Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: the Common Framework | OCR A-Level Psychology (H567)
Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: the Common Framework
- 104 questions
- 9 subtopics
- Component 02: Psychological themes through core studies
- Component 02
Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: The Common Framework is examined on component 02 of OCR Psychology, Psychological themes through core studies.
104 recall questions across 9 subtopics.
Sample questions from Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: the Common Framework
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Background, aims, design and sample of a core study
Name the three experimental designs you may need to identify in a core study.
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Repeated measures, independent measures and matched participants. -
Procedure, results and conclusions of a core study
What kinds of information belong in the results section?
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The findings themselves — descriptive statistics such as totals, percentages, means or medians, the outcome of any statistical test, and any qualitative observations, all reported without interpretation. -
Comparing classic and contemporary studies in their pairs
What is meant by a contemporary study in a pair?
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A more up-to-date piece of research that engages with the same issue as the classic study it is paired with, often using modern methods, ethics or a different population. -
Individual, social and cultural diversity in paired studies
Why does a study carried out only on students limit what we can say about individual diversity?
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Students are a narrow group in age and education, so the study cannot show whether people at other life stages or with different backgrounds would behave in the same way. -
Research methods and techniques across the core studies
Why can a quasi experiment not establish cause and effect with confidence?
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Because participants are not randomly allocated to conditions, other differences between the groups may explain the results. -
Types of data and validity across the core studies
What is meant by internal validity?
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The extent to which a study genuinely measures what it set out to measure, so that the results can be attributed to the variable under investigation rather than to a flaw in the procedure. -
Reliability, ethics, sampling bias and ethnocentrism across the core studies
List the four principles of the professional code of ethics used by psychologists in Britain.
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Respect, competence, responsibility and integrity. -
The five areas of psychology and their key themes
What does placing a study in the biological area commit you to claiming about the cause of the behaviour?
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That the behaviour arises from physical structures and processes such as brain regions, hormones, the nervous system or genes, rather than from thought, learning or social pressure.
The 9 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Background, aims, design and sample of a core study | Recall questions on the four parts of a core study's story, background, aims and hypotheses, experimental designs, measuring the dependent variable, the sample and sampling techniques, and the materials section. | 13 |
| Procedure, results and conclusions of a core study | Recall questions on describing a standardised procedure, the difference between results and conclusions, strong conclusions, correlation and causation, reporting excluded participants, and using several measures and qualitative observations. | 11 |
| Comparing classic and contemporary studies in their pairs | Recall questions on why core studies are paired, classic and contemporary studies, features to compare within a pair, and what a contemporary study adds when it finds the same result in another decade or country. | 8 |
| Individual, social and cultural diversity in paired studies | Recall questions on individual, social and cultural diversity, ethnocentrism, how a contemporary study can develop or challenge a classic study, Western and student samples, and how to compare a pair of studies properly. | 13 |
| Research methods and techniques across the core studies | Recall questions on laboratory, field and quasi experiments in the core studies, naturalistic, controlled, covert and participant observations, questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, and what correlational analysis shows. | 12 |
| Types of data and validity across the core studies | Recall questions on quantitative and qualitative data, primary and secondary data, internal, ecological, population, face and concurrent validity with core study examples, demand characteristics, and social desirability in Chaney et al. | 9 |
| Reliability, ethics, sampling bias and ethnocentrism across the core studies | Recall questions on researcher bias, inter-rater, test-retest and split-half reliability, the BPS ethical principles, debriefing, deception and protection from harm, sampling bias in Milgram and other studies, ethnocentrism and generalisability. | 15 |
| The five areas of psychology and their key themes | Recall questions on the five areas of psychology, the central assumption of each area, what a key theme is, and which two key themes sit within each of the five areas. | 12 |
| Relating each core study to its area of psychology | Recall questions on why Milgram, Piliavin, Loftus and Palmer, Grant, Bandura, Sperry and Baron-Cohen belong to their areas, the behaviourist and psychodynamic perspectives in the core studies, and studies that fit more than one area. | 11 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR A-Level Psychology Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 3,537 questions with their answers.