supply of each drug. The animals were so disturbed (as one would expect) that some tried so hard to escape that they broke their arms in the process. The monkeys taking cocaine suffered convulsions and in some cases tore off their own fingers (possible as a consequence of hallucinations), one monkey taking amphetamines tore all of the fur from his arm and abdomen, and in the case of cocaine and morphine combined, death would occur within 2 weeks. The point of the experiment was simply to understand the effects of addiction and drug use; a point which, I think, most rational and ethical people would know did not require such horrendous treatment of animals.

The 3 R’s was endorsed by the House of Lords in 2002. However the law states that

animal research needs to continue in order to test new

drugs.

26

Ethical Committees and Ethical Guidelines An ethical committee promotes the ethical practice of psychology and is responsible for the Code of Ethics and Conduct. An example of an ethical committee is the BPS (British Psychological Society). Its main responsibilities are to provide guidance to members on ethical matters relating to psychology, consider the impact of ethical issues for participants and help to resolve ethical dilemmas (among many other responsibilities). In the United Kingdom psychological research has to comply with the guidelines drawn up by the British Psychological Society. These guidelines are based on four principles: 1. Respect 2. Competence 3. Integrity 4. Responsibility Go to the following website http://listverse.com/2008/09/07/top-10-unethical-psychological-experiments/ and complete the table below:

Study Would you let it run? Why/why not? Ethical issues broken What advice would an

ethical committee give?

10. The Monster Study

9. The aversion project

8. The Stanford Prison Experiment

7. The Monkey Drug Trials

6. Facial Expressions Experiment

5. Little Albert

4. Learned Helplessness

3. Milgram

2. The Well of Despair

1. Gender Reassignment

Go here: http://www.bps.org.uk/system/files/documents/code_of_ethics_and_conduct.pdf to find out more about these guidelines.

27

Reliability The reliability of any method of measurement (this can be an interview, questionnaire, experimental test, etc) refers to how consistently it measures something. A reliable test gives similar results in similar circumstances. For example, if your kitchen scales gave you different readings each time you weighed out the same amount of sugar for your cake, they would not be reliable (neither would your cakes!). Types of reliability 1. Internal reliability

How consistently a method/test measures within itself. For example, if my 6 inch ruler had different size inches all the way along its length, it would not be standardised and would not have good internal reliability. Also, internal reliability would be bad if two people simultaneously observing the same participant’s behaviour scored it differently.

2. External reliability

How consistently a method/test measures over time when repeated. A method/test with good external reliability will give similar scores for the same people under similar conditions. For example, if my ruler found different lengths each time it measured the same object, it would not have good external reliability.

FOR EXAMPLE: Jake is a participant in an experimental test. He sees a series of words on a computer screen, one at a time. He is asked to decide if each word is a real word or not (e.g., SWOAD is not a real word, SWORD is a real word). His reaction times are recorded. If this test is reliable, it will measure Jake’s performance consistently each time he takes the test.

Ways of dealing with issues of reliability: If there is a problem with reliability, for example, a question on a questionnaire turns out not to be consistent the psychologist can remove the item from the questionnaire or checklist and check to see if there is a correlation between the remaining items. Methods used to assess reliability: There are a few techniques that psychologists can use to assess whether their experiment or research has high reliability. Complete the table to learn about these techniques:

Inter-rater reliability Test-retest reliability Split-half reliability

A test of reliability for observers A test of external reliability A test of internal reliability

28

Validity The validity of any method of measurement refers to how truly/realistically it measures something. A valid test measures what it is supposed to measure - it does not measure something else! For example, a valid IQ test should really be measuring intelligence and not just measuring general knowledge. Types of validity 1. Internal validity

How much the findings of a test/method are due to the manipulation of a variable rather than another factor. It is also called experimental validity. For example, a method/test has good internal validity if the findings do result from the manipulation of the independent variable on the dependent variable.

2. External validity How much the findings of a test/method can be generalised to different settings. This includes how much the findings can be generalised to other environments (ecological validity) and people (population validity).

You may be asked about specific validity issues (including researcher bias, demand characteristics, and social desirability). Look back at your notes on extraneous variables and confounding variables to recap these. Ways of dealing with issues of validity: If there is a problem with validity, for example, there is a design fault in an experiment, the psychologist can reword the item on the questionnaire or in the interview to see if there is a better match between the scores on the new test and the already established one. Methods used to assess validity: There are a few techniques that psychologists can use to assess whether their experiment or research has high validity. The techniques are shown in the table below:

Face Does the test/method actually look like it is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring? For example, are the questions on a stress questionnaire obviously related to stress?

Content Does the test measure the behaviour for which it is intended? You could ask an independent expert to check over your questionnaire to evaluate it as a measurement.

Concurrent Does the test/method have a strong positive correlation with an already well-established one that claims to measure the same variable? To do this the participants take both tests to form a correlation.

Construct Does the test/method test the theory about the variable that it is supposed to be measuring? To do this, you might look at a definition of stress and consider whether the questions measure stress.

Predictive Does the test/method predict a person’s future performance on a test/method? For example, you could take measure blood pressure, people who score highly on the questionnaire should have a higher BP.

Validity of research methods: How are each of the following research methods affected by validity?

Lab experiments

Field experiments

Observations

Case studies

Quasi experiments

1

Observationswww.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 84

FsychologyP actsheets

This Factsheet is about the non-experimental method of observation.It describes the different types of observations and when to usethem for psychological research. Strengths and limitations areoutlined, including ethical issues associated with observations. Thefactsheet includes exam guidance and the worksheet gives you theopportunity to apply what you have learned to exam style questions.

The examiner will expect you to be able to:• Describe the different types of observational methods and when

to use them• Explain how observation relates to the scientific nature of

psychology• Describe rating/coding systems of behaviour• Evaluate observations in terms of strengths and limitations• Discuss ethical issues associated with observations

A. Observation as a scientific methodObservations are one of the non-experimental methods used inpsychology to gain qualitative data (see glossary). Observationsare often more realistic than experimental methods and have highecological validity. Researchers observe naturally occurringbehaviours, often in real life environments. A standardised procedureis used to observe and record behaviour objectively and drawconclusions from the findings. Researchers propose hypotheses toexplain their observations and then test the hypotheses with furtherresearch. As there is no independent variable (IV) in observations,conclusions do not infer cause and effect. The researcher has littlecontrol over what happens and so must be alert to possibleconfounding variables. A well-designed observation can be as validand reliable as an experiment and is a good way of learning aboutthe behaviour of human and non-human animals in their naturalenvironment

Exam Hint:- You may be asked to explain how observationrelates to the scientific nature of psychology.

B. Types of observation• Naturalistic observationThe researcher plans, observes and records the behaviour of naïveparticipants in their natural environment. This usually involvescovert observation where the observers are unaware they are beingobserved. For example, an observation of animals in their naturalhabitat or of pedestrians at a crossing.

Exam Hint: You can criticize observations for being unethicaldue to being covert and an absence of consent. However, youshould remember that not all observations are covert andtherefore these ethical issues do not apply to all methods ofobservation.

• Structured observationThe researcher plans, observes and records the behaviour ofparticipants in a controlled environment. Participants have usuallygiven their consent and there is a risk of participant reactivity asthey know they are being observed. For example, this may be aproblem in the observation of children taking part in Piagetian tasksor the Strange Situation.

Piaget observed children of differentages playing with marbles whenresearching moral and cognitivedevelopment.

• Participant observationThe researcher is involved in the observation under investigation.For example, a football supporter interested in crowd behaviourmight observe the people around him/her in the stands at a footballmatch.

• Non-participant observationThe researcher is not involved in the observation under investigationand observes and records the behaviour of others from a distance.For example, someone interested in tipping behaviour in cafés mightsit at a table at the back of the café observing and recording thosediners who do and who do not leave a tip.

Exam Hint:- You may be asked to identify the type ofobservational method used in psychological studies. Forexample, Ainsworth & Bell’s ‘Strange Situation’ as well as muchof Piaget’s research made use of structured observation.Ethnographic research often uses participant observation.

C. Strengths and limitations

Type ofobservation

Naturalisticobservation

Structuredobservation

Participantobservation

Non-participantobservation

Strengths

High ecologicalvalidity.

Control ofconfoundingvariables.Replicable and soreliable.

Acceptance fromparticipant group.

Allows for greaterobjectivity thanparticipantobservation.

Limitations

Ethical issues, such asprivacy and lack ofconsent. Lack of controlleads to confoundingvariables.

Observer effect /bias.Participant reactivity.Less ecological validity.

Observer effect / bias.

Observer effect / bias.

Exam Hint: You may be asked to identify a range of strengths(two or more) and weaknesses (two or more) appropriate toobservations. Discussion should be detailed with goodunderstanding and clear expression of ideas.

2

84. Observations Psychology Factsheet

D. Rating and/or coding behaviourResearchers conducting structured observations often use simpletally charts to record observed behaviour. These allow the researcherto rate behaviour, such as that displayed at a pedestrian crossing.

Tally chart to show behaviour at a pedestrian crossing

IIII II III

Number who crosswhen the green manshows

Number who crosswhen the greenman is flashing

Number who crosswhen the red manshows

When conducting naturalistic observations it is often not possibleto design a method of rating behaviour in advance. This is becausethe researcher is never exactly sure what behaviour will be observed.In this case, observers make very detailed observation notes or userecording equipment in order to play back what they observed.They then decide on different categories of behaviour. For example,after observing playground behaviour of 7- to 11-year-olds theresearcher might codify behaviours into the following categories:

E. Ethical guidelinesThe British Psychological Society’s (BPS) ethical guidelines statesthat the privacy and psychological well-being of researchparticipants must be maintained. Sometimes, due to the nature ofthe research, it is not appropriate to gain participant consent priorto research, as is the case with covert observations. In such cases,the guidelines state that observations should only occur where itwould be normal that those observed would or could be observedby others, such as in a public place.

Full guidelines can be found onthe BPS website: which iswww.bps.org.uk

Activities Girls Boys

Playing ball games

Running/chasing

Skipping

Sitting quietly

Talking to playground assistant

Reading

Eating/drinking

Fighting

Imaginative play

Being alone

Being in a pair

Being in a group

Activities Girls Boys

Playing ball games

Running/chasing

Skipping

Sitting quietly

Talking to playground assistant

Reading

Eating/drinking

Fighting

Imaginative play

Being alone

Being in a pair

Being in a group

Exam Hint:- You will be expected to identify an ethical issue inrelation to an observation described. Most likely answers willbe lack of consent, invasion of privacy and confidentiality. Youmay also be asked to suggest how this issue might be dealtwith. Solutions are likely to be observing in a public place,asking for consent and avoiding recording personal details.

GlossaryConfounding variables: things that might affect research findingsother than the IV.

Covert: ‘under cover’, opposite of overt.

Ecological validity: how realistic research would be when appliedto real life.

Ethics: issues relating to the physical and psychological well-beingof participants.

Hypothesis: a statement or prediction about what the researchfindings will be.

Independent variable: variable that is manipulated by the researcherto measure its effect on the dependent variable.

Objective: not based on personal opinion (subjective).

Observer bias: subjectivity of researcher based on his/herexpectations. Can be overcome by using more than one observer(inter-observer reliability).

Observer effect: ways in which the presence of an observer changesthe behaviour of the participants.

Participant reactivity: ways in which the participant’s behaviourchanges because they know they are being observed, e.g., socialdesirability.

Qualitative: rich source of data collated from non-experimentalresearch.

Reliable: extent to which a method of research can be repeated.

Valid: extent to which research is true/real.

