PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

‘Teneo mens, teneo totus’

AS Psychology (AQA, A)Research Methods

Workbook

Name …………………………………………...

Psyc hology at Graveney

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Research Methods(PYA 3)

6.1 Quantitative and qualitative Nature and usage, advantages and disadvantages research methods of: experiments, correlation analysis, observations,

questionnaires, interviews, case studies

Pages 3-10

Assessment – completing Section 1 of the workbook

6.2 Experimental design and Aims and hypothesesImplementation Research design

Factors associated with research designSelection of participantsRelationship between researchers and participants

Pages 11-17

Assessment - completing Section 2 of the workbook

6.3 Data analysis Analysis of qualitative dataMeasures of central tendency and dispersionCorrelations Graphs and charts

Pages 18-26

Assessment - completing Section 3 of the workbook

Key terms Page 27

Top tips for exams Page 28

Module assessment – Past exam paper

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Section 1 - Quantitative and qualitative research methods

Research methods are the ways that psychologists investigate a theory. Different methods will be appropriate for different topics/theories/situations.

Quantitative =

Qualitative = Social Psychology

Experiments

Experiments are generally thought to be the most reliable and effective way of demonstrating that one variable causes another to change – that it has an effect on another, for example to demonstrate that alcohol causes reaction times to slow down.

In psychology we talk about these variables as the independent (IV) and dependent variables (DV).

IV =

DV =

Extraneous variables are…variables you couldn’t control that may bear an effect on the behaviour of the subject being studied…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Confounding variables are.…unforeseen and therefore unaccounted for variable that affect the behaviour that affects reliability and validity of an experiments outcome.……..…………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How can extraneous variables be controlled?

Use the course guide to find the IV and DV in one of Loftus’ experiments into eyewitness testimony.

Study:

IV =

DV =

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Identify the IV and DV for the following:

1. Severe punishment causes anxiety.

IV -

DV –

Directional or non-directional –

2. There is a difference in the ability of grey and white rats in learning to run a maze.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

3. People are more likely to make a risky decision when they are in a group than when they are alone.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

4. Watching violent television is likely to give children nightmares.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

5. First children learn to speak earlier than second and subsequent children.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

6. Absence makes the heart grow fonder

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

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7. Stressful experiences increase the likelihood of headaches.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

8. A baby under 9 months of age will not search for a hidden object.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

9. Social class affects IQ scores.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

10. Men drive faster than women.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

11. Bulls will charge more often when presented with a red rag than a blue rag.

IV -

DV -

Directional or non-directional –

Operationalising the variables

1. What does this mean?

2. Go back and pick 2 of the IV/DV examples above and operationalise the variables.

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You are expected to be familiar with the main research methods used in psychology. This includes being able to describe each method, knowing how it differs from the other methods and when each should be used.

You need to know at least two advantages and two disadvantages of each method.

Method Description/use Advantages Disadvantages Ethical issues Example/well known study

Laboratory Experiment

Field Experiment

Naturalistic Experiment

Naturalistic Observation

Questionnaire

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Interview

Case study

An in depth description/observation & analysis of one person or situation (qualitative data)

o Produces rich, detailed data

o Can study a topic it may be unethical/impossible to study via an experiment

o Permits study over time.

o Results cannot be generalised

o No control over extraneous variables

o Researcher bias may be a problem.

Quasi-Experiments

What is a Quasi-experiment? Give an example.

Notes:

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Questions

Answer these questions about each of these stimulus examples.

1. What is the research method that has been used in this study?2. Explain one advantage and one weakness of this method in the context of this study.3. Identify one ethical issue that might arise in this study and suggest how you would

deal with it.

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of anxiety on performance. Participants were given a task to complete in a set time. One set of the Ps was mildly stressed during the task. This was achieved by arranging for the researcher to watch their performance closely. The other set of Ps were watched but in a friendly manner.

Research method:

Advantage:

Disadvantage:

Ethical issue:

A group of psychology students were studying social influence. As part of their studies they decided to investigate the extent to which drivers complied to the rules of the road. To do this they stood near a pedestrian crossing and noted how often drivers stopped when a pedestrian stood by the crossing waiting to cross.

Research method:

Advantage:

Disadvantage:

Ethical issue:

(From Cardwell M & Flanagan C (2003) Psychology AS The Complete Companion. Nelson Thornes).

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Non-experimental research methods

SurveysInterviews and questionnaires are both ways of collecting data using a survey. The questions asked may be the same in both, but an interview is a face to face (spoken) encounter between P and researcher whereas a questionnaire requires a written response.

