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G541: Psychological investigations
ETHICS
Study A:
One ethical issue is that the participants may be anxious about the results of their
intelligence test, and feel distressed if they think they have achieved a poor score.
Researchers could get round this by feeding back the scores sensitively, giving a full
debrief about what the scores mean and explaining how it does not reflect on most
aspects of their personality. Researchers could also discourage the participants
from comparing results.
Study B:
One ethical issue is that although a park is a public place where people can expect
to be seen by others, lovers may be exhibiting sensitive and personal behaviours
which they would feel embarrassed about someone deliberately observing. One way
round this would be to put notices up around the park explaining that research was
taking place, therefore giving lovers the opportunity to moderate their behaviours if
they chose.
Study C:
One ethical issue is that diet and weight are often very sensitive issues for teenage
girls, particularly those with eating disorders, so questions from an interview may
cause distress and upset and could potentially even exacerbate the disorder.
Researchers could improve this situation by ensuring that the participants know they
have the right to withdraw from further questions at any stage in the interview, and
by checking that they have access to medical and counselling advice where
appropriate.
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SAMPLING
Study A:
1.
This is a random sample because all the babies in the target population have an equal
chance of being selected to be in the study.
2.
A strength of this method in this study is that a representative sample is likely to be selected
because children from one area/class/gender/ethnicity, etc. will not be systematically
excluded. A weakness is that some of the babies’ families will not want their children to be
included in the study, or may not be contactable, meaning that others will have to be chosen
instead.
Study B:
1.
This is an opportunity sample because it includes participants who are easily available in the
park at the time of the study.
2.
A strength of this method is that it is easy to obtain the number of participants required and
no one has the option to withdraw. A weakness is that the participants will be all from the
same geographical area and therefore not necessarily representative of people in general.
Study C:
1.
This is a self-selected sample because it includes people at the gym who have volunteered
to take part in the study.
2.
A strength is that participants will be willing and able to join the study because they have
volunteered: this means they are more likely to carry out any tasks well and turn up to all the
appointments. A weakness is that they will not be a representative sample because they are
all people who have the time to spare to participate, and are likely to have opinions they are
keen to express. Any volunteers are likely to be outgoing personalities.
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REPRESENTING DATA
Study A:
1a)
Quantitative data is numerical data that can be analysed statistically or summarised
mathematically.
b)
One piece of quantitative data that could be gathered here is the average number of hours a
participant sleeps in a week.
c)
One strength of quantitative data in this study is that it would allow a conclusion to be easily
seen from mathematical representations, such as average number of hours slept. One
weakness is that it oversimplifies the concept of ‘normal sleep’ because numbers cannot
describe for people with sleep problems the actual experiences of normal sleep such as how
to fall asleep calmly.
2a)
Qualitative data is data that is descriptive, consisting of words and which gives an in-depth
account of a concept or experience.
b)
One piece of qualitative data that could be gathered here is the way participants feel after a
full night’s sound sleep.
c)
One strength of qualitative data is that it provides a fuller account of participants’
experiences, allowing them to express feelings and opinions about sleep in a some depth. A
weakness is that it is very hard to analyse answers given as they will all be different, so
conclusions about sleep would be hard to draw from qualitative data.
Study B:
1a)
The mean is an average, calculated by adding up all the scores in a data set and dividing by
the number of scores.
b)
The mean for the girls would be found by adding up the number of Facebook friends of each
girl and dividing by the number of girls in the study. The mean for the boys would be found
by adding up the number of Facebook friends of each boy in the study and dividing by the
number of boys.
c)
The mean would be more appropriate than the median because all the values are included
in the outcome, so the number of friends of all participants would be taken into account by
using the mean.
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Study C:
1a)
Graph should have a scale on the y axis 1–20, and the x axis should show each behaviour.
Both axes need to be appropriately labelled: number of times behaviour observed, and
behaviours observed. Bars should be drawn for each behaviour, clearly labelled. A title
should be included: ‘Graph to show student behaviours recorded every minute for one hour
in the library’.
b)
The most common behaviour observed was ‘making notes’; the least common behaviour
observed was ‘packing/unpacking bag’.
