A Level Psychology
Transition Pack
2016
Contents:
Psychology summer research instructions
Example assessment questions
Information to help with the summer research
Recommended Reading
Recommended videos and other media
Psychology Summer Research
You will be assessed on this in September
Any problems, email: [email protected]
Part One: Lab experiments in psychology
Find out what each of these terms mean and practice identifying them in actual research:
 Lab experiment, Independent Variable (IV), Dependent Variable (DV), operationalising variables, extraneous
variables, confounding variables, control of variables, experimental and null hypotheses, directional (one-tailed)
and non-directional (two-tailed) hypotheses, experimental and research designs (repeated measures,
independent groups and matched pairs)
 Challenge! Try these terms too: counterbalancing, randomisation, order effects and demand characteristics
Here are some URLs to get you started:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/experimental-method.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/variables.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/experimental-designs.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/aims-hypotheses.html
Part Two: A survey to answer the research question: Is there a difference between
males and females in prejudice towards immigrants in the UK?
First: Plan your survey
1. You must construct a questionnaire with 4-6 questions which:
 must include at least two 'Likert Scale' questions to produce quantitative data
 must include at least one open question to generate qualitative data
2. You must be able to explain how you kept within these British Psychological Society (BPS) ethical
guidelines: Consent, Deception, Right to Withdraw and Debrief

For details on the ethical guidelines go to: www.simplypsychology.org/Ethics.html or to the BPS website
3. You must clarify and be able to explain:
 Your alternative hypothesis (what do you expect to find? Why do you expect this to happen?)
 Have you chosen a directional or non-directional hypothesis (either is fine)
 Your null hypothesis (this is the prediction that there will be no difference between genders)
 A consideration of the problem of ‘socially desirable’ answers
 A consideration of ‘response bias’ and how you might overcome this in the design of your Likert
Scale questions
 A consideration of ‘demand characteristics’ and how you might overcome this by using
‘distracter’ questions which you do not use but make the aim of your survey less clear
Second: Carry out your survey
1. You must decide on a target population
 This could be a target area (eg People in Dursley) or a target age-group (eg, 16-18 year-olds)
2. You must decide on your sampling method (opportunity or volunteer) and be ready to explain its
strengths / weaknesses
3. When you have planned the questionnaire and got your sample, carry out your survey
 Aim for at least 10 participants: 5 males and 5 females
Third: Analyse your results
1. Calculate three measures of central tendency for each gender (mean/median/mode)
 To do this you need to generate a ‘rating scale’ from your Likert Scale questions by allocating
points from 1-5 depending on the response chosen by the participant (eg ‘Strongly Disagree’ = 1,
‘Strongly Agree’ = 5)
2. Calculate two measures of dispersion for each gender (range and standard deviation)
3. Analyse the qualitative data using thematic analysis, also known as ‘content analysis’
4. Decide on the key conclusions you can make from your results
5. Decide on whether the results are in line with your alternative or your null hypothesis
These are the types of question you will be assessed on in September
1. Explain two ethical guidelines you had to consider when carrying out your survey and how you dealt
with them (4)
2. What was the alternative hypothesis for your survey? (2)
3. Explain what ‘social desirability’ is in self-report data and how you tried to overcome this (3)
4. Explain the sampling method you used in your survey and give one weakness of it (4)
5. Explain how you analysed the quantitative data from your survey (4)
6. Suggest one improvement you would make if you could carry out the survey again (3)
7. Evaluate your survey in terms of validity (3)
8. Evaluate your survey in terms of replicability and reliability (3)
9. Evaluate your survey in terms of generalisability (3)
10. Explain how you analysed the qualitative data in your survey (3)
11.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
A researcher conducted a lab experiment into the effect of classical music on cognitive functioning. She had 40
participants from a secondary school who are asked to complete a simple maths test as quickly as they could. 20
of them completed the test with classical music playing and 20 complete the test in silence. Her prediction is that
the group who are exposed to classical music will complete the test faster than the group who are in silence.
Identify the Independent Variable (IV) and Dependent Variable (DV) in this study (2)
How has the researcher operationalised the variable ‘cognitive functioning’ in this study? (2)
Identify one confounding variable from this study and suggest a way it could have been controlled (4)
Did the researcher use a directional (one-tailed) or non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis for this study? (1)
What is the experimental design (also known as ‘participant design’) of this study? (1)
[Answers for question 11 are at the end of this pack]
Later on, the external exam will have longer questions of up to 20 marks, like these:

