AQA Psychology A Level – Research Methods: Practice Questions

By Sheila Thomas

This book will be a great help to the A Level Psychology student. It gives lots of opportunity to practice those all-important Research Method skills which examiners like to see. 
It covers all the main Research Methods: Experiments, Observations, Interviews, Questionnaires, Correlations as well as Case Studies, Longitudinal Studies, Cross-sectional Studies and Content Analysis. The questions are all written in the style students can expect to be faced with in the exam and come with detailed answers and useful tips for remembering key points. 
The book can also be useful to teachers who can use the book as a source of questions which could be set in class or for homework to give students every change to improve their Research Method skills. Experience shows that these skills help students with the rest of their course, by improving their evaluation points when commenting on published research studies.  
Being good at Research Methods is the key to doing well in Psychology and this book gives students the practice they need to achieve that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Feb 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781800467897

Sheila Thomas

Sheila Thomas has been a spiritual seeker all her life. She sought guidance in religious communities, with a spiritual director, on retreats, engaging in spiritual disciplines, and in being inspired by others in her life. This story is a distillation of what she has come to know.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Dr Sheila Thomas

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Matador

9 Priory Business Park,

Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,

Leicestershire. LE8 0RX

Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador

Twitter: @matadorbooks

ISBN 978 1800467 897

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Section 1 Experiments

Question 1

Answers

Question 2

Answers

Question 3

Answers

Question 4

Answers

Question 5

Answers

Question 6

Answers

Section 2 Observations

Question 1

Answers

Question 2

Answers

Question 3

Answers

Question 4

Answers

Question 5

Answers

Question 6

Answers

Section 3 Self Report – Interviews and Questionnaires

Question 1

Answers

Question 2

Answers

Question 3

Answers

Question 4

Answers

Question 5

Answers

Question 6

Answers

Section 4 Correlations

Question 1

Answers

Question 2

Answers

Question 3

Answers

Question 4

Answers

Question 5

Answers

Question 6

Answers

Section 5 Other Research Methods

Case Study – Question 1

Case Study – Question 2

Case Study – Answers

Longitudinal Studies – Question 1

Longitudinal Studies – Question 2

Longitudinal Studies – Answers

Cross-Sectional Studies – Question 1

Cross-Sectional Studies – Question 2

Cross-Sectional Studies – Answers

Content Analysis – Question 1

Content Analysis – Question 2

Content Analysis – Answers

Section 6 Procedure Writing

Procedure Writing

Example of a procedure for Experiments – Question 1

Example of a procedure for Observation – Question 1

Example of a procedure for Self Report – Question 1

Example of a procedure for Correlations – Question 1

Final Words

Some final words of advice …

Introduction

Introduction to Practice in Research Methods

Dear Student,

Welcome to Practice in Research Methods for AQA A Level Psychology.

This book is designed to give students the practice they need in answering Research Methods questions at A level. It may also be helpful to Psychology undergraduates who are starting out on a degree course without having Psychology A level.

It is of course, vitally important to really understand the research theory first and this can be found on my website thepsychologyschool.com. Getting on top of this, will also help you to develop those all-important evaluation skills which are essential to studying Psychology at a high level. By understanding the theory behind different methods, you will be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in the methods which psychologists have used and review their results critically in the light of this.

The four main Research Methods in Psychology are: experiments, observations, self report and correlations and this book focuses on those as these are the areas where most exam questions are asked. Occasionally, the examiners like to see if you have mastered the whole syllabus and they may include questions on the lesser used methods such as case study, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and content analysis. For this reason, some short questions on these methods have been included in the book.

Lots of students become very worried about statistical analysis and a few have even confessed to me that they didn’t realise statistics were involved when they decided to do A Level Psychology! There really is nothing to worry about! I always tell students that if you can bake a cake from a recipe, you can do a stats test!

We are mainly interested in what the outcome of the test means and this can be learned with a few easy memory tricks to help you keep it in your head.

The way to get really good marks on Research Methods questions is to do lots of practice questions. You will be surprised how much easier they become once you have gone through a few. Remember too, that there are 35 marks available on the A level for answering one of these questions and they can also be embedded in other questions throughout the rest of the course. It is really worth your time and effort to get really good at this!

If you would like to see my resources on this or any other topic in A Level Psychology, please visit my website thepsychologyschool.com.

Wishing you lots of success!

Dr Sheila Thomas

Section 1

Experiments

Question 1

It is thought by some people that caffeine may have a positive effect by improving perception.

A team of researchers decided to test this claim by using a computer which displays an arrangement of 7 dots on the screen. The length of time the dots are displayed for can be varied using the computer keyboard.

The researchers recruited 10 participants for a control group and 10 participants for an experimental group. The experimental group is given 2 cups of strong caffeinated coffee to drink, 10 minutes before being tested. The control group are given 2 cups of decaffeinated coffee. Each participant is then seated in front of the screen and the dots are displayed for 10 milliseconds (ms). The participants are asked to say how many dots are shown on the screen. If the participant cannot do this, the exposure time is increased by 10 ms each time, until the correct answer is given.

None of the subjects are told whether they have been given caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.

The results for each group are shown below. The times in ms indicate how long it took each participant to give the correct answer.

An unrelated t-test was applied to these results and a value obtained of t = -0.098

For a two-tailed test at p<0.05, with 10 participants in each group, the observed value needs to be