Researchers investigated whether disagreements about household tasks contribute to conflict between adults who live together. They recruited 90 households through notices displayed in community centres. Two adults from each household agreed to complete separate questionnaires once a month for four months. Households could include partners, relatives or unrelated adults. Responses were submitted privately, and participants were asked not to compare their answers before completing each questionnaire.

At the first assessment, participants listed their usual household tasks and estimated the time spent on them during the previous week. At every assessment, they rated how fair they considered the division of tasks and reported how many disagreements they had experienced with the other participant during the previous seven days. A disagreement was described as an exchange in which both people expressed opposing views. Participants also reported changes in paid employment, caring duties and household membership.

The researchers did not ask anyone to change their arrangements. They compared each household’s reports across the four assessments. Where the two adults gave different accounts of fairness or disagreement frequency, the researchers averaged their answers to produce a single household score. Twenty households stopped responding before the final assessment. Most did not provide a reason; four reported that completing the questionnaires had led to arguments.

Among households completing all assessments, lower perceived fairness at one assessment was often followed by more reported disagreements at the next. However, some households first reported more disagreements and subsequently reported lower fairness. Households experiencing changes in employment or caring duties frequently reported changes in both measures. The researchers’ summary emphasized that unfair task arrangements caused conflict. They proposed that encouraging households to divide tasks equally would improve relationships, although participants had not been asked whether equal task time was their preferred arrangement.

Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: causality, measurement, change and/or perspective.

Researchers investigated whether playing with children of different ages helps younger children cooperate. They studied two nearby primary schools whose headteachers agreed to participate. One school was introducing shared playground periods for children aged five to eight. The other continued separate playground periods for each age group. The schools chose their arrangements independently of the researchers. Parents gave permission, and children were told that researchers would watch playground activities but that they could ask not to be observed.

From children with permission, the researchers randomly selected 24 five-year-olds at each school. During the two weeks before the new arrangement began, each child was observed for three ten-minute periods. The observations were repeated six weeks later, at the same time of day. Researchers recorded offers to share equipment, invitations to join a game and assistance given to another child. These actions were combined into a count described as a cooperation score.

Observers stood at the edge of each playground and knew which school had introduced shared periods. During the initial observations, two observers independently recorded the same sessions and usually produced similar counts. Later observations were completed by one observer at a time. At the school introducing shared periods, teachers also added playground equipment and began reminding children to include others. The second school made no comparable changes.

The average cooperation count increased at the school with shared periods and remained broadly similar at the other school. Observers noted that older children often organized games and invited younger children to participate. Some younger children watched these games without joining them. Researchers concluded that contact with older children caused improved cooperation among five-year-olds. They recommended shared playground periods nationally, noting that no serious injuries had occurred during the observation sessions. They did not collect children’s accounts of how comfortable they felt in the new arrangement.

Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: causality, bias, measurement and/or responsibility.

Researchers investigated whether feedback influences students’ willingness to continue working on unfamiliar problems and whether this depends on problem difficulty. They recruited 80 adult students through college notices. Participants received the same payment regardless of performance. After completing six introductory problems, they were randomly allocated to four groups of 20. Each group completed either easier or harder problems and received one of two forms of feedback.

The problems involved arranging coloured tiles according to printed rules. Both sets contained twelve problems and allowed fifteen minutes of working time. Easier problems required applying one rule; harder problems required coordinating three rules. Participants in one feedback condition received the message “Your approach is improving; keep trying” after every third problem, regardless of their answers. Participants in the other condition received only a message stating how many problems they had completed. Messages appeared automatically, and everyone received the same initial instructions.

After the required session, participants could choose to attempt up to eight additional problems of the same difficulty or leave immediately. Researchers recorded how many additional problems each participant attempted. Participants also rated how capable they felt of solving tile problems before and after the session. The researcher supervising the session knew each participant’s assigned conditions. No assessment was conducted after participants left.

For easier problems, students receiving the encouraging message attempted more additional problems on average than those receiving completion information. For harder problems, students receiving the encouraging message attempted fewer additional problems on average. Several students in the harder-problem group said that the message did not match their experience. Capability ratings also showed different patterns across the four groups. The researchers concluded that encouraging feedback could help or hinder continued effort depending on task difficulty. They suggested that teachers should adapt feedback to the difficulty students experience, but acknowledged that the study involved a single short session.

Discuss this study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: causality, measurement, change and/or bias.