1. AS Level Psychology Research Methods Toolkit Name: Tutor group:
New CIE Spec (9990)
AS Level Psychology
Research Methods
Toolkit
Name:
Tutor group:

2. Specification
Use the grid below to check off when you have covered the material AND when you have revised it for your exams:

5. Exam Information CIE Psychology (9990)
In the course you will sit two papers at AS Level and two papers at A Level:
AS Psychology
Paper 1 Approaches, issues and debates: 1 hour 30 minutes (50% of AS Level)
Paper 2 Research Methods: 1 hour 30 minutes (50% of AS Level)
A Level Psychology
Paper 3 Specialist options: theory (Abnormality and Organisations): 1 hour 30 minutes (25% of A Level)
Paper 4 Specialist options: application (Abnormality and Organisations): 1 hour 30 minutes (25% of A Level)
Assessment Objective
What is it?
Examples
A01
Knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and evidence
Accurately describing a study/theory
Correct spellings
Concepts are defined
Knowing the date of a study (and is the study relevant today?)
A02
Apply theories, concepts, evidence and research methods to a range of issues
How does the knowledge relate to the question?
Linking content/connectives
Your writing makes sense!
Provide a balanced argument
A03
Analyse and evaluate theories, concepts, evidence and research methods to make judgments and draw conclusions
Weigh up arguments
Which view is strongest?
Avoiding list like discussions

6. The Research Process
A psychologist will generally conduct research by going through the following steps:
Develop an aim and hypothesis
Select a research method (and if doing an experiment, an experimental design – more on these later!)
Definition of variables used and an understanding of how to control them
Consideration of ethics
Select participants
Analysis of data and draw conclusions
Evaluation of research – if done again, would anything be changed?
To find out more about the research process, watch the following video: Crash Course – Research and Experimentation

7. Experiments
These are one of the most common ways that research is conducted in psychology and through the use of experiments, researchers are investigating cause and effect/causal relationships, i.e., if you change something will it have an effect on something else!
So let’s do an experiment!

8. Variables
Typically, a piece of psychological research will have a research aim such as to investigate the impact on listening to music on ability to recall information for a test. A research aim provides an overall purpose of a piece of work and will contain broad statements about the potential outcomes.
In an experiment the researcher will identify the independent and dependent variable.
Define the following key terms:
Independent variable:
Dependent variable:
Researchers must ensure that they ‘operationalise’ the variables for their research and this means putting them into a measurable form. Here is an example:
IV = Alcohol as measured in units
DV = Reaction times as measured by how fast a person hits the screen when they perceive a hazard on a driving simulator.
How would you operationalise the following?

9. Identify the Independent Variable (IV) & Dependent Variable (DV) in the following statements:
Participants who have drunk 4 pints of beer will perform worse on a co-ordination test than those who have drunk none.
Pupils at Snotty School pass more IGCSE’s than pupils at Sink School.
There will be a difference between genders (males and females) in their scores out of 25 on a memory word list test.
In a memory test participants show words and images will recall more, than those just shown words.
Extroverts go to more parties than introverts.

10. Hypotheses
You may have noticed that the statements above look like examples as hypotheses, which they are! A hypothesis is a statement of intent or a prediction for an experiment.
In experiments the psychologist first puts forward an alternative or experimental hypothesis; this is the statement they wish to test and this can be written in different ways due to the nature of the experiment:
Directional (one-tailed) hypothesis: this is a statement predicting the direction of a relationship between variables.
Non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis: this is a statement predicting that one variable will be related to one another but it won’t state in which direction.
Null hypothesis: this simply states that the results obtained were due to chance and not the independent variable that the researcher changed or the situation that they engineered.
Using the example from earlier related to alcohol and reaction time:
Alternative or experimental hypothesis: Alcohol will increase reaction times on a driving simulator (this would be an example of a directional/one-tailed hypothesis).
Null Hypothesis: Any effect of alcohol on reaction times is due to chance OR there will be no difference between the effect of alcohol on reaction times on a driving simulator.
Go back to the previous page and re-write the statements as null hypotheses…

11. An experiment on teaching rats
An experimenter noticed that some of her laboratory rats twitched their whiskers whenever their food was brought into the laboratory. She decided to test whether she could teach rats to twitch their whiskers when she flashed a light. First she measured the exact amount of whisker twitching that went on when the food was brought in. Then she flashed a bright light on/off just before each meal. The rats soon started to twitch their whiskers when they saw a light.
What are the TWO independent variables being controlled here?
What is the dependent variable and how is it measured?
Write a suitable alternate or experimental hypothesis for this experiment.

