Cambridge International AS & A Level * 8 5 PSYCHOLOGY 9990/22 7 3 Paper 2 Research Methods
October/November 2023 5 0 1 hour 30 minutes 7 7 8
You must answer on the question paper. 4 *
No additional materials are needed. INSTRUCTIONS ● Answer all questions. ●
Use a black or dark blue pen. You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams or graphs. ●
Write your name, centre number and candidate number in the boxes at the top of the page. ●
Write your answer to each question in the space provided. ●
Do not use an erasable pen or correction fluid. ●
Do not write on any bar codes. INFORMATION ●
The total mark for this paper is 60. ●
The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].
This document has 12 pages. Any blank pages are indicated. DC (EF/JG) 318181/1 © UCLES 2023 [Turn over 2 Section A
Answer all questions in this section. 1
From the study by Pepperberg (parrot learning):
(a) State the aim of this study.
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(b) Explain why it was necessary to present the parrot with questions in a random order.
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Explain the importance of the ethical guidelines of anaesthesia, analgesia and euthanasia in
relation to the use of animals in research.
researchers must avoid causing death, diesease , psychological harm or physical discomfort to the animals
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incase of any surgery the researchers must give anesthesia to the animal in order to reduce the pain
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and prevent infection. In any case if the animals needs to be killed, this should be done swiftly to end its
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suffering. these are few of the ethical guidlines a researcher must fol ow when conducting an experiment
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with animals due to their high levels of sestience.
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Participants in the study by Laney et al. (false memory) completed a ‘Restaurant Questionnaire’,
which was formatted to look like a menu.
(a) Describe the Restaurant Questionnaire.
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(b) Explain why it was important that the Restaurant Questionnaire looked like a menu.
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The study by Yamamoto et al. (chimpanzee helping) used a repeated measures experimental design.
(a) Outline what is meant by a ‘repeated measures design’. Include an example from the study
by Yamamoto et al. in your answer.
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(b) Explain one advantage of using a repeated measures design for this study, compared to
using an independent measures design.
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In a study that measured two variables, a relationship between the variables was found. As one
variable increased, the other decreased.
(a) Name this relationship. Negative correlation
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(b) Suggest two variables, from any core study, that show this relationship.
in the study by andrade, while doodling, the arousal of a person increases and daydreaming
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Describe natural experiments and naturalistic observations, using any examples. ..... A ................
natural exp...............................................................
eriment is a type of experiment in which t ......................................................................
he researcher doesn't manipulate IV or control any
variables rather the researcher studies the effect of a pre-existing Independant variable thats most
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likely to occur natural y for ex: studying the affect of a car accident while walking on zebra crossing
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on the victim's mental health. Now the accident isn't something that research could control but rather
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he's just studying the accident's effect on the victim.
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Naturalistic observation is a study conducted by observing the participants behvaiour in their natural
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environment. the researcher doesn't manipulate the anything in the social or natural environment
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of a participant for ex: a researcher can observe a particiapnt their class room at school via CCTV camera
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to make themselves hidden in order to avoid demand charecterisitcs and at the same time the researcher
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doesn't manipuate or change the class room's evironment
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Answer all questions in this section. 7
James is conducting an interview to investigate topics that could influence anger and euphoria. He
has already written his questions about anger. James needs to write questions which cover three
topics that could increase euphoria. These topics are: • sports or games • films or music •
the natural world (e.g. animals and plants, being outside or good weather).
(a) Suggest one closed question and one open question that James could use to investigate
one of his three topics about euphoria. Do not use a rating scale in your answer.
does playing sports or games improve your mood? : YES ,NO, Little bit.
Closed question ........................................................................................................................
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How does spending time in nature affect your overall mood?
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(b) James has chosen to conduct a semi‑structured interview.
Explain two strengths of a semi‑structured interview.
the researcher can ask any questions they think is necessary to know about apart from the
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fixed list of open and close ended questions given to them raising the validity of the data collected
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It col ects qualititative data in the form of in depth information obtained by the particiapnts which
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makes it easy to understand the reasons behind some of their behaviours.
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(c) James was planning to use opportunity sampling to obtain participants from his university but
has decided random sampling would be better.