2a)
‘Making notes’ is the mode because it was observed most often.
b)
One strength for using the mode is that the results are category data, so using the mode
allows you to conclude very easily which behaviour the students engaged in most.
Study D:
1a)
Assuming that the rating scale classified high blood pressure as higher on the scale, two
findings are that Treatment B was most effective because that group’s median blood
pressure was lowest; and that Treatment C was least effective because that group’s median
blood pressure was highest following treatment.
2a)
This would be quantitative data because the blood pressure was given a value on a
numerical scale.
b)
One strength of using this kind of data in this study is that drawing a mathematical
conclusion and then representing it on a chart allows you to see very easily which group had
the most effective treatment.
3a)
The median is found by arranging all the blood pressure scores in order from highest to
lowest and picking the middle value.
b)
For each treatment group, the blood pressure scores for all the participants would be
arranged in order from highest to lowest, and the middle value selected as the median
blood pressure score. This would be repeated for the other three treatment groups.
c)
The median would be more useful than the mean because it disregards any anomalistic
values, such as any individuals where the treatment had not worked for a specific reason
such as other underlying health issues.
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OBSERVATION
Study A:
1a)
Inter-rater reliability in observations is when two or more observers watch the participants,
and if their results are consistent, inter-rater reliability can be said to be high.
b)
Inter-rater reliability may be a concern in this study because some of the categories are
quite similar so different observers may record them in different ways; for example laughing
slightly is not very different from laughing loudly.
c)
Inter-rater reliability could be ensured in this observation by using three observers and
training them first to agree on how they would categorise particular types of laugh.
2a)
Event sampling is where observers make a tally mark every time they see a particular
behaviour occur during an observation.
b)
A strength of using event sampling in this study is that it is easier to record the behaviours of
interest because the observers are not trying to capture every single behaviour; for example,
they can concentrate on the amount of laughter without having to try to count irrelevant
behaviours such as scratching. A weakness is that unexpected behaviours may be missed
because they are not on the observation schedule, such as texting or looking bored.
3a)
An appropriate graph must have a title such as: ‘Graph to show behaviours of the audience
at a comedy club, recorded over a 30 minute period’. The y axis should have a labelled scale
1–20 of number of times behaviours observed. The x axis should have bars for each
behaviour, again clearly labelled. The observations from both observers should be combined
to form one bar for each behaviour.
b)
One finding is that ‘laughing loudly’ was the most common behaviour shown (29 times)
although it was only marginally more than ‘laughing slightly’ at 27 times. (Another finding is
that ‘no expression’ was the least common behaviour shown at 10 times.)
Study B:
1a)
Participant observation is when the observer behaves as if they are part of the group they
are observing; he or she joins in with what is happening.
b)
One strength of using participant observation in this study is that because the other patients
would assume that the observer was a fellow dental patient, they would not change their
behaviour, for example by trying to act as if they were not anxious. One weakness is that it
would be hard for the observer to make unobtrusive notes about what the other patients
were doing, their facial expressions, etc.
2.
The aim of this study would be to investigate people’s behaviour in a dentist’s waiting room,
to find out whether they are anxious. Two observers would first of all conduct a pilot study by
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visiting a local dentist’s waiting room and sitting there for one hour noting the types of
behaviour shown by individuals before their dental appointments. From this they could draw
up a behaviour checklist consisting of observable behaviours indicating anxiety, such as
frowning, biting nails or looking nervous. They would then spend time comparing how they
would categorise target behaviours to ensure inter-rater reliability. The two participants
would then choose a dentist at random by generating a random number from the computer
and then contacting the dentist which was that number in the Yellow Pages list for their
area. They would get consent from the dentist and explain that they would contact any
patients who were participants afterwards and give them a full debrief. The observers would
both sit in the waiting room for one hour every day for a week during morning surgery and
use event sampling to make a tally chart of all the times they saw the behaviours on their
checklist. They would do this unobtrusively by using their mobile phones so the patients
would think they were texting. The sample would be an opportunity sample consisting of all
the people in the waiting room during those one hour periods. Data collected would be the
number of times each target behaviour was observed. This would be collated and a graph
could be drawn, revealing a conclusion regarding how many participants felt nervous whilst
waiting to see the dentist.