12. The control of variables
There are other factors that can affect the outcome of an experiment (the DV) and these are known as extraneous variables (think, extra things!).
Read through the following information about the control of different variables and make notes in the table that follows:
1. Situational variables
These are outside influences that could affect an experiment such as time of day, weather, noise, the type of room the experiment takes place in and so on.
For example, if you were trying to test a person’s ability to complete a jigsaw puzzle on their own as compared to when in competition with someone else. If the experiment took place at the end of the day, the person could be tired and therefore unable to perform to the best of their ability. Another situational variable could be the noise in the room where the experiment was done.
One way to control for situational variables is through standardisation, where all participants receive the same instructions for the experiment as well as the experiencing the same procedures, scoring and even the environment will be identical.

13. 2. Participant variables
Participant variables are individual differences between participants that can include IQ, age and personality, which could affect their behaviour in a study and therefore affect the IV.
A researcher can do little to control these, but careful selection of participants can reduce these. Repeated measures designs eradicate participant variables, but lead to order effects. Matched pairs designs minimise participant variables, but even twins have some differences that could be significant.
Order effects such as practice, boredom and fatigue often occur when a participant is asked to undertake a task more than once (e.g. the control and experimental condition in a repeated measures design experiment – you will learn more about this in the next section).
Order effects can be reduced in a couple of ways:
Counterbalancing – this would be used in a repeated measures
experimental design. The researcher changes the order of the tasks for each participant or uses the ABBA technique. For example, in an experiment testing the effect of alcohol on reaction times, half of the participants would be tested first without alcohol and then with A and then B) and the other half first without alcohol and then with (B and then A).
Watch the video to find out more about how counterbalancing is conducted:
Random allocation - the order of tasks, presentation of data and so on is decided on the toss of a coin or another random method of selection to control for order effects.

14. 3. Demand characteristics: these are when participants may work out the aim of a study and this can affect their behaviour, for example, they may try to please the researcher by providing socially desirable (social desirability) answers. A single blind test could be used to help overcome this. This is where participants have no idea which condition of a study they are in. In drug trials, a participant would not know whether they are given a real drug or a placebo (sugar pill).
4. Investigator effects: these are the ways in which researchers may unwittingly/unconsciously influence the results of research and this can occur in several ways:
Physical characteristics of the investigators such as age and gender.
Accent or tone.
Investigators may be unconsciously biased in their interpretation of data and find what they expect to find.
A double-blind test could be used to reduce this. This involves neither participant nor investigators knowing which condition participants are in. In the above example, the researcher would also not be aware which pill is the placebo or the real drug.
There is one other type of extraneous variable that can affect an experiment are these are called confounding variables (think, confusing, as in they confuse the experiment). These are variables there were either not taken into account when establishing controls for the experiment or would be difficult to control for.
Remember the example earlier on about whether drinking alcohol affects your driving reaction time? And perhaps the group that were given alcohol to drink before the test scored better than the control group (who didn’t drink alcohol before the test), how could we explain this?
Well, it could be due to other factors that weren’t taken into account when planning the experiment such as the age of the participants, social background could be have played a part or even history of alcohol use.

15. What is it? Provide an example
The control
What is it? Provide an example
Way to overcome it
Other notes
Situational variables
Participant variables
Demand characteristics
Investigator effects

16. Why is it important that the IV and DV are operationalised?
A group of psychology students investigate recall for different types of information. It was hypothesised that there would be a difference in recall between PPTs who learnt 20 words and those who learnt 20 images. An advert was placed in the school’s termly newsletter informing parents of a memory test to be held at the Year 12 parents’ evening. On the night it was decided that the first 20 volunteers would be given two minutes to learn 20 words, while the following two minutes to learn 20 images (mirroring the words in the other condition). After the learning period volunteers were asked to recall as many items as possible in any order (free recall). No time limit was set for recall. Once PPTs had finished the aim was explained and they were thanked for their time.
Aim: statement of intent
Hypothesis: predicted outcome
Dependent variable: variable that the researcher measures
Independent variable: variable that the researcher manipulates
Standardised procedures: elements of the experiment that were the same for each PPT
Extraneous variables: ‘extra’ variables to the IV that should be controlled to avoid their impact on the DV
Ethical considerations: issues that might impact on PPTs well-being and how to deal with them
Why is it important that the IV and DV are operationalised?

