Practise AS research methodology by designing procedures, operationalising variables and applying methods, sampling, ethics, data and evaluation to unfamiliar scenarios.
Define what is meant by 'counterbalancing'.
Outline one reason why counterbalancing is important in experiments.
A study has the hypothesis 'Four-year-old children make more language mistakes than eight-year-old children.'
State whether this hypothesis is a:
- directional hypothesis
- non-directional hypothesis
- null hypothesis.
Dr Chand is going to measure how much adults want to participate in social activities, such as team sports or attending a festival.
Dr Chand wants to collect quantitative data about how much adults want to participate in social activities. He can use the methods of questionnaires or interviews.
Suggest two ways that Dr Chand could collect this data using one or both of these methods.
1
2
For one of the ways of collecting data you suggested in part (a):
Explain one way this method of collecting data is valid.
Explain one way this method of collecting data is not valid.
When Dr Chand conducts his study, he gives each adult a score out of 15 for how much they want to participate in social activities. He divides the adults into four different age groups and finds an average willingness to participate score for each group. These averages are shown in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1
Plot a suitable graph of Dr Chand's data. You must label the axes.
Dr Bakar is investigating the effect of boredom on people's estimation of time. Her participants were separated into two groups and did different activities:
- Group A watched an exciting film (non-boring activity)
- Group B moved small boxes from one pile to another (boring activity).
Both activities lasted 30 minutes. Each participant was asked to estimate how long the activity had lasted.
Outline the dependent variable in Dr Bakar's study.
Dr Bakar is concerned about possible differences between individuals in Group A and Group B that could affect the validity of her study.
Suggest why two possible differences between individuals in Group A and Group B could lower validity.
difference 1
difference 2
For one of the differences you suggested in part (b)(i):
Suggest how Dr Bakar could change her study to improve validity.
Dr Bakar includes a control group in her study.
Suggest a suitable control group for Dr Bakar's study.
Explain why the control group you suggested in part (c)(i) is suitable.