Daniel is planning a correlational study. He is investigating the relationship between how happy a person is and how many friends they have.

Mark scheme

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

1. 2 marks for operationalisation for a variable x 2
2. Happiness:
3. How likely they think they are to win a new game you play with them = 1
4. On a score of 0 (not at all) to 5 (very) = 1
5. Their score on a questionnaire asking about their mood = 1
6. With questions like 'Do you think this year is going well? = 1
7. Number of friends:
8. Ask them to count their friends = 1
9. Ask the how many contacts they have on their phone = 1
10. Then take off all the tradespeople, work colleagues etc. = 1
11. Tell them to only include (close) friends not (loose) acquaintances = 1
12. 1 mark for explanation
13. 1 mark for detail
14. Happiness is subjective = 0 marks (repetition of question)
15. Happiness is not objective = 0 marks (essentially repetition of question)
16. A qualitative measure may subjectively scored by the researcher = 1 mark (explanation);
17. because comments about happiness may need to be interpreted = 1 mark (detail)
18. e.g. not everyone sees 'happiness' in the same way = 1 mark (explanation)
19. because some people might think happiness is being calm, others might think it is being excited = 1 mark (detail)
20. 1 mark for identifying potential extraneous variable, i.e. a third factor that affects friendships
21. 1 mark for explanation
22. How many close family they have: because someone with more family may need fewer friends to be happy;
23. Religion: meeting people through religious services may mean that people have more acquaintances / need less support so have fewer friends;
24. Whether they live in a built-up area: people in rural areas have less chance to make friends are there are fewer people;
25. Age: older people's friends may be dead;
26. Gender; women tend to have more friends than men;