Lab Experiment Field Experiment Observation Self-report Case Study

Who  Sample characteristics:

(sample) o Number (only ONE for case study)
o Age range
o Sex distribution
o Any special characteristics (e.g. autism/etc.)
 Sampling technique:
o Either opportunity OR volunteer/self-selected
Where  Some aspect of a  Some aspect of a  Variable  Variable  Variable
(location) laboratory field/real-life setting
o Controlled and
standardized
environment
When (time-  Usually for 15-60 mins  Usually for 15-60 mins  Usually for 15-60 mins  Usually for 15-60 mins  For months -
period) years
(longitudinal)
What  IV  IV  Overt OR covert Questionnaire Interview  Based on the
(measurement) Type Open and/or Structured, question.
and  DV measured using  DV measured using  Controlled OR naturalistic closed-ended semi-structured
How (measuring (appropriate to the (appropriate to the OR un-  Use a
device) question): question):  Structured OR un-structured (I structured combination of
o Self-report o Self-report prefer structured!) different data
Administer Paper-pencil Face-to-face OR
o Observation o Observation collection
task OR online telephone
o Physiological o Physiological  Participant OR non-participant techniques such
OR postal
tests tests as different self-
 Behavioral categories (what Number of Variable Variable reports AND
 Design  Design are you going to observe – questions observations
o IMD o IMD give 3-4 examples)
o RMD o RMD o Use the word Examples Question Question  Triangulation
number of times of dependent dependent
 Type (already stated –  Type (already stated – [frequency] questions
lab) field) (3-4) Open and/or Open and/or
 Measurement closed-ended closed-ended
 Controls/standardizatio  Controls/standardization o Tally table questions questions
n
 Two observers observing the Likert Audio-recording
same behaviors scales/True or using
o Will do a correlation Measure False for participant’s
check for inter-rater closed-ended. consent OR
agreement/reliability Box/space for note-taking
open-ended

Add Likert Content-analysis

scale/True for qual. Add
Score values values for quan

NOTE: READ, READ, READ the question carefully and apply the scenario given when writing your answers. DO NOT MAKE STUDIES TOTALLY UNETHICAL (half marks only)!
 Correlation
Who  Sample characteristics:
(sample) o Number (only ONE for case study)
o Age range
o Sex distribution
o Any special characteristics (e.g. autism/etc.)
 Sampling technique:
o Either opportunity OR volunteer/self-selected
Where  Variable
(location)

When (time-  Variable

period)

What  Relationship word = correlational study

(measurement)
and  Collect quantitative data ONLY!
How (measuring o Self-reports - interviews or questionnaires…CLOSED-ENDED QS
device) o Observation - behavioral categories that are measured using a tally table
o Physiological test - some biological factor will be quantitatively measured

 Identify variable 1 and then identify variable 2 in the question

 Come up with quantitative measurements for each variable. Both variables can be measured using the same data collection technique (e.g., self-reports for both) OR
different data collection techniques can be used (e.g., self-reports for one variable and observations for the other).

 Data will be plotted on a scatter-diagram and then a positive or negative trend will be observed to find out the exact relationship

NOTE: READ, READ, READ the question carefully and apply the scenario given when writing your answers. DO NOT MAKE STUDIES TOTALLY UNETHICAL (half marks only)!
Specimen Paper 2024:

Dr Felix believes that adults between the ages of 55 and 65 cope less well with their job
regardless of whether they stay in the same job or change jobs. Dr Felix plans to use a sample
of adults aged 55 at the beginning of the study. She will re-contact the participants by
telephone as she has a record of each individual’s telephone number and will be following
appropriate ethical guidelines.

(a) Describe how Dr Felix could conduct a longitudinal study to investigate how well adults
between the ages of 55 and 65 cope with their jobs. Do not describe how Dr Felix would re-
contact her participants, the sample/sampling technique, or ethical issues/guidelines in your
answer.

Every year on December 20th, for 11 years, her participants will give their interview regarding
coping abilities in association to their jobs. Felix will be conducting a semi-structured interview
where she’ll have a few questions prepared and depending on her participants responses
she’ll adapt and ask more if need be. The interview will be conducted online over Zoom so
that even if her participants move states or cities etc. they don’t have to drop out of the study
and still can report back. Number of questions will range somewhere from 10 to 15. Examples
of questions are: “How old are you?”, “Have you changed your job since the last time we saw
you? Yes or No”, “Describe how difficult this year was for you professionally, and how you
handled it with its stressors?”, “On the scale of 1 to 10, from 1 being- extremely bad and 10
being- extremely good, how would you rate your relationship with your work
friends/colleagues”, “Describe, what were some of the highlights you experienced
professionally this year?”. The interview will take 45 minutes to an hour.

