Questions On Research Methods

1. Umar and Saira are conducting an experiment on revision strategies.

They are comparing students who revise alone and students who revise
with other people. They are testing the hypothesis that”revising alone is
more effective than revising with other people.”
Their teacher has told them that they are unlikely to find out anything
useful as there will be too many uncontrolled variables to produce
useful results.
a. Identify the IV and the DV in the experiment
b. Explain whether the hypothesis is directional (one-tailed) or
non-directional (two-tailed).
c. Umar suggests that one confounding variable could be that
students who work with other people find the company
motivating, so are able to work together.
i. Explain how this confounding variable could affect the result of
their experiment.
ii. Suggest how this variable could be controlled.
d. Saira suggests that another confounding variable could be that
students who work with other people find them distracting, so
work less effectively.
i. Explain how this confounding variable can affect the results of
the experiment.
ii. Suggest how this variable can be controlled.
e. A friend says that student ability could be an uncontrolled
variable. Umar and Saira hope that this will have a random effect
on their results. Explain whether there would be more or less
important than the uncontrolled variable that Umar and Saira
identified.
2. Alero is planning a study about the benefits that students gain from
doing non-academic work such as clubs, music, arts, sports or part-time
jobs. She is asking her friends for advice on how to obtain her sample.
a. Mosope says she should use an opportunity sample. Explain one
advantage and disadvantage of using opportunity sampling.
b. Tomike says she should use volunteer sampling. Explain one
advantage and disadvantage of using volunteer sampling.
c. Okiki says she should use random sampling. Explain one
advantage and disadvantage of using random sampling.
3. A hypothesis in a study says ‘Greater mindfulness will be achieved after
a period in mindfulness framing than after a period of waiting. ’
a. Is this an alternative hypothesis or a null hypothesis? Explain your
answer.
b. Is this a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis or non-directional
(two-tailed) hypothesis? Include a reason for your answer.

4. Mossy is conducting a self-report study about attitudes to people with

phobias. She cannot decide whether to use questionnaires or an
interview.
a. Suggest one strength and one weakness of using a questionnaire
for the study.
b. Write one closed question and one open question that Mossy
could ask.
c. Mossy is concerned that her interpretation of the responses to
questions might not be consistent. Is it mainly a reliability or
validity issue? Explain why?

5. Priya is planning an experiment to find out whether boys or girls in her

school doodle more/
a. Describe how she will conduct the experiment.
b. Identify one possible weakness/limitation with the procedure you
have described in your answer.
c. Suggest how your study might be done differently to overcome
the problem.