Example Answer for Question 17 Paper 2: A Level Psychology, June 2017 (AQA)

Section C – Research Methods: Q17 [3 Marks]

A Type II error is otherwise known as a false negative and it’s when a researcher accepts the null hypothesis, despite the fact their results were significant.

Psychologists normally use a 5% significant level as this is an acceptable level (within Social Sciences) to claim that results of an experiment are significant. This means that psychologists are 95% confident that their results are due to the independent variable having an effect on the dependent variable and not other factors.

Please Note: These answers have been produced without the knowledge of the mark scheme and merely reflect my attempt at producing a model answer on the day of the exam.