17. Experimental Design
Most experiments compare two groups of participants; an experimental condition (where you ‘manipulate’ something) and a control condition(this is what you compare your results against). There are three ways of assigning participants to groups:
Repeated Measures Experimental Design
Description
Image
Advantages
Disadvantages
Ways of dealing with the disadvantages (counterbalancing)

18. Independent Groups Experimental Design
Description
Image
Advantages
Disadvantages
Ways of dealing with the disadvantages (random allocation)

19. Matched Pairs Experimental Design
Description
Image
Advantages
Disadvantages
Ways of dealing with the disadvantages

20. Laboratory experiment
Types of Experiment
There are three types of experiment: laboratory, field and natural.
Laboratory experiment
This method provides the psychologist with the highest level of control. The experiment takes place in a controlled environment and this controls for situational variables.
Field experiment
The main criticism of laboratory experiments is that they do not reflect real life. Field experiments try to rectify this problem by carrying out research in a natural environment.
Natural experiment
These could be described as not a true experiment as the researcher is unable to manipulate the IV. Any changes in the IV would occur without the experiment happening. For example, children’s attention could be measured on very dull and very bright days, when the amount of light in the classroom differed even with the lights turned on. The DV could again be measured with a class test.

21. Complete the table for an evaluation of the types of experiment using chunky PEE paragraphs:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Laboratory
One strength of using laboratory experiments in psychological research is that it allows a researcher to have control over all possible extraneous variables such as temperature of a room.
Field
Natural

22. Ethics in experiments
You will learn more about ethics later on in this booklet, but you need to be aware of and understand some of the ethical issues around the use of experiments:
Informed consent: to achieve informed consent, the researcher should provide details of the research aims, the methods used (and why), the use of the results (including their publication) and the conclusions once the research has been completed. In some cases, it may be necessary to deceive participants and reduce demand characteristics.
Right to withdraw: participants should be allowed to leave the experiment at any time (before it has started and during).
Confidentiality: the data produced an experiment should be kept secure and participants should be able to maintain anonymity (to do this they may be given a number or an alias/false name).
Privacy: in a laboratory experiment questions asked of the participants are likely to be pre-planned so that sensitive issues are avoided or considered in advance. It is more difficult to plan for this in field or natural experiments.

23. Self-Report Surveys Questionnaires and Interviews Type Definition
Surveys and self-report studies involve asking participants questions. These can be written in the form of a questionnaire or asked in an interview.
There are two main types of questions used in self-report surveys and are associated with particular types of data:
Type
Definition
Example
Open questions
Open-ended questions allow participants to elaborate on their answers and give more detail. They generate qualitative data, however the data is difficult to code or analyse.
How much alcohol do you drink a week?
Closed questions
These types of questions force participants to choose an option. They are easy to analyse and generate quantitative data, but lack detail.
How many units of alcohol do you consume in an average week?
Less than 10
Between 10-20
Between 20-30
More than 30
Note: one unit = half a pint of beer, small glass of wine
In some cases, you may want to find out the strength of someone’s opinion. To do this, you may use a likert scale and participants are asked to rate their feelings on a particular topic using a scale. This type of data generates quantitative data. For example…
What is a problem with the wording of this question also?
Psychology is the best subject ever, how much do you agree?
Answers and then graded 1-5 or ‘Strongly agree’ – ‘Strongly disagree’ to facilitate statistical analysis. Sometimes filler questions may be used to avoid demand characteristics.

