Designing research

To conduct the observation of mother-infant pairs, the researchers needed examples of reciprocal behaviours that they could record.

Suggest two examples of reciprocal behaviours that could be used as behavioural categories in this study.

Outline one way in which the reciprocal behaviours could be sampled in this study.

Academic journals suggest conflicting findings about the effectiveness of online learning. A researcher designed an experiment to measure the effectiveness of online learning compared with face-to-face learning.

The researcher placed an advert in an online forum asking for student participants for a memory experiment.

30 university students contacted the researcher and they were divided equally into two groups. Both groups learned the same topic.

Group 1 had 3 hours of online learning.

Group 2 had 3 hours of face-to-face learning.

At the end of the session, each participant completed a multiple-choice test scored out of 20 to measure how much they had learned about the topic.

The researcher chose to use a non-directional hypothesis for this study.

Explain why a non-directional hypothesis is appropriate in this case.

Write an appropriate hypothesis for this study.

Which one of the following best describes the sampling method used in this study?

Shade one box only.

A Opportunity

B Random

C Systematic

D Volunteer

Evaluate the sampling method the researcher used in this study.

The researcher used a different group of people in each condition, which could have affected the results.

Outline one change the researcher could have made to deal with this issue.

Design a study to investigate students’ experiences of online learning.

In your answer you will gain credit for providing appropriate details of the following:

• the type of self-report technique that will be used, with justification

• an example of one relevant question that could be used to collect qualitative data, with justification

• how you would ensure the ethical treatment of participants

• how content analysis could be used to analyse the qualitative data.

In the interview the researcher collected some qualitative data.

Write one question that could be used in the researcher’s interview that would produce qualitative data.

Explain how a pilot study could be carried out to improve this study.

There were 30 4-year-old children at nursery A and 20 4-year-old children at nursery B. The researcher used a stratified sample of 10 4-year-old children for the study.

Explain how the researcher might have obtained the stratified sample of 4-year-old children from the two different nursery schools.

A psychologist studied the effects of using different social media platforms. There were 60 participants. The psychologist assigned the first 30 people on the alphabetical list of participants to Group 1 and assigned the remaining 30 people to Group 2.

The psychologist asked participants in Group 1 to use a new social media platform over the course of a month. This platform promotes greater self-disclosure.

The psychologist asked participants in Group 2, the control group, to use a different new social media platform over the course of a month. This platform does not promote self-disclosure.

One way of improving this study would be to use random allocation. Explain how random allocation could have been carried out.

A psychologist studied the effects of sex-role stereotyping in the media. There were 60 participants. The psychologist assigned the first 30 people on the alphabetical list of participants to Group 1 and assigned the remaining 30 people to Group 2.

The psychologist asked participants in Group 1 to watch a list of sex-role stereotyped TV programmes over the course of a month.

The psychologist asked participants in Group 2, the control group, to watch a list of TV programmes which did not show sex-role stereotyping over the course of a month.

One way of improving this study would be to use random allocation. Explain how random allocation could have been carried out.

A psychologist studied the effects of using familiar play materials in a conservation experiment. There were 60 participants, all six years old. The psychologist assigned the first 30 children on the alphabetical list of participants to Group 1 and assigned the remaining 30 children to Group 2.

Participants in Group 1 carried out 10 conservation tasks using familiar play materials.

Participants in Group 2, the control group, carried out 10 conservation tasks using unfamiliar play materials.

For each participant, the psychologist recorded the number of conservation tasks solved correctly.

One way of improving this study would be to use random allocation. Explain how random allocation could have been carried out.

A prison officer investigating institutional aggression has devised a questionnaire for prisoners to complete. The questionnaire consists of a series of statements about prison life and the prisoners have to indicate how much they agree with each statement.

One statement in the questionnaire is ‘The noise in the prison is unpleasant’. The response options in the questionnaire are ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’.

Suggest how the response options in the questionnaire could be modified to better assess how much prisoners agree with the statement.

A police trainer investigating offender profiling has devised a questionnaire for police officers to complete. The questionnaire consists of a series of statements about offender profiling and the police officers have to indicate how much they agree with each statement.

One statement in the questionnaire is ‘Offender profiling can be helpful in solving crime’. The response options in the questionnaire are ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’.

