Psychological Investigations (Qs)

Question 1

Research methods can be divided into two categories, what are they?

Answer 1

Experimental and Non-experimental methods.

Question 2

Examples of experimental methods (3)

Answer 2

• Lab experiments
• Field experiments
• Quasi experiments

Question 3

Examples of non-experimental methods (4)

Answer 3

• Observation
• Self-report
• Correlation
• (Case Study)

Question 4

What variable is manipulated?

Answer 4

Independent variable (cause)

Question 5

What variable is measured?

Answer 5

Dependent variable (effect)

Question 6

Which is the aim and hypothesis?

1) To find out whether playing COD makes boys aggressive.
2) Boys who spend at least 2 hours a week playing COD will score higher on the “aggressive attitude” rating scale than boys who have never played COD.

Answer 6

1= Aim
2= Hypothesis

Question 7

Give an example of an alternate hypothesis about alcohol and time taken to stop the car.

Answer 7

There will be a DIFFERENCE (experiment) between the time taken to stop the car by a person who has consumed 3 units of alcohol and people who have not consumed alcohol.

Question 8

Give an example of a null hypothesis about alcohol and time taken to stop the car.

Answer 8

There will be a NO DIFFERENCE (experiment) between the time taken to stop the car by a person who has consumed 3 units of alcohol and people who have not consumed alcohol.

Question 9

What is an extraneous variable and give examples?

Answer 9

Anything that could affect the DV other than the IV. E.g. Situational variables- environmental conditions (heat)

Question 10

How can psychologists minimise the effect of extraneous variables?

Answer 10

Disguise the true purpose of the experiment- breaking ethical issue (deception) so that they would stop guessing the aims.