3.
One ethical issue here is that the dentist is a medical professional whose patients are
entitled to expect privacy and confidentiality about their attendance at the dental practice
and their behaviour whilst there, particularly if they suffer from anxiety about visiting the
dentist, or if they discussed their treatment with the receptionist or a family member.
Researchers could get round this by obtaining a list from the dentist of the patients’ names
and addresses, and writing to them to explain that the study had taken place, what it was
about, and that they could choose to withdraw their data if they wanted to, although it would
be all anonymised in the final report.
Study C:
1a)
Structured observation is when a system is used to restrict and categorise the data
collected from an observation.
b)
A method used to structure observations is event sampling, where a tally chart is made to
record every time a target behaviour is shown.
2a)
Time sampling is when everything that is happening is recorded at a given time point, such
as every minute. Nothing is recorded in between these time points.
b)
One strength of time sampling in this study is that it makes the collection of data more
manageable than attempting to record every single behaviour shown by the people in front
of the monkey’s cage. One weakness is that interesting and relevant behaviours may be
missed if they occur between the time points: for example, a participant may imitate a
monkey between the time points but never at the time they are observed, so this behaviour
would not be recorded.
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c)
One difference is that event sampling means you record everything that is happening
whereas with time sampling you might miss certain things because they occurred at a time
when you weren’t observing.
3.
One strength of the observational method in this study is that it provides a good record of
what people actually do when watching monkeys at the zoo, rather than what they might say
they do if you used a self-report method. They might not report imitating monkeys because
they may feel silly, but they may do it nevertheless. One weakness is that observations do
not provide any insight into why people behave as they do, so the data collected may be
quite superficial; for example researchers would not discover why they thought the monkeys’
behaviour was comical.
Study D:
1a)
The aim of this study would be to compare the hand gestures used by different cultural
groups. The study would take place in London which is very culturally diverse. Two observers
would first of all conduct a pilot study by identifying a place for each culture of interest
where there would be a good chance of being able to observe several participants from that
culture; for example a language school or a mosque. Then they would gain consent to carry
out a study from an individual in a position of responsibility. They would establish an agreed
list of hand gestures which they could consistently identify, to ensure inter-rater reliability.
Examples of these might be pointing, shrugging or putting hands together. The two
participants would then carry out an observation for one weekday morning and one
weekend afternoon in each location. They would be non-participant observers, and would
carry out a covert observation to do an event sample of the number of times each hand
gesture was used. The sample would be an opportunity sample consisting of all the people
at the location during those periods. Data collected would be the number of times each
hand gesture was observed. This would be collated and a graph could be drawn including a
bar for each cultural group studied, revealing the differences in the type of gestures used.
Afterwards notices would be put up in each location giving a number to ring for an
explanation of the research that had been done, offering to answer any questions or
withdraw data if required. A copy of the resulting paper could be distributed to each location.
b)
The reliability of this study would be high because of the consistency between the two
observers; if they could agree on the hand gestures they had seen, the results would be
more likely to be a true reflection of what had occurred. However, as it was only carried out
in London, the same results may not be found in other cities as the cultural influences of
London itself may have also affected the gestures used. This would be valid research
because the pilot study would help the researchers to be sure that they were actually
investigating hand gestures and no other types of behaviour, although the fact that each
group was only seen in one location may mean that the study investigated only the gestures
used in that particular environment and not general cultural usage, affecting the validity
adversely.
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2a)
Quantitative data is numerical data that can be analysed statistically or summarised
mathematically.
b)
One strength of quantitative data in this study is that conclusions can easily be drawn from
a graph where the cultural differences can be represented by separate bars. One weakness
is that small differences between gestures are not described as the quantitative
measurement only allows for each movement to be counted as a particular gesture or not,
so there are no nuances reported.
c)
Qualitative data could be collected by asking the observers to describe the hand gestures
they saw rather than simply counting them as one of a predetermined set of gestures.