Acknowledgements: This Psychology Factsheet was researched and written by Jeanine Connor.The Curriculum Press, Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, Shropshire, TF1 1NU.Psychology Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, storedin a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136

31

Case Studies A case study is a study of an individual or small group of people. It allows in depth and detailed data to be collected. Within this method, other methods can be used, such as interviews, observations and questionnaires. Case studies are used in psychological research when psychologists want or need to study a specific individual or group. The case being studied occurs naturally, and the psychologist has no control over the situation. A case study is used, as the researcher cannot control any variables, he simply has to observe and study. Case studies allow a researcher to investigate a topic in far more detail than might be possible if they were trying to deal with a large number of research participants.

Advantages of case studies Disadvantages of case studies x Data tends to be more valid, as it is in depth and

focuses on real experiences in a real situation. x This is a valuable research method because it may

be the only way to gather rich, detailed, qualitative information in context and with meaning for those concerned.

x Sometimes it is the only way to be gathering data about a particular issue, for example, a child who has been deprived of parenting (you cannot set up an experiment to test such a thing).

x They lack generalisability because they are about one individual (or small group) only, so they are specific rather than in general.

x The data gathered cannot be applied to any other case, individual or group, as the data is unique.

x They are hard to replicate, so cannot be tested for reliability.

x Data may be subjective, and therefore cannot be used to build a body of knowledge.

Conduct some research into a case study of your choice. There are some interesting cases listed below that you could choose, or you could find one of your own.

x Phineas Gage x KF

x HM x Genie

x Clive Wearing x Little Hans

32

Interviews An interview is a techniques used to gather evidence in a form of face –to-face questioning. Questions can be clarified and expanded upon if the researcher requires and answers can be explored in more detail by modifying the set questions or asking new ones. This allows the participants to be reassured and may improve the access to data. Interviews collect mainly qualitative data which forms a story or narrative about a certain topic Interview schedules involve advance planning and ensures information gathered addresses the research aims. Participants should be involved with the design of the schedule, for example the time and duration are convenient, they are happy with the type of questions to be asked, and they understand their rights with regards to ethical guidelines.

TASK: You need to design an interview with the aim of investigating stress levels of students in year 12 and 13. Consider the questions that you need to ask, will you use structured or semi-structured techniques? What are the ethical issues that you will need to consider? Pilot the interview with your neighbour. How will you sample the students in your interview? How truthful do you think the participants will be?

What is it? Strengths of interviews Limitations of interviews

Stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s A set format of standardised

questions. This is usually face-

to-face and there is no

deviation from the original questions.

Sem

i-st

ruct

ured

inte

rvie

ws

A set format of questions but these can be varied and

expanded upon, for example if someone is struggling to

understand the question it could

be reworded.

1

Using Questionnaireswww.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 29

FsychologyP actsheets

This factsheet considers the use of the closed questionnaire. Closedquestionnaires can generate quantitative data. This is required for‘A’ Level coursework. This Factsheets considers how to constructa questionnaire, along with potential bias, advantages anddisadvantages.

1. Introduction

A questionnaire is a tool for measuring attitudes, beliefs andstereotypes that people hold towards others. It is used for surveywork or can be used to collect specific data for an experiment.You cannot observe an attitude, do an experiment on an attitudeor correlate an attitude. You might want to find out how peoplethink or feel about something and this is when the techniquebecomes most useful. A questionnaire enables people to givetheir own opinions about some issue. For example, it might beused to determine how much someone had remembered about astory (such as the war of the ghosts) or what they think aboutnew initiatives within a school. Individuals might answer a seriesof yes/no questions or might produce a great deal of informationabout what the person thinks or feels. Questions can be open orclosed (see below), be answered face-to-face, by post or evenby telephone.

Closed questions require a yes/no or agree/disagree answer.For example, “Would you vote for this candidate?”

Open questions lead to more detailed, individual answers.For example, “What attributes would you consider desirable in anemployee?”

2. Information on using a closed questionnaire• You must give instructions for whatever type of tick-box that

you use (see Fig 1).• You might want your participants to cross out the box or to tick

it. Whichever it is, always be clear.• Does this matter? Yes. Research needs to be done systematically

and standardised so that the reliability and validity of yourinvestigation is not compromised. You may confound yourresults very easily if you do not make the appropriateconsiderations.

Fig 1. Examples of two types of tick boxes.

Y N

Y N

• You can also use a rating-type scale, which measures the mostpreferred or least preferred answer (see Fig 2).

Fig 2. Example of a rating scale.

verygood

fairlygood

goodnorbad

notverybad

notgoodat all

Coursework Hint: Questionnaires can give poor measuresof behaviour. So, you must put care into their construction. Aquestionnaire is merely a tool for gaining particularinformation from an individual or group. The construction ofappropriate questions must be carefully considered. Theresults of a survey, which has used a questionnaire, will beunreliable if the questionnaire is poorly constructed.

Advantages of questionnaires• Large numbers of people can be tested this way.• It is an inexpensive and quick method.• It is an effective measure as it can produce (a) quantitative

data (numbers) or (b) qualitative data (statements of feelings/thoughts).

• A lack of face-to-face contact with a researcher can providehonest answers.

Disadvantages of questionnaires• A disadvantage of a questionnaire is the limitation that you your-

self place on what respondents will be able to say.• By using closed questions you may produce quantitative data but

at a price, as you will only get specific information and sometimesthis is not enough.

• Unambiguous questions are difficult to devise. This leads to a bias,which can lead a participant in a response or cause offence.

• A socially desirable response may be given. Anonymity can helpin avoiding this.

• Participants may join in because they have a special interest in thetopic of research. This is another source of bias and can constitutea “self-selected” sample. For generalising the research, the type ofsample of participants selected is most important.

• Finally, you may find low rates of return when the questionnaire isgiven or posted to participants.

Hint: The way in which you construct your questionnairewill determine the type and amount of information that youreceive. If you keep your questionnaire closed then youare able to quantify the results. An open questionnaireallows the participant to answer fully but will only allow forqualitative data. You need to consider the type of datathat you want to collect.

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29 - Using Questionnaires Psychology Factsheet

Different types of survey in which a questionnaire can be usedOppenheim (1992) described two different types of survey in whicha questionnaire would be used:••••• Descriptive surveys-These surveys ask the questions

concerning “How many”? This type of data can be used todescribe a population. A target population would be selectedthat could be representative of the whole group.

••••• Analytical surveys-These try to discover relationships betweentwo things (e.g., body image and gender). This type of surveywould use a correlation on the two variables being studied.This would provide evidence of the strength of a relationship.

• There is another type of survey called a questionnaire survey.By collecting the same type of information from a large numberof people, percentages of a population can be recorded who, forexample, engage in the same sport, eat the same things at aparticular age group, engage in similar behaviours, etc.

3. Constructing a questionnaireThere are 6 basic steps that can help you in planning a questionnaire:• Decide what information is needed.• Decide the type of questionnaire to be used.• Write a first draft of the questionnaire.• Re-examine and revise the questionnaire.• Pre-test the questionnaire.• Edit the questionnaire and specify the procedures for its use.

Useful questions for constructing a questionnaire:••••• What information do you want to get from the participant?

You have to specify this. For example, in a questionnairebased upon body image and gender, what do you actuallywant to know? If you suspect there are differences in howmen and women relate to their own body image or to that ofthe opposite gender, then these two aspects are investigatingdifferent things. One is looking at the “self”; the other islooking at how we view the opposite sex in terms of bodyimage. This would not relate to the “self” but to anevolutionary view of relationships (i.e., for survival).

••••• Deciding the type of questionnaire: This will depend uponwhat you want to find out (closed or open). Decide whetheryou will be the experimenter or whether the questionnaire willbe self-administered. You can also use questionnaires (orparts of them) that have already been tested

• If you decide to write your own questionnaire make it simpleto use and easy to understand. It is important that the way inwhich it will be answered follows a particular format. Keepthe direction of the responses the same, or you will negatethe questions and your survey will be unreliable.

••••• Writing a first draft and re-examining the questions is amost important part of the questionnaire: Let others look atyour questions to check that they are not ambiguous.

••••• Running a pre-test: This will allow you to see if yourquestions are producing the information in an unambiguousway. Do this by asking a small sample of participants to trythe questionnaire. Ambiguous questions are open to variousinterpretations. You may have included bias and by pre-testing the results with this small sample of participants, youcan examine this aspect.

••••• Finally, you can edit the questionnaire and state theprocedures for running it: You are now ready to begincollecting your data.

Other points to notice in questionnaire writing:• Schuman, Presser and Ludwig (1981) found that the response

rate for participants saying “yes” is higher when generalquestions are asked before specific questions.

• “Filler questions” allow you to establish whether furtherquestioning is required but should be used sparingly as theytake up more time of the participants.

• The Quintamensional Plan of Question Design (Oppenheim,1966), which describes the Gallup question wording plan, worksby (a) first asking a general question to find out whether theparticipant has ever thought about the issue to be asked, (b)open-ended general questions about feelings, (c) closedquestions about specific aspects of the issue and (d) reasonsfor the views held. The strength of view is finally required.

Exam Hint: For the ‘A’ level coursework you would notmix open-ended and closed questions. Your courseworkrequires you to produce quantitative data and closedquestions are the easiest and most efficient method ofproducing the required data. The Gallup questionnaireallows you to see that producing questions is not the simpleoption that it may appear to be. It requires thought andreflection before finally testing your sample of participants.

SAMPLING: The importance of the sample• A random sample allows any member of the target group an

equal chance of being selected.• Opportunity samples are rarely representative.• Stratified and quota samples give a better chance of

representation than a random sample.• Volunteer samples may produce a biased sample, with

participants who want to provide information because theyhave a specific interest in the issue.

• Any sample must be representative of your target group.

The importance of sampling when working with a questionnaire.This can have advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages: By taking the time to work with a representativesample you are able to generalise from the results you obtainand also to replicate your questionnaire because you havestandardised what you are asking.

Disadvantages: One problem that you might encounter isdemand characteristics (i.e., participants will respond in the waythey believe you want them to). This is an example of socialdesirability. The opposite can also occur in that participantswill refuse to answer questions that they feel are sensitive.

Administering your questionnaireHow are you going to give the questionnaire to the participants?Group questionnaires or individual, administered quietly or in abusy environment? If you want to make sure that you do not biasthe participants, then you might want to send it in the post, allowanother person to administer it or leave it with the participant untila later time. Whatever you decide to do requires thought. Responsebias can come through you just being there! You might give non-verbal cues which confound your results. Alternatively, leaving aquestionnaire with the participant or posting it might give a limitedresponse and return! You must consider all of these aspects as itmay influence the data you collect.

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Correlations A correlation is the relationship between two variables. There are three types of correlation, positive correlation, negative correlation, and zero correlation. Draw each here:

A correlation can be illustrated using a scattergram. The scatter of dots indicates the correlation between the variables. A statistical test is used to determine the correlation coefficient (a number).

In a correlational study, the psychologist is not manipulating either of the variables. So we do not refer to an independent and a dependent variable - instead we can call the two variables covariables e.g. “age and beauty are positively correlated” (positive correlation), or “age and beauty are correlated” (non directional). Sometimes there are curvilinear correlations. This is when the ‘line of best fit’ is curved rather than straight; but there is still a relationship. TASK: Let’s consider the hypothesis… students who do more academic subjects are harder workers. b Does doing a subject like Chemistry cause you to become a harder worker? b Does being a hard worker make you choose tougher subjects? It would be difficult to establish a cause and effect link here, but we may be able to find out if there is a relationship between the two. Here’s my hypothesis… There is a relationship between the subjects that you take, in terms of how academic they are, and the number of hours of homework that you do per week. Here is a list of different subjects, rank them in order from 1 = least academic, to 18 = most academic. � Psychology � Sociology � Media Studies � Performing Arts � Physics � Physical Education

� Chemistry � Geography � History � Photography � Health and Social Care � Business Studies

� English Literature � English Language � Mathematics � Biology � ICT � Graphics

1. What are the co-variables in this correlational analysis? 2. Write a non-directional hypothesis for this analysis. 3. Write a directional hypothesis for this analysis. 4. Now, go and ask ten students what subjects they study, and how many hours of homework they do per

week. 5. For each of your participants find the average academic score for their subjects.

