Lesson 1.2.1

1.2.1 Self-report design: questionnaires, interviews and sampling Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 1

20 questions

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Lesson 1.2.1, Self-report design: questionnaires, interviews and sampling: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 1: Social psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which sampling technique involves choosing participants who are easiest to reach at the time of the study?

    • Stratified sampling
    • Volunteer sampling
    • Opportunity sampling
    • Random sampling

  2. In random sampling, how are participants chosen?

    • Every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected
    • The researcher selects people who look most typical of the population they want to study
    • Participants answer an advert in a newspaper and choose whether to take part in the study
    • Participants are chosen from the people nearest to the researcher's office at the time of recruitment

  3. A researcher wants the sample to reflect the proportions of age groups in the population. Which technique does this?

    • Stratified sampling, in which subgroups are selected in proportion to their size in the population
    • Snowball sampling, in which each participant recruits the next participant from among their own friends
    • Volunteer sampling, in which people who respond to an advert are selected as participants in the study
    • Opportunity sampling, in which people who are present at the time are selected for the study

  4. What is a disadvantage of volunteer sampling?

    • Volunteers may differ systematically from non-volunteers, so the sample may be biased
    • Volunteers always have a higher average age than the population, so age bias is always present
    • Volunteers always produce a perfectly random sample, so the results are always generalisable to everyone
    • Volunteers can be recruited only in large groups, so the research takes much longer to complete overall

  5. What is a closed question in a questionnaire?

    • A question with fixed response options, such as yes/no or a ranked scale
    • A question that allows the respondent to answer in any length and in their own words without limits
    • A question that the interviewer repeats until the respondent gives a particular answer they want
    • A question that asks the respondent to describe their feelings in detail about a personal experience

  6. What is an open question in an interview?

    • A question that allows the respondent to answer freely, giving rich qualitative detail
    • A question that is read out exactly as written, with no follow-up probing from the interviewer at all
    • A question with only two possible answers, such as yes or no, which keeps the answer very short
    • A question on a ranked scale from one to five, which records the strength of the respondent's view

  7. Which is an example of a researcher effect in interviews?

    • The questionnaire is printed in a font too small for participants to read comfortably during the session
    • The participant forgets their answer because the interview took place in the afternoon rather than the morning
    • The sample is too large for the researcher to analyse within the time available for the research project
    • The interviewer's tone or wording influences how the participant answers the questions

  8. What is social desirability bias in self-report research?

    • A tendency for researchers to choose samples that are easy to reach, which leads to over-representation of students
    • A tendency for questionnaires to be too long, so participants stop answering before the end of the form
    • A tendency for participants to answer in ways they think are socially acceptable rather than honest
    • A tendency for participants to answer randomly when they do not understand the questions in the study

  9. In a structured interview, what is the defining feature?

    • The interviewer asks no questions and simply listens while the participant talks about their experiences
    • The interviewer can change the questions and their order freely, following the conversation wherever it goes
    • The same questions are asked in the same order, with fixed wording, for every participant
    • The interview is conducted by a computer that records responses without any human interviewer present

  10. A researcher designs a questionnaire with the question: 'Don't you agree that the new policy is fair?' What is the main problem?

    • The question is unethical, because it asks about government policy which participants might find boring
    • The question is leading, because the wording pushes respondents towards agreeing
    • The question is closed, so it cannot collect any qualitative data about the respondent's views at all
    • The question is too long, because it includes more than ten words before the question mark at the end

  11. Which sampling technique is most likely to introduce bias from the researcher's choices?

    • Random sampling, since every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the study
    • Random sampling with a computer generator, since the computer selects names without any human involvement
    • Stratified sampling, since the sample is structured to match the proportions of each subgroup in the population
    • Opportunity sampling, since the researcher chooses whoever is present, which may not represent the population

  12. Which of these is a benefit of using a questionnaire compared with an interview?

    • It can reach a large number of respondents quickly and cheaply, with less interviewer influence
    • It always gives richer qualitative data than an interview, since respondents write more when they fill in forms
    • It allows the researcher to probe answers in depth, following up each response with extra questions
    • It guarantees that respondents answer honestly, since no one else is present when they complete the form

  13. A researcher uses a ranked scale of 1 to 5 in a questionnaire. What type of data does this usually produce?

    • Nominal data, because the numbers are simply labels for categories that have no order between them
    • Ratio data with a true zero, so the scale can be used to show proportions of the total in every case
    • Ordinal data, because the numbers show order but not equal distances between points on the scale
    • Interval data with equal distances between every point, so the mean can always be calculated safely

  14. What is an alternate hypothesis?

    • A list of the ethical guidelines that the researcher must follow throughout the whole study
    • A prediction that there is no difference or relationship between the variables measured in the study
    • A prediction that there is a difference or relationship between variables in the study
    • A description of the sampling method used to select participants from the population of interest

  15. Which of these is a risk of using opportunity sampling in a study of social attitudes?

    • The sample may over-represent a particular group, such as students, so results may not generalise
    • The sample always has an equal number of males and females, which removes all gender bias from data
    • The sample always represents the entire population perfectly, so results always generalise to everyone
    • The sample always contains only people who are over the age of eighty, which removes age bias

  16. A researcher recruits 10 people from each of three age bands to match the population. Which sampling method is this?

    • Stratified sampling, because subgroups are selected to match their population proportions
    • Volunteer sampling, because all participants responded to an advert and chose to join the study
    • Random sampling, because every person in the population was given an equal chance to be selected
    • Opportunity sampling, because the researcher recruited whoever was available in the age bands at the time

  17. Which is an advantage of structured interviews over unstructured interviews?

    • They are easier to compare across participants and to replicate, because the questions are the same each time
    • They always give more detailed and personal information about the participant's private experiences
    • They allow the researcher to explore unexpected themes that arise in the conversation with each participant
    • They are always more ethical than unstructured interviews, because they avoid any personal disclosure entirely

  18. In a questionnaire about social media use, why might a researcher pilot the questions first?

    • To ensure that the data will be analysed using inferential tests rather than descriptive statistics
    • To remove all social desirability bias permanently, since a pilot study fully eliminates any bias in answers
    • To check that questions are clear and do not confuse or bias respondents before the main study
    • To guarantee that the final sample will be random, since pilot studies always produce random samples

  19. Which description of a volunteer sample is most accurate?

    • Participants are chosen by the researcher from a list of people who are known to be typical of the population
    • Participants are selected at random from the electoral register, with each person having an equal chance
    • Participants respond to an advert or request and choose to take part in the study
    • Participants are chosen from whoever happens to be in the building at the time of the study's fieldwork

  20. A researcher finds that his sample is 80% female. Which sampling problem is most likely?

    • Random error, because a sample of any size must always contain a balance of males and females
    • Sampling bias, because the sample does not represent the gender balance of the population
    • Standard deviation, because the sample is too large to calculate any measure of dispersion at all
    • Qualitative data, because any sample with more women than men automatically produces qualitative data

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