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Question 1
Describe how ethical considerations can affect the procedure of a semi-structured interview.
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Question 2
Describe the features of an overt naturalistic observation that can make it an appropriate method for investigating behaviour without requiring participants to change their ordinary activities.
[4]
Question 3
Students conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate how adults manage rest during the working day. A workplace manager selected three employees and told them to attend interviews during their break. The students recorded each employee's name and responses, then included identifiable quotations in a presentation to the manager.
Explain the concept of responsibility in relation to this practical.
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Question 4
Students investigated how younger children take turns during an ordinary playground game. They selected four children who were present at lunchtime and observed them without telling the children or their parents. The students recorded video on a personal phone and uploaded named clips to a class discussion page.
Apply the concept of responsibility to propose changes to this practical.
[4]
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Question 5
Compare and contrast how ethical considerations can affect the procedures of a semi-structured interview and a true experiment.
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Question 6
A class piloted a semi-structured interview investigating adults' experiences of establishing a regular bedtime. Two adult volunteers responded to a notice at a community centre and were interviewed together while other visitors were nearby. The students asked about bedtime routines and made handwritten notes, but some responses could be linked to named family members.
Design an ethically appropriate procedure for a revised semi-structured interview investigating this aim.
[6]
Question 7
Compare and contrast the research methodology of an overt naturalistic observation and a questionnaire, including how participants' privacy can be protected.
[6]
Question 8
Researchers investigated how adults experienced returning to everyday activities after a physical injury. Eight adults responded to a recruitment notice displayed at a community rehabilitation centre. All had completed their treatment within the previous six months. The notice explained that participation would involve an individual interview about recovery and would not affect access to services.
Each participant attended a 40-minute interview in a private room. The researcher used the same opening questions but asked additional questions when participants raised unexpected experiences. Participants agreed to audio recording and were told that they could skip questions, stop the interview or request removal of their recording within seven days. The interviewer had previously provided treatment to three participants, although this professional relationship had ended.
Several participants became upset when describing activities they could no longer perform. The interviewer offered a pause and asked whether they wished to continue. All continued, and each received information about available support. Names were replaced with codes in the written records. However, descriptions of unusual injuries, occupations and local events remained because the researchers considered these details important for understanding recovery. Participants were not asked to review the quotations selected for publication.
The researchers reported that practical help and feeling listened to were recurring features of positive accounts of recovery. They also reported that participants who described limited support gave more negative accounts of their well-being. The report included a quotation describing a rare workplace accident and the participant's specialist occupation. The researchers concluded that rehabilitation services should give greater attention to social support, while acknowledging that the volunteers might not represent everyone recovering from injury.
Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: responsibility, bias, measurement and perspective.
[15]
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Question 9
Researchers investigated whether adults' sense of belonging changed during their first month in a community choir. Forty new members from four choirs volunteered after receiving an invitation from an independent researcher. Choir leaders were not told who participated. Members were informed that participation was optional, questions could be left unanswered and their decision would not affect choir membership.
Participants completed the same paper questionnaire before their first rehearsal and four weeks later. Each created a private code to match their two questionnaires without writing their name. They returned completed questionnaires in sealed envelopes to a collection box accessible only to the researchers. The questionnaire asked participants to rate agreement with statements such as “I feel accepted by people in this choir” using five response options from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
An optional final question asked participants to describe an interaction that had helped or harmed their sense of belonging. Instructions asked them not to name anyone. Several responses nevertheless identified other members through descriptions of their choir roles and specific conversations. These other members had not been recruited into the study. The researchers removed direct names but retained descriptions of roles when selecting quotations for their report.
Thirty participants returned both questionnaires. Their average belonging score was higher after four weeks. The ten who did not return the second questionnaire were not contacted because the researchers had collected no contact details. The researchers could not establish whether those participants had continued attending rehearsals.
The report concluded that joining a choir improved belonging and recommended choir participation to adults seeking new social connections. It included positive and negative quotations, identifying each speaker only by an invented name and choir number. Copies of the report were sent to the participating choirs, where members could read the quotations.
Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: responsibility, bias, measurement and change.
[15]
Question 10
A class piloted an overt naturalistic observation investigating how children of different ages manage shared materials during an ordinary craft activity. An activity leader selected six children who were attending a community club, and the students recorded every action in written notes. The notes included names and personal conversations unrelated to the aim, and one child asked not to be watched.
Design a revised observation procedure that addresses these ethical issues while investigating the same aim.
[6]
Question 11
Researchers investigated age differences in how adolescents seek assistance when completing unfamiliar practical tasks. They recruited 24 young people from a weekend youth centre: twelve aged 13–14 and twelve aged 16–17. Centre staff invited everyone attending two selected sessions. Parents or guardians gave permission, and the young people separately agreed to participate after receiving an explanation of the observation.
Participants completed an ordinary bicycle-maintenance workshop in groups of six, with age groups attending separately. The workshop leader demonstrated each task and remained available for help. Researchers sat at the side of the room and recorded requests for assistance. Participants knew they were being observed but were told that their individual records would not be shown to centre staff or parents. The researchers recorded seat codes rather than names and made no audio or video recordings.
A request for assistance was recorded whenever a participant directly asked the leader a question about completing a task. The same two researchers attended both sessions. Before the workshops, they practised using this definition and compared their records. They did not record help received from other participants.
During the younger group's workshop, one participant said that being watched made them uncomfortable and asked to stop taking part in the research. The researcher explained that the workshop remained open to them, stopped recording their behaviour and destroyed their existing observation sheet. The leader then reminded the group that anyone could make the same choice. No other participant withdrew.
The researchers reported that the younger participants made more direct requests to the leader than the older participants. Their report suggested that older adolescents were more independent. It acknowledged that participants knew about the observation, that one younger participant's records had been removed and that the workshops had taken place on different days.
Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: responsibility, measurement, bias and causality.
[15]
Question 12
Researchers investigated whether hearing irrelevant speech affected recall of written instructions. Thirty adults volunteered through a public library notice. They were told that the study concerned the clarity of instruction sheets and would involve reading, listening to ordinary sounds and answering questions. The information sheet stated that participation was optional and could be stopped without explanation, but did not reveal the comparison between speech and silence.
Participants were randomly allocated to two groups of fifteen. Each read the same instructions for assembling an unfamiliar storage unit for five minutes. One group heard a recording of an unrelated conversation through headphones; the other wore identical headphones without a recording. The conversation was played at a comfortable volume that participants checked before starting. Everyone then completed the same written recall task in silence. Responses were scored using a prepared answer key by a researcher who did not know the group allocations.
Immediately afterwards, participants received a written explanation of the actual aim and why the researchers had withheld it. They were told that knowing the aim might have changed how they approached the task. The researcher emphasized that the task did not assess intelligence or diagnose memory difficulties. Participants could ask questions and received a private code allowing them to request deletion of their responses within two weeks.
Three participants said that the initial explanation had been misleading. Two participants from the speech group subsequently requested deletion. Their records were removed before the results were summarized. No participant from the silent group requested deletion.
The researchers reported that the remaining speech-group participants recalled fewer instruction details on average than the silent-group participants. They concluded that irrelevant speech could disrupt recall under these task conditions. They also recommended that libraries provide quiet areas, while noting that following assembly instructions might differ from other everyday learning activities.
Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: responsibility, causality, measurement and bias.
[15]
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