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WHO WOULD YOU SAVE?

Posted by Rachel K in Teaching and tagged with korea, lesson, plan, south, tefl, teslOctober 22, 2010
For my 3rd grade (middle school) class, we did a “Who would you save?” scenario. The reasons were
interesting. And sometimes hilarious, like for the Buddhist Monk. Read on!

Scenario: You’re on a ship. The ship is sinking. There is an uninhabited island a few miles away, but the
waters are shark-infested. You get in the only lifeboat, and 6 people can fit in the life boat with
you (pictures were included, as you will see from some of the reasons):
 CEO, male, 40 years old
 Professional wrestler, male, 28
 Farmer, male, 46
 Surfer, male, 21
 Police Officer, male, 39
 Homemaker, female, 35
 Nurse, male, 40
 Doctor, female, 62
 Comedian, male, 35
 Handicapped boy, male, 8
 Pregnant teenager, female, 17
 Lawyer, female, 36
 Buddhist Monk, male, 29

Reasons to not save


 CEO
 doesn’t have money now
 Wrestler
 he is too heavy/strong
 “he is violent”
 “because he is trash”
 Farmer
 “he will eat a lot of food”
 “he has little money”
 not useful
 Surfer
 he can swim well, so he can save himself
 Police officer
 he is supposed to sacrifice himself for others
 “because he is unuseful”
 “nothing criminal”–no criminals are on the island (obviously they’ve never seen “Lost”)
 “He is dangerous”
 “There is no use” for him
 Homemaker
 “We don’t have a house”
 no special reason to save her
 not useful
 she is noisy
 Nurse
 “because Doctor exist”
 “Doctor is enough to cure us”
 “We have a Doctor with many experiences”
 “The Doctor is in the boat”
 Doctor
 too old (said several times)
 will save Nurse instead
 Comedian
 the situation will make him sad and he won’t be funny
 he is too fat and will eat too much
 he is a pig
 “there is no use” for him
 he is too heavy (for the boat)
 Handicapped boy
 he can’t get along with others
 he is weak
 “unuseful”
 isn’t help to us
 Pregnant teenager
 “too young to raise her baby”
 “when her baby borne, eat a lot of milk”
 “she is too young”
 “trash”
 Lawyer
 “very smart so selfish”
 “there is no use” for her
 Buddhist Monk
 “rebirth”–that is, he will reincarnate
 “He can meet Buddha after he dies,” “He is liberated”
 we don’t believe in religion–“We believe each other”
 not useful

Reasons to save
 CEO
 smart
 affects the world
 Wrestler
 he’s strong, has power
 he can protect us
 “He will save us when we are in a dangerous situation”
 Farmer
 he can grow food
 he makes grain
 we need food
 we need rice to eat
 he can make rice
 Surfer
 good swimmer
 “save people in the sea”
 “he can swim and young”
 “because he is handsome and muscular”
 Police officer
 he can make people stop fighting, can protect us from our fighting
 Homemaker
 she can cook, make us good food to eat
 she has a family
 Nurse
 young
 help doctor
 he can take care of us, cure us
 Doctor
 she can cure us, cure other sick people, take care of us
 Comedian
 can make us laugh
 Handicapped boy
 he is sick and young
 too young
 he is very young “it is very very useful”
 Pregnant teenager
 “she has a baby”
 pregnant, “she has two lives”
 “one body -> two lives”
 “She has baby. Then, she has 2 life”
 Lawyer
 she is smart
 helps us when we’re fighting
 if we save her she’ll give us money
 she can protect us when we will escape
 Buddhist Monk
 No one wanted to save him…hum. Mostly because he was “not useful.”
And that was only after two classes! Eight more to go with this lesson!

(If you’re a teacher and want the PPT/handouts for this, let me know. They really got into it, and it took
about 40 minutes.)

Anywhos. I got back from dinner a bit ago, and am going to take a nap before heading out for some live
music and janks.