Felix will measure the responses using audio recording. To evaluate the responses she shall
be conducting a content analysis for Qualitative data and see how her participants' vocabulary
and viewpoint (positive or negative) regarding their job has changed over the years, and what
that says about how well they were able to cope. Scores will also be added up for Quantitative
data to help us in our analysis to find if coping has been healthy or not over the years for each
participant. The higher the scores on the quantitative data the better the participants will be
assumed to have been coping well. Some of these questions will be standard each year so a
comparison can be made over the years, others will be tailored to fit each participant's
circumstances to acquire adequate detail.
(b i) Describe one practical/methodological strength of the procedure you
have described in your answer to part (a). Do not refer to re-contacting the participants,
sampling or ethics in your answer.

One methodological strength of Felix’s study is the use of Quantitative data which will help
the researcher in making statistical comparisons between the participants' coping ratings at
age 55 compared to age 65. This will indicate what kind of impact/change they have
experienced over the duration of the study. An average can also be estimated to gain a figure
for how well this age range is at coping with their jobs.

(b ii) Explain why the feature of the procedure you have identified in (i) is a
strength. Do not refer to re-contacting the participants, sampling or ethics in your
answer.

The use of Quantitative data is a strength because it is a validated measure to acquire

participants responses regarding their coping behaviors. It does not leave room for
interpretation which minimizes subjectivity and enhances an objective outlook on coping. The
statistical comparison is a direct way of showcasing the gradual change we intend to see for
which we have conducted this longitudinal research.
S21/22: Q10

Seth is planning a study to investigate the communication and emotion in a family. The family
consists of a mother, father, grandmother and one son. They live in a remote house and do
not interact with other people often.

(a) Describe how Seth could conduct a case study to investigate the communication and
emotion in this family.

The sample for Seth’s case study is the family aforementioned consisting of 4 members (2
males and 2 females). The study contains a varied age range from the son being 18 years
old to grandmother of age 70. The study will take place in their home and will last for a year.
Valid consent will be obtained from all the family members to make the study ethical.

Seth can conduct a questionnaire to obtain responses about communication and emotion in
the family. The questionnaire will be 15 questions long and will contain both close- and open-
ended questions to obtain Quantitative as well as Qualitative data. It will be conducted every
3 months on the 1st of that month, meaning 4 times in the year to obtain ample data. This will
be a paper pencil task that will take 45 minutes up to an hour to complete. The examples of
questions are: On the scale of 1 to 10, 1 being- not comfortable at all and 10 being- extremely
comfortable, how comfortable are you talking to your family members?”, “Describe which
family member you go to when you are struggling with something in your life, and why?”, “On
the scale of 1 to 5, 1 being- not at all to 5 being- a large amount, how much privacy would
you say you have in your home?”, “In detail, explain how open you are to sharing your feelings
with the rest of your family?”, “Do you wish to always live in isolation? Yes or No”. The same
questionnaire will be filled by all members of the family.

The study will also contain an observational method of data collection. These observations
will be conducted daily for 10 minutes for the span of the 1 year. Seth along with a friend of
his should conduct these observations covertly so the family remains unaware of it. They can
install CCTV cameras in the house and go through the footage at any time of the day for 10
minutes. This will be a naturalistic, structured, non-participant observation. Since it's
structured, Seth will have a set of behaviors he will aim to observe. Examples are: number of
times one family member shouts at another, number of times they sit and have dinner
together, number of times they watch something on the TV, number of times one family
member hugs another member of the family etc. The behaviors will be measured using a tally
table and for inter rater reliability Seth and his friend will fill their own tables to do a correlation
check towards the end.

The scores will be added up for closed-ended questions to measure the responses of the
participants, the higher the scores the better the communication and emotion will be
presumed to be in the family. For the open ended questions, an in depth content analysis will
be conducted to see if over the duration of that study their outlook of communication and
emotion has changed as the months went by. In the end a triangulation will be conducted
using the data from both the observations and questionnaire to assess the communication
and emotion between the family. The questions and behavioral categories will remain
standardized for all months so a comparison can be made towards the end and an inter-rater
reliability check can be observed.
(b i) Describe one practical/methodological strength of the procedure you have described in
your answer to part (a). Do not refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

One methodological strength of Seth’s study is the use of Quantitative data in questionnaires
which will help the researcher in making statistical comparisons between the participants'
responses about communication and emotion over the months. The quantitative data
collected by observations helped ensure the reliability of our study as a correlation check was
conducted for inter-rater agreement.

(b ii) Explain why the feature of the procedure you have identified in (i) is a strength. Do not
refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

The use of Quantitative data is a strength because it is an objective measure to acquire

participants' responses regarding their subjective outlook on the family’s communication and
emotions. It does not leave room for interpretation which minimizes subjectivity and enhances
validity of the study. The statistical comparison is a direct way of showcasing the difference
in responses we intend to see for which we have conducted this longitudinal research.
S18/21; Q10.