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6. Collate the class results in this table:

Participant Subject score Hours spent working Participant Subject score Hours spent

working 1 6 2 7 3 8 4 9 5 10

7. Draw a scattergraph of the results in the space below:

Advantages of correlational analysis Limitations of correlational analysis One strength of a correlation study is it allows psychologists to identify relationships between things. This is a strength as knowing variables are related can lead to useful applications in everyday life.

One weakness of a correlation study is it does not show which variable is the cause and which variable is affected by it. This is a weakness as psychologists try to isolate causes of behaviour and alter them to improve them.

It allows researchers to investigate topics that would not be available otherwise due to it being unethical such as looking at factors linked to child abuse.

The relationship could be explained by a third intervening variable. As such, correlations are open to misinterpretation.

Often, little manipulation of behaviour is required; all the researcher does is measure existing variables. Therefore, it is often high in mundane realism/ecological validity.

As with experiments, there correlations may lack internal/external validity. For example the method used for measure IQ might lack validity, or the sample may lack generalisability.

Precise information on the degree of relationship between variables is available in the form of the correlation coefficient. If a significant relationship is found, it can suggest ideas for experimental studies to determine cause and effect relationships.

Correlations should be plotted out on scattergraphs to properly illustrate the relationships between two variables. A correlation co-efficient of zero may not form a random pattern.

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Content Analysis

A content analysis can be defined as “a systematic research technique for analysing transcripts of interviews, documents, text (visual or written) including adverts, children’s books, TV programmes, cartoons, films, song lyrics, newspapers, magazines and websites.” Content analysis is used with qualitative data and aims to turn qualitative data into quantitative data, which can then be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Steps in content analysis 1. A coding system is created (the table below has already done this for you) 2. A pilot study is often conducted – (your teacher has practised already – we will count this as our pilot study) 3. Conduct the analysis - watch the video clips on the screen (found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBJXzh6Rvg). As you are

watching, use this table to tally the number of times you see the different categories appear. 4. Turn the data in quantitative displays (use a bar chart to help you do this). 5. Reliability might be checked – compare your results with your neighbour. This ensures inter-rater reliability between observers.

Domestic products

Cosmetic products

‘Transport’ Toys Dolls Games Fast food Mobile

phones Other

Male- main role

Female – main role

Mix of male and female

Male voiceover

Female voiceover

Advantages of content analysis Limitations of content analysis x Creating a coding system and training different researchers to use it

allows them to compare their data to check whether they are the same. If the findings are consistent it indicates the coding system is well designed (and reliable)

x By allowing statistical procedures it becomes easier to compare findings from similar studies.

x Content analyses tend to have high ecological validity because it is based on observations of what people actually do; real communications that are current and relevant such as recent newspapers or children’s books. Therefore, it also has high mundane realism.

x Unlike other methods of observation, content analysis can be replicated by others. So long as the artefacts that are being analysed are available for others (the same magazines, TV shows etc), the analysis could be repeated and reliability assessed.

x It could be argued that converting qualitative data to numbers is reductionist, meaning the richness and complexity of the qualitative data is lost.

x Illusion of objectivity: transforming qualitative data into numbers appears to be scientifically rigorous but the system may be biased by the researcher.

x A big weakness in a content analysis, as in all observations, is observer bias. This can affect both the objectivity and validity of findings as different observers might interpret the meanings of the categories in the coding system differently.

x There can be a big culture bias as the interpretation of verbal or written content will be affected by the language and culture of the observer and the coding system used.

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Brain scans (A Level only) Why do we need to investigate the brain? Psychologists are interested in how the brain works – both its structure and function. They are interested in which parts of the brain control certain functions. For example, which parts of the brain work out what we are seeing or hearing? How does our brain tell our arm to grab a cup? To answer such questions, we need ways (methods) of looking ‘inside’ our heads at how our brain is working. These methods fall into two groups: ¾ Non-invasive methods do not involve entering the skull and brain. ¾ Invasive methods involve entering the skull and brain.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) What is it? x An EEG measures electrical activity in the brain. x A person has electrodes placed on their scalp. The electrodes detect small changes in the electrical activity in their brain. A pen placed on a moving strip of paper records the electrical activity. As the electrical activity changes, the pen moves back and forth across the paper, creating a wiggly line (a brain wave). The EEG is the strip of paper showing the brain waves. x An EEG measures the number and size of the changes in electrical activity. x It is an external recording of brain activity.

Strengths: - An EEG is non-invasive and does not alter normal brain activity (it is more

ecologically valid than invasive methods). - It is useful in detecting epilepsy, tumours, etc., as these disorders alter

brain activity. - A more precise method of using EEGs is to record brain activity several

times and ‘average’ the recordings (called evoked potentials). - EEGs were crucial in discovering that there are five sta ges of sleep,

each with their own pattern of brain waves. Limitations: / An EEG can show brain activity, but not the structure. / It is hard to know which areas of the brain are more active as EEG

measures several areas at the same time. / It is an indirect measure of electrical activity. Electrodes placed on the

scalp have to record signals through skin, bone and the membranes surrounding the brain. The bone (skull) weakens the electrical signal.

You only need to know about non-invasive brain

scanning techniques.

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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) What is it? x MRI measures which parts of the brain are

using energy most quickly. x It measures blood flow in the brain using radio

waves and a magnetic field. x A person lies inside a MRI scanner that has an

11-ton magnet inside. Magnetic fields are rotated around their head. Radio waves excite atoms and molecules in their brain which produce magnetic changes. The magnet detects these changes. A computer turns the magnetic changes into a three-dimensional (3D) picture.

x It provides a view of the brain’s structure.

Strengths: - MRI can get images from a number of different

angles. - MRI scans can detect very small brain tumours. - It is safe, painless and non-invasive. It can be

used to examine a patient several times, without high levels of radiation.

- More detailed images of soft tissue than CAT scans.

Limitations: / It can tell us about brain structure but not

function. / MRI scanners are noisy and the patient must lie

very still in a small space (which can bring on claustrophobia) for a long time.

/ Scanning techniques are expensive.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) What is it? x The patient is given slightly radioactive glucose

(sugar). x The most active areas of the brain use glucose

and radiation detectors can ‘see’ the radioactive areas and build up a picture of the brain.

x The scan takes 10-40 minutes and is painless. Strengths: - PET scans reveal

chemical information that other scans cannot, this means they can distinguish between benign and malignant tumours.

- PET scans can reveal the brain in action which is useful in psychological research.

Limitations: / This is extremely costly as a technique. / As the patient has been injected with a

radioactive substance it can be used only a small number of times.

/ PET scans are less accurate than MRI scans. Computed Axial Tomography (CAT) What is it? x This involves a series of x-rays and combining

them to form a 2- or 3D image of the brain. x Usually a dye is also injected to provide

contrast materials and he or she is placed into the cylindrical scanner.

Strengths: - Useful for revealing abnoamrl structures of the

brain like tumours or structudal damage. - The quality of the images is better than

traditional x-ray. Limitations: / Use more radiation than x-ray and the more

detailed and complex the CAT scan is, the more radiation exposure the patient requires.

/ CAT scans can only reveal structural information.

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Longitudinal Studies This research technique involves studying the same group of individuals over an extended period of time. Data is first collected at the outset of the study, and may then be gathered repeatedly throughout the length of the study to see if any changes have taken place. In some cases, longitudinal studies can last several decades.

Advantages of Longitudinal Research Limitations of Longitudinal Research x It allows researchers to look at changes over time,

you can get in depth and in detail knowledge of the participant and therefore participant variables are also controlled. Because of this, longitudinal methods are particularly useful when studying development and lifespan issues.

x As a number of different methods are use (triangulation) the strength of one method will counteract the weakness of another ensuring validity.

x Longitudinal studies require enormous amounts of time and are often quite expensive. Because of this, these studies often have only a small group of subjects, which makes it difficult to apply the results to a larger population, especially if you have only one participant from each cultural group.

x Participants sometimes drop out of the study (attrition), shrinking the sample size and decreasing the amount of data collected. If there’s a reason e.g. one group may feel the research portrays them in a negative way then that particular group may all drop out, e.g. all the single mums. This then would cause a biased sample at the end of the study.

Cross-sectional studies (A Level only) Defining Characteristics

x Takes place at a single point in time x Does not involve manipulating variables x Allows researchers to look at numerous things at once (age, income, gender) x Often used to look at the prevalence of something in a given population

This type of study uses different groups of people who differ in the variable of interest, but share other characteristics such as socioeconomic status, educational background, and ethnicity. For example, researchers studying developmental psychology might select groups of people who are remarkably similar in most areas, but differ only in age. By doing this, any differences between groups can presumably be attributed to age differences rather than to other variables. These studies are conducted at the same time (e.g. 2009) so we are only investigating the influence of age.

Cross-sectional studies are observational in nature and are known as descriptive research, not causal or relational. Researchers record the information that is present in a population, but they do not manipulate variables. These methods are often used to make inferences about possible relationships or to gather preliminary data to support further research and experimentation.

Advantages of cross-sectional studies Limitations of cross-sectional studies

Less attrition than longitudinal studies.

While the design sounds relatively simple, finding participants who are very similar except in one specific variable can be difficult.

Relatively quick compared to longitudinal studies as they often take less than a year.

Groups can be affected by cohort differences that arise from the particular experiences of a unique group of people. Individuals born in the same time period may share important historical experiences (e.g. experiencing WWI), while people born in a specific geographic region may share experiences limited solely to their physical location.

Finally if you are studying IQ in 20 and 80 year olds you might find it to be lower in the 80 year olds and conclude that IQ declines with age. But actually, maybe the 80 year olds had a lower IQ in their 20s due to poor diet, this is another cohort effect.

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Levels of Measurement In Psychology there are four types of data:

Data type Description Image to represent the data

Nominal Nominal basically refers to any data in categories (discrete data).

Ordinal

Ordinal refers to quantities that have a natural ordering, e.g. the ranking of favourite sports, the order of people's place in a line, or more often the choice on a rating scale from 1 to 5. With ordinal data you cannot state with certainty whether the intervals between each value are equal. This is also an easy one to remember, ordinal sounds like order.

Interval Interval data is like ordinal except we can say the intervals between each value are equally split. The most common example is temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

Ratio

Ratio data is interval data with a natural zero point. For example, time is ratio since 0 time is meaningful. Degrees Kelvin has a 0 point (absolute 0) and the steps in both these scales have the same degree of magnitude.

Graphical Representation

Frequency tables

The numbers you collect are referred to as ‘raw data’ – numbers that haven’t been treated in any way. These data can be set out in a table or summarised by using averages and/or range. The number of words correctly recalled by participants who saw the organised list and participants who saw the random list

Organised List Random List 20 15 15 13 18 19 45 14 24 20 23 10 28 21 21 6 25 22 30 25

Example question: Some psychology students read about an experiment which suggested that organisation is a useful strategy for improving memory. The students carried out an experiment to investigate the effects of organisation on word recall. They made up a list of 50 items that could be bought in a supermarket. The participants were teachers at their school. One group of participants saw the words organised into categories such as fruit, vegetables, dairy products and cleaning materials. The other group saw the same words presented randomly. The results are given in the Table on the left. What could you conclude about the results in the table?

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PRACTICE QUESTIONS - Interpreting data in tables

1. A researcher investigated obedience. The table shows the percentages of people who obeyed a simple request from a confederate who was either smartly dressed or casually dressed.

Request Smartly dressed confederate

Casually dressed confederate

Pick up some litter 80% 61%

Post a letter lying near a post box 61% 40%

Carry a heavy box up some stairs 30% 30%

What do these results suggest about obedience? (4 marks) 2. The following results are percentages of participants who gave the maximum shock, in variations of

Milgram’s experiment into obedience to authority.

