A high school counselor was interested in the relationship between daily screen time (electronic device use before bed) and subjective sleep quality in teenagers. She decided to investigate whether or not a relationship existed in this age group.
The counselor designed her own questionnaire to measure sleep quality in 15-year-old students. The higher the score achieved, the better the adolescent's subjective sleep quality. Twenty-five students, all from a single local secondary school, took part. Each student completed the sleep quality questionnaire individually in a quiet room.
The counselor designed another self-report log to measure 'daily evening screen time'. Each student was given this log to take home and complete independently over a three-week period, recording their estimated screen use (in minutes) during the hour before sleep every evening. Using these responses, the counselor calculated the average daily evening screen time (in minutes) for each adolescent.
Question Apart from the issue of validity, identify and briefly explain one methodological limitation of the study.
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.
