2.1: Gender and culture in psychology

Question 1

A psychologist asked men aged 25 to 35 years to keep a diary record of how many miles they walked in a week. The psychologist also asked each man to climb a flight of stairs, then took each man’s heart rate. For each man, the number of miles walked in the week was correlated with heart rate after climbing stairs. The findings showed a significant negative correlation. A national newspaper reported the findings under the headline ‘Everyone should walk for a healthy heart’.

Explain one problem with the method used to determine the number of miles walked in the week. Suggest an alternative measure that would overcome this
problem (3 marks)

Answer 1

Problems include:
• self-reported estimates may lack reliability and/or validity
• explanations of reliability/validity in this context, eg unlikely to get same estimate on more
than one occasion; people may forget to record on the day; unlikely to be a true record –
people may over/underestimate for various reasons, eg poor recall, want to appear more
sporty etc.
Plus
1 mark for a suitable more objective alternative, eg using a pedometer to accurately record the
precise number of miles walked in the week