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Sampling Techniques (AQA A Level Psychology)

Exam Questions

23 mins8 questions
Easy
Medium
13 marks

A psychologist decided to conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of watching horror films before going to bed.

A volunteer sample of 50 university students consented to take part in the experiment.

The 50 students were randomly split into two groups. Group 1 watched a horror film before going to bed each night for the first week then a romantic comedy before going to bed each night for the second week.

Group 2 watched the romantic comedy in the first week and the horror film in the second week. When the students woke up each morning, each student received a text message that asked if they had had a nightmare during the night. They could respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Explain how the psychologist could have randomly split the sample of 50 students into the two groups.

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22 marks

A psychologist decided to design an experiment to test the effects of recreational screen time on children’s academic performance.

The psychologist randomly selected four schools from all the primary schools in her county to take part in the experiment involving Year 5 pupils. Three of the four schools agreed to take part. In total, there were 58 pupils whose parents consented for them to participate. The 58 pupils were then randomly allocated to Group A or Group B.

For the two-week period of the experiment, pupils in Group A had no recreational screen time. Pupils in Group B were allowed unrestricted recreational screen time. At the end of the experiment all pupils completed a 45-minute class test, to achieve a test score.

Complete Table 1 by ticking the statement that best describes the population and the sample in the psychologist’s experiment.

Place one tick in each column

Table 1

Population

Sample

All the pupils in the selected four schools.

All the Year 5 pupils across the world.

All the Year 5 pupils in the county.

All the Year 5 pupils in the selected three schools

All the 58 Year 5 pupils with parental consent in the selected three schools.

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32 marks

In a follow-up study, the researcher investigated whether there was a correlation between the number of hours slept and how well rested the students felt.

The researcher randomly selected 18 participants from first-year students at the university.

On the day of the study, each student participant was asked, ‘How many hours did you sleep last night?’ They then had to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 how well rested they felt. The researcher hypothesised that there would be a positive correlation between the two co-variables.

Describe how the researcher could have used random sampling to obtain the students for this study.

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41 mark

A researcher placed an advert in a university psychology department asking for third year students to participate in a sleep experiment.

Each student had a sleep tracker watch to wear at home for the two-week study. Each morning they were asked to open the sleep tracker app to view their sleep quality data on their mobile phones. The students were unaware that the sleep data they could see on their phones had been manipulated by the researcher. Over the two weeks of the study, each student saw that he or she had had poor sleep quality for seven random nights of the experiment and good sleep quality for the remaining nights.

Every morning, after viewing the sleep data, each student completed a questionnaire about the previous night’s sleep. One of the questions asked the students to rate how well rested they felt, on a scale from 1–10, after the previous night’s sleep. Apart from this, students were asked to continue their normal everyday activities.

Which of the following best describes the sampling method used in this study?

  • Opportunity sampling

  • Stratified sampling

  • Systematic sampling

  • Volunteer sampling

Choose your answer

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13 marks

It was recently reported in a newspaper that time spent playing team sports increases happiness levels. A researcher was keen to find out whether this was due to participating in a team activity or due to participating in physical activity, as he could not find any published research on this.

The researcher used a matched-pairs design. He went into the student café and selected the first 20 students he met. Each student was assigned to one of two groups.

Participants in Group A were requested to carry out 3 hours of team sports per week. Participants in Group B were requested to carry out 3 hours of exercise independently in a gym each week. All participants were told not to take part in any other type of exercise for the 4-week duration of the study. All participants completed a happiness questionnaire at the start and end of the study.

The researcher then calculated the improvement in happiness score for each participant.

Identify the type of sampling method used in this experiment. Explain one limitation of using this sampling method in this study.

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24 marks

A researcher placed an advert in a university psychology department asking for third year students to participate in a sleep experiment.

Each student had a sleep tracker watch to wear at home for the two-week study. Each morning they were asked to open the sleep tracker app to view their sleep quality data on their mobile phones. The students were unaware that the sleep data they could see on their phones had been manipulated by the researcher. Over the two weeks of the study, each student saw that he or she had had poor sleep quality for seven random nights of the experiment and good sleep quality for the remaining nights.

Every morning, after viewing the sleep data, each student completed a questionnaire about the previous night’s sleep. One of the questions asked the students to rate how well rested they felt, on a scale from 1–10, after the previous night’s sleep. Apart from this, students were asked to continue their normal everyday activities.

Explain one strength and one limitation of using this sampling method in this study.

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34 marks

Researchers wished to study the link between androgyny and psychological health. They surveyed a stratified sample of 100 18-year-old students from four different schools.

Some schools had a large number of students and others had a smaller number of students. The students were asked to rate themselves on an androgyny scale and then answered a series of questions. The questions focused on students’ self-esteem and how they felt about their relationships with others.

Explain how the researchers could have obtained a stratified sample from the four different schools.

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44 marks

Your psychology teacher has read about the beneficial effects of exercise.

She asks you to design a study to see if there is a correlation between time spent swimming and anxiety levels in A-level psychology students.

You need to select a sample of 20 participants using random or stratified sampling.

Explain how a sample of 20 participants could be selected for your study using either random or stratified sampling.

Outline one strength of the sampling method you have selected.

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