Model Answer for Question 2 Paper 1: AS Psychology, June 2016 (AQA)

Section A – Social Influence

02 Ten A-level students took part in a study of attitude to Milgram’s research on obedience. They were asked about the value of Milgram’s research and about ethical concerns with Milgram’s research.

For each student, the researcher recorded two scores out of 10, a ‘value of research’ score and an ‘ethical concern’ score.

A high ‘value of research’ score means the student thinks Milgram’s research was very valuable and a high ‘ethical concern’ score means that the student thinks that Milgram’s research caused many ethical concerns.

The finds are shown in Table 1 below.

02.1 How many students have a ‘value of research’ score of <6? [1 mark]

Suggested Answer: A) 2 students

02.2 Give the mode for both sets of scores in Table 1. [2 marks]

Suggested Answer: Mode for the value of research = 6 and mode for ethical concern = 7.

02.3 The mode is one type of descriptive statistic. Identify two other descriptive statistics that could be used to further analyse the data in Table 1. In each case, explain how the descriptive statistic you have identified could be calculated. [4 marks]

Suggested Answer: Mean – you would add all of the scores for ‘value of research’ and ‘ethical concern score’ and divide by the total number of scores, which is 10.

Median – you would put all of the scores for ‘value of research’ and ‘ethical concern score’ in order from lowest to highest and then select the middle value.

Range – you would take away the lowest score from the highest score.