Questionnaires

1. When might a questionnaire be used?

2. What are the features of a structured (fixed choice) questionnaire? Give an example question.

3. What are the features of an unstructured (open-ended) questionnaire? Give an example question

4. Give the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Interviews

5. What advantages and disadvantages do interviews have compared with questionnaires?

Observations

When planning an observation a researcher needs to operationally define key terms (ie. make clear statements about how to measure or classify whatever is being studied). For example, if a researcher wants to investigate age or sex differences in ‘reckless’ behaviour in the way children and young people cross the road they first need to operationally define ‘reckless’ behaviour. This means drawing up a list of criteria about what ‘reckless’ behaviour actually is.

To do this you might conduct a pilot study observing how young people behave as they cross the road, then discuss as a group what you have observed and come to a collective decision about what ten criteria make up ‘reckless’ behaviour.

6. What are:a) Naturalistic observations?

b) Controlled observations?

c) Participant observations?

d) Disclosed observations?

e) Undisclosed observations?

7. What is observer bias?

8. How can reliability be maximised when an observation is conducted?

9. What ethical issues arise when devising a naturalistic observation?

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Conducting an observation – putting your knowledge of research methods into practiceObserving pedestrian behaviour

Collet & Marsh (1981) looked at the way adult pedestrians avoid colliding into one another on a pedestrian crossing. They noticed the following:

o Most pedestrians in the UK pass by on the right (Goffman, 1972 called this ‘lane formation’ or ‘pedestrian streaming’).

o People take cues from one another, such as looking for ‘body gloss’ which is when body movement such as a slight turn of the shoulders indicates someone’s likely collision-avoidance behaviour.

o When passing closely by another pedestrian, men tend to turn slightly towards the other person. This is ‘open passing’. Women tend to turn slightly away from the other person. This is ‘closed passing’.

Hypothesis: there will be a significant difference in the collision-avoidance behaviour of adults according to gender. Men are more likely to pass by using an ‘open pass’ and women are more likely to pass by using a ‘closed pass’.

Is this directional or non-directional?

Tick Sheet – observing collision-avoidance behaviour

Type of behaviour Male adult Female adult TotalOpen pass

Closed pass

Neutral pass

1. Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of this design in the context of this investigation.

2. How might you ensure reliability among different observers?

3. How could you ensure this study was carried out in an ethically acceptable manner?

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Section 2 - Research design and implementation

Aims: An aim is a general statement of why the study is being carried out.

Hypotheses: In psychology a hypothesis is:

A clear statement A prediction Testable Formulated at the beginning of the research process

Psychologists start with a theory which is a general idea about a behaviour and then develop a hypothesis which makes the theory testable.

Eg: a theory, popular in the 1960s, claimed that small amounts of information (approximately seven digits) could be held in STM store at any one time. If we rehearse material by repeating it, it is more securely stored, can be more easily passed into LTM and is therefore easier to access and recall later.

A development of this idea stated that simple repetition was not the most effective way of securing items in the memory store. It is more effective if ideas are chunked together and meaningful links are made. For example if Ps were asked to recall a set of words including the words ‘chocolate’ and ‘strawberry’ those who visualized a chocolate coated strawberry were morel likely to recall the words.

A hypothesis to test the idea might be:Ps will correctly recall more words in a memory test after learning a list of words by image-linking than Ps who learn the same words via simple rehearsal.

With your neighbour try writing a hypothesis for the following theories:

a) Students remember more information if they revise listening to Mozart than listening to Greenday.

b) Consuming alcohol affects your reactions.

c) Women drivers obey traffic laws more often than male drivers..

Remember: hypotheses do not:

Include an explanation eg. P will recall words from a list by using image-linking because….. Use imprecise terms eg. Memory will be better when using visualization (what exactly is ‘better’; can you measure it?)

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A hypothesis can be directional or non-directional. This refers to whether the hypothesis states the direction in which the results of the study will go.

A non-directional hypothesis (also called two-tailed) states that there will be a difference between results but not what that difference will be eg. there will be a difference between the number of words recalled from a list in a memory test between Ps asked to use repetition and Ps asked to use image-linking to remember words.

A directional hypothesis (also called one-tailed) states that there will be a difference between two results and predicts the difference eg. Ps who use image-linking to learn a list of words in a memory test will correctly recall a greater number of words than Ps who use repetition to learn the same words.

Directional or non-directional (one tailed or two tailed)?