Condition % participants obeying Experimenter and two obedient confederates are in the same room as the participant. 92.5%

Experimenter is in the same room as the participant. 65%

Experimenter is in a different room from the participant. 20.5%

Experimenter and two disobedient confederates are in the same room as the participant. 10%

What do these results suggest about the power of the confederates in variations of Milgram’s study? (4 marks) 3. A researcher investigated the effect of age of starting day care on levels of aggression. Four-year-old

children attending a day nursery were used. Each child was assessed by the researcher and given an aggression score. A high score indicated a high level of aggression. A low score indicated a low level of aggression. The maximum score was 50.

Table 1 Mean aggression scores for four-year-old children who had started day care before the age of two or after the age of two:

Started day care

before the age of two Started day care

after the age of two Mean score 25 23

a) Identify the operationalised independent variable and the operationalised dependent variable in this study. (4 marks)

b) What do the mean scores in the table above suggest about the effect of age at which children started day care on children’s aggression? (2 marks)

c) Name one measure of dispersion that the researcher could have used to describe the data. (1 mark)

d) Draw an appropriate bar chart to display the data presented in the table above. Correctly label your bar chart. (3 marks)

e) State an appropriate directional hypothesis for this study. (2 marks)

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Graphical representation Graphs summarize quantitative data. They act as a visual aid allowing us to see patterns in a data set. To communicate information effectively, a graph must be clear and simple and have: ¾ A title ¾ Each axis labelled ¾ With experimental data, the IV is placed on the horizontal x-axis while the DV is on the vertical y-axis

Line graphs Draw a line graph to represent the temperature in the classroom over the next 30 minutes.

Bar charts Draw a bar chart to represent eye colour of students in the class.

Histograms Draw a histogram to represent the number of students in the room born between: x January – March x April – June

x July – September x October - December

Pie charts Draw a pie chart to represent the mean number of different shaped Haribo in the mini packets.

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Practice Questions 1. Five classes of college students complete questionnaires designed to assess levels of satisfaction with their

lecturers. Average scores for each class are calculated and are shown in the table. The higher the score, the more satisfied the students are.

Class Average satisfaction score A 12 B 10 C 22 D 11 E 17

2. Over a four-week period, schoolchildren Sally and Jo are observed working in their classroom. Any instance

of disruptive behaviour by either pupil is recorded. When Sally behaves disruptively, she is told off; when Jo behaves disruptively, she is ignored. Findings are shown in the table.

Number of disruptive acts Sally Jo

Week 1 6 7 Week 2 7 4 Week 3 8 4 Week 4 11 3

3. Investigators are interested in how much time students spend studying for an exam. The table shows the

findings from the 40 students surveyed.

Number of hours spent studying Frequency (i.e. number of students)

8 2 9 3 7 3 6 8 5 9 4 6 3 5 2 2 1 2 N = 40

4. Create a pie chart of students’ favourite colour in your class. 5. Observe how many people walk through the reception area of college over a 15 minute period in intervals

of 3 minutes. Create a graph of your findings.

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6. Create a graph for the variations of Milgram:

Variation % of participants who went to 450v When the experimenter instructed and prompted the teacher by telephone from another room. 20.5%

When participants could instruct an assistant (confederate) to press the switches. 92.5%

The experiment was moved to a set of run down offices rather than the impressive Yale University. 48%

The teacher had to force the learner's hand down onto a shock plate when they refuse to participate after 150 volts. 30%

Teacher chooses the shock level 3% Teacher sees two other teachers rebel 10% An ordinary man gives orders 21% 7. Researchers want to find out if there is a relationship between scores on a questionnaire designed to

measure stress levels and time spent travelling to work. The higher the score, the greater the stress reported. Findings from 20 participants are given below.

Participant Stress score Travelling

time in minutes

Participant Stress score Travelling

time in minutes

1 40 120 11 15 60 2 50 140 12 20 75 3 30 100 13 10 25 4 30 85 14 35 80 5 10 20 15 40 100 6 35 90 16 15 75 7 45 110 17 25 80 8 25 70 18 20 45 9 20 60 19 15 30 10 15 50 20 5 20

8. Create a line graph for the following data

A table to show the obedience level of children at different ages

Age of child 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Obedience score (higher, more obedient) 2 3 6 8 9 7 7 5

9. Create a table of results and bar graph for the following data:

Number of students studying Psychology, Sociology, English or Latin.

20 students study psychology, 35 study sociology, 45 study English and 0 students study Latin.

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Graphical Representation: Distribution curves (including normal, positive and negative skewed distributions)

frequency curve where most occurrences take place in the middle of the distribution and taper off on either side. Normal curves are also called bell shaped curves. A "true" normal curve is when all measures of central tendency occur at the highest point in the curve. The normal curve is an important, strong, reoccurring phenomenon in psychology. An example of a normal distribution would be a frequency distribution of people's height. Most people would be of average height with extremes occurring on either side.

Many behavioural measurements result in normal distributions. For example, scores on intelligence tests are likely to be normally distributed. The mean is about 100 and a typical person is likely to score within about 15 points of the mean, that is, between 85 and 115. If the psychologist knows the mean and the typical deviation from the mean (called the standard deviation), the researcher can determine what proportion of scores is likely to fall in any given range. For instance, in the range between one standard deviation below the mean (about 85 for IQ scores) and one deviation above t he mean (about 115 for IQ scores), one expects to find the scores of about two thirds of all test takers. Further, only about two and a half percent of test takers will score higher than two standard deviations above the mean (about 130).

This might happen if an exam was really

easy!

This might happen if we gave people a

depression test. We would

expect most people to have

low scores.

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Descriptive Statistics

What is it? Strength of method Weakness of method

Mea

sure

s of

cen

tral

ten

denc

y

Mean The mean is the most sensitive measure of central tendency, taking all scores into account.

Mode Similar to the median, the mode is unaffected by extreme scores.

Median Unlike the mean the median only takes one or two scores into account – the middle value(s).

Mea

sure

s of

di

sper

sion

Range Easy to calculate. A small range indicates reliability as scores are similar.

Standard Deviation

A small standard deviation indicates that the results are reliable. It uses all of the scores.

Practice Questions For each of the following data sets calculate the: (a) Mean, (b) Mode, (c) Median, (d) Range.

1 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15, 21, 22 2 2, 3, 8, 10, 11, 13, 13, 14, 14, 29 3 2, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10 4 cat, cat, gerbil, dog, budgie, snake

The mean number of pictures correctly identified and standard deviations for participants with the memory improvement strategy and without the memory improvement strategy

With memory

improvement strategy Without memory

improvement strategy Mean 8 7

Standard Deviation 2.80 0.29 What do the standard deviations in the table above tell us about the performance of the two groups? (2 marks)

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The Role of Peer Review

Peer review is assessment of work by experts in the field. It is a vital part of the verification process by which research is deemed acceptable (or not). Peer review consists of a system used by scientists to determine whether a piece of research can be published in a scientific journal. The article is scrutinised by independent experts, it is important as it reduces the chance of flawed research being accepted as fact. What are the advantages of peer review?

Recently peer review takes place on the internet, with people reading an article, deciding

whether it is valid or not. Some online journal sites even ask readers to rate the articles. To an extent we can say that the internet is policed by its readers. Peer reviewers are generally unpaid and there are normally a number of them in order to make sure the quality of the work in high. Peer review serves three main purposes: 1. Allocation of research funding: 2. Publication of research in scientific journals and books: 3. Assessing the research rating of university departments:

Criticisms of peer review: Richard Smith, a previous editor of the British Medical Journal made an interesting comment about peer review. Use page 22 to make a note of some of his criticisms:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. 6.

7.

8.

Other criticisms include... x An unachievable ideal – it isn’t always possible to find a suitable expert to review the report. x Anonymity – research is conducted in an environment surrounded by competition for research grants.

Relationships between experts sometimes affect objectivity (imagine two psychologists wanting to settle an old dispute). Now journals prefer open reviewing.

x Publication bias – peer review tends to prefer positive results. This leads to misinterpretation of truth. x Preserving the status quo – peer review tends to prefer results that support previous theory, rather than

going against it. Science does not really like huge shifts in opinion or theory.

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Format for reporting psychological investigations You have to be able to understand the layout of psychological journals. The order of journal reporting is as follows:

1. Title

2. Table of contents

3. Abstract

4. Introduction

Aim Hypotheses

5. Method

Design Participants Apparatus/materials Procedure Controls/ethics

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6. Results

Descriptive statistics Inferential statistics

7. Discussion

Explanation of findings Relationship to background research Limitations and modifications Implications and suggestions for future research Conclusion

8. References

9. Appendices

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Inferential Statistics There are five inferential (statistical) tests that you need to know for the exam. These are: ¾ Chi Square (χ2), ¾ Mann Whitney U, ¾ Sign test, ¾ Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient (also known as Spearman’s rho), and ¾ Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test.

You have to have knowledge of why you would choose the test, and appropriate application and interpretation of each test (for example, being able to interpret values from a critical value table, or deciding if a test statistic is significant or not).

Quick Maths Test Can you recall from GCSE Maths what each of these symbols mean? = ≤ < > ≥ You need to understand what each of the symbols above means in relation to significance levels (on the next page).

Probability values Probability is expressed as a number between 0 and 1 (where 0 means something definitely will not happen, and 1 means that is definitely will). To calculate probability a psychologist uses this equation:

Probability = number of particular outcomes

number of possible outcomes

For example, if you were to flip a coin, what is the probability that it will be a head? ______ Sometimes you can convert probability to a percentage, what is the answer above _____%

52

Statistical Significance Psychologists use a sample of participants and want to be able to generalise to the population. However, we already know that samples are prone to error. Consider a volunteer sample, why does this technique cause issues for researchers? When we carry out a statistical test we want to know how accurately our sample reflects the general population (i.e. the extent to which we can generalise from our sample to the target population). In order to carry out an inferential test you need a null hypothesis (H0) and an alternative (otherwise known as experimental) hypothesis (H1).

What is a null hypothesis?

What in an alternative/experimental hypothesis?

Inferential statistics allow psychologists to look at patterns of results to see if they have arisen by chance. However, if the results could not have arisen by chance then the pattern is said to be significant. But what is a small enough probability? This is known as a level of significance. In psychology we generally accept a 0.05 or 5% level of significance (written as pd0.05 level of significance; 1 in 20 probability that the results are due to chance factors). This means that anything less than 0.05 is significant and it is unlikely that the null hypothesis is true. Anything above 0.05 is not significant and we accept the null hypothesis. If the researcher wants to be more certain about their results then they use a more stringent probability, such as pd0.01 or pd0.001. Whatever level is chosen, the p is the significance level.

Observed and critical values

Reason for applying a statistical test: x The purpose of applying the test is to measure the observed value against the critical value to see if the

null hypothesis can be accepted or rejected. x The observed value is based on the observations you have made. x The critical value is the value that needs to be reached in order for the null hypothesis to be

rejected. x The statistical test, along with the level of significance, allows a researcher to estimate the extent to which

results could have occurred by chance. The researcher will look at the table of critical values to see if the null hypothesis is to be rejected.

x Each inferential test has its own table of critical values. x To find the appropriate critical value you need:

o The degrees of freedom (df) which in most cases is the number of participants (N). In cases where an independent groups design is used there are two values for N, one for each group (N1 and N2)

o One-tailed (directional hypothesis) or two-tailed (non-directional hypothesis) o Significance level (normally pd0.05)

Why would you choose a Spearman’s rho test?

1. 2. 3.

Step 1: Write the hypotheses Null hypothesis Alternative hypothesis

Step 3: Find the observed value of rho (correlation coefficient)

It is important to know that if you get a – (negative) result then the correlation is negative.

You ignore the sign when looking up the significance in the critical value table.