Suggest how the response options in the questionnaire could be modified to better assess how much the police officers agree with the statement.

A social worker investigating nicotine addiction has devised a questionnaire for smokers to complete. The questionnaire consists of a series of statements about smoking, and smokers have to indicate how much they agree with each statement.

One statement in the questionnaire is ‘Holding a cigarette makes me feel calm’. The response options in the questionnaire are ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’.

Suggest how the response options in the questionnaire could be modified to better assess how much smokers agree with the statement.

Two groups of participants took part in a memory experiment. The researcher read 20 words to the participants.

• Participants in Group A had to write down the words immediately after they had heard them.

• Participants in Group B had to write down the words after they had read a book for one minute.

The researcher noticed that:

• participants in Group A generally recalled words from the beginning and the end of the list

• participants in Group B generally recalled words from the beginning of the list only.

Outline what is meant by standardisation and suggest one way standardisation could have been used in this experiment.

Outline what is meant by randomisation and suggest one way randomisation could have been used in this experiment.

A psychologist wanted to investigate whether exercise would affect stress levels in 15-year-olds. Previous research into the effects of exercise on stress in teenagers had shown that exercise decreased stress levels.

The psychologist decided to use a repeated measures design to investigate the effects of exercise on stress levels in 20 15-year-old students. All the students were approaching their end-of-year exams.

For Condition A, students were required to complete a 2 km run during their morning breaktime each school day for one week.

In Condition B, students continued their normal activities in the playground during their morning breaktime each school day for one week.

At the end of each week of the investigation, for both Condition A and Condition B, each student was asked to rate their levels of stress on a rating scale of 1–10, where the higher the self-reported rating the greater the stress levels.

Which of the following types of hypothesis is not appropriate for the psychologist to use in their study?

Shade one circle only.

A Directional hypothesis

B Non-directional hypothesis

C Null hypothesis

D One-tailed hypothesis

Explain why a repeated measures design was more appropriate than an independent groups design in this study.

To improve the validity of the findings, the psychologist counterbalanced the students across the experimental conditions.

Describe how the psychologist could have counterbalanced the students across the experimental conditions.

Your psychology teacher has read about the beneficial effects of exercise.

She asks you to design a study to see if there is a correlation between time spent swimming and anxiety levels in A-level psychology students.

You need to select a sample of 20 participants using random or stratified sampling.

Explain how a sample of 20 participants could be selected for your study using either random or stratified sampling.

Outline one strength of the sampling method you have selected.

Your teacher tells you not to use self-report to measure anxiety levels and tells you to use a different way of measuring anxiety.

Suggest how you could measure the co-variables, time spent swimming and anxiety levels, for your study.

In a study into the effectiveness of a new drug therapy for schizophrenia, researchers gave one group of patients the new drug and another group of patients a placebo (a pretend drug).

The researchers were concerned that the outcome of the study might be influenced by the problems of demand characteristics and investigator effects.

Explain what the researchers could do to eliminate or reduce demand characteristics and investigator effects in this study.

In a study into the effectiveness of a new drug therapy for limiting appetite, researchers gave one group of patients the new drug and another group of patients a placebo (a pretend drug).

The researchers were concerned that the outcome of the study might be influenced by the problems of demand characteristics and investigator effects.

Explain what the researchers could do to eliminate or reduce demand characteristics and investigator effects in this study.

In a study into the effectiveness of a new drug therapy for stress, researchers gave one group of patients the new drug and another group of patients a placebo (a pretend drug).

The researchers were concerned that the outcome of the study might be influenced by the problems of demand characteristics and investigator effects.

Explain what the researchers could do to eliminate or reduce demand characteristics and investigator effects in this study.

Different participants were used in each condition of the experiment, which might have affected the results.

Explain one way in which the experiment could be changed to control for the problem of using different participants in each condition.

Different participants were used in each condition of the experiment, which might have affected the results.

Explain one way in which the experiment could be changed to control for the problem of using different participants in each condition.

Different participants were used in each condition of the experiment, which might have affected the results.

Explain one way in which the experiment could be changed to control for the problem of using different participants in each condition.

