A psychologist is investigating whether a person's happiness depends on whether people around them are happy.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2020). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] 1 mark for any plausible measure. Count number of smiles = 1 Time length of time smiling = 1 Score laughter from 1-5 = 1 Observe the participant in social contexts to watch their family / friends / work colleagues = 0
2. [1] 1 mark for any plausible measure. Ask the participant / family / friends / work colleagues to answer questions about their happiness = 1 Ask them to fill in a questionnaire about behaviours suggesting happiness = 1 Interview them about their emotions =1
3. [1] 1 mark for correct directional hypothesis (does not have to be operationalised). Accept experimental or correlational hypotheses. People feel happier when people around them are happy rather than unhappy = 1 [experimental] People feel happier when people around them are happy than if other people are not = 1 [experimental] People are happier when people around them are happier = 1 [correlational] 0 marks for a null hypothesis.