Step 4: Find the critical value of rho

Ignore the sign (+ or -) when looking up the critical value in the table.

Step 5: State the conclusion

Step 2: Record the data

Couple

Mean attractiveness

score for female partner (F)

Mean attractiveness score for male

partner (M)

Rank F Rank M

Difference between

rank F and rank M (d)

d2

1 6 5 1 1

2 4 5 -0.5 0.25

3 3 5 -2.5 6.25

4 7 6 0 0

5 1 3 -1.5 2.25

6 8 10 -1 1

7 3 2 1.5 2.25

8 10 8 1 1

9 4 3 2 4

10 7 6 0 0

Σd2 (sum of differences squared) = ______

54

Step 1: Write the hypotheses Null hypothesis Alternative hypothesis

Why would you choose a Mann-Whitney test?

1. 2. 3.

Step 2: Record the data and allocate points

Test score with no music (?/10)

Points Test score with iPod

(?/10) Points

7 5

8 6

5 3

7 7

9 3

10 8

7 2

5 5

8 6

N1= 9 N2 = 9

Step 3: Find the observed value of U

U is the lowest number of points.

Step 4: Find the critical value of U

____________

Step 5: State the conclusion

55

Step 1: Write the hypotheses Null hypothesis Alternative hypothesis

Why would you choose a Wilcoxon T test?

1. 2. 3.

Step 2: Record the data, calculate the difference between scores and rank

Ppt With iPod

No iPod

Difference Rank

1 5 6

2 4 5

3 3 3

4 6 7

5 5 4

6 7 8

7 3 4

Step 3: Find the observed value of T

T is the sum of the ranks of the less frequent sign (+ or -)

Step 4: Find the critical value of T

Step 5: State the conclusion

56

Row x column / total = expected frequency (E)

Subtract expected value from observed value, ignoring signs

(O-E)

Square previous

value (O-E)2

Divide previous value by expected value

(O-E)2/E

Cell A 21x19/38= 10.5 12 – 10.5 = 1.5 2.25 2.25y10.5 = 0.2142

Cell B 21x19/38= 10.5 9 – 10.5 = 1.5 2.25 2.25y10.5 = 0.2142

Cell C 17x19/38= 8.5 7 – 8.5 = 1.5 2.25 2.25y8.5 = 0.2647

Cell D 17x19/38= 8.5 10 – 8.5 = 1.5 2.25 2.25y8.5 = 0.2647

Step 4: Add all the values in the final column to find the observed value _____________

Why would you choose a Chi-Square test?

1. 2. 3.

Step 1: Write the hypotheses

Null hypothesis Alternative hypothesis

Step 2: Draw the contingency table

Male Female Totals

≤10 cigarettes 12 9 21

>10 cigarettes 7 10 17

Totals 19 19 38

What is a contingency table?

Step 3: Find observed value by comparing observed and expected frequencies for each cell

Step 5: Find the critical value of

chi-square. Degrees of freedom =

(rows—1) x (columns –1)

Step 6: State the conclusion

Cell A Cell B

Cell C Cell D

57

Step 4: Find the critical value of S

N = ____

Why would you choose a Sign test? 1. 2. 3.

Step 1: Write the hypotheses

Alternative hypothesis Fewer participants wait until green before crossing at a controlled pedestrian crossing, rather than crossing on red, when there is no traffic visible (directional, one-tailed). Null hypothesis There is no difference between those who cross on green and those who wait for red.

Step 5: State the conclusion

As the observed value (___) is ________ than the critical value (___), we must

_____________ the null hypothesis and conclude that there is ___ difference between those

who cross on green and those who wait for red.

Step 2: Count the number of each sign

Participant Cross on green

1 +

2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

6 +

7 +

8 -

9 +

10 -

11 -

12 -

+ = ___________

- = ___________ -

Step 3: Find the observed value of S

S = the less frequently occurring sign

58

Practice Questions

H1 = There is a significant association between subject studied and personality (2-tailed) H0 = There is no significant association between subject studied and personality Which test will you choose?

• χ2 = 11.72 • df = 5 (degrees of freedom) • Critical value = • pd0.05 (significance level for a 2-tailed test) • Accept… • Reject…

H1 = There is a significant correlation between shoe size and attractiveness rating (2-tailed) H0 = There is no significant correlation between shoe size and attractiveness rating Which test will you choose?

• N = 7 • r = -0.82 • Critical value = • pd0.05 (significance level) • Accept… • Reject…

H1 = People with pink hair score significantly higher in IQ tests than people without pink hair (1-tailed) H0 = There is no significant difference in IQ test scores between those with and without pink hair Which test will you choose?

• N1 = 15 (number of people in the smaller group) • N2 =14 (number of people in the larger group) • U = 128 • Critical value = • pd0.05(significance level) • Accept… • Reject…

H1 = There is a significant difference in the number of comprehensible words spoken by participants before and after alcohol has been consumed (2-tailed) H0 = There is no significant difference in the number of comprehensible words spoken by participants before and after alcohol has been consumed Which test will you choose?

• N = 6 • T = 3 • Critical value = • pd0.05 (significance level) • Accept… • Reject…

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Create a revision resource in this space to help you justify why you would choose each inferential test

Can you identify which test to use for each of the examples below? 1. An analysis of the relationship between happiness and self-esteem predicting that the higher a person’s rated

estimate of self-esteem, the higher his/her happiness rating. 2. An observation of driver behaviour to test or establish that more males than females stop at zebra crossings if

there are pedestrians waiting to cross. 3. An experiment predicting that female IQ scores on a standard Wechsler IQ test will be higher than male IQ

scores on a standard Wechsler IQ test. 4. A piece of research conducted by midwives on the concepts of internal and external focus in pregnancy and

afterwards, predicting that the same women are more likely to volunteer to participate in psychology research before they have given birth than after.

5. A survey of students expecting to find that those with internet access estimate time spent on homework to be greater than those with no internet access.

6. Satisfaction levels among students over the course of a college day predicting that students will report higher satisfaction ratings after lunch than before.

7. A piece of bio-psychological research predicting that asthma sufferers will score higher on anxiety scales than people who do not have asthma.

8. Research conducted in an eating disorder clinic aiming to show that bulimics will demonstrate food preferences for saltier snacks, while anorexics will demonstrate preferences for sweeter snacks.

9. A survey of gender and self-esteem predicting that males have higher self-esteem estimates than females. 10. A research project conducted by the Ministry of Defence to assess the effects of anxiety on active service,

predicting that soldiers will score higher on anxiety scales on their return from active service than before active service.

11. Fathers are more likely than mothers to report feelings of euphoria at the birth of their first child. 12. Mothers are more likely than fathers to report feelings of panic on learning that they are to become parents

of twins.

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More Practice Questions

Use the table on the left to test the significance of the following findings, then write an answer explaining whether the result is significant or not. You must: � State whether or not the null hypothesis (i.e. the

prediction that the difference will be due to chance) should be accepted or rejected.

� Explain why, by referring to the critical value and the test statistic.

1. A researcher found that the maths test scores of 16 students who played a musical instrument were higher, on average, than the scores of 16 who didn’t. The test statistic for the difference was 38, and her minimum acceptable P-value was 0.05. 2. A researcher found that the average emotional stability scores of 10 Psychology graduates were lower than those of 10 Physics graduates. His minimum acceptable P-value was 0.2 and his test statistic was 63. 3. Using a minimum acceptable P-value of 0.01, a researcher

tested the significance of a difference between the motivation scores of 8 schoolteachers and college lecturers. The test statistic was calculated to be 74.

4. A researcher compared the reading ability scores of two classes of 17 8 year-olds. Using a minimum acceptable P-value of 0.001, she calculated a test statistic of 31.

5. A researcher compared self-esteem scores in 13 students who had attended a leadership training course and 13 who hadn’t. She used a minimum acceptable P value of 0.2 and calculated her test statistic to be 44.

6. Whilst driving through her local area, a psychologist noticed that boys seemed to play on the road more than girls. She decided to carry out an observational study to test the hypothesis that boys

aged 7 to 11 differ from girls aged 7 to 11 in their use of the street for play. A category system was used for classifying use of the street. There were two categories.

x Playing on the road: this was considered to occur when a child was playing and had at least one foot on the road. x Playing on the pavement: this was considered to be when a child was playing and had both feet on the pavement. This category also included playing on grass verges and entrances to

driveways. The psychologist conducted observations over a six-week period for a total of 20 hours. Observations always took place on dry afternoons, when children were outside after returning home from school. The observations were carried out at different locations. For each child observed playing and estimated to be within the required age range, the psychologist noted the sex of the child and whether the child was a) on the road, or b) on the pavement. Each child was placed in one category only. The data obtained are shown in Table 1 below. TABLE 1: THE NUMBER OF GIRLS AND BOYS AGED 7-11 PLAYING ON THE ROAD AND ON THE PAVEMENT.

(a) Write a suitable hypothesis for this study. (2 marks) (b) (i) A chi-test was used to analyse the data. The calculated value of chi-square (x²) was 8.7.

Using Table 2 below, explain whether or not the result was significant. (2 marks) TABLE 2: CRITICAL VALUES OF CHI-SQUARE (X²) X² MUST BE EQUAL TO OR MORE THAN THE STATED VALUE TO BE SIGNIFICANT.

(ii) Identify two factors that the psychologist had to take into account when deciding whether or not to use the chi-square (x²) test. (2 marks)

Number playing on the road Number playing on the pavement Boys 132 68 Girls 40 46

LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE FOR TWO-TAILED TEST df 0.1 0.05 0.01 0.001 1 2.706 3.841 6.635 10.831

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Even more practice questions!

A health psychologist wanted to investigate whether there was a relationship between workplace stress and the number of days absent from work. The psychologist obtained a random sample of thirty nurses from a nearby hospital. Their ages ranged from 21 to 60 years. The psychologist obtained the number of days each nurse was absent from work in the month of April. This information was obtained from their personnel files. The psychologist interviewed each nurse. As part of the interview, each nurse completed a psychological test to measure his/her stress level. A high score on the test indicated a high level of stress and a low score, a low level of stress. Test: ______________________________________________________________ Justification: ________________________________________________________

Researchers were interested in exploring the old saying ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. In order to do so, they set up two groups of student participants and set a task: to plan, shop for and prepare a meal for a group of 10 visitors to their university department. Volunteer participants were placed in one of two conditions involving being part of a group of either 10 or 20 people. Each participant‘s experience of the process was recorded on a questionnaire, which gave an overall score indicating how satisfied he or she felt with the performance of his or her group. Test: ______________________________________________________________ Justification: ________________________________________________________

A researcher is interested in the psychological impact of pets in residential institutional settings. The researchers predict that pets will have a generally positive effect on residents’ self-reported ratings of happiness. Managers of a range of institutions are approached and invited to participate. The residents have a choice from dogs, cats, budgies and fish. Each institution may home up to four pets. Residents will voluntarily complete questionnaires rating happiness prior to the pets’ arrival and 1 year on. Test: ______________________________________________________________ Justification: ________________________________________________________

A researcher is interested in the environment and work relationship. He has access to a staff workroom in which 15 staff work. Staff have agreed to have closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) installed and have been told that research is being conducted to examine gender differences in working environments. The cameras will not be recording at all times but will randomly record 2 hours’ worth of footage in 10-minute time samples each day for 2 weeks. Staff will not be aware if cameras are on or not. All areas of the staff room are accessible to the CCTV. Footage will be analysed, specifically conversational behaviours between males and males, and between females and females. Conversations will be grouped into categories. Examples of these categories include ‘arguments’, ‘whispering’ and ‘laughter’. One analysis will be to establish differences between male and female workers on these conversational behaviours. Test: ______________________________________________________________ Justification: ________________________________________________________

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How to write about investigations withoutlosing marks

www.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 87

FsychologyP actsheets

2. Aims and hypothesesSome of the most common mistakes made include:• Writing an aim when a hypothesis is asked for (or vice versa).• Writing a hypothesis with only one variable mentioned. It must

mention both the IV and DV (or both variables in a correlationalanalysis).