Juries are used in criminal trials to determine an individual’s guilt or innocence. Juries can be influenced by factors other than
the evidence presented. On 2nd September 2014 at a Crown Court in England two trials were proceeding. The first was of a
24-year-old female fashion model. The other was of a 64-year-old businessman. They have both been accused of assaulting
their respective partners. Assess how characteristics of these defendants may affect the judgements of the juries during these
two criminal trials. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (16)

Applications in psychology include clinical psychology, criminological psychology, child psychology and health psychology.
Assess how psychology could be used as a form of social control, with reference to any two of these applications. (20)

Some terms and information to help with your survey
Target Population: the group of people you are interested in finding out about. This could be general like,
‘People in the UK’ or quite specific like, ‘Rednock 6th Formers’ or ‘Teenagers in the UK aged 16-17’
The ‘Sampling Method’ is the way you choose people to complete your questionnaire. There are two
types of sampling method you should consider for your questionnaire:
Opportunity Sampling: consists of taking the sample from people who are available at the time the study is carried out. This may
simply consist of choosing friends and family, or the first 20 students in your school canteen. It is a popular sampling technique as
it is easy in terms of time and therefore money. However opportunity sampling can produce a biased sample as it is easy for the
researcher to choose people from their own social and cultural group. This sample would therefore not be representative of your
target population as you friends may have different qualities to people in general. The problem with being unrepresentative is that
it means you cannot be sure that your results will generalise to your target population.
Volunteer sampling: consists of participants becoming part of a study because they volunteer when asked or in response to an
advert / email. This also quick and relatively easy to do. It can also reach a wide variety of participants. However, the type of
participants who volunteer may not be representative of the target population as they have to have access to the advert and they
are the type of person who is willing to respond. Again, this means the sample is likely to be unrepresentative of your target
population
Likert Scale Questions
This type of question has two parts:
1. It starts with a statement
2. Then asks participants to choose one option along a scale from ‘Strongly Disagree’ to ‘Strongly Agree’
Note: this part is always a
statement, not
a question
Most migrants come to the UK in order to make use of our benefit system
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Don’t know
Agree
Strongly Agree
Very few migrants come to the UK in order to make use of the benefit system
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Don’t know
Agree
Strongly Agree
Notice how the same person would be forced to give different responses based on
the statement you set – mix questions up like this to avoid ‘response bias’
Thematic Analysis:
The ‘data’ here is the qualitative data from the open questions in your
questionnaire
Look across the responses to your open question(s) from all your
participants and find two or more pattern or theme in what people are
saying (eg ‘Concern that immigrants will take British jobs’) These themes
are your ‘coding units’
Once you have your themes, go back through the data and count the
number of times anyone says something which relates to each theme.
Which theme is most common?
Some terms and information to help with your survey:
Generalisability / Validity / Reliability of Questionnaires

Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of
information from a large sample of people. This is good as a large sample is likely to be more
representative of your target population so you can be more confident about generalising your results.
However, the sampling technique will also affect this.

A key problem with questionnaires is that respondents may lie, which means the data is not valid. This
could be due to:
a) Social desirability: Most people want to present a positive image of themselves and so may lie or
bend the truth to look good, e.g. pupils would exaggerate revision duration.
b) Demand characteristics: This is where people guess the aim of the questionnaire and start to
respond in a way they think the researcher is expecting them to.
c) Response Bias: If a set of closed questions a worded so that the respondent is forced to choose
‘Strongly Agree’ for the first few questions they may slip into simply choosing this option for all the
subsequent questions without really reading them.
d) Researcher effects: if you stand with the respondent while they fill out the questionnaire, you may
affect the way they answer the questions. For example, your presence may increase the likelihood
of socially desirable answers compared with someone filling out a questionnaire anonymously in
their own home and posting it back to the researcher.
An important distinction is between the use of open and closed questions in questionnaires.
Closed Questions and Quantitative Data


Closed questions structure the answer by allowing only answers which fit into categories that have been
decided in advanced by the researcher. Data that can be placed into a category is called nominal data.
The options can be restricted to as few as two (e.g. 'yes' or 'no', 'male' or 'female'), or include quite
complex lists of alternatives from which the respondent can choose.
o Strengths: The questions are standardised and objective – no interpretation is needed to
analyse the answers (for example, ‘70% of respondents answered ‘Yes’ to question one’ is
objective as it is a fact, not a subjective opinion). This means closed questions are like to be
reliable (‘reliable’ means that the results are consistent when the survey is carried out again on
a similar group of people). Anyone replicating the questionnaire to test its reliability will be able
to analyse the results in the same way as previous researchers, so they are more likely to come
up with consistent, reliable findings than if there were open questions.
o Weaknesses: They lack detail. Because the responses are fixed there is less scope for
respondents to supply answers which really reflect their true feelings on a topic. This means
they may be less valid than open questions.
Open Questions and Qualitative Data

