MBSR Anxiety and Productivity Study
Fifteen undergraduate students experiencing high anxiety levels were treated using a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Over the course of the four-week intervention, each participant's anxiety level was monitored every week using a self-report anxiety scale (where a score of 30 = extremely high anxiety and a score of 0 = no anxiety). Each week they also completed an academic productivity questionnaire which was scored from 10 = highly productive to 0 = completely unproductive.
At the end of the study, the researchers correlated each participant's final academic productivity score with their final anxiety score. The results are shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Scattergram to show the relationship between final academic productivity scores and final anxiety scores for 15 participants at the end of the intervention
| Final Academic Productivity Score | Final Anxiety Score |
|---|---|
| 1 | 28 |
| 2 | 25 |
| 2 | 22 |
| 3 | 24 |
| 4 | 20 |
| 4 | 18 |
| 5 | 19 |
| 5 | 15 |
| 6 | 16 |
| 6 | 12 |
| 7 | 10 |
| 8 | 8 |
| 8 | 6 |
| 9 | 5 |
| 10 | 3 |
Outline one way in which the researchers should have dealt with ethical issues in this study.
Scientific processes Questions
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Scientific processes with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 100 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.