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SELF-REPORT
Study A:
1a)
An open question is one where participants can answer in any way they choose. A closed
question is where they must answer from a given set of responses.
b)
One strength of using open questions in this study is that the participants would be able to
express their feelings exactly in their own words, giving a true picture of their depression or
lack of it. A weakness is that the answers would be very hard to analyse as all the answers
would be different, so selecting themes from which to draw conclusions about depression
would be difficult.
c)
One strength of using closed questions in this study is that the results would be easy to
analyse as all the answers would be expressed in the same way from the same set of
answers, so making a conclusion would be relatively easy about the participants’
depression, for example by using numbers on a scale. One weakness is that the participant
may not be able to say exactly how s/he feels because their true feelings may not be
represented in the answers provided, so the results would be less valid.
2.
A self-selecting sample could be gathered by putting an advertisement in doctor’s surgeries
asking for people to take part in a study on depression and providing the researcher’s
telephone number.
3a)
One ethical issue in this study is that people may find it very difficult to discuss their
depression with a stranger, and may feel embarrassed at having this illness.
b)
This could be solved by offering a supportive environment to put participants at their ease,
and providing a fact sheet showing how they could access continued help and treatment.
Study B:
1a)
On a scale of 1–7, where 1 is not at all and 7 is extremely, how frightened would you be if
you were asked to hold a snake? 1...2...3...4...5...6...7
b)
One advantage of using a rating scale in this study is that it is easy to compare the answers
given by participants, so it is easy to see whether some are much more frightened than the
norm, indicating a phobia.
2a)
Would you say you have a fear of spiders? Yes / No
b)
This is a valid question for measuring people’s fear of spiders because it addresses the
question directly and is very clear and straightforward in terms of addressing the issue being
studied. However, it only provides a very basic impression of the participants’ feelings
because there is nowhere for them to record in their own words how they feel about spiders.
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The validity is affected because there is not any detail or depth to the answer to the
question.
3.
An appropriate sampling technique for this study would be opportunity sampling. To do this,
the researcher could go to a local high street, stop the first 50 people who walked past and
ask them to complete the animal phobia questionnaire on the spot. If anyone refused, the
researcher could keep asking passers-by until 50 replies were obtained. This is an easy and
convenient way to gather a sample, and everyone has views on animals so all the people
would be able to answer the questions. It would be easy to obtain 50 completed
questionnaires. However, the sample would not be representative of all people because they
would be likely to be from the same geographical area which might affect their experiences
with animals: for example, people who live in the countryside might all have had more
dealings with animals and therefore report fewer phobias. There would also be no way of
ensuring that a range of people were questioned, so they might coincidentally be all the
same gender or the same age range which might also affect their views and their
representativeness.
Study C:
1.
The aim of the study would be to use a self-report method to find out what kind of memories
were the first ones that people could remember. This could be done by using a structured
interview, where all the questions were decided in advance and every participant was asked
the same ones in the same order. These could be questions such as: ‘Please describe the
very first thing you can remember in your life’, and ‘How clear are your memories from when
you started school, on a scale of 1–5 where 1 is not at all clear and 5 is crystal clear’. Once
the questions had been decided, a pilot study could be carried out by asking two or three
friends of the researcher to answer the questions; this would allow the researcher to check
that the questions could be understood easily. Any adjustments could then be made before
the study started properly. A sample of people could be obtained by self-selection: a notice
could be put in a national newspaper asking people to take part, and the first 100 people to
respond would be the sample. They would be asked to attend the researcher’s office and
informed that they could withdraw at any time and that their answers would be confidential.
The interview would be carried out with each participant and their answers tape-recorded so
that two raters could later code the answer to ensure inter-rater reliability. Their answers
would be collated and appropriate graphs drawn from the quantitative data, and themes
described for the qualitative data, allowing a variety of conclusions to be drawn about the
type and clarity of people’s earliest childhood memories.
The strength of this procedure would be that the structured interview process would allow
the answers to be coded and categorised easily, giving a clear summary of people’s early
memories. Using open and closed questions would allow for quantitative data to be
gathered such as number of memories from a particular age, and also qualitative data such
as what kinds of events people were most likely to remember. A weakness, however, would
be that it would be very time-consuming to interview so many people about something which
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may generate lengthy answers, such as memory, and also the structured format may mean
that a participant starts to produce some interesting insights into memory which could not
be followed up because they were not in the set of predetermined questions.
