Scientific Processes (AQA A Level Psychology)

A survey of hospital patients has found that a new drug, Zapurpain, is as effective as other pain medication. 

Explain one limitation of asking hospital patients to self-report the effectiveness of Zapurpain.

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

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

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

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

Place one tick in each column.

Table 1 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Write an appropriate hypothesis for this experiment.

The results obtained from the experiment are summarised in Table 2. 

Table 2 Descriptive statistics for the test performance scores for Group A and Group B 

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

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

The results obtained from the experiment are summarised in Table 2. 

Table 2 Descriptive statistics for the test performance scores for Group A and Group B 

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

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

Design the observation to investigate pupils’ social interaction in the playground.     In your answer you will be awarded credit for providing appropriate details of:

• type of observation, with justification
• choice of time sampling or event sampling, with justification
• dealing with one relevant ethical issue
• assessing reliability of the data through inter-observer reliability

In 1987, a survey of 1000 young people found that 540 said they smoked cigarettes, whilst 460 said they did not. In 2017, a similar survey of another 1000 young people found that 125 said they smoked cigarettes, whilst 875 said they did not.

Discuss ethical issues in social influence research.

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

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

In your answer you should provide details of:

• the aim of the experiment
• identification and manipulation of variables including details of the task
• controls to minimise the effects of extraneous variables
• data handling and analysis – use of descriptive statistics and/or data presentation.

Justify your design choices.

A researcher investigated the working memory model using a laboratory experiment. Forty students from a local college volunteered to take part. 

In Condition A, 20 students performed the following two tasks at the same time: 

• mentally counting backwards from 100
• tracking coloured shapes on a computer screen.

In Condition B, 20 different students performed the following two tasks at the same time: 

• mentally counting backwards from 100
• reading a poem out loud.

The researcher predicted that the performance of students in Condition A would be better than the performance of students in Condition B.

Briefly explain two ways in which the working memory experiment described above could be improved.

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

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

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

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

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

The psychologist wanted to assess the reliability of the content analysis.

Explain how the reliability of the content analysis could be assessed.

The psychologist decided to conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of watching horror films before going to bed. 

A volunteer sample of 50 university students consented to take part in the experiment. 

The 50 students were randomly split into two groups. Group 1 watched a horror film before going to bed each night for the first week then a romantic comedy before going to bed each night for the second week. Group 2 watched the romantic comedy in the first week and the horror film in the second week. 

When the students woke up each morning, each student received a text message that asked if they had had a nightmare during the night. They could respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The psychologist proposed a directional hypothesis.

Write a directional hypothesis for this experiment.

The psychologist decided to conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of watching horror films before going to bed. 

A volunteer sample of 50 university students consented to take part in the experiment. 

The 50 students were randomly split into two groups. Group 1 watched a horror film before going to bed each night for the first week then a romantic comedy before going to bed each night for the second week. Group 2 watched the romantic comedy in the first week and the horror film in the second week. 

When the students woke up each morning, each student received a text message that asked if they had had a nightmare during the night. They could respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The psychologist used a repeated measures design in this experiment.

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

The psychologist decided to conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of watching horror films before going to bed. 

A volunteer sample of 50 university students consented to take part in the experiment. 

The 50 students were randomly split into two groups. Group 1 watched a horror film before going to bed each night for the first week then a romantic comedy before going to bed each night for the second week. Group 2 watched the romantic comedy in the first week and the horror film in the second week. 

When the students woke up each morning, each student received a text message that asked if they had had a nightmare during the night. They could respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The psychologist used counterbalancing in this experiment.

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

The psychologist decided to conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of watching horror films before going to bed. 

A volunteer sample of 50 university students consented to take part in the experiment. 

The 50 students were randomly split into two groups. Group 1 watched a horror film before going to bed each night for the first week then a romantic comedy before going to bed each night for the second week. Group 2 watched the romantic comedy in the first week and the horror film in the second week. 