24. Questionnaire Interview
Produce a questionnaire that will collect both quantitative data and qualitative data. It can be about a topic of your choice (within reason!)
You can produce this using an online form or write/type out your questions
Your questionnaire must have at least 10 questions
You need to be able to produce a set of results from your questionnaire and draw conclusions from your findings
Whereas questionnaires are always structured, interviews can be structured, unstructured or semi-structured:
Structured: these have pre-determined questions (much like a questionnaire) and can be delivered face-to-face, over the phone, via Skype and there is no deviation from the questions.
Semi-structured: these have a mixture of structured and unstructured questions and it will produce both quantitative and qualitative data.
Unstructured: this has less structure and may consist of some pre-determined questions and some questions may build on previous answers.
For the following statements, use two different colours to identify whether the statement is a strength or a weakness of a questionnaire or interview:
Questionnaire
Interview
They can be easily distributed to a large sample relatively quickly and cheaply.
They are only completed by people who can read and write AND spend time filling them in. This can mean that the sample lacks validity.
Respondents may be more willing to share personal information than in an interview as the questionnaire may be anonymous and this may also reduce social desirability bias (wanting to give the right answers to look good!)
People may lie on questionnaires or try to give a socially desirable answer. This affects the validity of the research. To help avoid this, a researcher may use filler questions.
They are relatively quicker to analyse.
Questionnaires generally only produce quantitative data.
It may be difficult to draw an accurate sample and therefore the sample may lack representativeness and the data cannot be generalised.
In all cases of interviews, the interviewer effect may inadvertently (or deliberately) influence the answers that the interviewer gives.
Structured interviews can be easily repeated (like questionnaires and) are therefore quicker and cheaper than other forms of interview.
In unstructured interviews, the interviewer needs to be highly skilled to be able to develop answers on the spot. Therefore, unstructured interviews are likely to be more expensive than structured interviews.
Unstructured interviews produce more qualitative data that can provide more insights into the way that someone is thinking and feeling.
Comparability may be a problem if the interviewer acts differently in different interviews (which could lower reliability).
Some of the questions in an unstructured interview may lack objectivity due to their spontaneous nature.

25. Case Studies
These involve a detailed study of an individual, event or an institution and it uses information from a a range of sources; including the person concerned, colleagues, friends and family. A number of research methods may be used such as observation and interviews. They are often also longitudinal in nature (i.e., they take place over a long period of time – sometimes decades!)
You will be examining a few case studies throughout the course, including one by Saavedra and Silverman (2002) who examined the specific phobia of buttons (koumpounophobia) in a child.
Using your textbooks and your own knowledge, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using case studies in research?
Strengths
Weaknesses

26. Observations
These involve a researcher watching or listening to participants engage in a piece of research. In some cases the researcher may observe directly or the behaviour may be recorded for later viewing.
There are a few different types of observation that may be used in research. Match the types with the definitions:
Watch the video, you are a psychologist conducting an observation:
Group one: record everything you see in any way that you please
Group two: use the coding sheet provided to record what you see
Review:
What comparisons can be made from the findings between the two groups?
What conclusions can be drawn from the observation you carried out?
What were the strengths of the observational design you carried out?
What problems did you experience when carrying out the observation?
Considering the strengths and limitations you have identified, what comments can be made about the validity of the data collected?
(Who dunnit?)
(Dancing gorilla)
(Strange Situation)

27. Controlled (structured) Naturalistic (unstructured)
There are many different types of observation that may be used in research. Match the type with the definition:
Observation type
Explanation
Controlled (structured)
A researcher who watches from the perspectives of being part of the social setting
Naturalistic (unstructured)
A study in which the observer records only a limited range of behaviours
Overt
A researcher does not become involved in the situation being studied, e.g., by watching through a one-way mirror or be keeping apart from the social group of participants
Covert
A study usually conducted by watching the participants behaviour in their normal environment without interference from the researchers
Participant
A study in which the observer records the whole range of possible behaviours, which is usually confined to a pilot stage at the beginning of a study to refine the behavioural categories to be observed
Non-participant
A study conducted by watching the participants behaviour in a situation in which the social or physical environment has been manipulated by the researchers

28. When conducting an unstructured observation the observer should record as much as they can to ensure that they can describe the behaviour in as much detail as possible. However, in some situations continuous observation may not be possible or effective so one of two methods is used:
1. Event sampling: this is where a researcher counts the number of times a certain behaviour (event) happens for an individual/group, such as counting the number of times someone smiles in a 5 minute period.
Behaviour
Frequency
Smiling
////////////
Eating
//////
Crying
/////////////////
2. Time sampling: this is where behaviour is recorded in a given time frame, such as noting how many times someone smiles every 20 seconds. In this case, the researcher may tick one or more categories from a checklist.
Behaviour
1 min
2 mins
3 mins
4 mins
5 mins
6 mins
Smiling //
/// /
Eating
Crying
The following should help provide you with some examples of event and time sampling and when they should be used:
For the previous observation, group one completed an unstructured observation and group two completed a structured observation.

