A psychologist studies cooperation at a volunteer furniture-repair workshop. During four ordinary workshop sessions, the psychologist works alongside the volunteers without revealing the research role. The psychologist records each time a volunteer offers to fetch equipment or demonstrate a repair technique.
The psychologist then reveals the research role, obtains consent and observes the same team for four more ordinary sessions.
| Observation period | Total observation time | Offers of help recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Before the volunteers knew the psychologist's role | 8 hours | 46 |
| After the volunteers knew the psychologist's role | 8 hours | 30 |
At the end of the study, every volunteer is asked the same six prepared questions in the same words and order. The psychologist does not ask any follow-up questions.
The workshop organiser wants a future study to compare two volunteer teams under the same conditions, even if this makes the setting less like an ordinary workshop session. The organiser also wants to discover reasons for helping that the psychologist did not anticipate.
Suggest one change to where the observation takes place and one change to how the interviews are conducted. Explain how each change would meet the organiser's requirements.
Using the data, explain why obtaining informed consent before any observation could reduce the validity of the future study.
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.