When the students woke up each morning, each student received a text message that asked if they had had a nightmare during the night. They could respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

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

The psychologist collated the responses of all the participants over the two-week period and calculated the mean and standard deviation for each condition. 

Table 3 Mean number of nightmares reported and the standard deviation for each condition 

The psychologist was concerned about the validity of the experiment.

Suggest one possible modification to the design of the experiment and explain how this might improve validity.

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

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

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

At the end of the survey, researchers wished to treat the students ethically. They used the following statement in their debriefing:

‘Thank you for taking part in the survey. Your data will be very useful. Have you any questions?’

Suggest two additional points that could be added to the debriefing statement to better ensure ethical treatment of the students.

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

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

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

At the end of the survey, the researchers wished to treat the students ethically. They used the following statement in their debriefing:

‘Thank you for taking part in the survey. Your data will be very useful. Have you any questions?’

Suggest two additional points that could be added to the debriefing statement to better ensure ethical treatment of the students.

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

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

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

Suggest two additional points that could be added to the debriefing statement to better ensure ethical treatment of the students.

A psychologist investigated workplace stress in two groups of people. People in Group A were employed by a company and people in Group B were self-employed. Each person completed a stress test and was given an overall score. The psychologist then calculated average scores for each group. The results are shown in Table 4 below. 

Table 4 

Using the data in Table 4, explain how the distribution of scores in Group A differs from the distribution of scores in Group B.

In an experiment, researchers arranged for participants to complete a very personal and embarrassing questionnaire in a room with other people. Each participant was tested individually. The other people were confederates of the experimenter. 

In condition 1: the confederates completed the questionnaire. 

In condition 2: the confederates refused to complete the questionnaire and asked to leave the experiment. 

The researchers tested 15 participants in condition 1, and 15 different participants in condition 2. 

The researchers recorded the number of participants who completed the questionnaire in each condition.

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

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

A psychologist wanted to test whether listening to music improves running performance. 

The psychologist conducted a study using 10 volunteers from a local gym. The psychologist used a repeated measures design. Half of the participants were assigned to condition A (without music) and half to condition B (with music). 

All participants were asked to run 400 metres as fast as they could on a treadmill in the psychology department. All participants were given standardised instructions. All participants wore headphones in both conditions. The psychologist recorded their running times in seconds. The participants returned to the psychology department the following week and repeated the test in the other condition.

Identify the operationalised dependent variable in this study.

In 1987, a survey of 1000 young people found that 540 said they smoked cigarettes, whilst 460 said they did not. In 2017, a similar survey of another 1000 young people found that
125 said they smoked cigarettes, whilst 875 said they did not.

Calculate the ratio of smokers to non-smokers in 2017. Give your answer in simplest form.
Show your workings.

There was an overall increase in sales of Tiger following the advertisement campaign.
Interestingly, the increase in sales was greater for male customers than for female
customers. See Table 1 below.

Table 1 Sales figures before and after the Tiger advert

Calculate the percentage increase in sales of Tiger to male customers. Give your answer
to two significant figures.
Show your workings.

Which of the following does reliability refer to?

Which of the following is not a role of peer review in the scientific process?

Give one reason why it is important for scientific reports to include a referencing section?

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

The researcher used a matched-pairs design. He went into the student café and selected the first 20 students he met. Each student was assigned to one of two groups.
Participants in Group A were requested to carry out 3 hours of team sports per week.
Participants in Group B were requested to carry out 3 hours of exercise independently in a gym each week. All participants were told not to take part in any other type of exercise for the 4-week duration of the study.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Write a suitable hypothesis for this experiment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The validity of the data was questioned when the researcher presented his results. The box researcher explained that he chose to use the happiness questionnaire because it had high concurrent validity.

Explain what it means for a test to have high concurrent validity.

The questionnaire had high concurrent validity.

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

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

Suggest one way in which the researcher could modify the study to improve the internal validity of the study? Justify your answer.