Evaluate developmental psychology research by considering improvements to samples, controls, objectivity, validity, reliability, generalisability and evidence about children.
Marianne conducted research into the stages of language development in children aged between 2 and 5 years old. She selected 7 participants from each of the following age groups: 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds.
Marianne visited each participant once and gathered data about the number of words the children spoke in sentences, and the level of grammatical accuracy in their sentence structure.
She compared her data across each age group to determine how language develops in children aged between 2 and 5 years old.
Marianne used an opportunity sample of children from a single village.
Justify how Marianne could improve the generalisability of her study.
AO2 (1 mark), AO3 (1 mark)
Credit one mark for accurate identification of improvement in relation to
scenario (AO2)
Credit one mark for justification of the improvement (AO3)
For example:
- Marianne could have used a sample of children from different
villages in other areas (1) which would give her a more
representative group of children to gather data from (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Generic answers score 0 marks.
(2)