(i) Explain how James could use random sampling to obtain participants from his university.
he should give random numbers to the people in his target population and then
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he could use a computer program like a random number generator to select particiapnts
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randomly. this way everyone in the target population will have an equal chance of being
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selected to participate in the study and avoids sample biasness
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(ii) Explain one advantage for James of using random sampling compared to using opportunity sampling.
the sample wil be free from biasness as everyone wil have an equal chance of being selcted
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........................................................................................................................................... to particiapte in the study
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Olive and Durnaz are planning a questionnaire to use in their study, which aims to investigate forgetting in old people.
(a) Olive thinks that they should include some irrelevant questions so that the participants are
less likely to guess the aim of the study. Durnaz thinks this is unethical.
(i) Explain why Olive’s plan to include irrelevant questions would be useful.
this would be useful in order to avoid demand charecteristics or social desiribility bias from
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particiapnts as it would reduce the validity of the findings.
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(ii) Explain why Durnaz thinks that Olive’s plan would be unethical.
Durnaz thinks that it would be unethical because it involves decieving the participants
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about the true aim of the study which could break the ethical guidline f protection from harm
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once participants find out the true aim
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(b) Olive and Durnaz want to be able to generalise their findings to all old people.
(i) Suggest one variable that could affect memory in old people, other than age. their mental health
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(ii) Explain why the variable you suggested in (b)(i) could affect memory in old people.
mental health play an important role in the way our minds work so if old people have good mental
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health, they're more likely to remember things better but on the other hand if their mental
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health is not good due to stress or depression, they're more likely to forget things and have
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Gagan has collected data about personality characteristics. Two of the questions he asked were: • Personality question:
Which word best describes your personality? Angry / Confident / Kind / Worried. • Shyness question:
How shy do you feel in new situations on a scale of 0–5? (0 = not at all, 5 = very).
(a) Name the most appropriate measure of central tendency to use with the data from each question.
mode is the most appropriate measure of central tendency bcs
Personality question .................................................................................................................
the data is in categorical form.
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Shyness question .....................................................................................................................
mean is the most appropritate measure of central tendency for this ques
bcs the results data is in numarical form.
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(b) Name the most appropriate type of graph for Gagan to use to display the results from the ‘personality question’. bar chart
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(c) When Gagan analyses the data for the ‘shyness question’, he finds that the scores are normally distributed.
Sketch a graph using the axes below to show the pattern of Gagan’s data from the ‘shyness
question’. You must label the axes. …………………… ishyness scale of …………………… 0-5 …………………… particiapnts …………………… [3] © UCLES 2023 9990/22/O/N/23 [Turn over 10 Section C
Answer all questions in this section.
10 Sara wants to test whether people with a higher intelligence quotient (IQ) are better at
concentrating. She will conduct a laboratory experiment and already has a test for measuring the IQ of the participants.
(a) Describe how Sara can conduct a laboratory experiment to test whether people with a higher
IQ are better at concentrating than people with a lower IQ.
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sara is conducting a lab experiment to investigate if higher inteli gence in people helps them to
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concentrate better. She will go to Yale university and introduce herself as a researcher conducting an
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experiment of the affect of intel igence on concentration. She wil pick 10 males and 10 females
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from advanced science classes who have high IQ and 10 males and 10 females from regular
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science classes who have low IQ compartively. Informed consent will be taken from participants.
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She wil then take al 40 particpants to the laboratory from their university. after settling down she
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will isntruct the particiapants: I will give a 20 minute lecture on the topic of global warming. All
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of you are expected to concentrate as the lecture wil be fol owed by a test containing few questions
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related to the topic explained.
after that she lectured the particiapants and gave them their
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tests to solve within 40 minutes. the test contained a mix of open and close ended questions like
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" how has global warming affected the health of human beings in last 5 years", "what measures
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can be taken to reduce global warming?", " how has global warming affected the animal's habitats?'"
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"By how much percentage has global warming increased in past 2 years : 25% 50% or 70%"
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"Has global warming affected the lives of aquatic animals: YES or NO, and "does plastic waste
contribute to the increase of global warming: NO, a little bit, yes, a lot"
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while the participants completed their test, sara appeared to work quitely at her desk. the sheets
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were col ected from particiapnts after the 40 minutes had passed which sara measured using
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a timer. the qualitative data gained by open ended ques provided in depth understanding of the
particiapnts ability to understand a certian topic by the amount of their concentration and the objective data was
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in easily compairing the results and drawing conclusions conclusions.
The overall experiment was standardized as all participants heard sara's lecuture in same room
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