• Not fully operationalising variables. For example, the DV in astudy into memory could be ‘the number of words correctlyrecalled’ rather than just ‘words remembered’.

• Writing a null hypothesis which includes a directional statement(e.g., there will not be a better recall of words in condition one).

• Stating that the null hypothesis is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, when thecorrect terms to use are ‘accepted’ or ‘rejected’.

• Misunderstanding what an alternative hypothesis is.

Make sure that you know:• What an aim is (and that it is different from a hypothesis) and be

able to write one.• What the null, experimental and alternative hypothesis are (they

are not the same things) and be able to write them.• What an independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV)

are and be able to identify them from stimulus material.• What ‘operationalise’ means and be able to operationalise

variables.

Exam Hint:- Practice writing aims and hypotheses, andoperationalising variables. It will help you to gain marks in theexam!

3. SamplingCommon mistakes include:• Confusing a target population with a sample. Make sure that

you can explain what each of these is and identify them fromstimulus material/practicals you have done.

• Not being clear about the different types of sampling (e.g.,volunteer, opportunity and random).

• Giving strengths/weaknesses of the sample when asked to givethe strengths/weaknesses of the sampling method.

A typical examiner’s comments about types of sampling is‘students state that they would use a random sample, then goon to describe an opportunity sample’

Exam Hint:- If you are asked to describe the sampling methodused in an example, you should focus on the method used torecruit and select the participants for the study, not the keyfeatures of the sample (e.g., their gender or age).

Exam Hint:- If you are asked to suggest an alternative sampleof participants that may have been used in an investigation,then do propose an alternative sample. Do not suggestincreasing the sample size!

This Factsheet summarises ten areas where students often losemarks when writing about or answering questions about psychologyinvestigations.

What do you need to know?Your specification sets out the information which you need to knowabout psychology investigations. Although you do not need to doany coursework, you will do practical investigations in your lessons.These will help you to learn the information you need.

This Factsheet is based on comments from examiners about mistakeswhich are made year after year. They are all based on real examanswers. Avoid these pitfalls to gain good marks in your exams!

Exam Hint:- Questions can be set on any of the information inyour specification, so make sure that you do not have chunksof knowledge missing. For example, if the specification requiresyou to understand observations and interviews, do not justlearn about or revise interviews.

The top ten problem areas1. In general...• Read the whole question very carefully and

answer exactly what it asks! For example:o If you are asked to explain why a pilot study

should be used, do not describe what a pilotstudy is.

o If you are asked whether a hypothesis is directional or not,you do not need to explain what it is.

• When the question presents stimulus material, take the time tofamiliarise yourself with it before starting to answer thequestions.

• Do not write out the question in your answer; it wastes time.

• Do not give pre-prepared answers; you must be able to showyour understanding by applying your knowledge specificallyto that question. For example:o Do not just list the same set of evaluation points for all

research methods; they each have their own strengths andweaknesses which apply just to them. For example, not everystudy lacks ecological validity or is unethical.

o Do not use terms without knowing when and where to usethem (e.g., ecological validity, reductionist, etc). Justmentioning the term without showing that you understandit will not gain many marks.

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87 - How to write about investigations without losing marks Psychology Factsheet

5. Research methodsYour specification requires you to know a variety of researchmethods, such as experiments, observations, interviews andcorrelational analysis. You need to understand what these involveas well as their advantages and disadvantages. Some typicalmistakes are shown in table 1.

4. Investigation/experimental designCommon mistakes include:• Not knowing or understanding the types of design.• Not knowing the advantages and disadvantages of different

types of design.

Gain marks by making sure that you:• Know what independent measures, repeated measures and

matched pairs design are and be able to describe them andidentify from them examples.

• Can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these designsand can apply this to the stimulus material. For example, in amemory experiment, a disadvantage of an independent measuresdesign is that individual differences can confound the findingsas some people naturally have better memories than otherpeople.

Exam Hint:- If asked to explain what design is used, do notfocus on the procedure of the experiment/study.

Do not lose marks (and amuse the examiner) by saying that anindependent measures design means “doing an experimentonly once” whereas a repeated measures design means“repeating the experiment at a later date”. These are notcorrect!

Table 1: Common mistakes about research methods

Common mistake

Thinking that correlations tell us about cause and effectbetween variables (e.g., concluding that having a pet reducesstress when it just shows a relationship).

Calling the variables in a correlation the IV and DV.

Thinking that all participant observations are covert.

Not knowing what is meant by an unstructured interview (andthe difference between a structured and unstructured interview).

Not knowing what natural and field experiments are.

Research method

Correlations

Observations

Interviews

Experiments

What to do

Remember that we cannot infer cause and effect between variablesfrom a correlation. Avoid using ‘causal’ words when writing aboutcorrelations.

Avoid using these terms when writing about a correlation. Practicewriting correlational hypotheses.

Remember that participant observations mean that the researcherbecomes involved in the participants’ lives. This can be overt (withtheir knowledge) or covert (without their knowledge).

Make sure that you can define and explain what structured andunstructured interviews both are.

Remember that there are laboratory, field and natural experiments.Know what each of these is and their advantages and disadvantages.

6. Data analysis and presentationSome common mistakes when answering questions about data analysis and presentation are shown in table 2.

Table 2: Common mistakes about data analysis and presentation

What to do

Make sure that you can define and recognise these types of data.

Remember that it can be analysed by identifying themes or by contentanalysis (converting it to quantitative data before presenting it in charts/graphs, etc).

Make sure that you know what each of these is and when they are used(e.g., the median is most suitable when the data is ordinal).

Remember that the range is a measure of dispersion.

Make sure that you know what the strengths/limitations are.

Make sure that you revise this well and know that it shows how muchdata is spread around the mean.

Make sure that you know when the different descriptive statistics (e.g.,bar charts, histograms, etc) should be used (e.g., for different levels ofdata).

Make sure that you provide a title, label axes/conditions/variables properly,indicate units of measurement and so on.

Make sure that you know what this means and understand it fully (e.g.,understand that the 5% level of significance / p< 0.05 means that there is aless than 5% probability that the findings are due to chance factors). Alsomake sure that you have the ‘<’ sign the correct way (i.e., it is not p > 0.05!).

Common mistake

Not knowing what qualitative and quantitative dataare and not knowing the difference between them.

Not knowing how qualitative data can be analysed.

Not knowing the difference between the mean, medianand mode and not being able to explain when theyshould be used.

Thinking that the range is a measure of centraltendency.

Not knowing the strengths and limitations of eachmeasure of central tendency.

Not understanding what standard deviation is.

Not understanding what these are or the reasons forusing them.

Not labelling them adequately

Not knowing or understanding levels of significance.

Research method

Types of data

Measures ofcentraltendency

Standarddeviation

Graphicaldescriptivestatistics

Inferentialstatistics

3

87 - How to write about investigations without losing marks Psychology Factsheet

Acknowledgements: This Psychology Factsheet was researched and written by Amanda Albon.The Curriculum Press, Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, Shropshire, TF1 1NU.Psychology Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, storedin a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136

7. Reliability and validityCommon mistakes include:• Not knowing what reliability and validity are.• Confusing reliability with validity, and vice versa.• Not being able to describe ways of assessing or improving reliability and validity.

Exam Hint:- Practice defining what reliability and validity are.

8. Extraneous variablesCommon mistakes include:• Not knowing any extraneous variables and not understanding why extraneous variables are a problem.• Not knowing what a demand characteristic is.• Confusing investigator effects with demand characteristics.• Defining investigator effects without mentioning anything about the investigator’s behaviour or presence.• Not knowing that if extraneous variables are not controlled for, they will affect the results and be confounding variables.

9. Pilot studiesCommon mistakes include:• Not knowing why a pilot study is done, such as incorrectly suggesting that a pilot study tests ethical issues or checks results.

Exam Hint:- Make sure that you can define what a pilot study is and why it is used.

10. EthicsHow to avoid the common mistakes about ethics:• Know the difference between an ethical guideline and an ethical issue. For example, obtaining informed consent is recommended by

the guidelines; lack of informed consent is an ethical issue.• Know that debriefing is not an ethical issue; it is done to overcome some ethical issues.• Know the ways in which ethical issues can be overcome.• If asked to comment on the ethics of a research study, do not give the same answer every time. Lack of informed consent and use of

deception are not ethical issues for all studies!

In summary...Avoid losing marks when answering questions/writing about investigations by:• Knowing the terms, methods and concepts very well.• Really understanding the terms, methods and concepts and showing this by applying them to stimulus material or examples of

investigations.

The following Curriculum Press factsheets provide informationand exam hints on these topics:01 Experimental Design07 Sampling

Variables in Psychological ResearchReliability and Validity

30 Interpreting ResearchQualitative Research

31 Ethical Issues in Psychology28 Correlation and Cause29 Using Questionnaires

Using Case StudiesObservations

02 Which Stats Test Should I Use?14 Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient20 The Chi-Squared Test for Association27 Using Chi-Squared to Test for a Difference

T-tests: related and unrelated

Inferential statistics

Significant

Nominal level

Ordinal level

Interval level

Ratio level

Test statistic

Probability

Critical value

One-tailed test

Two-tailed test

Type 1 error

Type 2 error

172

Match up

Type of test used whenthe study has a non-

directionalhypothesis

Term for data that couldnot have arisen by chance,or is extremely unlikely to

have arisen by chance

Accepting a null hypothesisthat is actually not true

Value a test statistic mustreach in order for the nullhypothesis to be rejected

Data that is measured usingunits of equal intervals, forexample number of correct

answers on anIQ test

Calculation that allowsconclusions to be drawn based

on the probability that aparticular pattern of results

could have arisen by chance

The observed value calculated using aspecific inferential statistic to analyse the

data collected

Rejecting a nullhypothesis that is

actually true

Data that is ordered in some waywhere the difference between each

interval is not the same, for example theheight of participants

Type of test usedwhen the study has a

directional hypothesis

Usually set at 0.05, meaningthere is a 5% possibility results

did occur by chance

Data that has a true zero point –most physical quantities have this

Data grouped intoseparate categories

such as smoker, non-smoker

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan 263. Lesson notes p.87

66

Novel scenarios The second aspect (third if you are taking the A Level) of this component is for learners to apply their knowledge and understanding of research methods to novel research scenarios, making judgements on the details of psychological research. The best form of practice is to complete practice questions. Take a look at all of these questions below and answer them on separate paper. Some of them are taken from different exam boards, but there is some crossover between questions.

PSYA4 June 2014

154 patients who suffered from panic attacks were asked by a psychologist to take part in a clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). In order to select suitable participants for the trial, each patient completed a questionnaire which measured the severity of their symptoms on a scale of 1 (mild) to 10 (severe). 60 patients who had moderate symptoms with scores of 7 or 8 were selected to take part. They were randomly allocated to one of three conditions.

x Condition 1: Traditional cognitive behavioural therapy – this consisted of 12 one-hour sessions over a 12-week period.

x Condition 2: Brief cognitive behavioural therapy – this consisted of 5 one-hour sessions over a 5-week period with homework assessments.

x Condition 3: Control condition – patients were placed on a 12-week waiting list for traditional cognitive behavioural therapy. This group did not receive any form of treatment during the 12 weeks.

