AS 2011 exams
Research methods questions
+ feedback from the Report on the Examination
The specification changed from Jan 2012 – I have tried to
indicate questions that are no longer ‘legitimate’.
The AS examination
January 2011 Unit 1
The AS examination
January 2011 Unit 1
3 Psychologists carried out a laboratory
experiment to investigate the effectiveness
of cognitive interviews. All participants
watched the same film of a robbery. They
were randomly allocated to Group One or
Group Two. Participants were then asked to
recall the robbery. The investigators used a
cognitive interview to access recall of
participants in Group One and a standard
interview to access recall of participants in
Group Two. The results of this experiment
are summarised in Figure 1 below.
3 (a) What experimental design was used in Some said lab experiment.
this experiment? (1 mark)
3 (b) Explain one limitation of the design
that was used in this experiment. (2 marks)
Some lacked elaboration
3 (e) What is meant by the term investigator Some inappropriately looked at leading
effects? Explain possible investigator effects questions and Loftus.
in this study. (4 marks)
The AS examination
January 2011 Unit 1
6 (b) Some people say that Ainsworth’s studies lacked
validity. Explain this criticism of Ainsworth. (4 marks)
Good discriminator
9 A psychologist assessed the aggressive behaviour of 100 fiveQuite a few confused
year-old children who were starting school. The children had
with natural
attended day care for at least 20 hours a week. Fifty of the
environment.
children had attended day nurseries. The other fifty children had
been looked after by childminders. The children who attended the
day nurseries were more aggressive than the children who had
been looked after by childminders.
9 (a) Explain why this is an example of a natural experiment. (2
marks)
9 (b) Suggest one way in which the psychologist could have
measured the children’s aggressive behaviour. (2 marks)
Lacked elaboration
9 (c) Explain two ethical issues which the psychologist should have Consent from children
considered when carrying out this research. (4 marks)
OK, considering age.
9 (d) The researcher then decided to investigate how day care
No marks for
affects peer relationships. Explain what is meant by peer relations. relationships with
(2 marks)
peers.
The AS examination
January 2011 Unit 2
2 (a) Questionnaires have been used by psychologists to
investigate stress. Explain one possible ethical issue that might
arise when using questionnaires in this area of psychology. (2
marks)
OK
2 (b) Apart from ethics, explain one other problem of using
questionnaires to investigate stress. (2 marks)
Some still wrote about
ethics.
6 Some research into obedience has been carried out in Some gave their answers in the
laboratories. Other studies into obedience have been
wrong order i.e. limitation first –
carried out in the real world, including field experiments read the question.
and observations.
6 (a) Outline one advantage of conducting obedience
research outside a laboratory setting. (2 marks)
6 (b) Outline one limitation of conducting obedience
research outside a laboratory setting. (2 marks)
The AS examination
January 2011 Unit 2
Drawing
conclusions from
data seems to be a
topic that
candidates find
hard.
Perhaps teachers
might emphasise
the difference
between a
conclusion and a
finding (although
findings can be used
to support a
conclusion).
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 1
2 A psychologist carried out an experiment using an independent
groups design. The psychologist wished to investigate the
effectiveness of a strategy for memory improvement. In one
condition, participants were taught a memory improvement strategy.
In the other condition, participants were not taught this memory
improvement strategy. All participants were asked to memorise 10
pictures of familiar objects. For example, the first was a doll, the
second was an apple. All participants were then given 50 pictures
each, and asked to select the original 10.The psychologist did a pilot
study before carrying out the experiment. The results of the
experiment are shown in Table 1 on page 5.
2 (a) Write a directional hypothesis for this experiment. (2 marks)
Must be
operationalised for
full marks –
generally OK
2 (b) Explain what is meant by an independent groups design. (1
mark)
Lacked clarity
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 1
2 (c) Explain one strength and one limitation of using an
independent groups design. (2 marks + 2 marks)
Mixed them up, and lacking
clarity.
2 (d) Explain why the psychologist did a pilot study. (3 marks)
Didn’t know this.
Said it was to do with
reliability, or checking
results.
Examples helped to improve
clarity.
2 (e) What do the standard deviations in Table 1 tell us about
the performance of the two groups? (2 marks)
Common wrong answer was
that memory improvement
strategy group did better.
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 1
6 Psychologists sometimes use case studies to study children. One
example was of a boy who was discovered at the age of six. He had
been kept in a darkened room and had had almost no social contact
with people.
