Practical - Learning Theories Flashcards
Outline the aim
To investigate if there is a difference in prosocial behaviour between males and females.
Describe your sample and the sampling method you used
We used opportunity sampling and observations in a public place.
There were 19 males and 20 females who were either Caucasian or Asian and privately educated from Bristol. The ages ranged from 11-18 years old.
What was your experimental hypothesis?
There will be a significant difference in the levels of prosocial behaviour shown between males and females. (This was a non-directional hypothesis, so two-
in tailed)
What was your null hypothesis?
There will be no significant difference between levels of prosocial behaviour exhibited by males and females.
Any differences will be due to chance.
Describe how you gathered quantitative data + analysed it
• Prosocial behaviour was operationalised as people who helped pick up the books or people who walked past.
• Four covert observers stood in strategically-placed positions and watched for these different behaviours. Every time this behaviour was exhibited by the participants, the observers would record it in a tally chart including operationalised behavioural categories.
• A frequency bar chart was used to compare the different behaviours shown by males and females in order to compare the two genders. The Chi-Squared test was carried out to determine the level of significance of the results as the design used independent measures, data was nominal and we were testing for difference.
Describe how you gathered qualitative data + analysed it
• We made notes on the types of people who either helped the confederate or ignored them.
• Categories of notes included: appearance, verbal behaviour and interactions, physical behaviour and gestures, personal space and human traffic.
• Notes were expanded after the practical to develop a descriptive narrative.
• The notes included as much detail as possible as the observers may not have been able to write down everything thing that happened which they observed at the time.
Outline 1 weakness of your study
A weakness of our observation was its reliability as we only used 4 untrained observers therefore the data the observers recorded may have been subjective and biased, therefore, less accurate, and credible which may have affected the study’s reliability.
Moreover, as the observers were only in three locations, it is plausible they may have missed some behaviour exhibited by participants or may not have been able to see all the participants, which may decrease the accuracy of data and therefore affect the reliability of the data, too.
Describe how to overcome your weakness / improve your study
If the study was to be repeated, I would use three observers at five different locations. I would train them on interpreting the operationalised categories to ensure inter-rater reliability. Therefore, with 15 trained observers, this would ensure the reliability and validity of the data was more robust. Moreover, an increase in points at which the researchers are observing would decrease the chance of them not seeing certain behaviours or miscounting participants and increase the reliability, too.
