Types of data

Imagine that you have been asked to conduct a study to investigate the use of postural echo in a conversation. Use your knowledge of psychology to describe how you would do this.

In your answer:

• give a description of the procedure you would use

• name the type of data you would collect.

Read the following information.

Write two fifths as a decimal.

There were 200 participants in the study.

Calculate how many participants did not describe details of the wedding.

Show your workings.

The researcher claimed that his report on the study also contained qualitative data.

Use the description of the study to justify the researcher’s claim.

Ivan was a participant in the study. The researcher asked Ivan about a primary school camping trip to Snowdonia. Ivan remembered that Snowdonia is in Wales. He also recalled celebrating his best friend’s birthday during the trip and learning to paddle a canoe. As an adult, he still enjoys paddling a canoe on a nearby lake.

Episodic, procedural and semantic are different types of long-term memory.

Identify one example of each type from Ivan’s discussion about his school trip.

Write your answers in the correct spaces.

Research has been carried out with different cultures to see whether or not non-verbal behaviour is innate.

The results show that the facial expressions of anger and happiness are commonly recognised by most cultural groups around the world.

Outline how you would design a study to investigate whether or not the facial expression of surprise is also commonly recognised.

In your answer:

• identify who your participants would be and explain why you would choose these participants

• describe what you would ask your participants to do and what data you would collect

• identify whether the data you collect would be qualitative or quantitative and explain your answer.

Read the following information.

You have been asked to investigate possible gender differences in the fight or flight response to a highly stressful social situation.

Describe how you would design a study to do this.

You need to include the following information in your answer:

• what you would ask your participants to do

• what data you would collect and a justification for why this should be collected.

Read the following article.

Table 1 shows the frequency of reported temperature scores for Condition A. One of the scores is missing.

Name the type of data that is shown in Table 1.

Calculate the number of participants who reported a temperature score between 6 and 10.

Show your workings.

Sketch a histogram to show the results in Table 1.

Include the number of participants you wrote in answer to Question 10.2.

Provide a suitable title and labels for your histogram.

The researcher found that participants in Condition B reported the water felt warmer than participants in Condition A.

Using your knowledge of ‘perceptual set’, outline one conclusion that the researcher could make from these findings.

Explain one difference between primary and secondary data.

The ‘One day at a time’ research study asked people with a diagnosed mental health problem to regularly answer the question ‘What did you find difficult to deal with today?’

On 6 days, spread throughout the year, people were asked to write about their day.

An analysis of the answers was carried out and the difficulties most commonly mentioned by the participants were identified.

Many participants mentioned more than one of these common difficulties.

The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Difficulties most commonly mentioned by females and males.

One result is missing from Table 2.

Which of the following is the most likely estimate of the missing result?

Use the results from the rest of the table to help with your decision.

The questionnaire was answered by 671 females.

What percentage of females mentioned experiencing stigma about their mental health problem as a difficulty they had to deal with in their day?

State your answer using three significant figures and show your workings.

The researchers wanted to use the real-life stories they had collected to encourage other people. The participants’ answers were made available on the internet for anyone to read.

Identify one ethical issue that the researchers carrying out the questionnaire needed to consider.

Describe how the ‘One day at a time’ researchers could have dealt with the ethical issue you have identified.

Outline one strength of using questionnaires to carry out psychological research.

Imagine you have been asked to carry out a follow up study to the ‘One day at a time’ research.

One of the individual effects of having a mental health problem is the negative impact on physical wellbeing.

The researchers have asked you to find out more about how the negative impact on physical wellbeing affects people with a mental health problem.

You have decided to carry out your study by doing a questionnaire. You plan to use opportunity sampling to select your participants.

In your answer:

• explain how you will select your opportunity sample

• write one question that will help you to collect relevant quantitative data

• write one question that will help you to collect relevant qualitative data.

Write your answers in the correct spaces provided.

How you will select your opportunity sample

Question for collecting quantitative data

Question for collecting qualitative data

Define what is meant by ‘secondary data’.

You have been asked to compare the different scanning techniques used to identify brain functioning. To do this, you are going to interview people who use scanning techniques to carry out their jobs.

You need to:

• write one appropriate question that you could ask your participants

• explain whether the data you collect from the interview will be quantitative or qualitative and why this type of data would be suitable

• identify one ethical issue you would need to consider and how you would deal with this issue.

Which of the following is most likely to give secondary data?

Shade one box.

A researcher wanted to find out if there was any relationship between the number of people diagnosed with significant mental health conditions and the amount of money needed to pay for social care costs. He looked at the statistics published by the Office of National Statistics for the past 10 years. The scatter graph in Figure 1 shows the results of his research.

Figure 1: The annual number of people diagnosed with significant mental health conditions and the amount of money needed to pay for social care costs for each of the past 10 years.

Identify the type of correlation the researcher found.

Shade one box only.

State whether the data collected by the researcher was primary or secondary.

Explain your answer.

Outline two weaknesses of correlations.

Read the following information.

Total score: ______

Outline one strength of using a stratified sample when conducting research.

Give a definition of both qualitative and quantitative data.

Quantitative data

When collecting information about mental well-being, explain why collecting qualitative data rather than quantitative data may increase the validity of the data collected by the researcher.

Read the following information.

Table 3: The average daily exercise and mental well-being score for each participant

Identify the mode for the average daily exercise scores shown in Table 3.

Calculate the median for the average mental well-being scores shown in Table 3.

Use the graph paper to sketch a scatter diagram to show the results shown in Table 3.

Provide a suitable title and labels for your diagram.

Identify the type of correlation the researcher has found between exercise and mental well-being.

Shade one box only.

A researcher studied the effects of emotion on perception.

Two weeks before Christmas, he asked a group of children to each draw a picture of a Christmas tree with presents under it.

Two weeks after Christmas, he asked the same children to each draw a Christmas tree with presents under it.

He counted the number of presents that the children drew before and after Christmas.

Table 1 shows the mean number of presents drawn by children before and after Christmas.

Identify the type of data that is shown in Table 1 and explain your answer.

Use your knowledge of how emotion affects perception to explain the results shown in Table 1.

Describe and evaluate Von Frisch’s bee study. In your description include the method used, the results obtained and a conclusion drawn.

Write a suitable alternative hypothesis for Von Frisch’s bee study.

What is meant by quantitative and qualitative data?

A researcher is studying bees to investigate animal communication. Give one example of quantitative data that the researcher might collect.

Quantitative data

Example of quantitative data