6 (a) How could a psychologist maintain confidentiality when
reporting a case study? (2 marks)
6 (b) Psychologists use a range of techniques to gather information in
case studies. Outline one technique which the psychologist could use
in this case study. (2 marks)
OK, though some
candidates didn’t seem
to know the term
‘confidentiality’ and
wrote about other
issues.
Must say how they
would do it.
Longitudinal or metaanalysis didn’t get any
marks.
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 1
6 (c) Apart from ethical issues, explain
one or more limitations of using case
studies. (4 marks)
Time-consuming got no marks.
Lack of replication OK.
Most got 2 marks.
7 Some research has suggested that
there is a relationship between the time
children spend in day care and their
aggressive behaviour. Researchers
selected a group of school children who
had been in day care. They asked the
children’s mothers to estimate how
many hours a week their children had
spent in day care. They measured the
same children’’s aggression.
7 (a) How many children are
represented in this scattergram? (1
mark)
7 (b) Suggest one way in which the
children’s aggression could be
measured. (2 marks)
OK
Unethical answers got 0
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 1
7 (c) In the media, it was claimed that the results
showed spending time in day care caused the children
to become aggressive. Explain why this claim may be
untrue. (3 marks)
Talked about media lying but
didn’t pick up correlation – the
‘media’ threw them.
(Forget to look back to the stem).
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 2
2 Psychologists sometimes use questionnaires
to find out about stress. Explain two strengths
of using questionnaires in research. (2 marks +
2 marks)
Lots wrote ‘quick/easy’ no marks, or
‘they can generate quantitative data' no
credit unless they state closed questions.
7 (a) Explain why it is sometimes necessary to
deceive participants in social influence
research. (2 marks)
7 (b) Describe one way in which deception
has been dealt with in social influence
research. (2 marks)
Answered well – students seem to know a
lot about deception and how to deal with
it.
NB asks for an explanation, so just saying
‘it avoids social desirability bias’ is not
enough.
The AS examination
June 2011 Unit 2
10 Two different drug therapies were tested on a group of
patients. All the patients suffered with the same anxiety disorder.
Half the patients were given Therapy A and the other half were
given Therapy B. Improvement was assessed on a scale from 0 –
25, where 0 = no improvement. The table below shows the
improvement made between the start and the end of the
treatment.
Explain what these findings suggest about the different therapies?
(4 marks)
Lots of describing the
data but not suggesting
what the findings
showed e.g. both
therapies have some
benefit because no
zero scores.
Some candidates
didn’t understand
what the range shows.
AS 2012 exams
The AS examination
January 2012 Unit 1
Section A Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods
1 A researcher carried out an experiment to investigate
misleading information. Participants were shown a
photograph in which a man and a woman were talking. The
photograph was then taken away and the participants were
asked questions about it. Participants were randomly
allocated to condition one or condition two.
Participants in condition one were asked:
Question A “How old was the youth in the photograph?”
Participants in condition two were asked:
Question B “How old was the man in the photograph?”
1 (a) Why is Question A an example of misleading
information? (2 marks)
OK
1 (b) Name an appropriate experimental design which could
be used in this experiment. Explain why a repeated measures
design would be unsuitable to use in this experiment. (1 mark
+ 3 marks)
They can’t remember what
experimental design is.
Mistakenly explained why
independent groups was a
good idea.
The AS examination
January 2012 Unit 1
1 (c) Explain why it would be appropriate to use a pilot study as part
of this experiment. (4 marks)
Explanations not in
context of this
experiment.
1 (d) In this experiment, participants were asked to look at a
Needed to reread
photograph rather than watch a live conversation. Explain one
the stem.
strength and one limitation of carrying out the experiment in this way.
(2 marks + 2 marks)
The AS examination
January 2012 Unit 1
Section B Developmental Psychology and Research
Methods
4 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.
Some students struggled with
4 (a) Identify the operationalised independent variable and operationalisation.
the operationalised dependent variable in this study. (2
marks + 2 marks)
The AS examination
January 2012 Unit 1
4 (b) What do the mean scores in Table 1 suggest about
the effect of age at which children started day care on
children’s aggression? (2 marks)
Few mentioned that the
difference was small.
4 (c) Name one measure of dispersion that the researcher
could have used to describe the data. (1 mark)
Some didn’t recognise
‘dispersion’.
