Biological Practical

• Aim : To see if there is a difference between attitudes towards recreational drugs dependant on age  
• Hypothesis :

  • As age increases the level of negatives views on drugs increases 
  • 15–20-year-olds will have significantly less negative views on the use of recreational drugs in comparison to 30-25 year olds 
  • As age increases negative perception increases (correlation)
• Sampling :

  • I used opportunistic sampling in which i used individuals in my free periods in my sixth form common room 
  • Less time to locate sample 
  • Little preparation  
  • Inevitably biased (low population validity) as sample is drawn from specific part of target population which has unique characteristics and is unlikely to be representative 
  • More likely to respond to demand characteristics  
  • I used (5) 15–20-year-old (sixth form students) and (5) 30-35 year olds (teachers) 

   
• Experimental design :

  • Independent Groups Design  
  • Semi-structured interviews  - same set of questions same order about drugs. Same order same questions standarised procedure can be repeated
• Procedure :

  • I interviewed each participant by themselves in an empty quiet room  
  • I used a range of closed questions and open questions  
  • Closed Question - ‘How dangerous do you think cannabis is, on a scale of one to ten?’ 
  • Improved by using less generic questions e.g., specifying long-term use of cannabis  
  • Open Question - ‘Do you think cannabis should be made legal?’ ‘What do you think the main reasons are why people take drugs?’ 
• Results :

  • I converted the quantitively/closed questions into averages and compared them between the age groups  
  • I did thematic analysis of the open questions 
  • I uses Spearman Rho’s statistical test to test the significance of correlation
• Generalisability :

  • A sample of only 10 people was used, meaning that anomalies may affect the results, therefore decreasing the generalisability  
  • The sample consisted of students and teachers; therefore, the sample is less representative as teachers may produce demand characteristics and social desirability answers, where students may be reluctant to give their true opinions in due to lack of confidentiality 
• Reliability :

  • Standardised procedure, which are easily replicated 
  • Same room 
  • Same questions asked 
  • Same number of questions 
• Validity :

  • Can produce demand characteristics to produce social desirability, for example 30–35-year-olds may feel obliged to give responsible answers to a 17yr old interviewer which may not be a true reflection on their view of recreational drugs  
  • Can produce experimenter bias, in which the interviewer only hears what they want to hear to prove their hypothesis correct   
  • Can produce observer effect  

   
• Ethics :

  If any participant under the age of 18 admitted to taking recreational drugs, I, as the experimenter, would be obliged to tell a higher responsibility for child protection issues, therefore I am unable to offer confidentiality to anyone below 18