29. What would you do? Consider how you might observe and justify this:
Your aim is to study the interaction between members of football hooligan gangs over the course of a football season:
Your aim is to investigate the relationships between teachers and boys in a classroom setting:
Your aim is to observe the body language of TV presenters on daytime TV when interviewing:
Your aim is to observe the conduct of doctors with patients in order to rate ‘how good they are’:

30. Complete the evaluation of the different types of observation:
Strength
Weakness
Controlled (structured)
Naturalistic (unstructured)
Overt
Covert
Participant
Non-participant

31. Positive correlation +1 Negative correlation -1
Correlations
Correlations look for a relationship between two continuous variables. This is not to say that one thing causes another, simply that one thing varies in accordance with another. In a correlational study variables are simply measured, no deliberate change is made. Therefore, no conclusion can be made about one co-variable causing the other. Casual conclusions are a special strength of (laboratory) experiments.
Psychologists have suggested a correlation between watching TV violence and aggressive behaviour, this does not suggest that TV violence causes aggressive behaviour, but simply that there is a relationship between them.
What other variables might cause aggressive behaviour?
Correlations are shown on scatter graphs. Correlation co-efficients tell us about the strength of the relationship. A co-efficient of +1 is a perfect positive correlation, a -1 is a perfect negative correlation and a 0 is no correlation.
Sketch these three graphs below:
Positive correlation +1
No correlation 0
Negative correlation -1

32. Correlations Strengths
They are useful for investigating trends in data. If a correlation is significant then further research is justified.
The procedures can be easily repeated, which means the findings can be confirmed.
Weaknesses
There could be a misinterpretation of the results from one researcher to another.
Intervening variables could explain why the co-variables being studied
Correlation in action!
Research has shown that there is a relationship between stress and illness for nurses.
What do the two graphs tell you about the link between work and illness?

33. Sampling
In any study the researcher cannot study everyone and so therefore they need to identify a sample from the population. The target population is the group of people that they are interested in researching and once the research is conducted then generalisations can be made.
Your task is to experiment with the different methods of sampling, using M&Ms as your participants. You will create each of your five sample types, recording the number of each colour sweet you obtain in your sample and the percentage. Thereafter, you will evaluate your samples, based upon how representative your sample is in relation to the target population.
To work out your target population, tip out ALL of the sweets of the bag and record how many of each colour there are:
Colour
Tally %
Red
Blue
Orange
Green
Brown
Yellow
Total

34. Random sampling: pick out 15 sweets at random and record how many of each colour you get:
Tally %
Red
Blue
Orange
Green
Brown
Yellow
Total
Opportunity sample: tip out the first 15 sweets from the bag. These are the people who are available and willing to take part in your research. Record the results in the table below:
Colour
Tally %
Red
Blue
Orange
Green
Brown
Yellow
Total
Stop check! Does your sample represent your target population? Can you explain any variations?

35. Volunteer sample: imagine that someone put a poster up at school asking for participants to self-select and take part in your research. You’ll have to imagine that ‘green’ M&Ms are the most helpful and willing to take part, followed by ‘yellow’. The orange, red and brown won’t take part! You are still looking to recruit 15 participants, but if you can’t manage to get 15, you’ll just have to run your experiment with as many participants as you can. Record the results in the table below:
Colour
Tally %
Red
Blue
Orange
Green
Brown
Yellow
Total
Stop check! Does your sample represent your target population? Can you explain any variations?
From your original sample, calculate/identify the following measures of central tendency (more on these later) :
Mean:
Mode:
Median:

36. For each method of sampling, complete the evaluation considering the strengths and weaknesses:
Random sampling
Opportunity sampling
Volunteer sampling

37. Ethics
Ethical issues refer to conflicts about what is acceptable in research. Everyone involved in a piece of research, including the participants, should be aware of the research aims and procedures for example. Although there are some cases where a researcher may not disclose the true intentions of the research, as you will discover from the studies we cover in this course!
Watch the clip of Derren Brown – consider what might be ‘wrong’ with the study?
Starter: Asch study re-create
The British Psychological Society (BPS) has a code of ethics that all researchers must stick to when conducting psychological research. It is their professional duty to follow them, failure to do so may result in loss of reputation or career.
Usually ethics committees in institutions and universities will use a cost-benefit approach to determine whether research proposals are ethically sound to go ahead.