4 (d) Draw an appropriate bar chart to display the data
presented in Table 1. Correctly label your bar chart. (3
marks)
Labelling axes overlooked or
erroneous.
4 (e) State an appropriate directional hypothesis for this
study. (2 marks)
Operationalisation again an
issue.
The AS examination
January 2012 Unit 2
3 Both life changes and daily hassles are often measured using
questionnaires.
Give two limitations of using questionnaires. (2 marks + 2 marks)
Some think that lack
of qualitative data is
a limitation of
questionnaires –
wrong.
8 Describe two ethical issues that can be illustrated by Milgram’s
research into obedience to authority. (4 marks)
OK
The AS examination
January 2012 Unit 2
Section C Individual Differences
10 The following scattergram shows the relationship between
the number of weeks of treatment with ECT and the score on the
Self-Rating Depression Scale (on this scale, a high score indicates
depression).
Outline what the scattergram seems to show. (4 marks)
Struggle with
interpretation of graphs
– can’t distinguish
findings from what the
findings show.
The AS examination
June 2012 Unit 1
3 Dave, a middle-aged male researcher, approached an adult in a
busy street. He asked the adult for directions to the train station. He
repeated this with 29 other adults.
Each of the 30 adults was then approached by a second researcher,
called Sam, who showed each of them 10 photographs of different
middle-aged men, including a photograph of Dave. Sam asked the 30
adults to choose the photograph of the person who had asked them
for directions to the train station.
Sam estimated the age of each of the 30 adults and recorded
whether each one had correctly chosen the photograph of Dave.
3 (a) Identify one aim of this experiment. (2 marks)
Requires careful
reading.
3 (b) Suggest one reason why the researchers decided to use a field
experiment rather than a laboratory experiment. (2 marks)
Benefits in terms of
validity or demand
characteristics.
Not always
elaborated.
3 (c) Name the sampling technique used in this experiment. Evaluate
the choice of this sampling technique in this experiment. (1 mark + 3
marks)
Poorly answered,
often said random.
Aim is to investigate
effect of age on
EWT
The AS examination
June 2012 Unit 1
3 (d) Identify one possible extraneous variable in this
experiment. Explain how this extraneous variable could have
affected the results of this experiment. (1 mark + 3 marks)
Answered well with either
situational or participant
variables.
7 A psychologist carried out a research study to
investigate the effects of institutional care. To do this,
she constructed a questionnaire to use with 100 adults
who had spent some time in an institution when they
were children.
She also carried out interviews with ten of the adults.
7 (a) For this study, explain one advantage of collecting
information using a questionnaire. (3 marks)
Better answers compared
questionnaires to interviews, or
referred to the relatively large
number of adults in this study.
Some wrongly referred to the
advantages of analysing data
from questionnaires which was
not the focus of the question.
7 (b) In this study, the psychologist collected some
qualitative data. Explain what is meant by qualitative
data. (2 marks)
OK, though some did
quantitative.
7 (c) Write one suitable question that could be used in
the interviews to produce qualitative data. (2 marks)
Some give yes/no questions,
which are quantitative.
7 (d) Identify two ethical issues that the psychologist
would need to consider in this research. Explain how the
psychologist could deal with one of these issues. (1 mark
+ 1 mark + 3 marks)
Less good with dealing with
issue. Some dealt with both
issues.
The AS examination
June 2012 Unit 2
4 A researcher used a questionnaire and an indepth interview to assess Georgia’s personality.
After completing the questionnaire Georgia was
found to be Type A. However, after the in-depth
interview she was found to be Type B.
Explain why these methods might produce such
different results. (4 marks)
Although there were some excellent,
detailed answers that demonstrated
very good understanding of these two
methods, few were able to produce a
coherent comparison of the methods.
me confusion among weaker students
who seemed to think that
questionnaires could only use closed
questions and interviews only use open
questions. There was also some
misperception as to the meaning of
social desirability: this could occur in
either method.
The AS examination
June 2012 Unit 2
Section B Social Psychology
5 The following results are percentages of participants who
gave the maximum shock, in variations of Milgram’s
experiment into obedience to authority.
What do these results suggest about the power of the
confederates in variations of Milgram’s study? (4 marks)
10 Case studies are a commonly used method of
investigating abnormality.
10 (a) What is meant by a case study? (2 marks)
10 (b) Outline one weakness of using a case study
as a method of investigation. (2 marks)
Question only asked about
the confederates, reference
to the third condition
(experimenter in different
room) was not
creditworthy.