My energy levels have been basically non-existent of late. Bah


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Specifications that use this resource:
 AS and A-level Psychology 7181; 7182
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Practical activities for research


methods
This resource contains ideas for relevant and engaging practical activities which can be either
incorporated into your teaching of the research methods section of the psychology specification, or your
students can follow independently.

Activity 1: investigating short term memory


Research suggests that Short Term Memory (STM) cannot hold very much information. You are going to
design and carry out an experiment to see whether the capacity of STM differs between two groups: A-
level students and older people.
Tasks
Generate a hypothesis for this study. Justify the direction of your hypothesis. Identify the IV and DV in this
experiment.

Devise a brief and suitable set of instructions that will be read or given to participants in order to:

 gain their consent to take part


 enable them to carry out the task appropriately.

Materials
In small groups devise and justify an appropriate task for measuring the capacity of STM. This might be a
world list containing about 20 words. Think carefully about the materials you will use and explain why
these factors need to be controlled, eg:

 length of words
 type of words
 number of words
 word presentation.

Participants
Decide upon and justify your choice of participants for the two conditions (the two age groups). Identify
and justify your sampling method.

Ethical issues
Before you collect your data, identify and address any relevant ethical issues which may arise from the
study you have designed. For example, consider how participants will be debriefed afterwards.

Results
Once you have collected your results, produce a summary table which includes appropriate measures of
central tendency. Also generate an appropriate graphical display. Ensure these are appropriately labelled
and have a title.

Ask another student to interpret your table and graph for the rest of the class.

Activity 2: investigating handedness


Research suggests that around 10% of the population are left handed or 'sinistral'.
You are going to design a study to compare two types of A-level student. You are aiming to see whether
left handedness is more common in some subject groups, such as art students or geographers.

Tasks
Consider whether you will carry out an observation – eg by counting the number of left handers and right
handers from within lessons you attend, or whether you will use a verbal survey of students in the
common room.

Materials
Describe any materials needed for your chosen method. Remember, if someone wanted to replicate your
study they would need to know exactly what you did.

Participants
Describe and justify your choice of the A-level subject groups you have chosen for this investigation.
Include information about the size of the sample in each condition.

Ethical issues
Consider and compare at least two ethical issues associated with each method before deciding which one
you will use. How, for example, would you gain consent from students you are observing? How would you
gain consent from a verbal survey?

Identify and justify the type of data (level of measurement) you will collect (will it be nominal, ordinal or
interval?).

Consider two potential methodological variables associated the use of your chosen method. For example,
are demand characteristics likely to be a problem?

Results
Once you have collected your data, summarise it into a correctly labelled pie chart for each of the subject
group you measured (eg artists and geographers). Do your findings reflect 10% left handedness in both
groups?

References
In order to practise the skill of reference writing, find three references for studies which have investigated
handedness. Include them here in an academically accepted format.
Hint: look at the reference section of an academic text book. What do you notice about their order and
format?

Activity 3: investigating gender stereotyping


It has been suggested by some researchers that males and females are often gender stereotyped by
others when it comes to their expected and/or perceived roles and behaviours. Your task is to investigate
whether gender stereotyping occurs in product marketing aimed at children.

Tasks
Consider where you might choose to look for evidence of stereotyping. You could:

 examine online promotional material


 look at television advertisements
 examine children's comics.
Generate a suitable aim and hypothesis for your study. Justify your choice of a directional or non-
directional hypothesis.

Decide upon a specific age range for the children targeted by your chosen media source.

Materials
In pairs, decide upon an appropriate working definition of stereotyping for your study. In other words,
clearly 'operationalise' the concept you will measure.

You might decide to measure:

 the number of times that boys or girls interact with particular toys
 how often certain colours are used to promote toys for girls and boys
 the type of words used to promote toys for girls and boys
 the actions associated with certain toys (physical or passive).
Well operationalised definitions make it much easier to identify your IV and DV.

