Research methods: experiments, observations, self-report, correlations

Research findings show that different types of praise can affect learning. You have been asked to carry out an experiment to test these findings.

You will use two groups of 17-year-olds who have booked 20 lessons at a local driving school.

In Group 1 the driving instructor will praise students’ effort during lessons.

In Group 2 the driving instructor will praise students’ driving ability during lessons.

All students will complete a driving test after their 20th lesson.

Imagine you carry out the experiment using the method that has been described.

Identify the following information:

• the experimental design and the type of experiment you will be using

• one ethical issue you will need to consider and how you will deal with this

• the results you will expect to find from your experiment.

In psychological research, what is meant by a ‘case study’?

Read the following information.

Table 3 The mean daily use of social media and happiness score for each participant

Use Table 3 to calculate the fraction of participants who had a mean daily social media use of less than 40 minutes. Write this fraction in its simplest form.

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

Provide a suitable title and labels for your diagram.

Identify the type of correlation the psychologist has found between happiness and social media use?

Shade one box.

Explain the strengths and weaknesses of using correlations in psychological research.

In your answer, refer to the study investigating whether happiness is linked to social media use.

During your psychology course, you have learnt about a number of psychologists who have carried out different types of experiments and had their findings published.

Briefly outline what is meant by ‘laboratory experiments’ and by ‘field experiments’.

Use your knowledge of one published experiment to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of either laboratory experiments or field experiments.

Piliavin’s subway study involved an actor who pretended to need help.

In one variation, the actor had a large, fake, facial scar.

Identify one factor affecting bystander intervention that Piliavin could have been studying in this variation of his study.

Briefly explain your answer.

Briefly explain two strengths of field experiments.

Refer to Piliavin’s subway study in your answer.

Psychologists have found evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate by carrying out research with neonates and the sensory deprived.

Explain what is meant by ‘neonates’ and ‘the sensory deprived’.

The sensory deprived

Explain why a case study can be seen as a suitable method for researching the non-verbal behaviour of the sensory deprived.

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.

Briefly outline Kaij’s twin study of alcohol abuse.

Kaij used questionnaires in his twin study of alcohol abuse.

Explain one strength and one weakness of using questionnaires in psychological research.

A researcher wants to investigate the most common behaviours displayed by children during the sensorimotor stage of development.

The researcher and an assistant decide to carry out a controlled observation study.

One behaviour being observed is ‘shaking a rattle’.

Describe how you would carry out this controlled observation study.

You need to:

• identify a suitable age range of the target population

• suggest two suitable behaviour categories that could be used during the observation. Do not include ‘shaking a rattle’ as one of your categories

• briefly describe two ways the researcher could make sure there is interobserver reliability

• identify one way the researcher could make sure her study is carried out in an ethical manner.

Read the following information.

Write a suitable alternative hypothesis for this study.

Identify one extraneous variable that might affect the results of this experiment.

The bar chart in Figure 1 shows the number of people who visited Waterlake Park in the 7 days before and after the introduction of the DinoCatch app.

State the number of people who visited the park on the Tuesday (Tu) after the DinoCatch app was introduced.

Outline two conclusions that can be drawn from the data in the bar chart.

At the end of the 14-day study, the researcher interviewed 10 participants about their experiences of using the DinoCatch app. She wanted to find out if there was a correlation between time spent outdoors and improvement of mood.

She asked the participants how many hours they had spent outdoors playing DinoCatch during the 7-day period after the app was released. She also asked participants to rate how much their mood had improved on a scale of 0–10.

A rating of 0 meant that their mood had not improved at all.

A rating of 10 meant that their mood had improved a lot.

The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Number of hours playing DinoCatch and mood improvement rating

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

Provide a suitable title for your scatter diagram and a label for the x axis.

Estimate the mood improvement rating for someone who played the app for 20 hours.

Use the results from the study to help you.

The researcher concluded that playing DinoCatch caused participants’ mood to improve.

