Lesson 6.2.2

6.2.2 Data analysis, reliability and validity in criminological research Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 6

20 questions

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Lesson 6.2.2, Data analysis, reliability and validity in criminological research: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 6: Criminological psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is random sampling?

    • Participants volunteer after reading an advert
    • Participants are selected by the researcher's personal judgement
    • Participants are chosen because they are easy to reach
    • Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

  2. What is stratified sampling?

    • Participants are chosen only from one subgroup
    • Participants volunteer from different universities
    • The population is divided into subgroups and participants are selected from each subgroup in proportion
    • Participants are chosen at random from a single list

  3. What is opportunity sampling?

    • Participants are recruited from those available and willing at the time of the study
    • Participants are selected to match a fixed population proportion
    • Every tenth person on a list is selected
    • Participants are chosen by drawing names from a hat

  4. What is volunteer sampling?

    • Participants are required to take part by their employer
    • Participants respond to an advertisement or invitation and choose to take part
    • Participants are chosen by the researcher from a register
    • Participants are selected by random number generator

  5. A researcher recruits the first 40 people who walk into a courthouse on one day. Which sampling method is this?

    • Stratified sampling
    • Opportunity sampling
    • Random sampling
    • Systematic sampling of every tenth person

  6. A researcher wants a sample that reflects the age and gender balance of a population. Which method is most suitable?

    • Volunteer sampling
    • Stratified sampling
    • Opportunity sampling
    • A single case study

  7. What is the main weakness of volunteer sampling in criminological research?

    • Volunteers always give identical answers
    • Volunteers cannot be contacted by email
    • Volunteers always refuse to answer questions
    • Volunteers may differ systematically from non-volunteers, which biases the sample

  8. Which statement about reliability in criminological research is most accurate?

    • A reliable measure has no connection to consistency
    • A reliable measure is always based on a large sample
    • A reliable measure gives consistent results across repeated uses or different observers
    • A reliable measure always measures what it claims to measure

  9. What is internal validity in a criminological experiment?

    • The speed at which the study is completed
    • The extent to which the results apply to other populations
    • The extent to which the researcher can be confident that the manipulation caused the observed effect
    • The number of participants in the sample

  10. What is external validity in criminological research?

    • The accuracy of the researcher's measurement tool
    • The length of time the experiment took to conduct
    • The extent to which findings generalise to other settings, people and times
    • The number of questions included in a questionnaire

  11. Which sampling method is most likely to produce a sample that generalises to a population?

    • Random sampling
    • Opportunity sampling
    • Volunteer sampling
    • Sampling only the people who responded first

  12. A test of memory gives the same result on two occasions a week apart. Which property is shown?

    • Internal validity
    • Inter-rater reliability
    • Ecological validity
    • Test-retest reliability

  13. Two observers code the same offenders' behaviour and agree on most categories. Which property is shown?

    • Inter-rater reliability
    • External validity
    • Test-retest reliability
    • Face validity

  14. What does the level of statistical significance (for example, p < 0.05) indicate?

    • The size of the effect in the population
    • The probability that the observed result would occur by chance if there were no real effect is below the chosen threshold
    • The probability that the hypothesis is true
    • The number of participants needed in the study

  15. Which statistic is a measure of dispersion?

    • Mode
    • Median
    • Mean
    • Standard deviation

  16. Which test is appropriate for comparing two independent groups on an ordinal measure?

    • Spearman's rho
    • Mann-Whitney U
    • Chi-squared test
    • Wilcoxon signed-rank test

  17. A researcher measures the same participants before and after an intervention, using ordinal scores. Which test is most suitable?

    • Standard deviation
    • Wilcoxon signed-rank test
    • Mann-Whitney U
    • Chi-squared test

  18. Which test is used to analyse the association between two categorical variables in a contingency table?

    • Wilcoxon signed-rank test
    • Mann-Whitney U
    • Spearman's rho
    • Chi-squared test

  19. A study reports a mean of 20, median of 18 and mode of 15. Which measure is most affected by one very high score?

    • The mode
    • The range
    • The median
    • The mean

  20. In hypothesis testing, what is a critical value?

    • The number of participants who dropped out
    • The average of all the scores in the sample
    • The probability that the null hypothesis is true
    • The threshold that the test statistic must reach or exceed for the result to be significant

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