One week after finishing the course of therapy, patients in condition 1 and condition 2 completed the questionnaire for a second time. Patients in condition 3 completed the questionnaire for a second time at the end of the 12-week period. The three scores from this questionnaire were compared to see if there were differences in the severity of symptoms. 1. What were the aims in this study? [2] 2. Identify one variable which does not appear to have been controlled in this trial. Explain how this may have

influenced the outcome. [3] 3. What is meant by ‘validity’? How could the psychologist have assessed the validity of the questionnaire used to

measure the severity of symptoms? [4] 4. The psychologist asked the 60 patients for fully informed consent to take part in this trial. What should the

psychologist have told the patients so that they were able to give their consent? [5] Table 1 Mean and standard deviation of severity of symptom scores after therapy

Severity of symptom scores after therapy

Condition 1 Traditional CBT

Condition 2 Brief CBT

Condition 3 Waiting list

Mean 4.2 4.3 6.7 Standard deviation 1.2 2.4 1.3

The psychologist used a statistical test to assess the differences in severity of symptoms between patients in Condition 1 and Condition 2. The difference between traditional CBT and brief CBT was found to be non-significant (p >0.05). 5. What do the data show about the effectiveness of the therapies for panic attacks? Refer to mean scores, standard

deviations and the results of the statistical test in your answer. [6] 6. Imagine that you are writing up the report for this experiment. What is the purpose of the abstract in a psychological

report? [2] In the discussion section of a report, researchers are expected to consider possible practical applications and implications of their research. 7. Discuss applications and/or implications that might arise from this piece of research. [5]

67

The psychologist wished to investigate which aspects of therapy were most useful. She decided to interview a sample of the patients. The purpose of the interviews was to encourage patients to talk freely and in detail about their experiences of therapy. Two of the questions used by the psychologist were:

x ‘Please tell me about the most important aspects of the therapy which helped you to improve’ and x ‘Please tell me about any aspects of the therapy which were less helpful to you in dealing with your symptoms’.

8. Explain how you would record the data from these interviews and your reason for choosing this method. [3] 9. Explain how you would analyse the qualitative data from the interviews. [5]

PSYA4 June 2013

In an observational study, 100 cars were fitted with video cameras to record the driver’s behaviour. Two psychologists used content analysis to analyse the data from the films. They found that 75% of accidents involved a lack of attention by the driver. The most common distractions were using a hands-free phone or talking to a passenger. Other distractions included looking at the scenery, smoking, eating, personal grooming and trying to reach something within the car. 1. What is content analysis? [2] 2. Explain how the psychologists might have carried out content analysis to analyse the film clips of driver behaviour.[4] 3. Explain how the two psychologists might have assessed the reliability of their content analysis. [3] The psychologists then designed an experiment to test the effects of using a hands-free phone on drivers’ attention. They recruited a sample of 30 experienced police drivers and asked them to take part in two computer-simulated driving tests. Both tests involved watching a three-minute film of a road. Participants were instructed to click the mouse as quickly as possible, when a potential hazard (such as a car pulling out ahead) was spotted. Each participant completed two computer-simulated driving tests:

x Test A, whilst chatting with one of the psychologists on a hands-free phone x Test B, in silence, with no distractions.

The order in which they completed the computer tests was counterbalanced. 4. Explain why the psychologists chose to use a repeated measures design in this experiment. [3] 5. Identify one possible extraneous variable in this experiment. Explain how this variable may have influenced the

results of this experiment. [3] 6. Explain how one factor in this experiment might affect its external validity. [3] 7. Explain one or more ethical issues that the psychologists should have considered in this experiment. [4] 8. Write a set of standardised instructions that would be suitable to read out to participants, before they carry out Test

A, chatting on a hands-free phone. [5] The computer simulator measured two aspects of driver behaviour:

x the number of hazards detected by each driver x the time taken to respond to each hazard, in seconds.

The mean scores for each of these measures is shown in Table 1. Table 1 Table to show the mean number of hazards detected and mean reaction times in seconds for Test A and Test B

Mean scores Test A: with hands-free phone Test B: in silence Number of hazards detected 26.0 23.0

Reaction time in seconds 0.45 0.27 The psychologists then used an inferential statistical test to assess whether there was a difference in the two conditions. 9. Identify an appropriate statistical test to analyse the difference in the number of hazards detected in the two

conditions of this experiment. Explain why this test of difference would be appropriate. [3] They found no significant difference in the number of hazards detected (p > 0.05), but there was a significant difference in reaction times (p ≤ 0.01). 10. Explain why the psychologists did not think that they had made a Type 1 error in relation to the difference in reaction

times. [2] 11. Replication is one feature of the scientific method. The psychologists decided to replicate this experiment using a

larger sample of 250 inexperienced drivers. Explain why replication of this study would be useful. [3]

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan.

Procedure: You will need to decide how you are going to operationalise these variables.

Results: You will now need to calculate Spearman’s Rho using the instructions from yourtextbook. You may wish to do this on a statistical software package (e.g. Excel) to make this easier.Or, try http://www.holah.karoo.net/stats.htm

Statistical value (Spearman’s Rho) = Covariable 2 =

Level of significance =

Statement results:

Conclusions: What the results mean

Covariable 1 = Covariable 2 =

Covariable 1 operationalised =

Covariable 2 operationalised =

Research hypothesis = Delete as appropriate Non directional/Directional

Null hypothesis =

Correlations and Spearman’s Rho

173

Research aim: Choose (highlight or circle) one of the following:• To investigate the relationship between exam stress and exam confidence.• To investigate the relationship between the tastiness of chocolate and expense of chocolate.• To investigate the relationship between index finger length and spelling ability.• To investigate the relationship between time taken to peel an orange and shoe size.

Lesson notes p.87

264

Hypothesis: There will be a difference in ability to correctly identify whether a chocolatebean’s coloured shell is a warm colour or a cold colour.

Independent Variable: (identify which colours are warm, which are cold and record below)

Dependent Variable:

Procedure: Decision made Justification given

Researching warm and cold colours174

The drug industry spends a lot of time choosing the colours of the drugs they produce. Drugs that fight illnessmay be warm colours like red and yellow. Those that calm your body may be white or blue (colder colours).

Could a placebo effect exist based on the colour of a substance?

Are we subconsciously attracted by the colours we perceive?Can we really detect a difference when we cannot ‘see’ the actual colour?

Cold coloursWarm colours

Sampling method =Opportunity sample. Sixth form students approached ata local secondary school.

Sample size =25 participants will be approached

Sample age range =17–18 years old

Research design = all participants try one bean. As eachbean can only be correctly OR incorrectly identified, soindependent measures design.

Method =1. Students are read standardised instructions that briefly

explain the test and state the aim as researching our abilityto taste different colours.

2. Each student is instructed to close their eyes.3. Once their eyes are closed one bean is placed in their

hand.4. Keeping eyes closed students place the bean into the

mouth where they are told to let it dissolve on their tongue,not chew it.

5. Once the bean is eaten students are asked to name thecolour of the bean.

6. Students are told to open their eyes and thanked for theirtime.

7. A debrief is read out loud where the full aim is explainedand participants asked if their data can still be used.

Ethical measures =Right to withdraw and confidentiality assured before study.Under 16s have to give parental consent. Debrief given afterto explain aim fully.

Statistics test =

Level of probability you will set P < 0.05

Each bean can only be recorded in one category: eithercorrectly identified or incorrectly identified. They only giveone score so it is an independent measures design.

Standard level set for psychological research.Likelihood results are due to chance is less than 5 in 100.

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan 265. Lesson notes p.88

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan.

Procedure: Split the class in two. One half should have brand A, and the other brand B.

Results: You will now need to calculate the statistical value using the instructions from yourtextbook. You may wish to do this on a statistical software package (e.g. Excel) tomake this easier. Or, try http://www.holah.karoo.net/stats.htm

Testing the differencein cookies

175

Research aim: To investigate whether there is a difference in the amount of chocolatechips found in cookies of two different brands (i.e. value supermarket own brand vs. expensivebrand name).

Brand A = Brand B =

IV =

DV =

Experimental hypothesis =Delete as appropriate

Non directional/Directional

Null hypothesis =

Stats test =

Observed value = Critical value =

Level of significance =

Statement results:

Conclusions: What the results mean

Looking for a difference / Looking for a relationshipUnrelated / Related dataOrdinal / Categorical dataSpearman’s Rho / Mann-Whitney / Chi-squared / Wilcoxon

Lesson notes p.88

266

Wilcoxon T test investigation 1176

LOW MOOD AND COMFORT-EATINGGarg et al. (2007) observed the food choices of 38participants as they watched either an upbeat, funny

movie (Sweet Home Alabama) or a sad, depressing one (LoveStory). Participants were offered buttered popcorn and seedlessgrapes throughout the films.

Those watching the sad film consumed 36% more popcornthan those watching the upbeat film, but the upbeat film group atefar more grapes than the other group.

Garg et al. Claim that people who feel sad or depressed wantto ‘jolt themselves out of the dumps’, therefore they are more likelyto go for a snack that tastes good to give them a sudden rush ofeuphoria. Happy people want to extend their upbeat mood and sochoose healthy foods.

However, when participants were presented with nutritionalinformation about the foods (among other information) prior toviewing, consumption of the relatively unhealthy foods droppeddramatically. Perhaps, suggest the researchers, when we eat tocomfort ourselves, we would do well to check the nutritionalinformation on the foods we indulge in!

Could it be that knowledge ofnutritional information has an impact

on our food choices? Foodpackaging now displays the fat, salt

and calorie content of a product,often colour-coded red, amber orgreen. Is this information used by

shoppers to inform their diet?

This investigation aims toidentify whether a difference

exists in how people rateunhealthy foods when nutritional

information is presentedcompared to when no such

information is given.

The independent variable is:

The dependent variable is:

The directional hypothesis is:

The null hypothesis is:

1. Approach participant and read them standardised instructions.2. Ask them to look at the three foods and rate each one on how appetising that food is on a scale of 1 (not at allappetising) to 10 (very appetising). No time limit is set but ask participants to give a ‘gut reaction’, do not think toolong before answering.3. Repeat Step 2 this time using the same three foods with the nutritional information displayed.4. Record each participant’s responses and add each rating together to produce a total score out of 30.Divide this score by 3 to find the mean appetising rating for the two conditions.5. Debrief the participant.

Procedure:

You could counterbalance Steps 2 and 3 to reduce the risk of order effects impacting on validity.

1. Record your findings on the data sheet.2. You will be using a Wilcoxon T test to analyse the data because: the data was related (each participanttook part in both conditions), ordinal data was collected (appetising ratings) and the study was looking for adifference between the two conditions (presence or absence of nutritional information).3. Calculate the test statistic T = __________________________________________________________________4. Identify the critical value for p<0.05 =_____________________________________________________________5. State whether data is significant or not = ________________________________________________________6. State which hypothesis you will accept = ________________________________________________________

Analysing the findings:

NB: The study has a directional hypothesis, therefore a one-tailed test is required.

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan 267. Lesson notes p.88

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan.

Wilcoxon T test investigation 2177

Please rate how appetising you findthe following foods on a scale of:

1 -------------------------------------------------- 10(very unappetising) (very appetising)

Please rate how appetising you findthe following foods on a scale of:

1 -------------------------------------------------- 10(very unappetising) (very appetising)

525 calories

57.0g carbohydrates

29.8g fat

1.7g fibre

5.7g protein

525 calories

33.0g carbohydrates

50.0g fat

4.0g fibre

6.5g protein

259 calories

29.1g carbohydrates

10.1g fat

2.4g fibre

12.8g protein

ParticipantAppetising ratingtotal for food shownalone

Appetising rating total for foodand nutritional information

Difference(column 2 – column 3) Rank:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Participant data

T = Sum of ranks of the less frequent sign =

Lesson notes p.88

268

178

Data decisionsWrite the results of your class experiment here:

Range =

Condition A = Condition B =

For this data, which is the best measure of central tendency and why?

Finished? Extension – which stats test would you use? Justify your decision.

For this data, which measure of dispersion is the best? What does it show?

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan 269. Lesson notes p.89

Standard deviation =

Range =

Mean =

Mode =

Median =

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan.

181

Exam-style question 1

There are often concerns raised thatthere is a link between playing videogames and aggression in youngpeople.

