1.

 

A researcher wishes to conduct an observation of students’ use of their free time in college.

 

1. Describe and evaluate a suitable procedure for this observation.

[10]

 

2. Describe one ethical issue that the researcher needs to consider when conducting this observation and suggest how this could be dealt with.

[4]

 

3. (a) Explain what is meant by inter-rater reliability.

[2]

 

(b) Suggest how the researcher could ensure that this observation has inter-rater reliability.

[4]

 

Total [20]

 

 

2.

 

A researcher wanted to conduct a structured observation of students’ behaviour in the library.

 

1. Describe a coding scheme (categories) that could be used for this structured observation.

[4]

 

2. Outline one strength and one weakness of using this type of structured observation to carry out this investigation.

[6]

 

3. Explain how the observation could be tested for reliability

[4]

 

4. Describe one ethical issue that could be considered when planning this observational research.

[4]

 

5. Explain what is meant be the term participant observation.

[2]

 

Total [20]

 

 

3.

 

A team of researchers wanted to conduct an observational study of aggression in a primary school classroom. Each researcher observed one child each.

 

1. Describe a suitable procedure for how this observational study could be carried out as a non participant observation.

[5]

 

2. Suggest how the researchers could use a time sampling technique to carry out this observation.

[3]

 

3. Describe one strength and one weakness of using time sampling for this observation.

[6]

 

4. Describe one strength and one weakness of observational studies.

[4]

 

5. Suggest one way in which this observational study might be considered to be unethical

[2]

 

Total [20]

 

4.

 

A researcher was interested to investigate whether students continued to work when the teacher left the classroom. The researcher conducted a structured observation of students’ behaviour in a classroom when the teacher leaves the room.

 

1. Describe a coding scheme (categories) that could be used for this structured observation.

[4]

 

2. Describe a suitable procedure for this study.

[5]

 

3. Give one strength and one weakness of this way of observing behaviour.

[6]

 

4 (a) Suggest one way in which this study could be changed to improve the validity.

[2]

 

(b) Explain why the improvement could have improved the validity of the study

[3]

 

Total [20]

 

5.

 

A group of students have decided to conduct a participant observation of student behaviour in two different teachers’ classrooms.

 

1. In relation to this study give one strength and one weakness of participant observations.

[6]

 

2. Describe how this observation could be carried out as an unstructured observation

[4]

 

3. Describe how this observation could be carried out as a structured observation.

[4]

 

4. Explain how the reliability of a structured observation could be improved for this study.

[3]

 

5. What is meant by event sampling and give one weakness of event sampling.

[3]

 

Total [20]

 

6.

 

A researcher wishes to observe the behaviour of male and female hospital staff towards patients.

 

1. Outline two categories of behaviour that could be used for such an observation.

[4]

 

2. (a) What is meant by the term 'reliability'?

[2]

 

(b) How can the reliability of observations be tested?

[2]

 

(c) Suggest how the reliability of this observation could be improved.

[3]

 

3. Describe one ethical problem the researcher might face and suggest how this might be overcome

[3]

 

4. Outline one methodological problem that you might have if you carried out observational research in an unfamiliar cultural setting.

[3]

 

5. What is meant by the term demand characteristics and explain how demand characteristics could be reduced in this observation.

[3]

 

total [20]

 

7.

 

An observational study was conducted on the behaviour of boys and girls aggressive behaviour in a school canteen using time sampling. The following summary table shows the results of the observation.

 

 

1 Outline one conclusion that can be made from the table.

[2]

 

2 Suggest one problem with using time sampling for this study

[3]

 

3 Explain how the researchers could check the reliability of the observations

[3]

 

4 (a) What is meant by the term demand characteristics?

[1]

 

(b) How could demand characteristics be reduced in this study?

[2]

 

5 What is meant by event sampling

[2]

 

6 Give one strength and one weakness of event sampling.

[4]

 

7 Describe one ethical problem the researcher might face and suggest how this might be overcome

[3]

 

[Total 20]

 

 

8.

 

An observational study was conducted on the behaviour of students in a college canteen using time sampling during a Monday lunchtime. The observers recorded a total of 23 males leaving their plates and cutlery on the tables and 14 females leaving their plates and cutlery on the tables

 

Produce an appropriate table for these data.

[3]

 

Outline one conclusion that can be made from the table.

[2]

 

Suggest one strength and one weakness with using time sampling for this study

[6]

 

Explain how the researchers could check the reliability of the observations for this study

[4]

 

What is meant by the term validity?

[1]

 

Describe the type of sampling technique that was used in this study to choose the participants.

[2]

 

What is meant by the term event sampling

[2]

 

[Total 20]