2a)
Qualitative data is descriptive data which provides detail and depth by creating a ‘wordpicture’.
b)
One strength of qualitative data in this study is that it would allow the researcher to get an
in-depth understanding of what the participant’s memories were and how they made them
feel, as well as perhaps why they remembered those particular things. One weakness of
qualitative data in this study is that it would be very hard to categorise and code the
answers given as they would all differ widely, so conclusions about childhood memories
would be hard to draw.
3.
One strength of using self-report in this study is that it allows direct access to the
participant’s experiences and memories: it is possibly the only practical way to access
someone’s memory as there is no other way to find out what they can recall from their early
life. One weakness of self-report in this study is that there is no way of telling whether the
participant is telling the truth: s/he may not really be able to remember anything but feel
foolish in saying this, so make up some memories to keep the researcher happy.
Study D:
1.
The reliability of this study is improved by asking closed questions as this structured format
makes it more replicable; it would be easy to repeat the same questions about TV viewing
with another set of participants. The validity of this research is lowered because the
definition of ‘younger’ and ‘older’ viewers is not very clear; there is only one year between
the two categories, so people who are 39 or 41 years old may not be typical of the age
groups being investigated. This means that the aim of the study is only being met to a
certain extent. The categories of programme chosen are quite narrow, for example they do
not include documentaries, meaning that the validity is again lowered because it may not
give a true picture of what programmes each age group watches.
2.
One finding is that the older age group is more likely to watch drama (50%) than the younger
age group (32%). Another finding is that the two groups watch almost the same amount of
hours TV per week.
3.
An alternative sampling method would be random sampling. Names could be chosen using
a random number generator from the electoral roll, and all the participants selected by this
method could be contacted to take part in the study by describing their TV viewing habits.
4a)
Describe your favourite TV programmes.
b)
Do you think you watch more TV than most people? Yes / No
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EXPERIMENTS
Study A:
1a)
A repeated measures design is where the same participants carry out both conditions of an
experiment.
b)
One strength of using a repeated measures design in this study is that because the same
teachers mark both the girl’s and the boy’s essay, their marking standards will be the same
so individual differences will not cause any differences found. One weakness is that by
participating in both conditions they may guess the purpose of the study, so in this case they
may realise that the aim is to see whether gender makes a difference in marking essays.
2a)
The IV here is the gender of the student having written the essay, operationalised by naming
one essay Mary Thomas and the other Robert Jones.
b)
The DV is the mark given to the essay, operationalised by noting the mark allocated by each
teacher and then calculating a mean.
3.
One control would be the standard of the essay as this would naturally affect the mark given
regardless of the gender of the student. Another would be the handwriting as the teachers
may give an essay fewer marks if it was harder to read.
4.
The essays got, on average, a higher mark if it appeared to be written by a girl. This suggests
that teachers are more generous when marking girls’ essays, perhaps because they have
higher expectations of girls.
Study B:
1a)
Participants asked about headaches using a leading question will remember suffering more
headaches than those asked without using a leading question.
b)
This is a one-tailed hypothesis because it not only predicts a difference between the two
groups but also that the leading question group will report more headaches than the other
group.
2a)
This is an independent measures design because each condition (leading question or nonleading question) used different participants.
b)
One strength of this design is that the participants will not guess the purpose of the study,
which they probably would if they were asked the same question about headaches in two
different formats. One weakness is that the two groups may actually suffer differing
numbers of headaches so participant variables would affect the results.
3.
The DV in this study is memory, which has been measured by asking people to recall how
many headaches they experience. The simplicity of the research would make it replicable,
because it would be easy to ask another group of participants the same question about
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headaches in the same way. The effect of leading questions on memory is a reliable one
which has been well tested in Psychology (for example Loftus and Palmer) so consistent
results may be achieved again. However, as a method for testing memory this could be said
to be low in validity because some people suffer from headaches much more than others, so
their answers will reflect how significant headaches are in their life rather than being a test
of their memory. Their answers may also be affected by how severe their headaches are and
how recently they have suffered one, which lowers the validity because the confounding
variable is a physiological one rather than a cognitive one such as memory.