38. Ethical issue Description
Ethical guidelines related to human participants
Match the ethical issue to the description:
Ethical issue
Description
Informed consent
This a study where a participant is not told the true aims of a study
Deception
This is where personal information from one person is protected in the research, one example to protect this is through the use of fake names/use of a number instead of the participant’s real name
Right to withdraw
A person has the right to control the flow of information about themselves
Protection from harm (physical and psychological)
Participants are aware that they can leave a study if they feel uncomfortable at any point. Participants should also have the right to refuse permission for their data to be used if the results of research are published
Confidentiality
During the research, participants should not experience negative physical or psychological effects, such as injury or embarassment
Privacy
This is where a researcher provides comprehensive information about a study to the participant, including research aims and procedures. Once a participant receives this then they can make a fully informed decision about whether to participate or not

39. Ethics Task: Look at the following brief descriptions of studies
Ethics Task: Look at the following brief descriptions of studies. What are the ethical principles at these studies violate?
Study
Ethical issues violated
Why the violation? Was there a purpose for the violation?
In a busy subway, a person collapses bleeding from the mouth. The person is a confederate of the experimenter and the event is staged. Bystanders are covertly observed to see if they help and how long they take to help. An investigation into bystander responses to emergency situations.
Baby monkeys reared in complete isolation for two surrogate ‘mothers’; one a wire structure with a plastic face, and the other a wire structure but covered with terry towelling. This study is investigating the nature of mother-child relationships.
Rats are given electric shocks to the brain after they have learnt a maze to see how this affects their memory of the maze.
Electric shocks administered to homosexuals as they view photographs of clothed and naked males. An investigation into the treatment of ‘sexual deviations’.
A hidden observer in a men’s toilet records the time taken before participants begin to urinate and the time they take urinating. A confederate of the experimenter either stands in the next stall to the subject or one stall away. An investigation into the effects of invasion of privacy.
Fact or Fiction?

40. Ethics Mnemonic Review of ethical issues
Can Confidentiality (and Privacy)
Do Deception
Can’t Consent (Informed)
Do Debrief
With Right to Withdraw
Participants Protection of Participants
Review of ethical issues
Issue
How to deal with it
Limitations
Informed consent
Participants are usually asked to read (or have it read to them) and then sign a formal agreement to participate in research.
An alternative is to gain presumptive consent. This is where you ask a group of people from the target population if they would agree to take part in the research. If they say yes, then we can presume the sample would also.
Giving participants full informed consent may invalidate the purpose of the study. It also does not guarantee that the participants know what they have let themselves in for.
Deception
In some cases, studies that require participants to be deceived can be approved by ethics committees (where the costs are weighed up by the benefits).
Participants should be fully debriefed at the end of the research and participants have the opportunity to discuss any concerns. They then have the chance to withhold their data from being used – this is a form of retrospective informed consent.
Cost-benefit decisions are flawed as they involve subjective decisions.
Right to withdraw
Participants should be able to do this at any point in the study.
Participants may feel that they shouldn’t withdraw because it may spoil the study.
In some studies, participants are paid/rewarded to participate and may not feel able to withdraw.
Protection from harm (physical & psychological)
Risks should be avoided and the study should be stopped if any harm is suspected.
Harm may not be apparent during the study itself and only judged after.
Confidentiality
Researchers should not record the names of participants
It is sometimes possible to work out who the participants were using information that was provided, such as location.
Privacy
Do not study anyone without their informed consent unless it is conducted in public.
There is not universal agreement of what constitutes a public place.

41. Ethical guidelines relating to the use of animals
Sometimes it is necessary to use non-human in psychological research. This could be due to the type of procedure a researcher wishes to carry out or it could be useful in its own right.
The British Psychological Society Guidelines for Psychologists Working with Animals (2012) provides guidelines on how research should be conducted when using animals to avoid harm or stress. The means should justify the ends, i.e., the benefits of the research outweigh any suffering.
Bateson developed this cube design to develop an understanding of when the certainty of benefit (to humans) is high, the research is good and the suffering is low, the research is worthwhile.
A researcher should consider the following things before using animals in their work:
Replacement
Can alternatives be used? What about previous studies or computer simulations?
Species and strain
The species and strain chosen should be the least likely to feel pain/distress. Has the animal been brought up in captivity, what about previous experimentation? What about the sentience of the species (ability to think and feel)?
Number of animals
Only a minimum of animals should be used. To help ensure this, a pilot study with reliable measures should be used.
Anesthesia, analgesia & euthanasia
Animals should be protected from pain (e.g., surgery) with appropriate anesthesia (painkillers) and analgesia (numbing), and killed if in long term pain (euthanasia).
Procedures (pain and distress)
Research that could cause pain and distress (and death!) should receive daily care.
Housing
Isolation and crowding can cause distress as well as their environment being clean. They should also have enough food and water. If possible, a natural environment should be re-created.
Rewards, deprivation and aversive stimuli
If a form of deprivation is used in the research, this should be carefully reviewed frequently. The use of alternatives should be considered to deprivation as well as for aversive stimuli (punishment).

