In an experiment investigating the effects of media priming on prosocial behaviour, 32 participants were tested individually in a laboratory. Half of the participants listened to music with prosocial lyrics before completing a task where they had the opportunity to help an accomplice who had spilled a box of paperclips. The other half listened to music with neutral lyrics before the same task. After the task, each participant was classified as displaying Helping Behaviour or No Helping Behaviour.
The researcher used an independent groups design, meaning different participants were used in each condition of the experiment. This design choice might have affected the validity of the results due to individual differences.
Explain one way in which the experiment could be changed to control for the problem of using different participants in each condition.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Scientific processes with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 689 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
