JAN 2011 RESEARCH METHODS QS

Q1. The teacher’s personal opinion cannot be accepted as scientific evidence. This is because
as it is only an opinion, it is highly subjective, and this conflicts with the necessity for
scientific evidence to be objective. This means to not let personal biases affect results of
studies. As the teacher already has a set opinion, the objectivity of the theory is limited due
to this personal bias. The teacher also refers to a “decent breakfast” in her theory, which is
not operationalised, and has already drawn a subjective conclusion without consideration of
collecting evidence or other variables that may affect learning more quickly or behaviour. As
the teacher possesses an opinion only, and has not completed research to prove this, it is not
only subjective but does not rely on evidence that originates from the empirical method. The
empirical method refers to using observable evidence to draw conclusions. Therefore, as the
theory possesses no grounds in observable research it cannot be used as evidence. The
“evidence” which the teacher relies on is only relative to her experience in her own school,
and therefore the generalisability of this is limited. Other important features of a science
include replicability and falsifiability- as the theory the teacher proposes lacks fundamental
research evidence it cannot be proven false nor replicated. Therefore, it cannot be used as
scientific evidence.
Q2. In a random sample, all children should have equal chance of being selected. Therefore,
the psychologist should assign all 400 children a number on a computer, using the register
or list of students provided by the schools and use a random number generator from a
computer or a calculator to select the 100 children from this 400 that will be used within the
study.
Q3. Even though the sample obtained is random, it may be so that it is unrepresentative of
all of the children and could have limited ages/genders. Due to chance, more children from a
certain area or school may be selected and the sample may not be an even, representative
selection of the 400 children. It may be extremely time-consuming to assign all 400 children
a number, and obtain 100 randomly generated numbers- however, technology usage through
utilization of registers may aid this.

Q4. It is important to operationalise the variables as this clearly explains how they will be
measured. This removes subjectivity from the independent and dependent variables, making
sure that what is being measured is clearly defined, and that there is no room for lack of
clarity over what exactly should be recorded. Clearly operationalising variables also allows
for replication, as other researchers can identify how to measure the dependent and
independent variables. The psychologist should clearly define how the dependent variable,
reading skills, could be measured- such as standardized tests used to assess reading skills in
young children, in a set time period- how many words read in 20 minutes, for example. He
should also operationalise the independent variable of what a “healthy breakfast is”, for
example categorising certain foods into healthy, or using a caloric limit to measure the health
of the breakfasts of the children. Control EV + CV, standardised.

Q5. Mann-Whitney was used as the investigation is measuring a difference, which uses an
unrelated design, independent groups, and the data is ordinal.

Q6. A matched pairs design operates on the premise to match participants into pairs based
on a similar trait and split them into categories to remove the threat of participant variables.
In this instance, the main participant variable that would affect the research is the children’s
natural reading ability or intelligence. It is difficult to match young children on this ability to
read without conducting prior research into obtaining their baseline intelligence or
conducting a reading test before, which would be extremely time consuming and introduce
issues of order effects. Children could be matched on other factors such as gender, eyesight,
or age that could affect their reading ability, but again this could be extremely time-
consuming and require more information about the children to be obtained prior to the
research, which could be an ethical issue as parental consent would be required to obtain this
information, alongside to conduct the actual research. Parents may be less likely to give
consent if more personal data from the children is required which is another issue with the
matched pairs design. Many factors that could’ve affected reading ability, could not match
exactly.
Q7. Protection from harm- the children may feel stressed in having to complete a reading
assessment under a set time period if they are aware that the results will be used in research.
Children often do not enjoy completing assessments, and the experience could cause them
stress or upset. A poor score on the test may affect their self-confidence. To address this
issue, the psychologist should offer reassurance and support to the children, or an adult such
as a teacher or a counsellor should be present to help the children and ensure that they do
not feel stressed or overwhelmed within the experience. The scores should not be presented
to the children to eliminate comparison, competition, or unnecessary stress.
Q8.

AIM- To test the idea that eating a healthy breakfast affects playground behaviour.

HYPOTHESIS- There is a relationship between the type of breakfast eaten and the behaviour
children exhibit in the playground environment. The hypothesis of this study will be non-
directional, as there is no prior research which would suggest that breakfast affects
playground behaviour.