42. What was the purpose of the experiment?
Watch the film about one of the most famous/infamous (depending on how you look at it!) experiments in psychological history and answer the following questions:
What was the purpose of the experiment?
What ethical issues did the study break?
How could the violation of ethical issues have proved useful for the study?
Zimbardo’s work has had many effects both in the world of psychology and beyond, describe some of these:

43. Evaluating Research Tea/coffee making instructions
When conducting research, a psychologist will try to address any ethical concerns as well as methodological issues (whether the methods used in the research are appropriate in terms of the research studied itself).
Two significant aspects to this are whether the methods used in research are reliable and valid. To help find out more about these we need to write down how to make a cup of tea or coffee (whatever your preference):
Tea/coffee making instructions

44. Reliability
Reliability refers to the consistency of a research study or test. For example, if you were to weigh yourself in the morning you would expect that you would weigh the same later in the day. However, if your weight fluctuated significantly then we could argue that the scales are not reliable.
This can be assessed in two ways:
Inter-rater/observer reliability: this refers to whether the results of different researcher produce similar results. One way to ensure that a study has high inter-rater reliability is to ensure that procedures are standardised, researchers have sufficient training and/or practice through a pilot study (this is where researchers carry out a small-scale trial to test any aspects including questionnaires, recording techniques and then improvements can be made.
Test-retest method: this involves measuring the stability of a test over time. Participants may be given the same test on two different occasions. If the same or similar results are obtained then a study has high external reliability.
Validity
The term validity refers to how true or legitimate something is as an explanation of behaviour. Psychologists wish to ensure that their study has face validity; does it test what it is supposed to? As otherwise, the test would be invalid.
You will have seen the term demand characteristics before and this refers to participants understanding the true purpose of a piece of research and potentially (consciously or not!) changing their behaviour. Therefore this would lower the validity of the study. To avoid the issue of demand characteristics, a researcher may hide the aim of the work to ensure it doesn’t affect the results or carry out the work outside of a laboratory setting (where people are more likely to change their behaviour).
Generalisability
A problem with conducting research outside of a laboratory setting is that the study will be lower in ecological validity. This is the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised to settings outside of the one studied. This is also influenced by whether the situation (like a laboratory) represents the real world effectively and whether the task is relevant to real life (it has mundane realism).
The greater number of ways a test has been shown to be reliable and valid, the more confident we can be when using it as a research tool and the confident we can be about our results and conclusions.

45. Write your own definitions for the following key terms – some of them you will need to find out for yourself:
Validity
Reliability
Generalisability
Inter-rater/observer reliability
Test-retest method
Face validity
Ecological validity
Historical validity
Demand characteristics
Order effects
Mundane realism

46. Data Analysis Data Type Quantitative Qualitative Strengths Weaknesses
In psychology, data may be presented in a number of ways but this will depend on the type of data collected (quantitative or qualitative).
Hopefully, you remember much of the content for this section from IGCSE Maths! You will not be required to carry out any calculations in the exam BUT you do need to be able to name, recognise, and in some cases draw and interpret data.
Types of data
When psychologists conduct research, they will collect data from quantitative or qualitative sources (or in many cases both).
Data Type
Quantitative
Qualitative
Strengths
Weaknesses

47. Measures of central tendency
These inform us about central (middle) values for a set of data. They are ‘averages’ and can be calculated in different ways:
Mode: the most frequently occurring value
Median: the middle value when scores are arranged in descending order
Mean: the arithmetic average (add up the scores and divide by the number of scores)
Measures of spread/dispersion
A set of data can be described in terms of how dispersed or spread out the data items are:
Range: the difference between the highest and lowest item in a set of data. Usually 1 is added to balance out the bottom and top values.
Standard deviation: this shows the amount of variation in a data set. It assesses the spread of data/difference between the data points and the mean. This is called the deviation. As the SD tells us the spread of the group, groups with scores that are more spread out have larger SDs, groups with closely clustered scores have smaller SDs. When the SDs of two groups are similar, this means they have a similar variation around the mean.
SD not possible due to small sample
Gather all of the shoe sizes for students in the class and work out the following:
Mean =
Median =
Mode =
Range =
Standard deviation =

