NBP16 CENTRE

A-level Psychology

Summer Task

Please complete and submit by your first lesson in September.

NAME:______

THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF MIND

AND BEHAVIOUR

Research is at the heart of psychological study given its scientific approach. All ideas about human thought and behaviour must be subjected to testing to provide evidence for the value of those ideas and to establish new conclusions.

No human behaviour is taken for granted in Psychology.

Psychologists use a number of research methods to test their ideas.

Your job is to identify and learn about these methods so you start your A-level Psychology studies with a sound grounding in how research is conducted and used in Psychology.

Two useful resources to help you with the following tasks are

and

(Username: SCOTHAM password: STUDENT)

1

SOME KEY TERMS

Match each key term with the correct definition and write them out in the spaces provided.

EXPERIMENT
OBSERVATION
SELF REPORT TECHNIQUES
QUESTIONNAIRES
INTERVIEWS
CORRELATIONS
TARGET POPULATION
GENERALISATIONS
KEY TERM / JUMBLED DEFINITIONS
The entire group the researcher is trying to finds out about through testing just participants. These participants must be representative of the entire group for generalisations to be possible.
A set of WRITTEN items to assess a person’s thoughts and experiences. Can be OPEN or CLOSED responses
A research method in which an INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (I.V.) is changed/manipulated across a number of conditions and its effect on a DEPENDENT VARIABLE (D.V.) is measured.
The extent to which findings and conclusions can be applied/spread to the entire TARGET POPULATION
Any method in which a participant is asked about their thoughts, opinions, behaviours and experiences.
A live, face-face (or on the phone) encounter with a respondent. Questions could be STRUCTURED, SEMI-STRUCTURED or UNSTRUCTURED.
A mathematical technique in which two CO-VARABLES are measured to see if they are associated with each other.
Watching participants and recording what they do. This can be naturalistic of controlled.

3

Take each of the 6 methods and decide whether that method adopts a QUANTITATIVE and/or QUALITATIVE way of analysing research findings. Justify your choices (say why you think that).

RESEARCH
METHOD / QUANTITATIVE
AND/OR
QUALITATIVE / JUSTIFY YOUR
DECISION

5

Describe TWO advantages and TWO limitations of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

TYPE of RESEARCH METHOD / TWO STRENGTHS / TWO
LIMITATIONS
QUANTITATIVE / 1.
2. / 1.
2.
QUALITATIVE / 1.
2. / 1.
2.

Find and describe a piece of research that used QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS (eg an experiment in psychology) and give two strengths and two limitations of that study.

______

Find and describe a piece of research that used QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS (eg a case study in psychology) and give two strengths and two limitations of that study.

______