Suggest why the researcher is not correct to draw this conclusion.

Outline and evaluate the use of interviews in psychological research.

Read the following conversation.

Describe Asch’s study of conformity and evaluate the research method used in his study.

Refer to the conversation as part of your answer.

What is the median for the total anxiety scores for 30 days?

The following scatter diagram also shows the results found by the neuroscientist.

The possible locations of two of the participants’ results are shown by the letters A–F.

Identify the correct locations on the scatter diagram for the results of participant 002 and participant 010.

Shade two boxes.

Name the type of correlation the neuroscientist has found between language difficulties and anxiety levels.

When the neuroscientist saw the results, she claimed to have found the cause of anxiety in people who have had a stroke.

Explain why the results do not show that language difficulties cause anxiety.

Outline how neurological damage from a stroke or injury can affect motor abilities and behaviour.

Refer to localisation of function in the brain in your answer.

A researcher wanted to investigate the effect of context on the accuracy of memory.

Describe how she could design a laboratory experiment to do this.

You need to include the following information in your answer:

• a task that she could ask participants to carry out and a description of the data she would collect

• what the conditions of the independent variable would be

• one extraneous variable that could affect the results and how the researcher could control this variable.

The researcher considered different experimental designs when planning her experiment.

Identify and explain one strength and one weakness of an independent groups design.

Write your answers in the correct spaces provided.

McGarrigle and Donaldson investigated the development of conservation in the ‘naughty teddy study’.

Describe this study.

Evaluate the research method used in McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study.

Read the following information.

Identify the type of experiment used in this study.

Shade one box only.

Identify the experimental design used in this study.

Shade one box only.

Read the following information.

Explain one weakness of using a stratified sample when conducting research.

The responses of participants to Question 1 of the questionnaire are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Responses of participants to Question 1: ‘Do you think your progress in lessons is positively affected by the amount of time you spend doing independent study?’

Calculate the percentage of participants who responded YES.

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

Participants were also asked to estimate the amount of time they spent working and chatting to friends during a typical 70 minute study lesson.

The mean estimates for 30 participants are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Mean estimated amount of time spent working and chatting to friends during a typical 70 minute study lesson for 30 participants.

What is the ratio of time spent working compared to time spent chatting to friends ?

Write this ratio in its simplest form.

Read the following information.

Identify two ethical issues that researchers should consider in observation studies.

Sketch a frequency table the researcher and their assistant can use to collect information about the types of learning activity participants do during study lessons.

Include two categories of behaviour about types of learning activity in your frequency table.

Do not include ‘chatting to friends’ and ‘completing work’ as categories of behaviour.

The psychologist and their assistant had high interobserver reliability in their observation study.

Define what is meant by ‘interobserver reliability’ in observational research.

From the results of the observation, the researcher realised that students spent more time chatting to friends during study lessons than they had estimated on the questionnaire.

Briefly evaluate the use of questionnaires in psychological research.

In your answer, refer to the questionnaires about the use of study lessons that the sixth form students had filled in.

Read the following information.

Outline one strength and one weakness of using correlations in psychological research.

Participants were asked to rate their confidence levels on a scale.

The scale went from 1 (low) to 5 (high).

Participants used a similar scale to rate how likely they are to say something when they see someone dropping litter.

The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Ratings for participants’ confidence and the likelihood of saying something when witnessing littering.

Use the results in Table 1 to sketch a suitable graph to show the ratings for participants’ confidence and the likelihood of them saying something when witnessing littering.

Also include in your answer:

a label for the Y axis

a scale for both axes

a suitable title for your graph.

The researchers who carried out the described questionnaire would like you to do a follow-up study.

The participants who took part in the questionnaire have also agreed to be participants for your study.

You are also able to use the ratings they gave themselves for the different personality traits.

Describe how you would design a field experiment to find out more about how personality affects whether people would say something when witnessing anti-social behaviour.

In your answer include:

• a description of the procedure you would use

• what your dependent variable would be.