A group of psychologists set out toinvestigate this claim.

With the permission of the headmaster,the psychologists went to a localprimary school and asked parentsif they would be willing to fill in aquestionnaire as they waited for theirchildren at the end of the school day.The questionnaire asked them to ratetheir child’s behaviour in terms ofaggressiveness and to report the hoursspent playing video games.

The data shown are for children aged8-11.

a) How were the variables aggression and video game playing habits operationalised? (2 marks)

b) i) Identify the research method of this study. (1 mark)ii) Outline one weakness of this research method in the context of this study. (3 marks)

c) i) Identify the sampling method used. (1 mark)ii) Outline one weakness of this sampling method in the context of this study. (2 marks)

d) i) Identify and explain one extraneous variable that could threaten the validity of this study.(3 marks)

ii) Explain how the psychologists might try and limit the impact of this variable. (2 marks)

e) Aggression of the children was measured using a scale. Describe how the reliability of thisscale could be assessed? (2 marks)

f) Name an appropriate statistical test for analysing this data and justify your choice. (4 marks)

g) With reference to the graph above, describe the relationship between the two variables. (2marks)

h) The relationship between the two variables was found to be significant at p=0.10. Identify andbriefly explain whether a type 1 or type 2 error was more likely to have occurred. (3 marks)

i) The researchers decide that they need to determine a causal relationship between thevariables. Design a study that will allow them to do this. You should include sufficient details topermit replication, for example a hypothesis, variables, details of design and procedure,sampling, etc.(10 marks)

Lesson notes p.89

272

182

Exam-style question 2Bosses at a financial office always try and limit the amount of stress their employees experiencewhilst they are at work. For the past month they have been playing classical music at low volumesto try and keep the employees relaxed. The bosses are unsure whether it has had an impact ontheir stress. In addition, they are unaware of any previous research in this area.

They decide to conduct an experiment in order to test whether classical music can de-stress theirworkers.

To do this they displayed an advert in their officeto ask people whether they would be interested intaking part in an experiment for an extra £15 intheir wages the following month. They recruited48 participants from this advert and asked eachof them to complete a stress questionnaire.They then randomly assigned them to one oftwo conditions. In the first condition participantsworked for 4 days in a section of the officewhere classical music was playing. In the secondcondition participants worked for 4 days in asection of the office where no music was playing.

Following this, each participant completed the stress questionnaire for a second time. Their scorewas subtracted from their original score from the first questionnaire. As such, a minus scoreshowed that participant had ‘de-stressed’. The results for each of the conditions were compared.

Mean difference score (inratings of stress given beforeand after the intervention)

Standard deviation

Classicalmusiccondition

No musiccondition

-0.25 0.08

7.65 3.77

a) i) Identify the experimental design used. (1 mark)

ii) Explain one weakness of this design in the context of this study. (3 marks)

b) i) Write a suitable non-directional hypothesis for this study. (2 marks)

ii) Explain why a non-directional hypothesis would be used. (2 marks)

c) i) Identify the sampling technique used. (1 mark)

ii) Explain one potential weakness of this sampling technique with reference to this study. (2 marks)

d) Identify and explain a potential threat to the validity of this study (not previously been mentioned). (3 marks)

e) The before/after stress difference scores for the classical music condition were as follows: -10, -8, -7, 3, 8, 10, -12, -7, 14, -1, -3, -5, -1, -2, -3, -7, -8, -8, 3, 7, 6, 5, 4

i) Suggest one suitable method of central tendency to use with this data. (1 mark)ii) Describe one advantage of using this measure of central tendency. (2 marks)

f) Discuss what the table of results shows about the two sets of data. (4 marks)

g) Name an appropriate statistical test for analysing this data and justify your choice. (4 marks)

h) Would a one- or two-tailed test be used with this data? (1 mark)

i) The results were significant at p=0.05. Explain what this means in the context of this study. (3 marks)

j) The financial company write up the results and submit a journal article for peer review. Describe this peer review process. (6 marks)

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan 273. Lesson notes p.89

PSYCHOLOGY A2: THE TEACHER’S COMPANION FOR AQA ‘A’ published by Oxford University Press © 2010 Michael Griffin, Rosalind Geillis and Cara Flanagan.

183

Exam-style question 3ECT is still used in cases of severe depression. One practitioner felt the extent of ECT and itsmethodology was a mystery to the general population, with opinions often based on knowledgefrom fictional films and novels. She decided to carry out research into public perceptions ofECT. She wondered whether Psychology students who have learnt about ECT as part of theirA-level hold different views from those who have not learnt about this form of treatment.

She gave participants a table of adjectives that could be used to describe ECT. The tableincluded words such as life saving, brutal, scientific, painful. She took care to ensure an equalamount of positive and negative words were included. Participants were asked to circle anywords they felt described ECT. She recorded whether each participant chose more positivewords or more negative words.

(a) Identify the type of research design used in this study. (1 mark)

(b) The researcher took care to ensure there were an equal amount of positive and negative words. Why was it important she did this? (4 marks)

(c) Name an appropriate test of statistical significance for analysing this data. Explain why this would be a suitable test to use. (4 marks)

(d) Explain what is meant by p 0.05. (2 marks)

(e) Give one reason why the researcher might use a two-tailed test. (2 marks)

(f) With reference to the data, outline and discuss the findings of this investigation.(10 marks)

(g) Following this study the researcher wished to investigate the impact of reading a case study of ECT, compared to watching a film clip of a patient’s ECT experience. Design a suitable study. (12 marks).

A-level student studying Psychology

A level student not studying Psychology

Identified more positivewords to describe ECT

Identified more negativewords to describe ECT

7 8

3 12

Lesson notes p.89

274

76

Investigation One: An experiment on the effect of context on an individual’s perception

In the examination you will be expected to apply your knowledge of research methods to this investigation, including the following aspects: hypotheses; variables; methodology (including experimental design if appropriate); sampling; descriptive

statistics; graphical representations; inferential statistics; reliability; validity; ethics. Researchers: Date:

Area to be covered

Details (possible areas to consider)

Background reading

Websites, studies, experiences related to direction of the investigation

Aim

Hypotheses

Null hypothesis Operationalised directional/non-directional hypothesis IV and DV Why did you choose a directional/non-directional hypothesis?

77

Design

Sample

Population, sampling method, number needed, ethical consideration Two advantages of your choice of sampling technique: Two limitations of your choice of sampling technique:

Equipment/ tools

Ease of availability, any costs involved

Ethical considerations

Acknowledgement of issues and how to deal with them

Validity & Reliability

Issues and how to deal with them

78

Data Collected

Analysis of data

Descriptive statistics (and explain why your choice of descriptive statistic is appropriate) Why is your choice of graphical representation appropriate?

Graphical representation

of data

79

Inferential statistics

Which test used and justification for use

Findings

Briefly summarise your findings (you may want to briefly note the results of graphical representations, descriptive and inferential statistics) What conclusions can you draw from your findings?

Other comments

Two issues of reliability How did you establish if your test was reliable? Two issues of validity How did you establish if your test was valid? Two ethical issues that concerned you before the research and how you dealt with them

Suggestions for refinement

How any changes could improve the research

80

Investigation Two: A correlational research – relationship between intelligence and another psychological variable (of the learner’s choice)

In the examination you will be expected to apply your knowledge of research methods to this investigation, including the following aspects: hypotheses; variables; methodology (including experimental design if appropriate); sampling; descriptive

statistics; graphical representations; inferential statistics; reliability; validity; ethics. Researchers: Date:

Area to be covered

Details (possible areas to consider)

Background reading

Websites, studies, experiences related to direction of the investigation

Aim

Hypotheses

Null hypothesis Operationalised directional/non-directional hypothesis IV and DV Why did you choose a directional/non-directional hypothesis?

81

Design

Sample

Population, sampling method, number needed, ethical consideration Two advantages of your choice of sampling technique: Two limitations of your choice of sampling technique:

Equipment/ tools

Ease of availability, any costs involved

Ethical considerations

Acknowledgement of issues and how to deal with them

Validity & Reliability

Issues and how to deal with them

82

Data Collected

Analysis of data

Descriptive statistics (and explain why your choice of descriptive statistic is appropriate) Why is your choice of graphical representation appropriate?

Graphical representation

of data

83

Inferential statistics

Which test used and justification for use

Findings

Briefly summarise your findings (you may want to briefly note the results of graphical representations, descriptive and inferential statistics) What conclusions can you draw from your findings?

Other comments

Two issues of reliability How did you establish if your test was reliable? Two issues of validity How did you establish if your test was valid? Two ethical issues that concerned you before the research and how you dealt with them

Suggestions for refinement

How any changes could improve the research

84

Topic Area Covered in Class

Revised 9

Experimental design (knowledge, understanding and evaluation of...)

Independent groups, repeated measures and matched pairs

Levels of measurement (knowledge and understanding of...)

Nominal, interval, ordinal and ratio data

Graphical representation (knowledge of, and be able to construct and interpret ...)

Frequency tables

Graphical representation (including line graphs, histograms, bar charts, pie charts, scatter diagrams)

Distribution curves (including normal, positive and negative skewed distributions)

Descriptive statistics (knowledge, evaluation, interpretation, estimation and calculation of...)

Measures of central tendency (including mean, median and mode)

Measures of dispersion (including range and standard deviation)

Inferential statistics (knowledge, appropriate application and interpretation of...) Chi Square, Mann Whitney U, Sign test, Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient, and Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test

Probability values, significance levels, observed (calculated) values, critical values from tables Appropriate symbols (= , ≤ , < , > , ≥)

Reliability (knowledge, understanding and application of...)

Internal reliability and external reliability

Ways of dealing with issues of reliability

Assessing reliability (including inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability)

Validity (knowledge, understanding and application of...)

Internal validity and external validity

Specific validity issues (including researcher bias, demand characteristics, social desirability)

Ways of dealing with issues of validity

Assessing validity (including concurrent, predictive, face, content and construct validity)

Ethics (knowledge, understanding and application of...)

Confidentiality

Deception

Risk of stress, anxiety, humiliation or pain

Risk to the participants’ values, beliefs, relationships, status or privacy

Valid consent

Working with vulnerable individuals (including children)

Working with animals Managing the risk posed by ethical issues (including the use of ethics committees and ethical guidelines)

The role of the scientific community in validating new knowledge (knowledge, understanding and application of...)

Peer review

Format for reporting psychological investigations

85

Component Checklist

Use this checklist to ensure that you have covered all the areas needed for success in your exams. The following topics will be covered in class. However, it will be your responsibility to catch up with any topics you miss and to actively revise the different areas.

Topic Area Covered in Class

Revised 9

Research Methods in Context (knowledge, understanding and evaluation of...) Social Psychology: Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural study of Obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-8

Developmental Psychology: Kohlberg, L. (1968). The child as a moral philosopher. Psychology Today, 2, 25-30.

Deciding on a research question (knowledge and understanding of...)

Aim of the research Research hypotheses

x alternative (or experimental) hypotheses x directional and non-directional hypotheses x null hypotheses

Independent variables and dependant variables. Operationalisation of variables

Co-variables

Confounding variables and extraneous variables

Methodologies (knowledge, understanding and evaluation of...)

Experiments and quasi-experiments

Participant observations and non-participant observations

Content analysis

Structured interviews / questionnaires. Semi-structured interviews. Self-reports

Correlational studies

Case studies

Brain scans (A Level only)

Longitudinal studies

Cross-sectional studies (A Level only)

Location of research (knowledge, understanding and evaluation of...)

Conducting research in a laboratory environment

Conducting research in the field

Conducting research on-line

Participants (knowledge, understanding and evaluation of...)

Target populations

Sampling frames

Random, opportunity, systematic, stratified, quota, self-selected, and snowball sampling

Observational sampling techniques (including event sampling, time sampling)

The checklist continues on the previous page.