Study C:
1.
There will be no difference between the amount of talking done by participants who are
smiled at by the researchers and those who are not, and any difference will be due to
chance.
2.
An independent measures design is where different participants are used in each condition
of an experiment, and a repeated measures design is where the same participants are used
in both conditions.
3.
The IV is whether the participant is smiled at or not, and the DV is how much they talk.
4.
An opportunity sample could be used of people in a local public park. The researcher could
approach the first 25 people s/he saw in the park and ask for directions to a local pub.
There would be two follow-up questions such as ‘How long will it take me to get there?’ to
prolong the conversation. While asking this, the researcher would smile, and continue to
smile naturally during the remaining conversation. The researcher would be wearing a
discreet lapel microphone so that the conversation could be tape-recorded for data
collection later. The next 25 people seen in the park would be asked the same questions in
the same order but this time the researcher would have a serious face and not smile at all. A
pilot study could be conducted first to ensure that the researcher felt confident in the
difference between smiling and not smiling and that the participants did not guess that the
situation was not genuine. A confederate could hand out a debriefing leaflet afterwards
explaining the research and that all data would be anonymous and confidential. Afterwards
the number of words used by each participant could be noted from the recording, giving
quantitative data that could be analysed to see whether there was a difference between the
two groups and whether the ‘smiled-at’ group did in fact talk more.
This would be an easy study to replicate because the procedure is quite simple and the
necessary equipment (microphone and tape recorder) easy to come by. It is valid because it
directly addresses the question about the effects of smiling, although it is possible that the
researcher may smile automatically during the non-smiling condition because it is natural to
do so and it would be hard to avoid it. This would affect the validity. The quantitative data
improves the validity because it is objective and factual in terms of counting number of
words spoken. The sample would not be representative because they would all be in a
geographically similar area which may affect cultural differences in the expectations of
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smiling as part of a conversation when addressed by a stranger. There are ethical issues in
recording covertly a conversation but this should be covered adequately by the debriefing
leaflet.
Study D:
1.
This is an experiment because it is investigating the difference between two groups, those
who are left-handed and those who are right-handed. Thus there is an IV (handedness) and
a DV (creativity).
2a)
The DV here is how creative the participant is. In this study it has been measured by selfreport; specifically by asking people to rate their own creativity on a scale of 1–5. One
strength of this is that it generates quantitative data that is easy to analyse. It would be easy
to compare the creativity levels of the two groups and draw a simple conclusion about
whether there is a difference according to handedness. One weakness is that this may not
provide valid data because it is only a reflection of whether people think they are creative or
not, not whether they actually are.
b)
Another way to operationalise the DV here would be to assess creativity by getting
participants to complete a simple creative-thinking test, such as ‘How many uses can you
think of for a brick?’ This question could be printed on a sheet, and participants given three
minutes to write down on the sheet as many uses as they can think of. The data collected
would simply be a total of the number of ideas each participant had written down. The same
test would be carried out by the right-handed people and the left-handed people. This is a
good way of measuring the DV because it also provides a quantitative measure which would
be easy to analyse, providing a straightforward conclusion about the differences between
the two groups, and it would also be more valid than self-report because a participant who
might say they were very creative may only be able to come up with two uses for the brick.
However, this is a well-known test for ‘out-of-the-box thinking’ so participants might have
come across it before and just remember the possible uses for the brick, making it a less
valid test of creativity and more to do with memory.
3.
A suitable method of sampling for this study would be to use self-selection: notices could be
put into a local newspaper asking for participants with each dominant hand.
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CORRELATIONS
Study A:
1.
A positive correlation is where as one variable goes up, so does the other.
2.
There will be a positive correlation between essay marks and clarity of handwriting rated on
a scale of 1–10.
3a)
Quantitative data is numerical data that can be analysed statistically or summarised
mathematically.
b)
Two examples of quantitative data in this study are the essay scores (probably percentages)
and the score for clarity of handwriting on a scale of 1–10.
4.
Data is presented in a scattergraph by drawing two axes with appropriate scales, one for
each of the two variables (in this case essay marks on one axis and handwriting clarity
scores on the other) and plotting the pair of scores for each participant on the graph.
