Adults are told that a study is about the comfort of a waiting room. While each adult completes a rating form, a person working with the researcher deliberately drops a folder of papers. The researcher records whether the adult helps to pick them up.
After the task, the adults are asked whether the situation made them feel embarrassed.
| Response | Number of adults |
|---|---|
| Felt embarrassed | 9 |
| Did not feel embarrassed | 21 |
The researcher proposes debriefing only the 9 adults who felt embarrassed. These adults will be told that the real aim was to investigate helping behaviour and that dropping the papers was staged. No adult will be offered the opportunity to have their data removed.
Explain why the researcher's proposal is inadequate and describe how the debriefing should be completed. Use both results in your answer.
182 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 7.1 Planning Research, covering 7.1.1 Hypotheses, 7.1.2 Variables, 7.1.3 Experimental Designs, 7.1.4 Populations and Sampling, 7.1.5 Ethical issues, and 7.1.6 Dealing with ethical issues and BPS Code. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.