An occupational psychologist investigated whether using standing desks during an 8-hour workday affects employees' subjective fatigue levels compared to using traditional sitting desks. They used an independent groups design to compare the self-reported fatigue ratings of ten data analysts using standing desks against ten data analysts using sitting desks. Some of the data collected is presented in the table below.
| Fatigue ratings (1 to 100) of office workers using standing desks compared to those using sitting desks (1 = 'fully energized' to 100 = 'extremely exhausted') | Sitting desk | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Standing desk | Sitting desk | ||
| Rating | Rank | Rating | Rank |
| 15 | 3 | 45 | 11 |
| 18 | 5 | 48 | 14 |
| 20 | 7 | 52 | 18 |
| 22 | 9 | 50 | 16 |
| 19 | 6 | 47 | 13 |
| 92 | 20 | 5 | 1 |
| 14 | 2 | 49 | 15 |
| 16 | 4 | 51 | 17 |
| 21 | 8 | 46 | 12 |
| 23 | 10 | 53 | 19 |
Explain why it may have been better to use the median to calculate the measure of central tendency in this study rather than the mean.
513 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Data recording, analysis and presentation. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.