past exam questions

• Outline one reason why it was appropriate to conduct a correlation rather than an experiment in this case

  • it would be difficult to dictate the number of hours the students should sleep
  • it may be more ethical to conduct a correlation rather than restrict how many hours each student slept.
• Explain why the researcher decided to use 5% level of significance rather than the 1% level in this study

  • the 5% level of significance is the conventional level of probability employed by psychologists/balances the risks of making a Type I and Type II error
• Discuss features of science. Refer to one or more examples of psychological research in your answer

  A01:

  • objectivity and the empirical method
  • replicability and falsifiability
  • theory construction and hypothesis testing

  A03:

  • use of research studies/theories/approaches to discuss the features of science
  • difficulties of the subjective nature of psychological investigations
  • comparison of approaches to discuss features of science, eg Freud’s psychodynamic approach is unfalsifiable
• Explain why the researcher decided to use the 5% level of significance rather than the 1% level in this study

  • 5% level is the conventional level of probability employed by psychologists
  • Balances the risk of making a type 1 and type 2 error
• Outline one reason why it was appropriate to conduct a correlation rather than an experiment in this case

  • More ethical to conduct a correlation rather than restrict how many hours the students slept
• One ethical in this study is deception, as the students were unaware that the sleep data they could see on their phones had been manipulated by the researcher

  Explain one way in which the researcher might deal with the deception in this study

  • full debrief after the study that sleep data was manipulated by the researcher
• limitation of using volunteer sampling

  • one limitation is that the sample may be biased as the type of student who volunteers may have differing traits to the general population
  • For example, they might be more extroverted
• The study was written up as a scientific report. Describe features of the abstract section in a scientific report

  • First section of a report
  • brief summary/ 100-300 words
  • contains summary of aims, methods, results and conclusions