VARAIBLES-
As this is a correlational study, there are no independent or dependent variables. However,
the two variables which are being investigated is the type of food eaten for “breakfast” and
behaviour exhibited. When measuring the healthiness of food eaten, there is a need to
identify certain categories. Food recorded should be eaten before 10AM, and categorised into
“healthy,” “mediocre” and “unhealthy.” Pre-determining which exact foods which fall into
these categories is essential, as which food is determined to be healthy is subjective. Prior
research into food types that should be deemed to be “healthy” could be conducted- but,
some examples of healthy food could include oatmeal, Greek yoghurt, berries, and eggs.
“Mediocre” healthy breakfast food could include cereal, fruit juice, pancakes, sweetened
yoghurts, and “unhealthy” food could include muffins, buttered toast, breakfast bars, cereals
high in sugar content or breakfast pastries. There must not be overlap nor subjectivity
between the categories. An alternate way to approach this would to be to obtain the type of
food in the morning, and the sugar content of this assessed. To measure the behaviour of
children, categories should also be pre-determined, such as “aggressive behaviours” being
defined as raised voices, arguments, physical violence, “amicable” behaviours defined as
smiling, social behaviour such as playing and laughing, “hyperactive” as running, giggling,
screaming, and “sad” behaviours identified such as isolation from other children, crying,
sitting down etc.

METHOD-
A naturalistic, overt observation will occur, in which the participants are studied in their
natural environment with prior knowledge their behaviour is being observed. Using a
naturalistic observation increases the ecological validity of the research and its applicability
to other children. An overt observation is necessary for ethical concerns within this research,
as young children should not be deceived. Upon arriving at school, the 100 children should
be assigned to a teacher who will record what food they had for breakfast into a spreadsheet.
This information should be relayed to the psychologist, who can categorise the foods eaten
by the specific children into one of the three categories. At lunch and break, security cameras
should be set up within the school which allow for full coverage of the areas that children
play in at lunch and break. Security camera footage should be used opposed to a human
observer watching the children as the effect of observer bias is likely to have a large effect on
the behaviour young children exhibit and thus would reduce the internal validity of the data
as it is not authentic; there would be a lack of essential mundane realism necessary to
generalise these results to other schools and children. Therefore, footage should be recorded
within set time periods at lunch and break. Over a set period of a week, footage will be
recorded and relayed to the researcher, who would categorise the number of behaviours
observed into to the predetermined categories of “amicable,” “sad”, “hyperactive” or
“aggressive,” using a tally count. Event sampling with predetermined categories in this way
prevents overlap or unsurety in how to define behaviours and allows for quick recordation of
quantitative data that is necessary when dealing with such a large amount of footage and
such a large number of children. Therefore, the health of the food can be compared to the
behaviour demonstrated by the children over a set time period.
MATERIALS- Document containing the type of breakfast eaten, security cameras/ recorded
footage, document allowing for the behaviours to be categorised.

ETHICAL CONCERNS- The obvious ethical issue presented is recording children is

extremely sensitive and requires consent from all of the parents of the children who are
filmed. Some parents may not allow their children to be in the recordings, and these children
may have to remain at break and lunch in an area that is separate from the children being
recorded. It is not unfeasible, however, to use recordings, as schools often have security
cameras which could be utilized within the study. The cameras would only be operational for
the certain lunch period or break period which may alleviate parental concern. Other ethical
issues presented would be a breach of confidentiality- as a large amount of data is being
collected from young children, it is essential that the researchers discard the data after the
research and ensure that the parents and children are aware at any time they are allowed to
withdraw from the study. The children and parents should be made aware of the purpose of
the study prior to it beginning, and informed consent must be obtained. Protection from
harm is minimal as the behaviour observed is naturalistic. Confidentiality should be
maintained in that when the research is published, the names of the children should not be
kept alongside their data.

EXAMPLE RESULTS TABLE

PARTICIPANT BREAKFAST AGGRESSIVE HYPERACTIVE SAD AMICABLE
NUMBER BEHAVIOUR BEHAVIOUR BEHAVIOUR BEHAVIOUR
1. Unhealthy III I IIII I
2. Healthy IIII I II I
3 Mediocre I I I

+ NON-PARTICIPANT