WEEK 1 QUESTIONS
Dr John Citizen suspects that blue tablets are more effective than white tablets and conducts an experiment to test this. He asks for friends and family between 18-30 years of age without a pre-existing medical condition, to volunteer, and 60 agree to participate. He splits the participants into two groups of 30. Group 1 is given blue PainGo tablets while Group 2 is given white PainGo tablets. Both tablets have the exact same composition aside from the blue dye agent in Group 1s tablets. Over the course of six months, the participants logged their levels of pain on a scale of 1 to 10 before, and 1 hour after, taking a PainGo tablet when/if they experience a headache. Dr Citizen analyses the data and finds that the mean reduction in pain was 1.2 for Group 1 and 3.2 for Group 2. He also finds that the standard deviation for Group 1 was 9.2 whereas for Group 2 it was 11.6. After analysis, Dr Citizen uploaded the data and findings, then shared the access link with all participants.
1. What is the aim of the experiment? (1)
2. Write a suitable research hypothesis (1)
3. Operationalise the dependent and independent variables (2)
4. What experimental design was used? (1)
a. List one advantage of this design (1)
5. List two limitations of this experiment (2)
6. Suggest two possible improvements to the experiment (2)
7. What type of data did Dr John Citizen collect? (1)
8. Comment any ethical concerns surrounding the experiment (2)
9. Can Dr Citizen’s findings be generalised? Explain. (2)
10. Which group showed greatest variation in results? (1)
1. Aim: to investigate whether blue tablets are more effective than white tablets in relieving pain.
2. Hypothesis: It is hypothesisied that healthy adults aged 18-30, that are given a dossage of Blue Paingo tablets will likely experience lower levels of pain one hour after taking the tablet, as measured by participant's subjective rating of pain on a scale of 1-10, compared to those who have been given a dossage of White Paingo tablets.
3. IV: The colour of the tablet; taking a dosage of blue coloured paingo tablets, or taking a dosage of white coloured paingo tablets `
DV: The degree of pain experienced as measured by a rating scale from 1-10
4.Independent groups
a.) An advantage of an indpendent groups reearch design is that it is easy to administer and is time and cost effective.
5.
- The use of a rating scale as a means of collecting data: a limitation of using this form of data collection is that the validity of the results measured is dependent on the honesty of participants, therefore participants may be dishonest, which will in turn mean that the results of the experiment would be potentially unreliable and not accuratley measuring the impact of colour on pain relief.
- Another limitation is the use of convinience sampling which means the sample is likely unrepresintitive of the wider population
6.- An improvement to the experiment could be using a different sampling technique, other than convinience sampling to obtain a more representitive sample
-Using a repeated measures research design so that individual participant related differences are accounted for.
7. Quantitive, Primary, Subjective data
8.
-Debreiefing: Although, participants recieved the data, for a debreifing process to be adhered to properly, dberiefing should be a thorough process, whereby the researcher discusses the experiment and the results with the participants in detail, ensuring any concerns or questions they have are adrressed.
-Beneficience: In an experiment the researcher should ensure any risk to participants is minismised, and the benefits of the experiment must outweigh any potential risks, the aim of the study or any benefits do not outweigh the potential risk of a participant using the medication inappropriatly.
Volountary participation: Becuase the experimentor has a personal affiliation with the participants, there is a chance he may have potentially coerced them or made them feel pressured to take part in the experiment.
9. The findings of the experiment cannot be generalised because the sample was not representitive of the population.
10. Group 2, showed a greater variation in results with a standard deviation of 11.6