Psychology

Psychology
Ranking answers

WJEC EDUQAS

Read the question and then rank the three answers from best to worst.

A researcher wanted to investigate if police officers are better at identifying lies than the general public. After seeking permission from the chief constable, the researcher randomly selected 10 police officers from a local police force. 10 students studying at a local university were selected to represent the general public. They were all asked to come to a psychology laboratory to complete the research. All participants were assessed individually. They were presented with a film of an actor making 10 statements (5 of the statements were true and 5 were false). The participant had to report whether they thought each of the actor’s statements was true or false.

(a) Suggest a suitable non-directional hypothesis for this research.

best-worst-arrow

Best

  • There will be a difference between the number of lies identified by police officers and the general public.
  • Police officers may or may not be able to identify lies.
  • Police officers will be able to identify more lies than the general public.

Worst

Why is the ‘best’ answer an improvement on the ‘worst’ answer?

Best

  • There will be a difference between the number of lies identified by police officers and the general public.
  • Police officers may or may not be able to identify lies.
  • Police officers will be able to identify more lies than the general public.

Worst

Type your answer here:

The ‘best’ answer is worth 2 marks because it includes all variables – police officers and the general public (IV) and number of lies (DV) – and is non-directional (it suggests a difference between independent variables, but does not suggest how this will influence the DV).

The middle answer only includes one of the two independent variables (police) in a non-directional hypothesis so would achieve 1 mark.

The ‘worst’ answer is a directional hypothesis and would achieve 0 marks. This is because it suggests that the police will be better at detecting lies than the general public – this is directional as it suggests one particular outcome.