Some students forgot that
this data referred to
Milgram’s experiment into
obedience and seemed to
think that the confederates
were a majority.
Did better with 10 b than 10 a
AS 2013 exams
The AS examination
January 2013 Unit 1
3 A psychologist used an independent groups design to
investigate whether or not a cognitive interview was more
effective than a standard interview, in recalling information.
For this experiment, participants were recruited from an
advertisement placed in a local paper. The advertisement
informed the participants that they would be watching a
film of a violent crime and that they would be interviewed
about the content by a male police officer.
The psychologist compared the mean number of items
recalled in the cognitive interview with the mean number
recalled in the standard interview.
(a) Name the sampling technique used in this experiment. (1
mark)
‘Voluntary sample’ was not
creditworthy.
A few responses incorrectly
referred to opportunity or
random sampling.
(b) Suggest one limitation of using this sampling technique.
(2 marks)
(c) Identify the independent variable and the dependent
variable in this experiment. (2 marks)
Two marks given even if the
DV was not operationalised.
The AS examination
January 2013 Unit 1
(d) Explain one advantage of using an
independent groups design for this
experiment. (2 marks)
Less likelihood of demand characteristics was OK
but not ‘no demand characteristics’. Lack of order
effects OK.
3 (e) Discuss whether or not the
psychologist showed an awareness of
the British Psychological Society (BPS)
Code of Ethics when recruiting
participants for this experiment. (3
marks)
Some students ignored requirement to focus
response on the stage of recruiting participants, so
answers referring to debriefing were not relevant.
The word debriefing was inappropriately used
when some students were referring to briefing.
3 (g) The psychologist also recorded the number of correct items
recalled and the number of incorrect items recalled in each type of Where students did
interview. The following results were obtained:
not score full marks for
this question, they had
usually failed to refer
to all of the figures in
the table, or to draw
any conclusion from
From these results, what might the psychologist conclude about
the figures.
the effectiveness of cognitive interviews? (2 marks)
The AS examination
January 2013 Unit 1
Section B Developmental Psychology and Research Methods
5 (a) A researcher used content analysis to investigate how the
behaviour of young children changed when they started day
care.
He identified a group of nine-month-old children who were
about to start day care.
He asked the mother of each child to keep a diary recording her
child’s behaviour every day for two weeks before and for two
weeks after the child started day care.
Explain how the researcher could have used content analysis to
analyse what the mothers had written in their diaries. (4 marks)
(b) Explain one or more possible
limitations of this investigation. (4 marks)
Some showed confusion
between studying the
children and studying
the diaries. A substantial
number of students did
not attempt this
question at all or scored
no marks.
Some students did not read the stem carefully
because they suggested that the mother would
not be at nursery to record the child's
behaviour or the recording would be
retrospective and thus unreliable - not
limitations of this study.
The AS examination
January 2013 Unit 2
2 Research has shown that there is a relationship
between stress and illness. Figure 1 below shows the
number of days off work through illness in a year and
scores on a stress questionnaire, where a high score
indicates more stress.
(a) What does Figure 1 tell you about the relationship
between stress and illness? . (2 marks)
The following can all receive a
mark: direction (positive), strength
(moderate or strong) and a
description of their relationship.
Credit can also be given for
mentioning the flattening of the
graph at higher stress levels.
The AS examination
January 2013 Unit 2
2 (b) Outline one strength and one weakness of using
correlations in stress research. (4 marks)
Section B Social Psychology
6 Some psychologists criticise Milgram’s
research into obedience to authority, in terms
of both methodological issues and ethical
issues.
Explain two criticisms of Milgram’s research.
(3 marks + 3 marks)
Few could correctly outline a
strength e.g. to measure things that
cannot be manipulated
experimentally.
Some felt compelled to explain how
Milgram overcame the criticism, or to
justify why he had to deceive his
participants. Often students could identify
the criticism, but could not explain why it
was a criticism.
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 1
Section A Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods
3 A researcher investigated whether memory for words
presented with pictures was better than memory for
words presented without pictures. The researcher used an
independent groups design.
In Condition 1, participants were given a limited time to
learn a list of 20 words. They were then asked to recall the
20 words in any order.
In Condition 2, participants were given the same time to
learn the same 20 words, but this time each word was
presented with a picture. For example, the word ‘apple’
was presented alongside a picture of an apple. They were
then asked to recall the 20 words in any order.
