A psychologist watches volunteers during their usual Saturday session at a community garden. The psychologist records each time a volunteer waters a planting bed, pulls up a weed or moves compost in a wheelbarrow. Nothing about the session is changed for the study.
State one extraneous variable that the psychologist cannot control in this naturalistic observation.
Explain how the extraneous variable stated in part (a) could reduce the reliability of the findings.
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.