Plan A Study Question Flashcards
Mark Scheme
Example
Structure – For each required feature (RF)
- State what feature you will use and explain exactly how that feature will be implemented in the context of the study.
- Justify why that feature would be used – a strength in the context of the study.
- Relate your justification to specific details of your research.
Do this 4 times
Design - Top Tips
Independent measures – How exactly are different P’s allocated to named conditions (e.g. names from a hat) - Justification - reduces demand characteristics and increases internal validity
Repeated Measures – How exactly are the same P’s doing all conditions (which condition first/counterbalancing?) - increases internal validity as no participant variables such as individual differences
Matched – How exactly are P’s matched – how are they then allocated? - increases internal validity as no participant variables such as individual differences and no order effects
Operationalising variables - Top Tips
IV – Describe conditions exactly with specific examples – Justification – standardised/reliable or manipulating IV can show cause and effect
DV – exactly how will you gain quantitative data. E.g. Describe test with examples, timings, how it will be presented, how it will be scored. Or state questions e.g. How outgoing are you on a scale of 1 -10 (1 = Not at all, 10 = Extremely). Justification – quant data is easy to compare /analyse, increases standardisation so easy to replicate study so high external validity
Co-variables – treat like DV but don’t call it DV! Must be ordinal or interval data. Should cover a range of values (A 1-3 rating scale would be bad!)
Sampling - Top Tips
Need exact details of how a specified number of P’s become your sample
Opportunity- Where, when, who, how (what you will say/do?) how many? - No researcher bias
Self selected – describe advert – where is it? What does it say? How do they contact you? Will you use the first 20 males and females? - less ethical issues
Random – What population are you gaining names from – must be all of them. How are they selected (Random name generator/drawn from a hat?). How many? What do you say to them? - less sampling bias, equal chances
Snowball – Who do you initially approach? How? How do they recruit additional P’s? Number? - reach hard to reach groups for example criminals
Controls - Top Tips
What exactly are you doing? What EV will it control? - increase standardisation - increase reliability
Ethics - Top Tips
What specific guideline are you addressing? How exactly will you address it?
Observation
Event sampling – describe behavioural categories, how it is used (tally) and HOW LONG FOR?
Time sampling - describe behavioural categories, how it is used (tally or tick) and the specific time intervals?
Coding frame – what are the codes /ratings for the specific behaviours?
Self-report
Questionnaire – format/number of q’s, where/how they complete it?
Rating scales/ likert/ semantic differential – state the question
Closed questions – state the question AND the fixed responses which follow the question
Experiment Exemplar
Memory can be influenced by many different things, including the appearance of what it is we are trying to remember. For example, green is a natural colour that features a lot in our environment, so may help improve how we learn and remember things we see in this colour. To investigate this psychologists want to use the laboratory experiment method to investigate if presenting words in green ink compared to black helps improve memory.
Explain how you would conduct a study using the laboratory experiment method to investigate the effect of colour on memory for a list of words. Justify your decisions as part of your explanation. You must refer to:
* the use of independent measures design or repeated measures design
* how the variables are operationalised
* at least two control features
* level of data collected
You should use your own experience of carrying out an experiment to inform your response.
If I were to carry out a laboratory experiment on the effect of colour on memory I would use independent measures design. I would have 30 p’s and write their names and pull them out of a hat, the first 15 would be condition 1 (15 words to memorise in black ink) and the second 15 condition 2 (15 of the same words to memorise in pink, blue and green ink)
I would use independent measures design because it would reduce the chance of demand characteristic; demand characteristic occurs when participants discover the aim of the study and try to act in a way that they believe the researcher wants. Independent measures design would avoid this because the participants would not see the different coloured words so they would be unlikely to realise that I am studying the effect of colour on memory so they would not purposefully do better in the colour condition than the black words condition.
In my previous research on the how eating chocolate effects the rating of paintings I used independent measures design and found that it reduced demand characteristics as the participants did not know one group ate chocolate and other did not to measure the impact on the positive rating, this meant that the chocolate eating group could not purposefully rate positively.
In this study on the effect of colour on memory I would operationalise the variables by having two conditions. I would operationalise the list of words by using a list of 15 words such as ‘flower’, ‘elephant’ ‘computer’. I would operationalise the effect of colour by having one condition where 15 participants have a minute to memories a word list of 15 words that are written in black, a 20 second break, then a minute and a half to write down as many words as they can remember. I would also operationalise the effect of colour by having a second condition where 15 participants repeat the same procedure using the same word list except the words are written in different coloured fonts such as red, pink and green rather than black.