1. Pupils studying AS Level Psychology are much happier than those studying AS Biology. D/ND

2. There will be a significant difference between the number of times male and female drivers fail to stop at a red light. D/ND

3. People who eat only brown bread score more highly on IQ tests than people who eat only white bread. D/ND

4. Ps will have a slower reaction time on a computer ‘beat-em-up’ game after consuming one unit of alcohol. D/ND

5. There will be a difference between the number of Welsh and the number of Scottish Ps rated as ‘extrovert’ on Eysenk’s personality test. D/ND

6. Students who wear designer labels and students who do not wear designer labels will show significantly different ratings on Allport’s attitude scale. D/ND

7. Year 10 students are more likely to conform to a teachers’ incorrect response in a test than Year 11 students. D/ND

8. Smokers will cough more times when asked to sit in silence, than non-smokers. D/ND

NB the term ‘experimental hypothesis’ should only be used when using the experimental method, otherwise the term ‘alternative hypothesis’ should be used.

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The Null Hypothesis

The null hypothesis is written alongside the main hypothesis in order to make the scientific prediction complete.A null hypothesis predicts that any differences or similarities between the sets of results in an experiment are due to chance alone. As psychologists, we must accept that we can never rule out the possibility that any results gained in an investigation may be simply due to chance. This possibility is tested using inferential statistics (more on this later!). Should analysis of data indicate that results are not statistically significant a researcher must reject the experimental hypothesis and accept the null hypothesis.

An example:There will be no difference in the reaction time taken to press a button upon seeing a green square on the computer screen (measured in milliseconds) before consumption of three units of alcohol and after consumption of three units of alcohol. Any difference in results is due to chance alone.

1. Write a null hypothesis to match the following hypotheses:

a) Ps who learn a list of unrelated words whilst listening to classical music will recall more of the words in a memory test than Ps who learn the words in silence.

b) There will be a difference in the number of Year 12 and the number of Year 13 students who look at the answer paper of a Psychology test when the teacher leaves the room.

2. Operationalise and write a directional hypothesis and corresponding null hypothesis for the following ideas:

a) Children are more aggressive after watching violent films.

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b) Students feel more stress two days before an exam rather than on the day itself.

3. Write a non-directional hypothesis and null hypothesis for the following examples:

a) Children who do not form an attachment before the age of two are at risk of social delinquency

b) Ps will remember information presented visually and information presented acoustically differently.

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For the exam you need to be able to write directional, non-directional and null hypotheses.

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Research Design

Researchers use their participants in different ways in different experiments, depending on the situation. They weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each design and make their decision. Use the textbook to find out about the three main methods of using participants, called designs.

Design Advantages Disadvantages Example studyIndependent groups

Loftus & Palmer (1974)

Eg. Give one group of Ps a test in a driving simulator after having drunk alcohol and the other group without having drunk alcohol.

Repeated measures

Eg. Test the group on the simulator and later give them a drink of alcohol and test the same group again.

Matched pairs(participants)

Kagan (1980) matched nursery and home group.

Eg. Ps matched in important characteristics eg. driving ability and alcohol tolerance and then tested in one condition.

What are order effects?

How can researchers reduce them?

What is a control group and why are they used?

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Factors associated with ResearchFill in the table with the definitions and then answer these questions.

Validity

Experimental validity

Internal validity

Ecological/ External validity

Reliability Internal:

External:

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This test has been used to show that without doubt men are generally on average much more intelligent than women!

Why don’t you buy one ……. Astound your friends!

1. Which of the following statements best describes the PSYCHOLMEASURE INTELLIGENCE TEST? Put a tick against your answer.

a) The test is reliable and valid ____b) The test is reliable but not valid ____c) The test is valid but not reliable ____d) The test is neither reliable or valid ____

2. Describe ONE way that you could assess the reliability of the PSYCHOMEASURE test.

3. Describe ONE way that you could assess the validity of the PSYCHOMEASURE test.

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The relationship between researchers and participants

1. What is meant by experimenter bias and how can it be reduced?

2. What are demand characteristics?

3. For each of the studies below say how effects of demand characteristics and experimenter bias are likely to be shown.

a. A group of students is interviewed about their belief in superstitions. The aim of the study is to see if there is a difference between males and females in the degree to which they are superstitious.

DC:

EB:

b. Teenagers in a youth club are observed to see if girls are more co-operative than boys.

DC:

EB:

c. Two teenagers carry out a study to investigate the effect of dress on helping behaviour in elderly people. One dresses as a punk, the other dresses very conventionally and smartly and they take it in turns to stop and ask people for directions. They see how closely the elderly person stands when they speak to them.