3 (a) A pilot study is a small-scale investigation carried out
before the main study.
Explain why it would be appropriate for this researcher to
use a pilot study. In your answer you must refer to details
of the experiment given above. (4 marks)
There appeared to be three
main areas of
misunderstanding; that a pilot
study should be used to see if
the hypothesis was supported,
to see whether a different
experimental design should be
used or to check participants.
In relation to the final point
there seemed to be an
incorrect assumption by some
students that the same
participants would be used in
the pilot study as the
experiment.
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 1
Section A Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods
3 (b) State a non-directional
hypothesis for this
experiment. (2 marks)
Students were required to operationalise the IV and the DV
in order to score full marks. “There will be a difference in the
number of words correctly recalled when words are
presented with pictures and without pictures” is
operationalised.
3 (c) Explain two reasons why it was more appropriate to
use an independent groups design than a repeated
measures design. (2 marks + 2 marks)
The comparison of
experimental designs proved
difficult for some students.
Table 1: The range and median number of words correctly
Simply repeating the
recalled for participants shown words without pictures and contents of the table showed
for participants shown words with pictures
no understanding.
3 (d) What do the scores in Table 1 show? (2 marks)
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 1
Section A Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods
After he had carried out the experiment, the researcher
noticed that one participant in Condition 1 had recalled
all 20 words. The researcher thought that this
participant might have used a strategy for memory
improvement, even though he had not been told to do
so.
3 (e) Identify a memory improvement strategy that this
participant might have used. Explain how this strategy
could have been used to learn the list of 20 words. (1
marks + 3 marks)
Narrative chaining and peg word
systems were applied and explained
successfully. Method of loci answers
tended to leave out the vital stage
of retrieving the information.
Chunking, rehearsal and to some
extent organisation, were methods
which did not apply well to this
example.
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 1
Section B Developmental Psychology and Research
Methods
9 A psychologist wanted to investigate the effects of age of
adoption on aggressive behaviour. He compared children
who had been adopted before the age of two with
children who had been adopted after the age of two. The
children were observed in their school playground when
they were six years old.
9 (a) Suggest two operationalised behavioural categories
the psychologist could use in his observation of aggressive
behaviour. Explain how the psychologist could have carried
out this observation. (2 marks + 2 marks)
9 (b) Explain one ethical issue the psychologist would have
needed to consider when carrying out this research. How
could the psychologist have dealt with this issue? (4
marks)
Some students clearly
understood what behavioural
categories are while others
had no idea.
Kicking and swearing would be
suitable, physical and verbal
aggression would be
unsuitable.
Some chose issues that were
difficult to apply to this
scenario.
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 1
9 (c) The psychologist wanted to investigate how
aggressive the children were when they were at
home. He interviewed a sample of their parents
to investigate this.
Explain why using interviews might be better
than using questionnaires in this situation. (4
marks)
Students needed to explain why parents
might be more likely to lie in a
questionnaire or in an interview, since a
case could be made for either. Some
students who did not read the question
carefully wrote about the advantages of
questionnaires. A few students thought
the children, rather than the parents
were being interviewed.
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 2
3 Type A personality can be
measured by using a
questionnaire. Explain two
strengths of using
questionnaires.
(2 marks + 2 marks)
To state that questionnaires are “quick” gains no credit
because there is no explanation as to why they are quick.
Better answers compared questionnaires to other methods
such as interviews. Some students gave generic answers
that could apply to either questionnaires or interviews,
and these received minimal credit.
5 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.
What do these results suggest about obedience? (4
marks)
The focus here must be on these
results and not on prior
knowledge. Answers that went
beyond the data and discussed the
findings of Bickman’s study, or
Milgram’s findings did not gain
credit.
Some students appeared to think
that the terms obedience and
conformity are interchangeable.
The AS examination
June 2013 Unit 2
11 Two groups of patients took part in a trial to compare the
effectiveness of two different drug therapies. One of the groups
was given Drug A and the other group was given Drug B. All
patients completed a rating scale at the start of a ten-week
course of treatment and again at the end of the course. This
scale measured the severity of symptoms.
The Drug A group had an average score of 9 before the therapy
and an average score of 4 at the end of the course.
The Drug B group had an average score of 7 before the therapy
and an average score of 5 at the end of the course.
Sketch and label a bar chart to illustrate the data.
(4 marks)
The main weakness was
in correctly labelling the
y-axis.