Practical work 2: RM Student Responses. June 2019. P2 Flashcards
Example Answers for Research Methods: A Level Psychology, Paper 2, June 2019(AQA). 1:Q= Which of the following does reliability refer to?
A = The consistency of the data.
1.1 Q = Which of the following is not a role of peer review in the scientific process?
A = To ensure only significant results are published.
1.1. Q = Give one reason why it is important for scientific reports to include a referencing
section?
A = 1 mark for an appropriate reason why scientific reports should include a referencing section.
Possible content:
• enables readers to track down the sources used
• to give credit to other researchers/acknowledge their ideas
• can avoid plagiarism.
1.1. Q = 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.
1 6 Which of the following is correct?
A = Groups A and B are conditions of the independent variable and happiness is the dependent variable.
1.1. Q = Would a directional or non-directional hypothesis be more suitable for the researcher to
use? Explain your answer.
A = 1 mark for identifying that the hypothesis should be non-directional/‘two-tailed’.
Plus
1 mark for explanation that a non-directional (‘two-tailed’) hypothesis is suitable because there was no
previous evidence available for the researcher to predict the direction of the results. Accept alternative
wording.
1.1 Q = Write a suitable hypothesis for this experiment.
A = 3 marks for a clear and appropriate operationalised non-directional hypothesis:
‘There will be a difference in the improvement in happiness score after playing team sports than after
independently exercising.’ Accept alternative wording.
2 marks for a non-directional statement with the IV and the DV that lacks clarity OR a clear non-
directional statement which has only one variable operationalised, eg improvement/change in happiness
at the end of the study compared to the beginning is not made clear/Group A and Group B are used to
describe the conditions of the IV.
1 mark for a non-directional statement with the IV and the DV that lacks clarity and only has one variable
operationalised or for a clear, non-directional statement with the IV and the DV but neither is fully
operationalised.
Credit appropriate operationalised null hypothesis.
1.1. Q = Identify the type of sampling method used in this experiment. Explain one limitation of
using this sampling method in this study.
A = It is an opportunity sample. A limitation of this method is that it may be unrepresentative of the target population as it might be the case that those present in the café at the time are more confident, this might mean they would be more likely to enjoy team sports which would make the effect of team sports of happiness seem greater.
1.1. Q = 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.
A = Participants could be matched on extroversion and introversion ratings. To do this we could have them complete an introversion/extroversion questionnaire and pair them related to the score they achieved, for example the 9’s would be matched with the 9’s and the 4’s with the fours, you would do this until there are 10 pairs. Then we would randomly allocate one participant from each of the pairs to a different condition of the experiment until there were 10 participants in each group. one participant from each pair would be randomly allocated to a different condition of the experiment
- so that there were 10 participants in each group.
1.1. Q = Explain one strength of using a matched-pairs design rather than a repeated measures
design.
A = A strength of using matched pairs rather than repeated measures is that in matched pairs participants only take part in one condition of the experiment, whereas in repeated measures they take part in both. As a result, matched pairs will not result in any order effects, therefore the results are more likely to be valid.
in a matched pairs design participants only take part in a single condition so order effects are less of a
problem than in a repeated measures design, improving the validity of the results
• in a matched pairs design participants only take part in a single condition so demand characteristics
are less of a problem than in a repeated measures design as they are less likely to guess the aims of
the study.
1.1. Q = Calculate the value of S in this study. Show your workings.
[2 marks]
Marks for this question: AO2 = 2
2 marks for correct answer: 3 (even if no workings are shown).
1 mark if incorrect answer is provided but workings are correct.
A = Total number of + = 5 Total number of – = 3
Also credit workings for B – A, Total number of + = 3 Total number of – = 5
Therefore the calculated value of S = 3.
S is the number of the least occurring frequency.
1.1. Q = Explain whether or not there was a significant difference in the improvement in the
scores between the two groups. Use your answer to Question 22 and Table 3.
A = 1 mark for each of the following points:
• the critical value of S is 0/correct part of the table is clearly identified
• therefore the difference is not significant - because the calculated value of S is 3 which is more than
the critical value.
Note - credit answers stating there is a significant difference if this tallies with an incorrect calculated
value of zero provided in response to Q22.
1.1. Q = Explain what it means for a test to have high concurrent validity.
A = High concurrent validity refers to the degree in which a new test will produce the same results when compared to a more established test. To have high concurrent validity there would need to be a 0.8 correlation between scores on the new test and scores on the established test.
1.1. Q = 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.
A = A key problem with this is that this could have led to bias on the part of the researcher. For example, when participants were completing their happiness questionnaire the researcher may have let of subtle cues that would affect their happiness like smiling at them. As a result this could have affected the happiness rating they gave. This would mean the results may be invalid as the cause of the change in their happiness was not the type of sport they played but the way the researcher acted around them.
1.1. Q = Using your answer to Question 25, suggest one way in which the researcher could
modify the study to improve the internal validity of the study. Justify your answer.
[4 marks]
A = Possible content:
• they could ensure neither the participants nor the investigators know which condition the participants
are in (double blind procedure). If the researcher did not know what condition the participants were in
they would not be able to consciously/unconsciously give clues
• the participants could have completed the questionnaires without the presence of the researcher by
sending them the questionnaire by post or electronically with instructions provided including how to
return the completed questionnaires. If the researcher was not present whilst the participants carried
out the questionnaire then their presence would not affect the results obtained
• the researcher could have asked an assistant to conduct the experiment who was unaware (blind) to
the conditions the participants were assigned to. If the assistant did not know the conditions to which
the participants were assigned then their presence would not affect the results obtained.
SA = A key problem with this is that this could have led to bias on the part of the researcher. For example, when participants were completing their happiness questionnaire the researcher may have let of subtle cues that would affect their happiness like smiling at them. As a result this could have affected the happiness rating they gave. This would mean the results may be invalid as the cause of the change in their happiness was not the type of sport they played but the way the researcher acted around them.
1.1. Q = Suggest an appropriate statistical test the psychology teacher could use to analyse the
data. Justify your choice of test.
A = Award 1 mark for each of the following points:
• identifying the Mann-Whitney as a suitable statistical test for the data obtained by the psychology
teacher
• stating that the chosen test is suitable for a test of difference
• stating that the chosen test is suitable for an unrelated/independent groups design
• stating that the chosen test is suitable for ordinal non-parametric/data
