Key term
AQA AS-Level Psychology 7182
Social Influence
Memory
Attachment
Topic overviewCaregiver-infant interactions: reciprocity and interactional synchronySchaffer's stages of attachmentMultiple attachments and the role of the fatherAnimal studies of attachmentExplanations of attachmentAinsworth's Strange Situation and types of attachmentBowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and effects of institutionalisationInfluence of early attachment on relationshipsCultural variations in attachment
Approaches in Psychology
Biopsychology
Clinical Psychology and Mental Health
Research Methods
Scientific Processes
Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Topic overviewQuantitative and qualitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniquesPrimary and secondary data, including meta-analysisDescriptive statistics: measures of central tendency and measures of dispersionPresentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar chartsDistributions: normal and skewed distributionsIntroduction to statistical testing; the sign test
Scientific Processes
- 12 subtopics
- 31 things to know
- Paper 2
What Scientific Processes covers
Scientific Processes covers how an investigation is designed, run and reported: aims and hypotheses, sampling, design and control, ethics, reliability and validity, and what makes psychology a science. This content sits within research methods and can be assessed on any of the three papers.
The 12 subtopics
Each one has its own page. AQA AS Psychology students sit this topic in the first year.
- Aims and hypothesesWhat an aim states, how a hypothesis differs from it, and the forms a hypothesis takes.Open →
- SamplingRandom, stratified, systematic, opportunity and volunteer sampling, how each sample is drawn, and the bias each one carries.Open →
- Pilot studiesWhy a small trial run is carried out before the main investigation, and what it is used to change.Open →
- Experimental designsRepeated measures, independent groups and matched pairs, what each does about participant variables, and what each costs.Open →
- Observational designBreaking behaviour into clearly defined categories before observing, and the contrast between event sampling and time sampling.Open →
- Questionnaire construction and design of interviewsOpen and closed questions in a questionnaire, and how structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews differ.Open →
- VariablesThe independent and dependent variables, and what separates a confounding variable from an extraneous one.Open →
- ControlRandomisation, counterbalancing and standardisation, and the order effects and inconsistencies each is used to prevent.Open →
- Demand characteristics and investigator effectsThe cues that reveal to participants what is expected, the ways a researcher can unintentionally shape results, and why both threaten internal validity.Open →
- EthicsThe ethical issues raised by research, the alternatives used when full informed consent is impossible, and how deception and the right to withdraw are handled.Open →
- Peer reviewWhat expert scrutiny achieves before publication, and the main weaknesses of the process.Open →
- Implications of psychological research for the economyHow psychological research feeds through into the economy, with examples of the effect.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What is random sampling, and what limits its use?
Process
Describe how a stratified sample is put together.
Key term
Describe systematic, opportunity and volunteer sampling, and the bias each carries.
Key term
Why is a small trial run carried out before the main investigation?
Key term
Compare repeated measures with independent groups on participant variables.
Key term
What does a matched pairs design achieve, and what does it cost?
Key term
Why must behaviour be broken into clearly defined categories before observing?
Key term
Contrast event sampling with time sampling.
Key term
Contrast open and closed questions in a questionnaire.
Key term
How do structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews differ?
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Which variable is manipulated, and which one is measured?
Key term
What separates a confounding variable from an extraneous one?
Process
How do researchers stop practice or fatigue favouring one condition?
Key term
Why is every participant given identical procedures and instructions?
Key term
What are the cues that reveal to participants what is expected?
Key term
How can a researcher unintentionally shape the results obtained?
Evaluation
Why do participant cues and researcher influence threaten internal validity?
Process
Name the alternatives used when full informed consent is impossible.
Process
How should misleading participants about a study be dealt with?
Process
What does expert scrutiny of research achieve before publication?
Evaluation
Give the main weaknesses of the peer review process.
Evaluation
How does psychological research feed through into the economy?
Process
How is the consistency of a questionnaire over time assessed?
Process
How is agreement between two people coding the same behaviour checked?
Key term
Distinguish face validity from concurrent validity.
Key term
What two kinds of generalisation fall under external validity?
Key term
Which features of science keep findings independent of the researcher's opinion?
Who and when
What did Popper argue separates science from non-science?
Who and when
What did Kuhn mean by a shift in a field's shared framework?
Process
Name the sections of a scientific report and what each holds.
Take Scientific Processes further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Reliability vs Validity
Reliability: consistency of a measure across occasions or across different observers. Validity: whether a measure captures the construct it claims to capture.
Opportunity sampling vs Volunteer sampling
Opportunity sampling: taking whoever happens to be available and willing at the time. Volunteer sampling: taking those who put themselves forward after seeing an advertisement.
Randomisation vs Random allocation
Randomisation: using chance for any aspect of a design, such as stimulus order. Random allocation: assigning each participant to one condition purely by chance.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is an aim in psychological research?
Model answer
A general statement of what a researcher intends to investigate or discover in a study.
- 2
Define the term 'hypothesis' in the context of research.
Model answer
A precise, testable prediction about the expected outcome of a study.
- 3
Why must a hypothesis be testable?
Model answer
So that the prediction about the relationship between variables can be empirically investigated and either supported or refuted by data.
- 4
How does an aim differ from a hypothesis?
Model answer
An aim describes the purpose or goal of research in broad terms, whereas a hypothesis makes a specific prediction about the relationship between variables that can be tested.
- 5
A researcher states: 'This study will explore whether sleep affects memory.' Is this an aim or a hypothesis? Explain why.
Model answer
This is an aim because it is a general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate, not a specific testable prediction.
- 6
What is a directional hypothesis?
Model answer
A hypothesis that predicts the direction of the difference or relationship between variables.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Scientific Processes revision questions
- Is Scientific Processes examined at AS in AQA Psychology?
- Yes. It sits in Paper 2, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
- What does Scientific Processes cover in AQA AS-Level Psychology?
- 12 subtopics: aims and hypotheses, sampling, pilot studies, experimental designs, observational design, questionnaire construction and design of interviews, variables, control, demand characteristics and investigator effects, ethics, peer review and implications of psychological research for the economy. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Scientific Processes organised?
- By the AQA 7182 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Scientific Processes, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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