I would do this for the DV because it would give quantitative data so that the amount of words remembered in each condition could be easily compared so I could see if colour helping us to improve memory or not (cause and effect). The IV has been operationalised this way with the same words being used in both conditions increasing the external reliability meaning it would be easy to replicate the memory and colour study.
In my previous research on how colour effects concentration I used some pictures in black and white and some in colour to test the which pictures the participants could remembered, from this I found that it was useful to be able to compare the different effects of colour and black and white on concentration as I could compare the scores of black pictures recalled and coloured pictures recalled.
If I were to carry out a laboratory experiment on the effect of colour on memory I would control the time of day that the experiment took place as different times of day can impact concentration and memory such as early morning. To control this I would carry out the experiment at 12pm so that participants would not be effected by the early morning or late evening.
I would also control the impact of the word list by using the same word list for the colour condition and the black words condition. I would control the time of day and the difficulty of the word list to avoid them from acting as confounding variables and impacting the participant’s scores on the memory test. Controlling these aspects would help to ensure that the IV (colour or not colour) was the only thing effecting the DV (memory test scores).
When conducting my own research into extroversion and ability to spot fake smiles I also used controls as I made sure that all the P’s did the study at the same time of the day 12pm in a psychology classroom to eliminate this as an EV
If I were to carry a laboratory experiment on the effect of colour on memory I would collect quantitate data and the level of data I would collect is ordinal data. I would do this by counting the amount of words each participant wrote down when recalling the words in their condition so that I would have a numerical score for each participant to compare the impact on colour on memory.
I would collect this ordinal data because it would allow me to see if there was a difference between the amount of words remembered by participants in the coloured word list condition compared the black word list condition so that I could observe if colour impacts memory, this also allows us to do a statistical test to see if it is significant or not.
When conducting my own research into fake smiles and extroversion I collected ordinal data as I asked my P’s to complete an extroversion questionnaire and collected in their responses. This was on a scale of 1-10
Correlation Exemplar
Weigh more outgoing?
Some research suggests that personality is linked to a person’s body type (their structure and weight), with larger people having a more extrovert (lively and outgoing) personality than those who are smaller. To investigate this further, a psychologist wants to use the correlation technique to examine the relationship between weight and extroversion
Explain how you would conduct a study using the correlation technique to investigate if there is a relationship between a person’s weight and their level of extroversion. Justify your decisions as part of your explanation.
You must refer to:
* the sampling technique to obtain participants for the study
* how you would operationalise the variable ‘extroversion’
* details of how one ethical consideration would be addressed
* the control of one extraneous variable.
You should use your own experience of practical activities to inform your response. [15]
In a study I would use the opportunity sampling technique to obtain the participants for this study on the relation between weight and extraversion. I would go into Leeds City centre on a Saturday morning at 10:00 AM and will stand outside of Starbucks and ask people passing in and out “would you like to take part in this study on the relation to weight and extraversion?” The first 20 people who agree will be the sample. This way I’m collecting a sample quickly and more easily than other methods meaning I have people are willing to take part in the study in relation of weight in extroversion very quickly. In my previous research on extroversion and time spent on social media I also used the opportunity sampling method because it was the quickest most effective technique.
Initially I would operationalize the variable extraversion by using a rating scale, I would create a question “on a scale of 1 to 10 where one is not like me and ten is very like me where on this scale would you put yourself for being an outgoing person?” This way I am obtaining and operationalizing my extraversion variable allowing me to collect quantitative data which I can then analyse and compare to see if there is a relationship between weight and extroversion. In my previous research on extroversion and time spent on social media I also operationalised extraversion variable using a 20 point questionnaire also allowing me to collect quantitative data that I can analyse and then compare.
In this study on weight and extraversion I would address the ethical consideration of informed consent. I would do this by asking the participant at the beginning of the study “do you consent for your data to be used in this study on weight and extroversion?”. This way I will have full consent over the data I have collected for this study on weight and extraversion, meaning I will not have broken any BPS ethical guidelines. In my previous research on extroversion and time spent on social media I also kept the guideline of informed consent allowing me to keep and analyse the data with no objections from the participants.
In this study I would control any extraneous variables which may affect the weight of the participant by asking them to measure their weight first thing in the morning before they eat anything and then get them to e-mail me their measurement. This will allow my data for the weight to not have been influenced by any factors like the size breakfast they have, making my data more comparable between participants. In my previous research on extroversion and time spent on social media I also controlled for any extraneous variables by making participants show their screen time stats on their phone rather than asking a self-report question reducing the effect of social desirability bias .
