Personal Investigation - An Observation on Sharing Behaviour

Question 1

What is the Hypothesis?

Answer 1

There will be a difference between boys and girls in terms of sharing behaviour as measured by the number of times they share sweets with their peers

Question 2

Why was a Non-Directional Hypothesis Used?

Answer 2

Previous research shows conflicting results

Question 3

What is the Null Hypothesis?

Answer 3

There will be no difference between boys and girls in terms of sharing behaviour as measured by the number of times they share sweets with their peers

Question 4

What is the Independent Variable?

Answer 4

Gender (boys/girls)

Question 5

What is the Dependent Variable?

Answer 5

Number of times they share sweets

Question 6

What Variables Were Controlled?

Answer 6

• The participants were all given 2 minutes to complete quiz
• The same quiz on Welsh history was given to all of the participants
• The same instructions were given to each group
• They were left in the room after the quiz finished for the same length of time (10 minutes)
• The rooms in which the participants went into were all very similar
• The same instructions were given to all participants

Question 7

What are Some Possible Confounding Variables?

Answer 7

• Participants may have fallen out with some members of the group prior to the investigation + therefore didn’t want to share them
• Demand Characteristics - even though a cover story was used, some may have guessed the true purpose and acted accordingly
• Hunger of participants - if they were really hungry they may not share

Question 8

What was the Experimental Design Used?

Answer 8

Independent Group Design

Question 9

Describe the Participants Used in this Observation

Answer 9

48 participants, 13 years of age (24 of each gender)

Question 10

What was the Sampling Technique Used in this Observation?

Answer 10

Opportunity sampling- Yr 8 pupils who were willing to take part in the investigation

Question 11

What are the Advantages of Using Opportunity Sampling?

Answer 11

• As you used the first suitable participants you can find, it means less time to locate your sample than using one of the other techniques
• Easy to get hold of participants as you use the most willing people do it is quick to gain a sample

Question 12

What are the Disadvantages of Using Opportunity Sampling?

Answer 12

• Biased sample because the sample is drawn from a small part of the target population
• Selection bias as the researcher is likely to pick those for example who make eye contact

Question 13

Describe the Descriptive Statistics for the Observation

Answer 13

• The total + mean number of sweets shared was recorded for both groups
• The mean is the most sensitive and makes use of all the data
• The total number of times the boys shared was 27
• The total number of times the girls shared was 22
• The mean number of times the boys shared was 4.5
• The mean number of times the girls shared was 3.7

Question 14

Describe the Procedure of this Observation

Answer 14

1. Before the investigation, a pilot study was conducted consisting of 8 year 9 pupils. This was to ensure that the questions in the quiz were clear and that the amount of time was appropriate
2. 2 psychology students went into a year 8 class and asked if they were willing to take part in an investigation. 48 participants were taken to a room and were told the purpose of them being there was to test their knowledge of Welsh history (cover story to prevent demand characteristics)
3. It was made very clear that they could withdraw at anytime throughout the experiment
4. They were told that they would the quiz on Welsh history in small groups so they wouldn’t be able to cheat. 6 groups of 4 girls (6X4=24) were taken to rooms and 6 groups of 4 boys were taken to other similar rooms
5. In their groups, they were asked to sit at separate decks to prevent cheating and then they were asked to complete the quiz. They were all given 2 minutes to complete the quiz and then it was taken in to be marked. They were quickly marked and the winner of each group was given a big bag of starbursts. They were told to remain in the room for another 10 minutes (almost end of lesson) The winner was told that they could eat their sweets.
6. During these 10 minutes, the psychology students observed how many times the winner shared with the group. Two psychology students were in with each group of participants and they all tallied how many times they shared with the rest of the group. One tally was awarded every time they offered a sweet to a member of the group
7. After 10 minutes they left
8. A stopwatch was used to time 10 minutes after the winner was announced so every winner had the same length of time to share their sweets. The total number of sweets shared was calculated for each group and then compared.

Question 15

What Graphical Representation was Used For This Investigation?

Answer 15

• A bar chart can be used to display the information because it can show categories easily
• It’s easy to construct and understand

Question 16

Describe the Inferential Statistics for the Experiment

Answer 16

Mann Whitney used because:

• the data is at least the ordinal level
• an independent design was used
• the investigation was looking at a difference between scores of a group given visual stimuli in the same context and a group given the same visual stimuli but in different contexts

Question 17

What were the Findings of this Observation?