Fajar has noticed that some of the younger children in her school believe their toys have
feelings but the older children generally do not. She wants to find out more about what
children believe and when beliefs change. She is planning to use a questionnaire.

(a) Describe how Fajar could conduct a study using a questionnaire to find out about the
children’s beliefs.

Fajar should recruit 60 children, equal number of males and females from the nearest school
in her locality making it an opportunity sampling. Half the students should be classified as
young which would be operationalized as 4-6 years old, whereas the other half would be
classified as old and would be ranging from 10-12 years. Consent would be taken from the
children’s guardians and their principal as well to make the study ethical.

Fajar should conduct the study in the school during break time and it would take
approximately 20 minutes to fill the questionnaire. The questionnaire should be a closed-
ended questionnaire which would be administered as a paper-pencil task in a quiet room in
the school. There should be 10 questions asked. Some examples of the questions to be
asked are ‘To what extent do you think your toy has feelings’, ‘To what extent do you think
your toy gets angry when you shout at it?’, ‘To what extent do you think your toy feels happy
when you take care of it?’, ‘To what extent do you think your toys know when you are sad?’
These questions should be measured using a child-friendly Likert scale from 1-5, 1
corresponding to not at all and 5 corresponding to almost always.

The answers on the Likert scale will be scored by adding them up and a higher number would
correspond to more agreement with the fact that toys have emotions.

(b i) Describe one practical/methodological strength of the procedure you have described in

your answer to part (a). Do not refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

One methodological strength of Fajar’s study is the use of Quantitative data which will help
the researcher in making statistical comparisons between the younger participants' and the
older ones about their belief in toys. This will indicate which age group is more likely to believe
in this idea.

(b ii) Explain why the feature of the procedure you have identified in (i) is a strength. Do not
refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

The use of Quantitative data is a strength because it is an objective measure to acquire

participants' responses regarding their beliefs about toys/inanimate objects. It does not leave
room for interpretation which minimizes subjectivity and enhances validity of the study. The
statistical comparison is a direct way of showcasing the difference in responses we intend to
see between the two age groups.
W18/22; Q10.

Dr Fox is planning a field experiment to investigate obedience in school children. Her aim is
to test whether they are more obedient to teachers who are dressed in informal or formal
clothes.

(a) Describe how Dr Fox could conduct a field experiment to test her aim.

Dr. Fox should recruit 60 students, an equal number of males and females, ranging from the
ages of 10-12 to take part in the study. As the sample would already be in their classrooms,
an opportunity sampling technique should be used. Consent would be taken from the
children’s parents as well as the school administration to make the study ethical.

The study should be conducted in two separate classrooms at the school, each having 30
students, and would last for approximately 45 minutes – the duration of one class lesson. The
independent variable in the study would be the dressing style of the teacher with two levels,
formal and informal. The same teacher would be teaching both the classes thus the sex of
the teacher would be controlled. When the teacher is formally dressed, he would be wearing
a suit. When he is informally dressed, he would be wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Since each
class, and therefore participants, is only exposed to one dressing of the teacher, the study
uses an independent measures design. An overt observation will be conducted by two
observers who will be introduced as new teachers in the school, called to observe the
students. They would be conducting a naturalistic, non-participant and structured observation
in the classroom using a predetermined list of behaviors to observe. Some behaviors on that
list would be the number of times students are talking to each other in class, number of times
they are raising their hands to ask a question, number of times they are out of seat and
number of times they are yelling at each other. Thus, these are the ways in which obedience
is operationalized and they form the dependent variable. A tally table will be used to measure
the frequency of each of these behaviors. Other controls to be used in the study would be
that the teacher would be teaching the same topic and in the same way across both the
classes and will be appearing to be in the same happy mood.

(b i) Describe one practical/methodological strength of the procedure you have described in

your answer to part (a). Do not refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

One methodological strength of Fox’s study is the use of Quantitative data which will help the
researcher in making statistical comparisons between obedience of students for teachers in
formal clothes compared to informal ones. The scores on the tally table will help determine
which dressing is more likely going to make students obedient.

(b ii) Explain why the feature of the procedure you have identified in (i) is a strength. Do not
refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

The use of Quantitative data is a strength because it is an objective measure to acquire

participants' obedience levels by their outward behavior. It does not leave room for
interpretation which minimizes subjectivity and enhances validity of the study. The statistical
comparison is a direct way of showcasing the difference in compliance we intend to see
between the two styles of dressing.
W19/23; Q10

Fazli wants to study the relationship between kindness and obedience. He is not sure whether
people who are more obedient will be more or less kind to others.

(a) Describe how Fazli could conduct a correlational study to investigate this relationship.
Your study must be ethical.