Results
Once you have collected your data, summarise it into a correctly labelled graph and present your findings
to the rest of the class in a five minute presentation.

Ask your peers for questions about your investigation and answer one or two of these.
Discussions
Research findings are an important tool for informing social change.

In two or three paragraphs, discuss the possible social and/or developmental implications of your findings.

Activity 4: investigating aggression


Researchers have come up with theories to try and explain why people become aggressive. One
explanation is to do with 'nurture'. That is, we learn to be aggressive from environmental influences such
as computer games.

Tasks
Your aim is to compare the perceived level of aggression in games designed for two different age groups:
those under 12 and those over 18 years of age.

Materials
In a small group, generate the names of six computer games intended for play by individuals over the age
of 18 and six games which are intended for children under 12. Randomly select three games from the
'over 18' list and three from the 'under 12' list. Produce a random list of these six games.

How and why would random selection be used to produce the list?

Selection of game raters


Select an equal number of male and female students aged eighteen or over. Their job will be to rate the
games for levels of aggression. Explain and justify your choice of game raters. For example, why would
you need a balance of males and female raters?

Procedure
Ask the raters to give each game on the list a rating for aggression from 1 to 10 (where 1 = no aggression
and 10 = high levels of aggression).

Calculate an appropriate measure of central tendency for each 'over 18s' game and each 'under 12s'
game.
Results
Carry out an 'eyeball test' to see which set of games appears to have the highest levels of aggression.
The ones designed for under 12s or over 18s?

Which statistical test would you use if you wanted to see whether there were significantly different levels
of aggression in games for older and younger people? Justify your choice of test.

Discussion
In a paragraph or two, explain the methodological and ethical issues arising when asking people to rate
levels of aggression in computer games.

Explain the possible implication of your findings relative to theories of aggression.

Activity 5: investigating age and sleep patterns


Research has shown that the human body clock is very important in determining sleep and wake
patterns. Your task will be to design a study to investigate the relationship between age and sleep
duration.

Tasks
Generate an appropriate directional hypothesis for this correlational study.

Design a response sheet for people to complete in order to record the amount of time they sleep over a
number of nights. You will need to consider how many nights, which days of the week and how they are
to record their sleep (eg minutes/hours/clock times). Justify your choices.

What other information will you need on this sheet to enable you carry out the study? For example, how
will you record the age of your participants?

Participants
In terms of sampling, who will be your target population and what type of sampling will you use? Justify
your choices. Decide upon and operationalise the age groups you hope to measure. You should aim to
include a wide age range and therefore address the ethical requirements associated with these,
particularly with regard to any participants under 16 years of age.
Results
Once you have collected your data, produce a suitable scattergraph to show the relationship between age
and sleep duration.

Do the results appear to support your predictions? Justify your answer.

Which statistical test would you use to look for a significant relationship between age and sleep duration?
Why would you choose to use this test?

Discussions
In two or three paragraphs, and as part of the 'Discussion' section of a psychological investigation, briefly
consider the possible methodological implications of your findings, particularly with regard to confounding
variables within the study.

References
In order to practise the skill of reference writing, find three references for studies which have investigated
sleep. Include them here in an academically accepted format.

Hint: look at the reference section of an academic text book. What do you notice about their order and
format?

Activity 6: investigating cognitive psychology


The Cognitive Approach in psychology places a great deal of importance on the influence of higher
thought processes on decision making and behaviour.

Task
Your task is to design and carry out a study to investigate the possible influence of expectation and
perceptual bias on decision making processes.

Participants will simply be asked to rate the suitability of someone who has applied for a particular
(named) job. Think carefully what this could be.
Materials
You should produce a short and credible education/career summary for a fictitious individual. This could
include a list of their GCSE results, A-levels, degree details and work experience. You may decide not to
include all of these depending on the job vacancy you have chosen to use.