A controlled observation was designed to compare the social behaviours of pre-school children of working parents and pre-school children of stay-at-home parents. The sample consisted of 100 children aged three, who were observed separately. Half of the children had working parents and the other half had stay-at-home parents.

The observation took place in a room which looked like a nursery, with a variety of toys available. In the room, there were four children and one supervising adult. Their behaviour was not recorded.

Each child participant was brought into the room and settled by their parent. The parent then left to sit outside. Each child participant’s behaviour was observed covertly for five minutes while they played in the room.

The observation was conducted in a controlled environment and a standardised script was used when the children and their parents arrived.

Explain why the researcher used a controlled observation and a standardised script in this study.

The researcher used two trained observers to record the social behaviours of each child during the observation.

Give two behavioural categories that the observers could have used in the observation to assess the pre-school children’s social behaviour. Explain why your chosen categories are appropriate.

Describe how the observers could use time sampling to record the social behaviour of each child during the five-minute period.

Explain one strength and one limitation of using time sampling for this observation.

The data from the observation was summarised by converting the number of agreed observations into a total social behaviour score for each child.

The researcher then conducted a statistical test to identify whether there was a significant difference between the social behaviour scores for the children of stay-at-home parents and those of working parents.

Identify an appropriate statistical test that the researcher could use to analyse the social behaviour scores in this study. Explain three reasons for your choice in the context of this study.

A new TV programme has been developed to increase positive social behaviours in pre-school children.

There is a proposal to carry out an experiment to compare the effects of the new TV programme and an existing TV programme, on positive social behaviours in pre-school children.

A sample of 500 pre-school children and their parents is available for the experiment. The parents have given consent for their children to take part in this experiment.

The experiment will take place over an 8-week period. Data on the children’s social behaviours will be gathered from the parents using a self-report method.

Design the experiment to investigate whether watching the new TV programme leads to an increase in positive social behaviours in the children, compared with watching the existing TV programme.

In your answer you will gain credit for providing appropriate details of the following:

• the type of experimental design, with justification

• a self-report method of data collection, with justification

• how to control one extraneous variable, with justification as to why this would need to be controlled.

Researchers studied therapies for schizophrenia. They assessed the mood of two groups of participants before the participants received therapy. The same participants were assessed again after four weeks of receiving therapy.

Group 1 (Drug therapy group) received drug therapy alone.

Group 2 (Combined therapy group) received a combination of drug therapy and cognitive therapy.

The researchers assessed mood using a standardised test of mood. A low score indicated negative mood and a high score indicated positive mood. Scores ranged from 0 to 100. The lowest score was 24 and the highest score was 83.

Table 1 shows the results of the study after four weeks of therapy.

Table 1 Mean mood scores for Group 1 (Drug therapy group) and Group 2 (Combined therapy group) after four weeks of therapy

Explain why the data in Table 1 does not enable the researchers to draw proper conclusions about the effectiveness of therapy for the two groups. What should the researchers do about this?

Researchers studied psychological support for people on a strict diet. They assessed the mood of two groups of participants before the participants received psychological support. The same participants were assessed again after four weeks of receiving support.

Group 1 (Family support group) received family-based support.

Group 2 (Individual support group) received one-to-one support.

The researchers assessed mood using a standardised test of mood. A low score indicated negative mood and a high score indicated positive mood. Scores ranged from 0 to 100. The lowest score was 24 and the highest score was 83.

Table 2 shows the results of the study after four weeks of receiving support.

Table 2 Mean mood scores for Group 1 (Family support group) and Group 2 (Individual support group) after four weeks of receiving support

Explain why the data in Table 2 does not enable the researchers to draw proper conclusions about the effectiveness of different types of support. What should the researchers do about this?

Researchers investigated whether the experience of bullying is influenced by attachment type. They interviewed teenagers about their early attachment experiences . Following the interviews, the teenagers were categorised into two groups based on their attachment type:

• Group 1 – secure attachment in childhood

• Group 2 – insecure attachment (insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant) in childhood.

During the interview, the teenagers were also asked about their experience of bullying. They were categorised as either:

• having had experience of bullying, or

• having had no experience of bullying.

Which statistical test would be most suitable to analyse the data in this investigation? With reference to this investigation, explain three reasons for your choice of test.