Fazli should recruit 60 people, equal number of males and females, ranging from 18 to 60
years of age, by placing an advert on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter. The advert will ask people to take part in a study on the relationship between
personality and general habits towards other people. Thus, Fazli would be using a volunteer
sampling technique to recruit people. Valid consent shall be obtained upon their arrival.

People would be asked to visit Fazli’s laboratory which will be housed in the basement of a
university, and this is the place where people will fill out questionnaires to measure the
mentioned variables in the study. The questionnaire will take approximately 30 minutes to
answer. Both the variables obedience and kindness will be measured using the same
questionnaire. The questionnaire will be a closed-ended questionnaire administered as a
paper-pencil task to people in the laboratory individually. The questionnaire will contain
roughly 20 questions, 10 each for obedience and 10 for kindness. Some examples of
questions to be asked for obedience would be: ‘To what extent would you listen to your
parents?’ ‘To what extent would you follow traffic rules?’ ‘To what extent do you listen to
people in positions of authority?’ and ‘To what extent would other people call you an obedient
individual?’. All of these questions would be measured using a Likert-type scale ranging from
1 (not at all) to 5 (all the time/extremely). In order to measure kindness, some examples of
questions are: ‘To what extent do you help others in need?’ ‘To what extent do you greet
strangers?’ ‘To what extent do you speak politely to people around you?’. These questions
will also be measured using the same Likert-type scale mentioned above - ranging from 1
(not at all) to 5 (all the time/extremely).

The answers on questions for obedience and kindness will be added separately and higher
scores means people are more obedient and/or kind. The data will then be plotted on a
scatter-diagram and then a positive or negative trend will be observed to find out the exact
relationship between obedience and kindness. In the end participants will be debriefed
regarding all the procedures of the study.
(b i) Describe one practical/methodological strength of the procedure you have described in
your answer to part (a). Do not refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

One methodological strength of Fazli’s study is the use of Quantitative data which will allow
the researcher to plot the scores on the scatter plot to observe the trend and relationship
between levels of obedience and kindness of people. This will help in inferring whether the
relationship is positive or negative.

(b ii) Explain why the feature of the procedure you have identified in (i) is a strength. Do not
refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

The use of Quantitative data is a strength because it is an objective measure to acquire

participants' obedience and kindness levels using numbers alone. It does not leave room for
interpretation which minimizes subjectivity and enhances validity of the study. The graphical
representation of this data is a direct way of showcasing the relationship we intend to see
between the two variables of the study.
M19/22; Q10

Jim is planning an observational study about the way people respond to facial expressions.
He intends to go to a train station and either smile or frown at people. He wants to see how
people respond to him.

(a)Describe how Jim could conduct an observational study at a train station to find out how
people respond to smiling and frowning.

Jim could conduct a naturalistic participant observation by appearing to be one of the

commuters at the train station. He could carry a backpack with him, hold a train ticket in his
hand and covertly observe commuters at the train station by walking around and faking
different facial expressions, thereby using opportunity sampling. He should observe 20
people, an equal number of males and females of diverse ages at the station. Jim should
observe each person for about a minute only so that he does not come across as harassing
someone. This would protect people from psychological harm and thus result in the
observation being partially ethical. For half the people that Jim observes, he should be smiling
at them while for the other half he should be frowning, making sure that his participants see
him. Jim should have a predetermined set of behaviors listed in his notebook that he would
use to record behaviors, thus using a structured observation. Some behaviors that Jim could
observe are the people’s reactions towards him such as number of times people make eye
contact, the number of times they smile and/or frown back at him, number of times they walk
away from him in fear, and number of times they cover their face with their hands. Jim along
with a friend of his should conduct this covert observation. They will be sitting opposite to one
another so as to not seem suspicious. The behaviors will be measured using a tally table and
for inter rater reliability Jim and his friend will fill their own tables to do a correlation check
towards the end and inter rater reliability will be assessed.

(b i) Describe one practical/methodological strength of the procedure you have described in

your answer to part (a). Do not refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

One methodological strength of Jim’s study is the use of Quantitative data which will help the
researcher in making statistical comparisons between the varied responses of the
participants towards Jim’s expressions. The quantitative data collected by observations also
helped ensure the reliability of our study as a correlation check was conducted for inter-rater
agreement. This helps in confirming that Jim didn’t miss out on any important behavior or
misinterpret it.

(b ii) Explain why the feature of the procedure you have identified in (i) is a strength. Do not
refer to sampling or ethics in your answer.

The use of Quantitative data is a strength because it does not leave room for interpretation
which minimizes subjectivity and enhances validity of the study. It gives us an objective
assessment of participants' response to a stranger's facial expression in a public setting. The
statistical comparison is a direct way of showcasing the difference in responses we intend to
see for which we have conducted this research.