People often have preconceptions regarding ability and a person’s age or gender, so look at one of these
factors. If you choose age, then produce two identical versions of the CV differing only in terms of the
persons specific age. The applicant's name could be an extraneous variable in this study. How will you
control this EV?

Participants
Identify and justify an appropriate participant sample and sampling method.

Procedure
Half of the participants should see the 'young' CV version, and be asked to rate the suitability of the
person for the vacancy. You will need to devise a suitable rating scale for this and a clear set of
instructions for participants to follow.

The remaining participants will rate the 'older' candidate.

Identify, explain and justify the experimental design used in your study. Is it repeated measures,
independent groups or matched pairs? Would it have been possible to use a different design to the one
you have used? Explain your answer.

Results
Summarise your findings using descriptive statistics, perhaps a table and a graph.

Discussion
In two or three paragraphs, explain the implications of your findings with regard to any age bias you may
or may not have found.

Activity 7: investigating stress


People often report feeling high levels of stress at certain points in their lives. Students, for example, often
feel stressed in the run up to examinations.
Task
Your task is to devise a self-report measure to try and find the possible reasons for examination stress in
AS/A Level students or GCSE students.

Procedure
You should devise a questionnaire asking students to list and briefly describe possible reasons for
examination stress in students.

Ethical issues
You should emphasise in your brief that their answers may not necessarily be a reflection of their own
stressors and that their answers will be confidential and anonymous. Write a set of ethically sound
procedures to explain how this will be achieved.

Participants
Decide upon a sample of students. Informed consent must be addressed. If you decide to sample GCSE
students, for example, you must first (and also) gain consent from parents or those in loco parentis.
Explain why and how this will be done and evidenced.

Results
Identify and justify whether the students responses will generate qualitative or quantitative data. Identify
one strength and one weakness of the data type you have collected in this investigation.

From the answers given, think about how you could summarise these to generate a suitable graph. This
could include identifying types or categories of stressor. You could then calculate the percentage of
students who identified these as potential stressors.

Ask another student (who was not involved with your investigation) to interpret and describe the results
using your graph. This will tell you whether your graph is a clear summary of your results.

Discussion
Write two or three paragraphs to consider the implications of your findings. This might, for example, be
ways of helping to reduce examination stress.

Activity 8: investigating social development


It has often been suggested that small animals, including humans, are born with certain physical features
(such as large eyes) that encourage others to take care of them.

Task
You will design a study to see whether babies look cuter when their eyes are open compared to when
their eyes are closed.

Materials
You will need two photographs – one of you as a baby/toddler with your eyes wide open and one of you
at a similar age with your eyes closed. If you are creative, you could use the same photograph
manipulated in a photographic software programme.

Only the face should be visible. Explain the methodological reasons for using the same photograph and
two other controls you consider relevant to this investigation.

These might, for example, include a justification of the size of the photograph or whether it is in colour or
black and white.

Ethical issues
Explain the ethical reasons for using photos of yourself in this study.

Procedure
You will then ask people to rate the cuteness of the 'two' babies using an independent groups (unrelated)
design. How will you allocate people to the 'open eyes' and 'closed eyes' conditions? Justify your answer.

Devise a suitable 'cuteness' rating scale for this study. Justify how long you will give participants to rate
the photograph. Explain why participants will not be given unlimited time to give their ratings. Generate an
appropriate set of instructions, a brief and debrief for use in this study.

Results
Produce an appropriate graph from the data collected. Which statistical test would be appropriate for
analysing this data? Justify your choice. Explain whether the test you have chosen is parametric or non-
parametric.
Abstract
Produce an abstract (summary) which could be used when writing up this study. Try to keep this to a
maximum of 200 words, but include reference to: the aim of the study, theory behind the study, how it was
tested, participants, summary of findings and a conclusion.

Activity 9: investigating food preference


Many theories have been offered to explain food preference in humans; some of which are biological,
others due to environmental influence. For example, it is said that more people are now choosing to eat
vegetarian diets than ever before.

