2.6.2 The Research Question

Question 1

What is the IV

Answer 1

The age of the participants

Question 2

What is the DV

Answer 2

The sleep quality measured using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index

Question 3

How did you operationalise the IV in your experiment

Answer 3

I put the participants into age categories (under 25 years of age and over 25 years of age)

Question 4

How did you operationalise the DV in your experiment

Answer 4

The operationalised dependant variable i used in the investigation was the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)

Question 5

What is a one strength and one weakness of operationalising variables

Answer 5

Strength: can be consistently used by other researchers so others can measure the same thing using operationalised definitions so all results should be the Sam (replicable)

Weakness: standardise approach for collecting data which leaves little room for subjective or biased personal interpretation of observations

Question 6

Explain one problem with how your IV and DV were operationalised

Answer 6

IV: the IV has been naturally operationalised —> limited ability to generalise results
DV: the DV has been operationalised using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index —> originally created for elderly people therefore may have used the wrong measuring instrument

Question 7

What is the aim of the research

Answer 7

To investigate the relationship between the age (under 25 and over 25 years old) and sleep qualtty measured using Pittsburg sleep quality index

Question 8

What is the null hypothesis for your experiment

Answer 8

There will be no significant difference in sleep quality measured using the PSQI between participant who are under 25 years f age and participants who are over 25 years of age

Any difference that occurs will be due to chance

Question 9

Identify and explain 3 extraneous variables that you will control for your experiment

Answer 9

1.illness- if anyone has been ill in the last few weeks it can effect the quality of sleep and ptps wouldn’t take part

2. Noise - effects concentration—> would’ve had to be completed in a quiet area with no noise
3. Mental health problem —> effects concentration

Question 10

What is the non-directional alternative hypothesis for your experiment

Answer 10

There will be a difference in sleep quality between the age groups but unable to predict which direction becuase previous research has found varying results between quality of sleep and age

Question 11

What is the alternative hypothesis for your experiment

Answer 11

There will be a significant difference in sleep quality measured by the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index between ptps who are 25 years old and above and ptps who are under 25 years of age