Write a directional hypothesis the researcher might use for this study.

Which of the following best describes the sampling method used in this study?

Shade one box only.

A Opportunity sampling

B Stratified sampling

C Systematic sampling

D Volunteer sampling

Explain one strength and one limitation of using this sampling method in this study.

Apart from the question about how well rested the students felt, the researcher’s questionnaire contained nine other questions. The responses to these questions were not analysed.

Explain one reason why the researcher decided to include these additional questions on the questionnaire.

The researcher believed that the actual number of hours slept by the students could have affected the results of the study.

Suggest one other extraneous variable that could have affected the results of this study. Explain why it would have been important to control this extraneous variable and how it could have been controlled in this study.

Describe how the researcher could have used random sampling to obtain the students for this study.

Two psychology students investigated the effect of type of play area on friendly behaviours. They watched the behaviour of six-year-old children in two different play areas and recorded their observations using a set of behavioural categories. They observed 25 children in the first play area and another 25 children in a second play area.

Play Area 1 was a grass space, surrounded by trees and plants. Play Area 2 was a paved space, surrounded by brick and concrete walls.

What are behavioural categories? Explain why it was important to use behavioural categories in this observation.

Table 1 shows the raw data for the observation.

After the observation, the students showed their raw data table to their psychology teacher. The teacher suggested that some of the behavioural categories in Table 1 were not valid examples of friendly behaviour.

Suggest two better examples of friendly behaviours that the students could have used in their observation. Explain why these might be more valid examples of friendly behaviour than the behaviours in Table 1.

Psychology students sometimes propose hypotheses that are untestable.

Which one of the following is essential for a testable hypothesis? Write the correct letter in your answer book.

A The hypothesis should be written to include the word ‘significant’. B The hypothesis should include fully operationalised variables. C The hypothesis should refer to a difference between the conditions. D The hypothesis should use appropriate psychological terminology.

Psychology students sometimes propose hypotheses that are untestable.

Which one of the following is essential for a testable hypothesis? Write the correct letter in your answer book.

A The hypothesis should be written to include the word ‘significant’. B The hypothesis should include fully operationalised variables. C The hypothesis should refer to a difference between the conditions. D The hypothesis should use appropriate psychological terminology.

Psychology students sometimes propose hypotheses that are untestable.

Which one of the following is essential for a testable hypothesis? Write the correct letter in your answer book.

A The hypothesis should be written to include the word ‘significant’. B The hypothesis should include fully operationalised variables. C The hypothesis should refer to a difference between the conditions. D The hypothesis should use appropriate psychological terminology.

A researcher investigated retrieval failure using an independent groups design.

In Condition A, 10 participants learnt 30 words and recalled them in the same room.

In Condition B, another 10 participants learnt the same 30 words in one room and recalled them in a different room.

The results for Condition B are shown below.

The researcher decided to use the mean to analyse the results.

State one advantage of an independent groups design.

The psychologist decided to design an experiment to test the effects of recreational screen time on children’s academic performance.

The psychologist randomly selected four schools from all the primary schools in her county to take part in the experiment involving Year 5 pupils. Three of the four schools agreed to take part. In total, there were 58 pupils whose parents consented for them to participate. The 58 pupils were then randomly allocated to Group A or Group B.

For the two-week period of the experiment, pupils in Group A had no recreational screen time. Pupils in Group B were allowed unrestricted recreational screen time. At the end of the experiment all pupils completed a 45-minute class test, to achieve a test score.

Complete Table 1 by ticking the statement that best describes the population and the sample in the psychologist’s experiment.

Place one tick in each column.

Briefly explain why a directional hypothesis would be most suitable for this experiment.

Write an appropriate hypothesis for this experiment.

One criticism of the study is that the pupils were not matched on their typical recreational screen time.

Explain how the psychologist could have matched pupils on their typical recreational screen time across the experimental conditions.

Identify one other variable for which the psychologist could have matched the pupils. Explain how this might have affected the test performance if it was not controlled.

The feedback from one of the schools was that recreational screen time affected pupils’ social interactions. The psychologist decided to investigate this further by using an observation of social interaction during playtime at the school.

Design the observation to investigate pupils’ social interaction in the playground.