DC:

EB:

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Sampling

When conducting research psychologists need participants. In an ideal world, a study would include all

members of a target population as this would provide the most accurate results. A target population is a group of people who share the same characteristics eg. married women, A Level students, males over the age of 40 who enjoy playing golf.

Clearly it is impossible to include all members of the target population within a study so a section of that population, a sample is included instead. If a sample is truly representative, then psychologists should be able to generalise the conclusions of the study to the whole target population. There are several ways of obtaining a sample explain how you would obtain the following samples, say why you may choose the sampling method (i.e. what is it good for?) and :

A random sample

A systematic sample

A self-selected sample

An opportunity sample

A stratified sample

You need to know which sampling method is most suitable to which circumstance/research and why.The larger the sample the more likely it is that the conclusions of the investigation will reflect the behaviour of the whole target population. The size of a sample will be dictated partly by time and financial constraints, although statistical tables should be consulted to note an acceptable number of Ps in order to achieve valid, successful results.

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Section 3 - Data AnalysisData is the results from research. Rather than presenting all of this in its raw form in your report we use data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics to summarise these results. This means that anybody reading the report of the study will have a concise summary of the results and conclusions can be reached.

Levels of measurement

In psychology we aim to quantify data wherever possible (NB. Even qualitative data can, to some extent be classified, categorised and counted.)

There are three levels at which data can be measured:

NOMINAL DATA – this is used when categorising something. Named categories are established by the researcher and an item is counted when it falls into this category.Eg. The number of males and females in a psychology class.

The number of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual students in the school.

RANKED/ORDINAL DATA – this is when data is ranked so that it is possible to see the order of scores I relation to one another.

Eg. In a 100m race, we would know who came first, second, third etc.

INTERVAL/RATIO DATA – this is a more sophisticated level of data. It not only gives the rank order of scores but it also details the precise intervals between scores.

Eg. In our 100m race the finishing times of runners would be interval data:

Clarke, N 11.4 secsSmith, H 11.9 secsLloyd, P 12.1 secs

What type of data? - Read the following and decide whether they are nominal, ordinal or interval: (write N, O or I in the box after each example)

1. The number of Ps who only read the Times, The Guardian or The Sun.

2. P’s rating of their own self-worth on a scale ranging from 1-50.

3. Fifteen photographs arranged by Ps according to level of attractiveness.

4. Results of Year 12 Psychology test (marked out of 45).

5. A set of clinical records which classify patients as ‘acute’ or ‘chronic’.

6. P’s ratings on how interesting they found a particular Psychology lesson (on a scale of 1-100 where 100 was ‘fascinating’).

7. The number of aggressive acts in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

8. How could you collect nominal, ordinal and interval data when looking at IQ scores?

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Descriptive statistics

Descriptive stats allow research data to be described and presented. It is not helpful to the reader to be given raw data of a study but it is important that they have a summary of that data. This may take the form of:

o A tableo A grapho Numerical average

Measures of central tendency

MEAN – when all scores in a group are added together and the total is divided by the number of scores.

Eg. the results from a test (marked out of 50)

36 39 21 18 32 30 = 176176 / 6 = 36Mean = 36

Exercise 1

Find the mean of the following.

1. The % scores in a Sociology exam:

52 64 58 41

2. The number of library books borrowed by students in one year:

14 9 6 12 18 9

3. The amount spent on weekly shopping (£):

45 84 52 38 42 66

MEDIAN – this is the central value in a set of scores after they have been put in rank order:

Eg. 95 109 121 130 140 Median = 121

If there is an even number of scores take the mean of the two central values:

Eg. 95 109 121 135 140 180 121 + 135 = 256 / 2 = 128

Exercise 2

Find the median values for questions 1-3 above.

MODE - this is the most commonly occurring value in a set of scores:

Eg. 1 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 7

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Mode = 5

Exercise 3

Find the mode of the following:

1. The heights of the teachers at Wimbledon College:

5”9 5”3 5”8 6”2 5”8 5”1 6”4 5”2 5”3 5”3 5”9 5”7 5”9 5”10 5”7 6”0 5”9 5”7 5”1 5”9 5”6 5”10

2. The weekly pocket money given to Year 8 students (£):

4 6 2 5.50 3 8 4 5 4 1 7 4.50 10 4 6 3 4 2 5 7 4 7 4 3 2 8

3. The numbers of videos rented in one year:

14 15 25 12 14 18 10 0 28 25 14 18 7 4 19 14 10 30 19

Measures of dispersion

Measures of central tendency (mean/median/mode) are used to summarise sets of numbers giving a score which is representative of the set. However in order to give a fuller picture, we need to know how spread out (how dispersed) the scores are.

