Test Flashcards
What is the independent variable for this study?
The type of walk (rural/urban)
What is the dependent variable for this study?
The level of happiness student feel on a scale from 1-10
Explain what type of design was used in this study?
A repeated measures deign was used in this study and its when the participants experience both conditions of the independent variable. Thai is evident in the study because all 9 participants took part in both the 4 mile rural walk and the 4 mile urban walk. This demonstrates that all participants were present in both conditions making this a repeated measures design.
What is a strength of the design used in this study?
A strength of the repeated measures design is it reduces participant variables. For example natural happiness levels would be controlled for, therefore these results will be more accurate as the extraneous variables are controlled for. By controlling the EV it will be easier to determine the cause and effect relationship between the IV and the DV
What is the median for the urban walk?
6
What is the title of the bar chart?
A bar chart to show students mean level of happiness (on a rating scale) immediately after a 4 mile urban walk and a 4 mile rural walk
What is one strength and one weakness of using the mean as a measure of central tendency?
One strength of using the mean is it takes into account all the data from all 9 participants so is the most representative of the whole data set.
One weakness of using the mean is it can be distorted by extreme outlier scores (for example most of the happiness scores were between 5-8 after the 4 mile urban walk but the outlier score of 2 meant the mean value was reduced) so it’s less representative of the data.
What is the standard deviation for the rural walk?
Mean = 6.3*
(Data - Mean) + (data - mean) = 22
22/8 = 2.75
|2.75 = 1.658
1.66
Explain two ways in which this study lacks validity?
This study lacks population validity, with a small sample size of 9 students. As the participants are all students they may act differently to the rest of the population due to their education. This could mean the results are less generalisable to those who aren’t students because their behaviour may differ for example they may have a greater dopamine response to walking than others. Additionally the age limit means older people are excluded, but they may experience a different happiness outcome so the study lacks validity.
Another issue with the study is it lacks construct validity because the extraneous variable of demand characteristics by practice effects (due to repeated measures design) means the participants can guess the aim of the study so provide unrealistic results. This is because they’d provide an answer they think the researcher wanted/believed was correct (social desirability bias). This means the results for the urban walk are less valid because the participants had already had a practice (during 4 mile rural walk). Another E.v could be that the participants have already completed this walk before which may affect the results as they could experience boredom or a greater increase in un happiness due to familiarity.
Asses the reliability of this study?
This study is partially reliable, On one hand it lacks external reliability due to a small sample size of nine students. This sample size is too small to suggest a consistent cause and effect relationship. This is apparent when comparing the mean scores for happiness with only a 0.5 rating scale difference. This small sample of students make it difficult to identify a clear pattern and relationship between the IV and the DV.
However, on the other hand the study has high internal reliability because of the standardised procedure which makes it a highly replicable study. The procedure is standardised due to all 9 participants experiencing the exact same 4 mile rural route and urban route alone with one week in between. This means the participants will had the same experience with few/no extraneous variables affecting the results.
Overall, I think the study is partially reliable because it lacks external reliability but has high internal reliability