In your answer you will be awarded credit for providing appropriate details of:

• type of observation, with justification

• choice of time sampling or event sampling, with justification

• dealing with one relevant ethical issue

• assessing reliability of the data through inter-observer reliability.

In a study of filter theory, a psychology student used a group of female participants. Each participant was shown two descriptions.

• Description 1 described a man with a similar social background to that of the female participants.

• Description 2 described a man with a different social background to that of the female participants.

The student asked participants to judge how much they liked each description on a scale of 1–10.

The student decided to test for a significant difference between the judgements made for each description. He proposed using an unrelated t-test to analyse the data.

Suggest a more appropriate statistical test of difference for the student to use with this data. Explain two reasons for your choice based on the description of the study.

The student who carried out the study selected the two descriptions. He decided himself which social backgrounds were similar and which social backgrounds were different.

Explain how the study could be improved by selecting the descriptions another way.

In a study of sex-role stereotypes and the understanding of gender, a psychology student used a group of 7-year-old children. Each child was shown two pictures.

Picture 1 showed people carrying out sex-stereotypical activities.

Picture 2 showed people carrying out non-sex-stereotypical activities.

The student asked the children to say how much they liked each picture on a scale of 1–10.

The student decided to test for a significant difference between the judgements of the two pictures. He proposed using an unrelated t-test to analyse the data.

Suggest a more appropriate statistical test of difference for the student to use with this data. Explain two reasons for your choice based on the description of the study.

The student who carried out the study selected the two pictures. He decided himself which were sex-stereotypical activities and which were non-sex-stereotypical activities.

Explain how the study could be improved by selecting the pictures another way.

In a study of perspective-taking, a psychology student used a group of 9-year-old children. Each child was shown two pictures.

Picture 1 showed an older child being unkind to a little boy.

Picture 2 showed an older child being kind to a little boy.

The student asked the children to judge how sad the little boy would feel in each picture on a scale of 1–10.

The student decided to test for a significant difference between the judgements of the two pictures. He proposed using an unrelated t-test to analyse the data.

Suggest a more appropriate statistical test of difference for the student to use with this data. Explain two reasons for your choice based on the description of the study.

The student who carried out the study selected the two pictures. He decided himself which picture showed unkind behaviours and which picture showed kind behaviours.

Explain how the study could be improved by selecting the pictures another way.

It was recently reported in a newspaper that time spent playing team sports increases happiness levels. A researcher was keen to find out whether this was due to participating in a team activity or due to participating in physical activity, as he could not find any published research on this.

The researcher used a matched-pairs design. He went into the student café and selected the first 20 students he met. Each student was assigned to one of two groups.

Participants in Group A were requested to carry out 3 hours of team sports per week. Participants in Group B were requested to carry out 3 hours of exercise independently in a gym each week. All participants were told not to take part in any other type of exercise for the 4-week duration of the study.

All participants completed a happiness questionnaire at the start and end of the study. The researcher then calculated the improvement in happiness score for each participant.

Which of the following is correct?

Shade one circle only.

Would a directional or non-directional hypothesis be more suitable for the researcher to use? Explain your answer.

Write a suitable hypothesis for this experiment.

Identify the type of sampling method used in this experiment. Explain one limitation of using this sampling method in this study.

Identify one variable on which participants should be matched in this matched-pairs design. Explain how the researcher could assign matched participants to either Group A or Group B.

Explain one strength of using a matched-pairs design rather than a repeated-measures design.

The questionnaire had high concurrent validity.

Validity was still a concern because the researcher knew which participants were in each experimental group.

Explain how this could have affected the validity of the study.

A psychology teacher read the researcher’s study on sport and happiness. She considered whether setting group tasks could improve her students’ level of happiness. She decided to conduct an independent groups experiment with 30 students taking A-level Psychology using the same happiness questionnaire.

Suggest an appropriate statistical test the psychology teacher could use to analyse the data. Justify your choice of test.

Design an independent groups experiment that the psychology teacher could conduct.

In your answer you should provide details of:

• the aim of the experiment

• identification and manipulation of variables including details of the task

• controls to minimise the effects of extraneous variables

• data handling and analysis – use of descriptive statistics and/or data presentation.