Open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words, enabling the respondent to
answer in as much detail as they likes in their own words. For example: “can you tell me how happy you
feel right now?”
o Strengths: Rich, qualitative data is obtained as open questions allow the respondent to
elaborate on their answer improving the validity of the data.
o Weaknesses: Interpretation of the qualitative data from open questions involves subjective
interpretation by the researcher, for example different researchers might come up with different
categories when analysing the qualitative data using content analysis. This means open
questions less reliable than closed questions.
Quantitative Data Analysis
A worked example so get an idea of the process you should use when alanysing the quantitative
data from your survey
Qualitative Data Analysis
a worked example so get an idea of the process you should use when alanysing the qualitative
data from your survey
Recommended Reading
This is a good, clear course text for the whole two years. There will be class sets available as
well as copies in the LRC and the 6th Form Atrium but you could consider getting your own
copy if you like to have a reference book at home to support you throughout the course.
Edexcel AS/A Level Psychology
Karren Smith
ISBN-10: 1447982460
This is a very detailed course text for the first year only, giving the kind of level which might
be expected to ensure an A* / A. Again, there are multiple copies of this book in the LRC.
Edexcel Psychology for A Level Book 1
Chris Brain
ISBN-10: 1471835383
These are clear, concise guides to the basics of the course (these two cover the
material from the first year). They are like a set of pre-written notes.
Edexcel Psychology Student Guides 1 and 2
Chris Brain
ISBN-10: 1471843424
ISBN-10: 1471843661
This is a write-up of a series of classic obedience experiments by Stanley Milgram, recently
made into a film. These experiments form part of the Social Psychology section of the course.
Obedience to authority : An experimental view
Stanley Milgram
ISBN-10: 006176521X
Another classic in psychology, this book gives you background and insight into the theories
from the Learning Approach. Are you really in control of your decisions? Or are you actually
programmed to respond to your environment in scientifically testable ways?
About Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner
ISBN-10: 0394716183
Are we all at the mercy of our brain chemistry? Do you think that the amygdala and the
hippocampus are fantastical sea monsters? What can an MRI scan tell us? Could you explain
to friends why we don’t giggle when we tickle ourselves? This book provides an excellent
primer for the biology of the brain and then goes on to discuss some of the more interesting
questions that arise when you delve deeper into it.
30-Second Brain: The 50 most mind-blowing ideas in neuroscience, each explained in half a minute
Anil Seth
ISBN-10: 184831647X
There are loads of interesting videos on
Try using these search terms
Social Psychology:
 Milgram Experiment
 Prejudice & Discrimination: Crash Course Psychology #39
 Jane Elliot: Blue Eye/Brown Eye Experiment
Cognitive Psychology
 How We Make Memories - Crash Course Psychology #13
 Perceiving is Believing - Crash Course Psychology #7
Biological Psychology
 2-Minute Neuroscience
 Meet Your Master: Getting to Know Your Brain - Crash Course
Psychology #4
Learning Theories
 B F skinner
 Pavlov classical conditioning
For up-to-date information on current psychological research and issues,
these two Radio 4 programmes are great (back issues on iPlayer)
‘The Human Zoo explores the foibles, quirks and
behaviour of that most fascinating of species – us’
‘The series that explores the limits and potential
of the human mind’
Answers to question 11
a) The IV is the presence of classical music versus silence  and DV is the length of time taken to complete the maths test 
b)
The researcher operationalised the variable ‘cognitive functioning’ by defining it as the speed which participants were able
to complete the maths test 
c)
One confounding variable from this study is the maths ability of participants – one of the groups may have had
participants who were generally better at maths than the other.  For example, if people in the classical music group were,
on average, better at maths than the silence group they may have completed the test more quickly. This would have
affected the results by making it look as though they were performing better due to the classical music whereas it was in
fact due to their ability.  This could have been controlled by testing the participants beforehand for maths ability and
allocating participants of equal ability to each group (classical and silence). 
Other confounding variables you could use: time of day or environment in which the two groups carried out the test (the scenario doesn’t tell us
about this but you could still discuss it); ‘researcher effects’ (for example, did the researcher affect the results in some way, for example by
allocating higher achieving students to the classical music group?)
d) The researcher used a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis for this study because she said the classical music group would
complete the test more quickly than the silence group. 
e)
The participant design of this study is ‘independent groups’ because there are different participants in the classical music
group from the silence group. 