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CAIE A-Level Psychology AS Methodological Concepts Question Bank

CAIE A-Level Psychology AS Methodological Concepts Question Bank
Cambridge International AS & A Level Psychology 9990 syllabus for exams in 2028, 2029 and 20302028–2030

Practise turning research questions into measurable studies by defining hypotheses and variables, controlling procedures, selecting samples and interpreting data.

Exam points

  • write operational hypotheses and variables that identify what is changed, measured or predicted
  • justify controls, samples, data types and ethical safeguards within the proposed procedure
  • judge validity and reliability, then select statistics or graphs that match the evidence

Covered syllabus points

Aims and hypothesesVariablesControlling of variablesTypes of dataSampling of participantsEthicsValidityReliability and replicability

Question 3

[Maximum number: 4]

Dement and Kleitman (sleep and dreams) asked participants to record their dream narratives. The words in each narrative were counted.

Question 3(a)

(a)

Identify the type of data provided by counting the words in the narratives. Justify your answer.

[ 2 ]

Question 3(b)

(b)

Explain one strength of collecting this type of data in this study.

[ 2 ]

Question 2

[Maximum number: 5]

Kanav wanted to recruit participants from his town for his study. He put an advertisement into the window of every shop in his town and used all the people who responded as his sample.

Question 2(a)(i)

(a)

Explain the sampling technique Kanav used.

[ 2 ]

Question 2(a)(ii)

(b)

Suggest one weakness of using this sampling technique in Kanav's study.

[ 2 ]

Question 2(b)

(c)

Explain the reason for your choice in part (a).

[ 1 ]

Question 3(a)

[Maximum number: 2]

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.

Question 8

[Maximum number: 5]

Simon is conducting a study about children learning to read. He is comparing how well they understand a story when reading from a book which has pages with images that are either:
- coloured shapes
- pictures that are not related to the text
- pictures that are related to the text.

Question 8(a)

(a)

Identify the independent variable (IV) in Simon's study.

[ 1 ]

Question 8(b)

(b)

Identify the dependent variable (DV) in Simon's study.

[ 1 ]

Question 8(c)

(c)

All the pictures and shapes are brightly coloured.

Explain one reason why this is important.

[ 3 ]

Question 9(c)(i)

[Maximum number: 2]

There can be problems with using electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) as a treatment for schizophrenia, for example side effects.

Explain one reason for your choice of controls.