THE RANGE – this is simply the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a set of values. 1 is then added if all the numbers are whole, 0.5 is added if scores have halves, 0.1 is added if scores contain 1 decimal place, 0.01 if there are 2 decimal places etc.

Exercise 5

Find the range for the following set of scores:

1. Age at which Ps claim to have ‘been in love’

21 19 22 18 25 21

2. Amount spent on travel, per day (£)

8.5 9.5 17.5 12.5 14.5

3. Scores obtained in age-related reading test:

9.8 7.1 4.2 8.4 9.9

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STANDARD DEVIATION – The average amount all scores deviate from the mean. This is the most powerful measure of dispersion. You will not have to work out standard deviation (hurrah!) but you need to know how it is done.

To calculate the standard deviation: The difference (deviation) between each score and the mean of those scores is

calculated and then squared (to remove minus values). These squared deviations are then added up and their mean calculated to give a value

known as the variance. The square root of the variance gives the standard deviation of the scores.

Score Mean d d2

6 10 -4 168 10 -2 4

10 10 0 012 10 +2 414 10 +4 16

Total 40

Mean of 40 = 8 (= variance)Square root of variance = standard deviation = 2.8

Exercise 6.

Use the textbook to answer the following questions:

1. What is normal distribution? Draw an example.2. What is skewed distribution? Draw an example. For the exam you need to know how, why and when to use each of these methods and how to calculate them BUT you will not have to do calculations in the exam. HOWEVER the ability to work out means etc will be very useful if you are asked to describe a set of results.

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Graphs

Graphs are used to display data in a form which is easy to read. You will be familiar with different types of graphs but it is important to know when to use each type:

Histograms – these use bars which touch and are used with interval data only.

Bar charts – these use bars which do not touch and can be used with all types of data.

Pie charts – convert scores to degrees (all types of data)

Frequency polygrams – these use lines and are used to compare sets of scores (interval data)

Scattergraphs – these use dots and are used with correlations (data from one variable is plotted against the X axis and the data from another variable is plotted against the Y axis).

Exercise 7

Produce an appropriate graph to display the following data:

1. Results of a study into how age affects types of play:

Play Age (years)1 2 3

Solitary 16 8 4Parallel 3 9 7Co-operative 1 3 9

2. Scores from Ps who were asked to rate speakers on intelligence on a scale 0-5 (where 5 was very intelligent) when speakers had Northern and Southern English accents.

Rating Southern Northern1 0 02 5 63 12 234 26 215 21 10

3. Results from a correlation study to see if practice on a driving test improves performance:

Number of attempts

Points awarded

1 272 543 784 1055 1206 149

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Correlational studies (a non-experimental design)

Correlational studies are used to asses the strength of the relationship between variables i.e. how strong is the link between two variables such as smoking and lung cancer? In this kind of psychological study, there is no direct manipulation of the IV by the experimenter.

A correlation is not really a research method; it is really a tool of analysis as it makes use of statistics to test this relationship between variables.

Correlations are often used when it is inappropriate or ethically unacceptable to use an experimental design eg. Bowlby’s maternal Deprivation Hypothesis (1953) states that infants who fail to bond with (attach to) a primary caregiver before the age of two are more likely to show ‘delinquent behaviour’ in later life.

Q – What are the two linked variables here?

BPS guidelines would not allow an experiment to be conducted in order to test this hypothesis, as it would be highly unethical to deprive an infant of an attachment with its parents in order to further our psychological understanding. However a correlational study to test this theory would be possible.

Q – How?

Supposing we formulated the following hypothesis:

Ps who sleep more than 7 hours per night (on average) in one year will gain higher marks in the final A’Level exam than Ps who sleep less than 7 hours per night (on average) in one year.

Q – Is this a directional or non-directional hypothesis?

The results for this study are as follows:

P Hours of sleep (average)

Exam mark

1 8.5 732 5.8 523 5 354 6.1 615 7.4 666 6.9 707 7.4 658 6.6 569 7.5 7110 8.9 79

The results in the table above seem quite closely related, that is where a P shows a low sleep score (average hours per night) the P also tends to have a lower exam mark.

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Applying descriptive statistics

We can investigate the kind of correlational relationships that exist between variables by plotting points of data on a scattergraph:

Draw a scattergraph for the above data.