5.
Reliability is quite high in this study because the procedure is straightforward and could
easily be replicated; another group of students’ essays could be treated to the same
marking procedure and handwriting assessment. However, because only one teacher marks
the essays, this may lower reliability because another teacher may give a very different set
of marks due to more stringent assessment criteria, for example. Reliability could be
improved by getting two teachers to check each other’s marking. Validity is questionable
because it would not be clear from this study that it was the poor handwriting that caused
any poor marks obtained; a correlation can only show a link between the two variables, but
the study was aiming to find the effects of one on the other.
Study B:
1a)
A negative correlation is one where as one variable increases, the other decreases.
b)
There will be no correlation between the number of children in a family and their IQ scores,
and any correlation will be due to chance.
2a)
35 participants were used because there are 35 plots on the scattergraph.
b)
The mode number of children in the family is 2, because this appeared most often (11
times).
c)
The scattergraph appears to show a negative correlation between IQ score and number of
children in the family, although a statistical test would be required to be mathematically
sure. The highest IQ scores are shown by only children.
3.
One strength of using a correlation in this study is that it gives an indication that there is an
effect worth investigating between IQ and number of children in the family; it provides a
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useful starting point which may lead to further research pinpointing causal relationships.
One weakness is that cause and effect cannot be inferred from this study alone, so the
nature of the link between IQ and number of children in a family is not clear without doing
further research.
Study C:
1.
An appropriate scattergraph here should have ‘husband attractiveness’ scores on the x axis
and ‘wife attractiveness’ scores on the y axis. Each axis should be appropriately labelled and
show a scale of 1–10. A title should be included: ‘Graph to show attractiveness of married
couples’.
2a)
A negative correlation is one where as one variable increases, the other decreases.
b)
This graph does not appear to show a negative correlation because there is not a downward
trend of the scores towards the top end of the x axis.
3.
Attractiveness was measured by asking an observer to rate it on a scale of 1–10 for each
partner. One strength of this is that because it was the same observer throughout, his/her
standards of attractiveness will remain constant throughout, so the scores will be
consistent. However, a weakness is that only one opinion is gained and that individual may
have very high or very low standards of attractiveness which would mean that the general
public may view the participants in a very different way.
4.
One ethical issue is that attractiveness is a very sensitive issue and the participants may be
caused upset and distress if they see the results and they are not favourable towards their
appearance, or that of their partner. This could be dealt with by keeping all the data
anonymous so the only person who knows which scores refer to which participants is the
researcher, in the final published report and in any interim documents.
5.
One strength is that it is a way to look at the relationship between variables that cannot be
easily manipulated, such as the attractiveness of two people. If no correlation is found it at
least rules out any possible causal relationship.
Study D:
1a)
Memory could be measured in this study by using ‘Kim’s game’ where 20 items are put on a
tray, the participant gets two minutes to look at them, and then the tray is taken away. The
participant has to recall as many items that were on the tray as they can.
b)
One strength of this method of measuring memory is that it is very pragmatic and practical.
It is quick and easy to set up and administer. It would use household items that would be
easy and cheap to obtain, and it is a straightforward and non-invasive test for the
participants to go through. One weakness is that it only tests one kind of memory; for
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example, some participants may find it hard to remember a list of items like this but have an
excellent memory for reading passages of text or for remembering faces. Therefore its
validity is low for testing memory as a whole.
2.
An appropriate sampling technique would be to use opportunity sampling. The researcher
could go to a local library and ask the first 30 people who arrive through the door their age
and if they would complete the memory test. This would be a good method because it is
likely that people at a library may well have the time to do the test on the spot, preventing
the researcher from having to ask them to attend at a later date when attrition may be a
problem. This may not be the case if the opportunity sampling took place in the street. There
would also be enough people that the researcher could simply stay until 30 people had
agreed to take part. However, this sampling method would not produce a representative
sample because the individuals would all be likely to be from the same geographical area
and with similar interests (books and reading) and these similarities may affect their
memory as well as just their age.
For use with OCR Psychology: AS Revision Guide by Cara Flanagan ©2013 Psychology Press