4.2.3.1.7 Features of science and reporting investigations Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. Objectivity in science means:

   • Findings are based on the researcher's personal opinions, which guide the conclusions drawn
   • Findings are accepted by the public without question, once the study has been reported
   • Findings can only be collected in a laboratory, where the conditions are fully controlled
   • Findings are based on observable evidence and are not distorted by personal bias

2. Falsifiability, as proposed by Karl Popper, means that:

   • A theory must always be supported by new evidence that appears over the course of time
   • A theory can never be tested by observation, because it refers to unseen mental events
   • A theory must explain every possible outcome that the researcher could ever observe
   • A theory must be capable of being shown to be false by evidence

3. Replicability means that:

   • The study uses the same participants in all future research, so the sample is fixed
   • The researcher repeats the same test on one person many times over several weeks, to check that the scores stay consistent
   • Other researchers can repeat the study using the same procedure and obtain similar results
   • The results can be copied exactly into a new report, so the same numbers appear again

4. A paradigm in science refers to:

   • A single experiment that proves a theory beyond doubt, so no other evidence is needed
   • A report written by one researcher, describing the methods used in that single study
   • A shared set of assumptions, methods and theories accepted by a scientific community
   • A statistical test used to analyse data, chosen according to the level of measurement

5. A paradigm shift is:

   • A fundamental change in the assumptions and framework that a scientific community accepts
   • A minor change to a statistical test, made to improve the precision of the calculation
   • A change in the sample size of a study, made so that the results are more reliable
   • A new method of conducting a pilot study, introduced to speed up the data collection

6. The abstract of a psychological report is:

   • A brief summary of the aims, method, results and conclusions
   • The list of references at the end of the report, in alphabetical order by author
   • The detailed description of the procedure, with each step in order
   • The discussion of the implications of the study for theory and practice

7. Which section of a psychological report describes the procedure in enough detail for replication?

   • The introduction to the study
   • The abstract at the start
   • The method section
   • The discussion of the findings

8. A researcher's theory explains every possible outcome of a study. What is the scientific problem?

   • The theory has too many predictions to test, so it cannot be checked in any study
   • The theory is unfalsifiable, so it cannot be shown to be wrong by any evidence
   • The theory is too simple to be useful, so it does not explain anything in detail
   • The theory uses too much statistical analysis, which makes its findings hard to read

9. Which section of a report usually interprets the findings and considers their implications?

   • The discussion
   • The method
   • The abstract
   • The references

10. Which section of a report reviews previous research and states the aim and hypotheses?

    • The introduction
    • The references list
    • The results section
    • The method section

11. Which feature of science is most closely linked to the empirical method?

    • Using personal intuition to explain behaviour, without testing it against evidence
    • Accepting claims because they are traditional and have been taught for many years
    • Collecting observable evidence through observation or experiment
    • Relying on the authority of a single expert whose reputation is widely respected

12. Which sequence correctly orders the sections of a scientific report?

    • Introduction, abstract, results, method, discussion, references
    • Method, results, abstract, introduction, discussion, references
    • Discussion, abstract, method, introduction, results, references
    • Abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references

13. Which situation threatens objectivity in psychological research?

    • A researcher who uses a standardised questionnaire that has been checked for reliability
    • A researcher who reports limitations of the study openly in the discussion section
    • A researcher who has a financial interest in a particular outcome records the results
    • A researcher who uses a blind scoring procedure to hide the conditions from the scorer

14. Why is referencing important in a psychological report?

    • It removes the need for a method section, since the sources describe the procedure
    • It acknowledges the sources used and allows readers to check the evidence
    • It makes the results statistically significant, because the sources confirm the findings
    • It increases the number of participants in the study by listing the people who helped

15. A researcher reports an unexpected finding but does not discuss its limitations. Why is this a problem?

    • Limitations increase the statistical power of the study, so the results become stronger
    • Discussing limitations is required only for published studies, not for student reports
    • Readers cannot judge how confidently the findings can be applied or repeated
    • Limitations are only relevant to correlational studies, not to experiments of any type

16. Evaluate the claim that psychology is a science. Which point is most accurate?

    • Psychology uses empirical methods, but its concepts are sometimes harder to test than those in the natural sciences
    • Psychology is a science because it has no theories at all, so it relies only on the raw data it collects directly from people
    • Psychology cannot be a science because it studies people, whose behaviour is too variable and personal to predict in any reliable way
    • Psychology is a science only because it uses large datasets collected in many different places, which makes its findings secure

17. Why might Popper criticise the psychodynamic approach?

    • Its explanations use only observable and measurable behaviour, which keeps them testable
    • Its explanations can account for any behaviour, so they cannot be falsified
    • Its explanations are always easily tested in laboratories with precise, repeatable measures
    • Its explanations rely on large randomised controlled trials, which Popper thought were essential

18. Why should a researcher report descriptive statistics before inferential tests in a report?

    • To remove the need for a discussion section, since the summary says what the data mean
    • To describe the data before testing whether the differences are significant
    • To prove the hypothesis is true before any inferential testing has been carried out at all
    • To avoid reporting the raw data altogether, so that readers see only the summary values

19. Which element of scientific method is shown when a hypothesis is tested with data that could reject it?

    • Peer review of the report
    • Abstract writing for journals
    • Hypothesis testing
    • Paradigm shift in science

20. A report gives the mean and standard deviation for each condition in the results section. Which principle is served by this?

    • A shift to a purely qualitative account, which describes the results in words only
    • Transparency that allows others to evaluate and replicate the findings
    • Removal of objectivity from the study, since the summary values are open to opinion
    • The removal of any need for peer review, since the figures are already published

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