(On a scattergraph it does not matter which variable goes on the X axis and which on the Y axis).

If after a line of best fit has been drawn, the overall effect is a line moving upwards from bottom left to top right, we have a positive correlation.

If the overall effect is a line moving downwards from top left to bottom right, we have a negative correlation.

If points are scattered all over the graph, we have no correlation.Q – What kind of correlation do we have for our sleep study?

Using textbooks write a list of the advantages and disadvantages of using a correlation.

Advantages Disadvantages

Activity: Complete your own correlational study: think of something you think may be related: (e.g. nose length and foot size!) present your results next lesson

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Using inferential statistics

To apply inferential statistics, both sets of scores must be ordinal or interval data.

The strength of the link between the two variables can be assessed by calculating a correlation coefficient. This is a number between +1 and –1.

If the correlation coefficient is calculated to be between 0 and +1 we see a positive correlation between the two variables. If the correlation coefficient is between 0 and –1 we see a negative correlation between variables. If the correlation coefficient is 0 we see no correlation between variables.

In psychology a perfect correlational score of +1 or –1 is a rarity. Most scores are similar to those listed below:

Score Positive/negative/no correlation

Strong or weak

-0.80.76-0.34-0.010.4210.566-0.210.48

-0.8870.207

The non-parametric inferential statistical test applied to correlations is Spearman’s Rho.

Task

1. Draw a scattergraph for the following data.2. Decide whether the graph shows a positive, negative or no correlation.3. Estimate a correlation coefficient for this data (between +1 and –1)

A study investigating the relationship between children’s reading scores and mental arithmetic scores.

P Arithmetic scores

Reading scores

1 9 22 10 33 12 14 6 35 11 56 9 27 14 98 12 59 11 610 14 7

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A study investigating the relationship between the number of hours spent discussing Economics and the number of friends a P has:

P Hours spent discussing Economics

Number of friends

1 6 52 12 23 3 94 0 115 15 16 8 47 1 118 2 99 12 210 10 3

An investigation into the relationship between the number of hours spent reading Psychology Review Magazine per tem and essay scores (%).

P Hours spent reading Psychology Review

Essay score

1 10 622 14 863 3 464 12 795 8 596 5 447 9 668 2 189 3 3510 0 21

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RESEARCH METHODS REVISION

Key terms - You need to understand each of these terms in the context of a piece of research. Test yourself as you go along and for revision.

1. Bar chart

1. Confounding variables

2. Correlational analysis

3. Demand characteristics

4. Directional (one-tailed) hypothesis

5. DV (dependent variable)

6. Experimental/alternative hypothesis

7. Field experiment

8. Frequency polygon

9. Histogram

10. Independent groups design

11. Interview

12. Investigator effects

13. IV (independent variable)

14. Laboratory experiment

15. Matched pairs (matched participants)

design

16. Mean

17. Median

18. Mode

19. Mundane realism

20. Natural experiment

21. Naturalistic observation

22. Negative correlation

23. Non-directional (two-tailed)

hypothesis

24. Null hypothesis

25. Opportunity sampling

26. Pilot study

27. Positive correlation

28. Qualitative data

29. Quantitative data

30. Quasi-experiment

31. Questionnaire survey

32. Random sampling

33. Range

34. Reliability

35. Repeated measures design

36. Research

37. Scattergraph

38. Standard deviation

40. Validity

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Top tips for the exam!You need to know everything in this booklet because there is a real chance that any of it could come up in the exam.

As psychology is all about research, try and spot what method, design or sample was used in studies as you revise your other topics eg. cognitive, social etc.

Read these bits of advice and then have a go at the following past paper. The more papers you do the more familiar you will become with the format and the kind of questions that are asked. This is an exam paper where practice really can make perfect!

Read the stimulus and the questions very carefully, the examiners are not trying to trick you, even if sometimes it does seem like it.

In some papers you will have two 15 mark questions and in others just one worth 30 marks. Answer all questions. You do not have a choice in the research methods section.

Underline key terms and information in the stimulus material, for example the research method used, the sampling technique, who is doing the research etc.

Look at the context of the study eg. is it research for A’level coursework or is it a university Psychologist? This will affect various things eg. the budget, the resources available and the size of the sample.

Be reasonable about ethics particularly protection from harm.

Use the wording in the stimulus to help you – you will generally find key phrases for the hypothesis and aims right in front of you.

Practice using the exam questions in your course guide, time yourself so that you get used to working within the exam time frame.

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