Justify your design choices.

In a study of communication, researchers used a language rating scale to compare two groups of participants. Participants in Group A were a volunteer sample of people from a self-help group for people with schizophrenia. Participants in Group B, the control group, were a volunteer sample of people who attended a community centre.

The researchers used an inferential statistical test to see if there was a significant difference in language rating between the two groups.

Explain why a Mann-Whitney test is an appropriate choice of statistical test in this situation and a Spearman’s test is not.

Explain one reason why there might be a problem of bias and generalisation in this study. How could the researchers modify their study to deal with this problem?

Explain one reason why there might be a problem of bias and generalisation in this study. How could the researchers modify their study to deal with this problem?

Explain one reason why there might be a problem of bias and generalisation in this study. How could the researchers modify their study to deal with this problem?

A psychologist used a set of negative images to assess violent attitudes before and after participants played a 30-minute computer game. In a repeated measures design, 15 participants were tested before and after playing the game using a single set of images.

Explain how two sets of images could be used in this study and why this would be an improvement.

A psychologist used a set of negative images to assess angry attitudes before and after participants took part in a 30-minute anger management session. In a repeated measures design, 15 participants were tested before and after the session using a single set of images.

Explain how two sets of images could be used in this study and why this would be an improvement.

A psychologist used a set of negative images to assess attitudes to smoking before and after participants took part in a 30-minute covert sensitisation session. In a repeated measures design, 15 participants were tested before and after the session using a single set of images.

Explain how two sets of images could be used in this study and why this would be an improvement.

The psychologist was interested in finding out whether dream themes differed between males and females, particularly in terms of social interaction. She decided to conduct a pilot study. Twenty undergraduate students (8 male and 12 female) volunteered for the study. For a six-week period the students were interviewed at 9 am each morning when they arrived at university. Interviewers, who did not know the purpose of the study, carried out and recorded the dream interviews.

What is meant by a pilot study? Explain one possible reason why the psychologist decided to conduct a pilot study for this investigation.

What are investigator effects? Suggest one way in which they could have been minimised during the dream interviews.

The psychologist proposed a directional hypothesis.

Write a directional hypothesis for this experiment.

The psychologist used a repeated measures design in this experiment.

Explain why it was important to use a repeated measures design in this case.

The psychologist used counterbalancing in this experiment.

Explain why it was appropriate to use counterbalancing in this experiment.

Explain how the psychologist could have randomly split the sample of 50 students into the two groups.

Researchers wished to study the link between attachment and parasocial relationships. They surveyed a stratified sample of 100 18-year-old students from four different schools. Some schools had a large number of students and others had a smaller number of students. The students were asked questions about their childhood, their feelings towards celebrities and about their friendships at school.

Explain how the researchers could have obtained a stratified sample from the four different schools.

Researchers wished to study the link between androgyny and psychological health. They surveyed a stratified sample of 100 18-year-old students from four different schools. Some schools had a large number of students and others had a smaller number of students. The students were asked to rate themselves on an androgyny scale and then answered a series of questions. The questions focused on students’ self-esteem and how they felt about their relationships with others.

Explain how the researchers could have obtained a stratified sample from the four different schools.

Researchers wished to study the effects of scaffolding on learning. They surveyed a stratified sample of 100 18-year-old students from four different schools. Some schools had a large number of students and others had a smaller number of students. The students were asked questions about how they learn, different teaching and classroom activities, and what helps them learn.

Explain how the researchers could have obtained a stratified sample from the four different schools.

For this study, the researchers had to use different participants in each condition and this could have affected the results.

Outline one way in which the researchers could have addressed this issue.

Write one question that could be used in the researcher’s questionnaire to produce quantitative data and one question that could be used in the researcher’s questionnaire to produce qualitative data.

Quantitative question:

Qualitative question:

Identify the operationalised dependent variable in this study.

Identify one extraneous variable that could have affected the results of this study. Suggest why it would have been important to control this extraneous variable and how it could have been controlled in this study.

Design an observational study to investigate how people spend their time at the gym.

In your answer you will be awarded credit for providing appropriate details of:

type of observation with justification

operationalised behavioural categories

use of time and/or event sampling with justification

how reliability of data collection could be assessed.