Practical Investigation

Question 1

What was the aim of your biological psychology practical investigation?

Answer 1

To conduct a correlation study into age of students in a DC sports team and self-rating of aggressive behaviour

Question 2

What was the one-tailed directional hypothesis of your biological psychology practical investigation?

Answer 2

There will be a postive correlation between age of students and the scores for self-rated aggressive behaviour out of 50

Question 3

What was the procedure for your biological psychology practical investigation? (4 points)

Answer 3

Opportunity sampling used to sample 25 male students - 5 from each year

Students completed self-report questionnaire about aggression levels in their classrooms in 30 min under standardised conditions with the presence of the researcher

Questionnaires were anonymous - only age identified

Standardised script read aloud to inform the students of the true aim, the right to withdraw throughout and debrief of results after data collection

Question 4

What were the results of your biological psychology practical investigation? (3 points)

Answer 4

Spearman Rho used - level of data was interval/ratio and I was looking for a relationship between co-variables

At n=25 and p=0.05 for one-tailed test:
Calculated value: 0.401
Critical value: 0.337

Significant positive correlation between age in years and self-rated levels of aggressive behaviours for male students at DC

Question 5

What were the 2 strengths of your biological psychology practical investigation?

Answer 5

BPS ethical guidelines abided by - all students informed of right to withdraw at beginning, middle and end + all questionnaires were anonymised to ensure students’ confidentiality was protected

Reliable - same standardised script read aloud and allocated same time for questionnaire to be completed, easily replicable by other bio psych researchers

Question 6

What were the 2 weaknesses of your biological psychology practical investigation?

Answer 6

Ungeneralisable - sample of 25 students all being male makes the sample androcentric, results cannot be generalised to females

Lack of IV - presence of researcher in room may have caused social desirability bias; pressure to give responses expected of them resulting in demand characteristics affecting them