1. LAQ: Evaluating a study
Review and method section

2. Starter activity: on your own
Research suggests that around 10% of the population are left handed. Design a study to compare two types of A-level student. You are aiming to see whether left handedness is more common in some subject groups, such as art students or scientists.
What type of experiment is this?
What is the IV?
What is the DV?
What is the level of measurement?
Which statistical test? Why?

3. Long answer questions Write a results section Design a study
Write a method section
Evaluating limitations of research and suggesting improvements

4. Review Identify which aspects of a study you could evaluate: 1. 2. 3.4. 5. 6.

5. Evaluating a study: task
What type of experiment is it?
What is the IV?
What is the DV?
What statistical test would be used and why?
Identify 3 elements of this study that you would evaluate.

6. Evaluating a study
A psychology student was asked to design an investigation to see whether taking exercise could increase feelings of happiness. She proposed to do an experiment. She decided to recruit a sample of volunteers who had just joined a gym, by putting up a poster in the gym. She planned to carry out a short interview with each volunteer and to give each one a happiness score. She intended to interview the volunteers again after they had attended the gym for 6 weeks and to reassess their happiness score to see if it had changed.
Explain one or more limitations of the student’s proposal and suggest how the investigation could be improved.
(12 marks)

7. Draw the table to fill in:
Problem
Description
How to overcome 1 2 3 4 5 6

8. Limitations
Sampling: volunteers, only a certain type of person may sign up to the study, those who are particularly happy or unhappy, or perhaps those motivated to use the gym, therefore the sample might not be representative of all gym users
Measurement of DV: DV (happiness) measured through an interview. Interviews are prone to demand characteristics and social desirability effects. Both of these could affect the internal validity of the measurement.
Measurement of IV: IV (exercise) is not operationalised. There is no attempt to specify the amount of exercise taken, frequency or intensity. These could vary substantially.
Investigator effects: as the student proposes to carry out the interviews herself, there is a likelihood of investigator effects
Lack of control group: no ability to assess happiness in a group who are NOT exercising
Validity of DV: competence, the student is unlikely to have received training to carry out interviews of this nature.

9. Overcoming limitations
Use a random sample of people in the gym – get a list of all people who have just joined the gym from the owners and put names in a hat and select relevant number of people to participate
Use a standardised happiness questionnaire to measure the DV.
Operationalise the IV by making it fully measurable – number of hours and minutes of exercise taken per week
An independent interviewer could be used to reduce bias.
Experiment could be modified to use an independent group design, with a control group who do not undertake an exercise programme
Get student to go on a course to receive training on how to interview Pts in psychological research

10. Extension task
Time yourself and write up the answer to the question (15 minutes)

11. Test: Exam Q (12 marks)
Design an observational study to investigate how people spend their time at the gym.
In your answer you will be awarded credit for providing appropriate details of:
• type of observation with justification
• operationalised behavioural categories
• use of time and/or event sampling with justification
• how reliability of data collection could be assessed.

12. Mark scheme LEVEL MARKS DESCRIPTION 4 10-12
Suggestions are generally well detailed and practical, showing sound understanding of observational techniques. All four elements are presented appropriately. Justifications are appropriate. The answer is clear and coherent. Specialist terminology is used effectively. 3
7-9
Suggestions are mostly sensible and practical, showing some understanding of observational techniques. At least three elements are presented appropriately. There is some appropriate justification. The answer is mostly clear and well organised. Specialist terminology is mostly used effectively. 2
4-6
Some suggestions are appropriate but others are impractical or inadequately explained. At least two elements are presented appropriately. Justifications are partial or muddled. The answer lacks clarity, accuracy and organisation on occasions. 1
1-3
At least one element is addressed but knowledge of observational techniques is limited. Justifications are absent. The whole answer lacks clarity, has many inaccuracies and is poorly organised.

13. Mark scheme Four elements of design to be credited:
• Type of observation with justification – e.g. covert or overt, naturalistic, participant or non-participant and why
• Operationalised behavioural categories – detail of at least two specific and observable behaviours to be recorded. This must go beyond the idea of global constructs such as exercising, socialising, use of other facilities
• Use of time and/or event sampling with justification – recordings can take place at specified time intervals (time sampling) e.g. every minute or as the behaviour occurs (event sampling) e.g. number of times interaction occurs with another gym member. The type(s) of sampling must be appropriate for the behaviours chosen
• How reliability of the data collection could be assessed, inter-observer reliability e.g. using two observers/raters and comparing separate recordings; statistical comparison (correlation) of data from both observers/raters, intra-observer reliability e.g. checking video recordings.

14. Example paragraph
The observation will be n____________; it will take place in the gym itself and be c_____ and non-p___________. The reasons for this are that the d______ gathered will have higher e________ v________ as participants will be in their own e______________ and so behave more n__________. A covert observation means that there will be a decrease in Pts r__________ as Pts do not know they are being observed, meaning fewer d________ c________________. In a non-participant observation, the observer may be more o__________ as they are not e___________ involved and can make n________ as the behaviours occur.

15. Examiner’s report
Students generally did reasonably well on this question. Types of observation were generally understood and justified. Weaker responses sometimes lacked detail. Behavioural categories were generally poor and operationalisation was rarely evident. Time/event sampling was often stated but for their use was absent or muddled. Confusion was often evident, particularly in relation to time sampling (often mistakenly presented as how long a behaviour lasted). Reliability was often covered well with detailed descriptions of inter-rater reliability given. However, test-retest was frequently suggested inappropriately as a way of assessing reliability and students confused the purpose of assessing reliability with ensuring reliability. Unfortunately, students frequently focussed on additional material, such as ethical issues, sampling of participants, etc., at the expense of covering all the bulleted requirements successfully. Furthermore, some students designed a complete study and a few wrote a whole report, including abstracts, statistical analysis, etc. However, these did not receive credit.

16. Homework
Revision of all Y1 and Y2 Research Methods for trial exam