Ruth observes members of several local hockey teams during 40-minute training sessions. She records each time a player verbally praises a teammate immediately after a pass or shot. The players know that Ruth is recording this behaviour.
Before the observations, Ruth predicts that team captains will praise their teammates more often than other players.
Her results are shown below.
| Player group | Mean number of praises recorded per player in 40 minutes |
|---|---|
| Team captains | 3.2 |
| Other players | 5.8 |
Explain how the observer effect could have affected the mean scores. Using the data, explain whether observer bias arising from Ruth's prediction could account for the difference found.
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.