A psychologist investigates how common homesickness is among students during their first term at college. Before collecting data, the psychologist writes six questions. Four use rating scales and two give fixed response options. Two interviewers ask every student the questions using the same wording and order, without adding any further questions.
Using details of the procedure, explain why the psychologist should be able to check the reliability of the findings.
The psychologist changes the aim to finding out why some students feel homesick and how the experience affects them. Explain why an unstructured interview would be more suitable than continuing with this procedure.
139 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 7.2 Doing Research, covering 7.2.1 Experiments, 7.2.2 Interviews, 7.2.3 Questionnaires (Surveys), 7.2.4 Observations, 7.2.5 Case Studies, and 7.2.6 Correlations. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.