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

Read the following article.

Use the article to identify two examples of procedural memory, two examples of semantic memory and two examples of episodic memory.

Write your answers in the correct boxes.

Psychologists sometimes study unique individuals like TJ using a case study.

Briefly evaluate the use of case studies in psychological research.

Bruner and Minturn investigated the effect of expectation on perception.

Describe this study.

Evaluate the research method used in this study.

Which one of the following is a feature of an interview?

Shade one box.

Evaluate the use of correlations in psychological research.

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.

Describe Gilchrist and Nesberg’s study into how motivation affects perception.

Evaluate the research method used in this study.

Read the following information.

Identify the independent variable in this experiment.

Identify the dependent variable in this experiment.

Write a null hypothesis that the researcher can use in this experiment.

Table 2: Total number of days missed by 190 Year 9 students in the early and late start conditions.

Table 2 shows the total number of days missed by 190 Year 9 students in the early and late start conditions.

Calculate the mean number of days missed by students in the late start condition.

Show your workings.

The mean for the early start condition was 1.4

Use this mean and your calculated mean from question 22.4 to sketch a suitable graph to show the mean number of days missed by each student in the early and late start conditions.

Label the axes and provide a suitable title for your graph.

The researcher used a repeated measures experimental design. He also used counterbalancing.

Explain why researchers often use counterbalancing with a repeated measures experimental design.

This study is an example of a field experiment.

Evaluate the use of field experiments in psychological research.

The psychologist wanted to interview a sample of the students in his experiment to find out how they felt about starting school earlier and later in the day. He thought about using either opportunity or systematic sampling to get his sample of students.

Outline both opportunity and systematic sampling.

Compare the use of these sampling methods using your knowledge of their strengths and/or weaknesses.

Briefly explain two weaknesses of laboratory experiments. Refer to Asch’s study of conformity in your answer.

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.

You have been asked to research the effectiveness of self-management programmes as an intervention for addiction.

Explain how you would use interviews to do this research.

You need to include the following information in your answer:

• who your target population would be

• what your sampling method would be and how you would select your sample using this method

• an appropriate interview question you could use in your research.

Anonymity means that a person cannot be identified and the information they share cannot be connected to them. Self-management programmes for addiction usually allow the people who attend them to be anonymous.

People often do not want to take part in research if their identity is going to be revealed.

Identify an appropriate way of dealing with the ethical issue of anonymity in the research you described in 21.1.

Explain one strength of using laboratory experiments in research.

Which two of the following are commonly understood to be advantages of case studies?

Shade two boxes.

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.

Read the following information.

Which of the following research methods is being used in this study on bystander behaviour?

Shade one box.

The results for condition 1 are shown in Figure 1.

When data is plotted on a graph and makes the shape seen in Figure 1, what name is given to it?

Name two other descriptive statistics that would have a very similar value to the mean in Figure 1.

Describe Penfield’s case study of the interpretive cortex.

Evaluate the research method used in this study.

Describe Murdock’s serial position curve study. Evaluate the research method used in this study.

Answer lines for question 6 continue on the next page

Read the following information.

Sketch a frequency table the researcher and her assistant can use to collect their results.

Other than ‘making phone calls’ include two categories of behaviour in your frequency table.

Outline two ways the researcher and her assistant could make sure they have high interobserver reliability in their study.

Outline one problem that might occur because the researcher is using a questionnaire to collect her data.

Kaij carried out a study into genetic vulnerability and alcohol abuse.

I dentify the target population from which Kaij selected his sample of participants.

Shade one box.

Which of the following methods for collecting data was used by Kaij in his study?

Shade one box.

A researcher is going to carry out a questionnaire to find out if university students are addicted to harmful substances. All the students have been given full details about the study and have consented to take part.

Use your knowledge of psychology to:

• write one appropriate question that the researcher could ask the university students

• identify one ethical issue, apart from informed consent, that the researcher needs to address in this study. Explain how he could deal with the issue you identify.