Answer 17

• Findings showed that there was no significant difference between boys and girls in terms of sharing behaviour
• Even though the total number of times the boys shared was more than for the girls (B=27, G=22), statistically there was no difference

The observed value (U=14) was higher than the critical value of 5 at 0.05 level of significance for a two tailed test, therefore there was no significant difference between the two groups (boys/girls). We therefore must reject the experimental hypothesis and accept the null hypothesis

Question 18

What is the Conclusion of this Investigation?

Answer 18

The results suggest that there was n significant difference between boy and girls in terms of sharing behaviour. Both boys and girls were the same in terms of sharing behaviour

Question 19

What Were the Possible Issues with Reliability?

Answer 19

Observer Reliability

• This is to do with consistency between 2 observers observing the same behaviour.
• With every group there were 2 observers.
• The ‘sharing’ behaviour was operationlised (e.g. offering sweets)
• To establish observer reliability, the 2 observers tallied their scores individually and then their scores were compared
• Found that their scores were consistent/the same so observer reliability was high

External Reliability

• This is the extent to which something is consistent overtime/on different occasions
• Established through the test re-test method. After testing them initially, we could have tested the same students after a period of time (time= not too long/short) with in a different cover story but still involving sharing behaviour to see if they obtained similar scores
• Similar results would mean high external reliability

Question 20

What were the Potential Issues with Validity?

Answer 20

INTERNAL VALIDITY

• Extent to which the researcher measures what thy intended to measure
• We had to make sure that we were measuring the same sharing behaviour
• This was achieved through controlling all possible confounding variables

Population Validity

• This study was fairly low in PV as only the pupils from year 8 from our school were used.
• It would have been better different students (schools/ages) were used as this would have improved PV

Ecological Validity
-Observation took place in a naturalistic setting and the task was something that they would have done in everyday situations so the observation was high in ecological validity

Question 21

What were the Possible Confounding Variables that were Controlled?

Answer 21

• Ensured the environment was the same for both groups
• They all had the same length of time to potentially share the sweets - established by using a stopwatch
• A cover story was used. This was a single blind procedure (participants were unaware) in order to reduce demand characteristics
• Instructions were written down to ensure everybody had the same information
• Researcher bias - researcher may influence the groups by the way in which they communicate with the participants. This was reduced by having the 2 groups together + instructions were read out to both at the same time.
• All the winners had the same type of sweets. If they had been different sweets, this could have been a problem as some sweets are easier to share than others and this would have been a confounding variable

To assess validity, we used content validity used content validity where our psychology teacher looked very carefully at our procedure

Question 22

What were the Potential Ethical Issues with this Investigation?

Answer 22

• Deception
• Confidentiality
• Informed consent
• Psychological harm

Question 23

What was the Issue of Deception?

How was it Dealt With?

Answer 23

• We told the participants that the investigation was on how much they knew about Welsh history
• This wasn’t true but was necessary to reduce demand characteristics + it also wasn’t a high level of deception

Question 24

What was the Issue of Confidentiality?

How was it Dealt With?

Answer 24

• This could have been an issue in their personal details had been shared with others
• Dealt with by keeping their personal confidential.
• No names were recorded when data was collected

Question 25

What was the Issue of Informed Consent?

How was it Dealt With?

Answer 25

• The headmaster gave permission for the investigation to be carried out and also they were 16 years of age
• Participants were not doing anything different to what they would have been doing in lessons
• Dealt with by debriefing the participants afterwards + giving them the right to withdraw their data if they wished

Question 26

What was the Issue of Psychological Harm?

How was it Dealt With?

Answer 26

• Students could have felt embarrassed/stupid if they didn’t understand the questions/know the answers
• Dealt with by informing them at the start + throughout the experiment that they could withdraw at anytime + their data would be destroyed

Question 27

How would You Improve the Investigation?

Answer 27

• When we split into small groups, some participants may have been with their peers whereas others were not. This might have influenced sharing behaviour. Ideally, perhaps all all the participants should have been put in with group members from a different so that they were not with their peers - made it consistent for all the participants
• We could have used different sweets
• More participants and from other schools should have been used to improve PV, making the results more generlisable to the population