Personal Investigation One

Question 1

What type of experiment is the investigation?

Answer 1

Difference quasi

Question 2

What is the aim of the study?

Answer 2

To investigate the effect of age on sleep quality

Question 3

What is the IV of this experiment?

Answer 3

Age (adults 25+) and (teenagers 12-25)

Question 4

What is the DV of this experiment?

Answer 4

Sleep (score on the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index)

Question 5

What are some possible confounding variables that could be present in the experiment?

Answer 5

Caffeine intake
Sleep conditions
Sleep medication
Everyday activities

Question 6

What are some possible extraneous variables that could be present in the experiment?

Answer 6

Room temperature
Light
Noise levels

Question 7

What type of experiment is used in this investigation?

Answer 7

One-tailed (directional) - predicting a difference

Question 8

What is the alternate hypothesis used in the experiment?

Answer 8

There will be an increase in sleep quality scores in participants aged 25+ compared to the sleep quality scores in participants under the age of 25 on the PSQI

Question 9

What is the null hypothesis used in the experiment?

Answer 9

There will be no significant difference in PSQI scores in participants aged 25+ compared to those under 25

Question 10

Why is the experiment a quasi experiment?

Answer 10

Age (IV) is a naturally occurring difference

Question 11

Describe how to experiment uses self-report techniques.

Answer 11

Participants are given the PSQI to answer themselves

Question 12

What experimental design is used within the experiment?

Answer 12

Independent groups - two groups of different age categories

Question 13

Who is the sampling frame of the experiment?

Answer 13

Teachers and students from Notre Dame School

Question 14

What sampling method is used within the investigation and why?

Answer 14

Opportunity sampling - easier than systematic as not all students and teachers names and ages need to be gathered.
Quicker than stratified when no access to list of target population

Question 15

Explain how there have been ethical considerations within this experiment.

Answer 15

Privacy - no other personal information needed than initials and age and answers to questions will be destroyed
Deception - participants given both a brief and debrief of the experiment and it’s aims
Protection from harm - participants are directed to help guides and articles in order to improve sleep however are unlikely to be caused harm

Question 16

What type of data is produced?

Answer 16

Ratio data

Question 17

What inferential statistic is most appropriate for this experiment and why?

Answer 17

Mann Whitney U - looking for difference, ratio data, independent groups

Question 18

Were the results significant or not significant?

Answer 18

Not significant

Question 19

Which hypothesis should be accepted as a result of the significance of the experiment?

Answer 19

Accept the null - reject the alternate

Question 20

What are the conclusions of the investigation?

Answer 20

Age does not significantly affect sleep
Further research should be done to establish a relationship between age and sleep

Question 21

How could the investigation be improved?

Answer 21

Ethics - not entirely valid consent as some participants under 16
Validity - use students from other schools to make sample more varied