Practise explaining sampling methods and participant selection in psychological research with CAIE Psychology AS questions and mark schemes.
One group of participants in the study by Hölzel et al. (mindfulness and brain scans) was a sample of 16 right-handed adults: 6 males and 10 females.
Explain two reasons why this sample may not be representative.
1
2
Gender bias / more females than males;
So not / less representative of males;
All righthanded;
So not / less representative of lefthanders;
All adults;
So not / less representative of children;
Small sample;
So not much variability;
So not generalisable to ambidextrous people / wide variety
of...;
(must be specific)
4
Partial explanation = 1
Full explanation = 2
Credit answers with other knowledge of the study eg. ages, ethnicity