Personal Investigation (age+sleep Flashcards
What was the IV for our experiment?
Age, whether they were a young adult (16-24) or an adult (25+).
What was the DV for our experiment?
Sleep measured by a score on the Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index (PQSI).
Give the alternative operationalised hypothesis.
There will be an increase in the score on the PQSI in adolescent participants (ps) aged 16-24 compared to adult ps aged 25+.
Is our alternative hypothesis directional or non-directional?
Directional.
Why did we use directional/non-directional hypothesis?
Research on sleep clearly states that adolescents and young adults need more sleep than adults. And, due to the phase delay in sleep patterns of adolescents, which is mismatched with school/work, teens sleep patterns don’t match their circadian rythmes, leading to poor sleep quality. So we chose directional based on this as we would expect higher PQSI scores in teens than adults.
State our null hypothesis.
There will be no significant difference in the score on the PQSI in adolescent ps aged 16-24 compared to adult ps aged 25+. Any difference will be due to chance.
What are the main characteristics of our sample?
20 people.
Mix of genders.
Aged 16-24 and 25+.
All from the East Midlands.
What sampling technique did we use and why?
Opportunity.
+It is more convenient than stratified as it is less time consuming to gather 16-24 and 25+ ps due to it not involving any calculations or the whole list of ps from the target population.
+As the p is being approached by us, there are less issues surrounding consent compared to random sampling where the 16-24 and 25+ ps would be selected and then could say no when approached by us.
What are the limitations of our sampling technique?
-Just because people are available to us to take part in our study, does not mean they are willing to.
-Our sample will be biased as as we are selected ps, we are more likely to go up to people we know or who look friendly.
Give the procedures to how we ‘will’ conduct our study.
1- We will approach Bilb college students in canteen and ask if they are willing to take part in our study. For the adults, we will approach Bilb college staff and people around Nottingham area and ask if they would take part.
2- We will give ps from the local area a brief that outline the study on age/sleep which gives details of the PQSI that they have to complete and if the are happy then they sign our consent form.
3- After, they will be asked to tick the 25+ or 16-24 box on our table.
4- We will share the link to the PQSI test and ask them to fill it in. They will give us their score on the PQSI and we will record on our results table.
5- They will be debriefed, hypotheses will be outlined, as well as true purpose of the study and give them a chance to ask qs or withdraw. If they are happy then they sign the consent form to finish the study.
Which descriptive statistics can describe our data and why?
The mean as the DV is measured as ‘score on PQSI’ which is a score from 0-21 with a set scale and true 0, making our data ratio. So the mean is the most appropriate measure of central tendency.
The standard deviation is the most appropriate measure of dispersion as we can calculate the mean PQSI score for teens/adults. As the mean is required, it gives a more accurate spread of data.
