Cambridge Past Paper Questions

Lakha is planning to conduct a study to correlate helpfulness and intelligence. She is going to ask her participants to use an online IQ test and i...

Kyle conducted an investigation into doodling during lessons by boys and girls. He counted the number of doodles and how much paper was used per ho...

Emma is planning to conduct an interview-based study about how well people think their pets/ domesticated animals learn, for example whether cats l...

In the study by Andrade, two groups were compared, a doodling condition and a control condition. Each participant produced a memory score.

The study by Saavedra and Silverman (button phobia) was a case study.

In the study by Pepperberg (parrot learning), the data collected was the parrot's speech. Alternatively, the parrot's actions in response to instru...

The procedure in the study by Canli et al. (brain scans and emotions) was standardised as each participant was treated in the same way. Explain one...

Describe what researchers can and cannot learn from correlational studies, using any examples.

Section B Answer all questions in this section. Dr Kwan plans to investigate whether any species other than chimpanzees will offer help. During tes...

Kieran is planning a self-report study about dream content, to find out whether people feel happier during the day if they have had pleasant dreams...

Marla is working in a centre for adults with autism. She is observing social behaviour and communication, such as whether the residents seem to und...

Section C Answer all questions in this section. Dr Fox is planning a field experiment to investigate obedience in school children. Her aim is to te...

Explain what is meant by the term 'population'.

There were many controlled variables in the study by Bandura et al. (aggression).

In the study by Piliavin et al. (subway Samaritans), medians were calculated for 'time taken to help' in the Cane and Drunk conditions.

Explain why low reliability would be a problem in experiments.

Describe ways in which an interview can differ from a questionnaire, using any examples.

Mikko is conducting an experiment to find out whether people are more easily persuaded by advertisements that are in colour or in black and white. ...

Dr Gopal is planning a study about learning and wants it to follow ethical guidelines for the use of animals. He is testing rats in a maze.

Lotty and Nazeem are aiming to observe emotional responses to different films at the cinema. They have different ideas for recording people's emoti...

Cael and Elsie are working at a sleep laboratory and have read about external stimuli becoming part of people's dreams. Their aim is to test whethe...

The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) is a questionnaire. It has questions which are scored on a five-point scale. One question asks a...

The menu: the restaurant's 'business card'. Oliveira's Brasilian Restaurant Open 24 hours Best selling items today: pão de queijo bolinho de bacalh...

Holmes and Rahe (1967) devised a questionnaire, based on an opportunity sample in the US. This was called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRR...

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) assesses the extent to which leaders use the five practices outlined by Kouzes and Posner (1987). An LPI-s...

The feeling-state theory proposes that impulse control disorders are caused by intense positive feelings that become associated with an experience ...

Diners want enough personal space in a restaurant to enjoy their food. Psychologists want to know how much space is enough.

Children can be encouraged to eat more vegetables with a 'food programme'.

(a) Design a study using a questionnaire to investigate whether intrinsic or extrinsic motivation is more effective for workers in an organisation.

‘Biomedical treatments are perfect for treating obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.'

‘Consumer decision-making is poor when shopping because advertising produces false memories.'

‘The health beliefs and behaviour of young adults are formed by their friends rather than their family.'

‘Different types of followers do not exist. Workers either follow a leader or they do not.'

People with symptoms of schizophrenia are often diagnosed through an interview with their doctor. Freeman (2008) says virtual reality (VR) is usefu...

Hall et al. (2010) only studied the taste of jam and the smell of tea, but their participants were not told the full truth about the study.

According to Chung and Naya (2000), studies have shown that only one third of all patients and less than 50% of asthma patients take their pills as...

Manager José was bullied at work for many years. The bullies argued with him every day and stole his belongings. Eventually he left to work for an ...

Zahir has broken his leg. You want to know if Zahir's leg is hurting less over time.

'In the future it will be a fact that the cause of depression is biological.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of rese...

'Researching the effect of advertising on children is not useful.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of research you ha...

‘Failure to attend a medical appointment should be punished.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of research you have st...