48. Distributions of data
Normal distributions: intelligence is said to be normally distributed throughout the population. In other words, the majority of people would ‘fit’ within the middle whilst extremities would be at either end. This means that if you plotted everyone’s IQ on a graph you would get a bell-shaped curve. The average IQ is 100 (mental age/chronological age x 100 e.g., 17/17 = 1 x 100 = 100), most people’s IQ is between 70 and 130. Height and weight can also be said to be normally distributed throughout the population.
Characteristics of a normal distribution curve, also known as a bell-shaped curve (or a Gaussian curve):
It is bell-shaped
It is symmetrical
The mean, median and mode all fall on the same central point
The two tails never touch the horizontal axis
As well as normal distributions, curves can be positively skewed or negatively skewed.
It is important that graphs and tables are simple and easy to read:
They should show the findings from a study
There should be a title
Both axes should be clearly labelled – remember the x-axis goes across the page!
In the case of bar charts, histograms and scatter-graphs the x-axis usually contains the IV and along the y-axis usually contains the frequency

49. Use your knowledge of measures of central tendency and other learning within this unit to complete the following activity:
Aim: To investigate age differences and conformity.
Sample: Placing an advert ins a local school newsletter led to a volunteer sample of 10 Year 7 students and 10 teachers (aged over 25).
Procedure: During a specified break time students and teachers met in a quiet classroom to complete the questionnaire. Participants sat on separate desks so as not to see responses from other participants and were given the whole break time (20 minutes) to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire asked participants to identify how they would act in a range of hypothetical situations with choices ranging from non-conformist to high levels of conformity. A high score indicated a high level of conformity (max score 50).
Findings:
Participant
Year 7 pupils
Teachers 1 34 40 2 19 27 3 39 4 21 22 5 37 6 46 7 35 31 8 20 28 9 42 10 38 23
Mean
Median
Mode
Standard deviation
10.80
8.39

50. Calculate the measures of central tendency
Calculate the measures of central tendency. What problems can you identify with these calculations?
Identify the operationalised IV
Identify the operationalised DV
Write a non-directional hypothesis for this study
What do the standard deviations tell us about the data in the two conditions?
What conclusions would you draw from the data you have calculated?

51. Graphs
Graphs are pictorial presentations of data. They should be chosen to enable the data to be displayed in the most effective and clear way possible. All diagrams must be fully labelled and care must be taken to select an appropriate scale so the data is not in any capable of misrepresentation. All graphs should be accompanied by a sentence or two of explanation.
Bar chart: this is a graph that is used to represent the frequency of data. The categories on the x-axis have no fixed order and there is no true zero.
Histogram: this is a type of frequency distribution where the scores in each category of continuous data is represented by vertical columns. There is a true zero and no spaces between the bars.
Scatter-chart: a correlation can be illustrated using a scatter chart. For each individual we obtain two scores which are used to plot one dot for that individual – the co-variables determine the x and y position of the dot.

52. Use the following data to create a bar chart – ensure that you include an appropriate title and label the axes:
Children in family
Frequency 8 1 11 2 17 3 4 5

53. Space for notes:

54. Space for notes:

55. Space for notes:

56. Additional resources: Observation task
For those students allocated to group two, use the following behavioural categories (coding sheet) to what behaviours you observe for the children:
Tally
Total
Cry
Laugh
Playing
Grand total

57. Create your own study!
Using all of this research methods knowledge that you now have (!) your task is to design and carry out a piece of research.
Your research must incorporate key aspects that we have covered in this unit:
Research aim/hypothesis (remember there are directional/non-directional and null hypotheses)
Your research needs to be designed appropriately (consider variables, do you have a IV/DV? And are they operationalised? If you want to conduct an experiment, what is the experimental design? What is your sample?)
Data collection
Analysis of the results and reach conclusions
Share your findings with the scientific community… in other words, our class!
Remember that this needs to be an achievable piece of research, i.e., you actually do need to conduct it!
What could you research?
For example… you could investigate whether there is a link between listening to music and the ability to retain information (think: revision!)