Research Methods

Don’t forget… Research methods is worth double the marks of the other two sections on Paper 2. Up to 30% of the whole A Level!

What is an aim? The aim of a study or experiment is what you want to investigate or the purpose of your research. Aims should be written similarly to this; To investigate whether children have a better visual memory after the age of 5.

Putting it into practice A new energy drink called SpeedUpp has come on to the market. Psychologists want to find out if consuming the drink will affect the concentration of teenagers at school. Produce an aim for this scenario to narrow the focus of the investigation.

What is a hypothesis? This is a statement made at the beginning of a study and states the relationship between the variables being investigated. It must be a testable statement of the relationship between two variables. Putting it into practice: Write a hypothesis for our test of SpeedUpp.

Directional or non-directional? Or does it state their will be an significant result but the direction is not clear? Has your hypothesis only got one direction in it? Is it predicting a direct outcome?

When is each kind of hypothesis appropriate? Directional hypotheses are most appropriate when we already have evidence from previous studies that suggest a directed outcome e.g. males are the more aggressive gender so we may predict this in our study. Non-directional hypotheses are most appropriate when there is little evidence existing to suggest an outcome directly.

IV and DV The IV is the variable that is manipulated by the experimenter or naturally changes. The DV is what we are testing the effects of the IV on. What is a the IV and DV for our SpeedUpp study?

Levels/Conditions of the IV In order to test the effect of the IV we need different experimental conditions. We need to do this to make comparisons. Control condition (no manipulation) How could this be done in our SpeedUpp study? Two levels: drink SpeedUpp, do not drink speed up in either groups (IG) or as one group (RM)

Operationalisation To ensure that our hypothesis is quantifiable and testable. We must define our variables and make sure they are specific. How might we operationalise the hypothesis?

Can someone volunteer their hypothesis for this study? What more does it need? Can we make it a more scientific test? Discuss operationalisation

Aim: To investigate if the consumption of speedup (300ml) has an affect on the concentration levels at school. Hypothesis: Teenagers who consumed speedup at 300ml are more likely to have an increased concentration rate in comparison to teenagers who consumed the placebo at 300ml or no drink condition.

Teenagers who consume a 300ml bottle of speed up will attain greater scores in the test.

‘Writing hypotheses’ sheet

Taking hypotheses a step further Directional hypotheses: aka one-tailed, alternative. Non-directional hypotheses: aka two-tailed, alternative Null hypotheses: Statement that any results found are not significant and due to chance.

Lets test you! Are the following hypotheses one-tailed/directional (1), two-tailed/non- directional (2) or null (3)? 1.People studying the words in silence will be able to remember more than people listening to music. Mini whiteboard quiz or use fingers (1,2,3) Directional

2. There will be no difference in recall between people who study the words in silence and when listening to music. null

3. There will be a difference in recall between people who study the words in silence and when listening to music. Non-directional

4. Boys score differently on aggression tests than girls Non-directional

5. Students who have a computer at home do better in exams than those who don’t. directional

6. There will be no difference in the amount of words recalled from picture or written sources.

Eye on the exam A group of Psychology students are undertaking their first research project investing altruistic behaviour. They want to investigate whether passers by are more likely to stop and help a person who appears drunk and injured, or an elderly lady who appears injured. Write a non-directional hypothesis that would be suitable for this study ( 2 marks) Identify the independent variable and the dependent variable (2 marks) a) Operationalised for full marks. There will be a difference in the LENGTH of time and frequency of altruistic behaviours of participants when passing by a homeless man and an elderly lady. b) IV- the appearance of the confederate, DV- the length of time an individual stops and helps.

Bringing it all together

Pair task TASK: Come up with your own research proposal using what you have learned today. If you could find out anything psychological what would it be? Write an aim and operationalised hypothesis for your proposal. Justify the type of hypothesis you have chosen. State the IV and DV. Ext: Begin to think about how you would set up your investigation. Write down your suggestions.