Task
You will carry out a study to record:

1. Whether more males or females are vegetarians


2. How long the males and female participants have been vegetarian (in an attempt to identify which
gender has been a vegetarian the longest)

Sampling
Participants in this study should be over 16 years of age. Explain why.

Design your study to gain participants using volunteer sampling. How will you achieve this? Outline the
main methodological problems arising from using a volunteer sampling method for this investigation.
Outline and justify a better way of sampling in this study which could contribute to more valid results.

Procedure
Decide whether this will take the form of written responses to a simple questionnaire or a verbal survey of
participants. Design and justify your materials accordingly.

Whichever method you choose, you should plan and produce an appropriate set of procedures for your
investigation. This way, you will know exactly what you intend to do and/or say to participants and what
they have to do/say during the investigation.

A 'Procedures' section, when written up, would normally be:

 written in the past tense


 include all steps and 'verbatim' instructions (find out what does this means)
 written in the third person.
So although you must plan this ahead prospectively, you must write this up afterwards retrospectively. Try
doing this by writing up your 'Procedure' in this way.

Results
Identify and justify the type of data you will collect in each part of the study.

Produce a summary of your findings using appropriate descriptive statistics.

Include a written conclusion of your findings.

Ethical issues
Eating behaviour can be a sensitive topic for some people. Perhaps their diet is governed by illness or
other personal factors. Outline at least two ways in which you will ensure that your participants are not
placed in a position of psychological discomfort by taking part in your study.

Activity 10: investigating food preference


When psychologists design studies, they have to consider the validity of their research. That is, are they
really measuring what they set out to measure?

Task
You will be considering issues of validity in this exercise when you attempt to design the materials for a
study intending to measure social influence. Obedience is one form of social influence; conformity is
another.

Materials
In small groups, collect and agree upon ten celebrity faces for use in this investigation. What will you need
to consider when choosing the faces for this study? Perhaps how well known the person is or their
gender.

Explain how these and other factors might impact upon the validity of your study.

You will need to duplicate these photographs. One set of the faces will remain 'whole', whilst the other set
should only show the eyes of the same celebrities.
Validity
One way of testing validity is through 'face validity'. In this case, the researchers would be asking whether
the measure looks, at face value, as though it measures obedience.

The class should therefore look at all of the questions generated and explain whether the questions
designed to test obedience actually look as though they do this.

What if one of the questions reads 'Your neighbour asks you to move her dustbin? Do you?' or 'All of your
friends make a noise in the library, do you join in?'

Are these valid measures of obedience or something else? Justify your answer.

If such questions were to be used in a study, how would the participant's responses be recorded? Would
it be through yes/no answers or some other measure? Describe and justify way of measuring obedience
other than through yes/no responses.

Identify and explain at least two potential methodological issues which might arise in such a study of
obedience.

Identify and explain at least two ethical issues which might arise. One of these should relate to
confidentiality.

As an alternative task, you could start to look around your school, supermarkets etc for posters/signs
which encourage obedience. Categorise the techniques used, eg obedience through fear, and consider
which technique is more likely to cause obedience in the real world.

Activity 11: investigating holism v reductionism


One of many important debates in psychology is that of Holism versus Reductionism. In Cognitive
Psychology, for example, this can be seen in theories of face recognition. The holistic view would argue
that we need to see a whole face in order to identify it. The reductionist view argues that single features
alone are sufficient.

Task
You will carry out an investigation to test holism and reductionism in face recognition.
Materials
In small groups, collect and agree upon ten celebrity faces for use in this investigation. What will you need
to consider when choosing the faces for this study? Perhaps how well known the person is or their
gender.

Explain how these and other factors might impact upon the validity of your study.

You will need to duplicate these photographs. One set of the faces will remain 'whole', whilst the other set
should only show the eyes of the same celebrities.

Design/participants
Using an independent groups (unrelated) design, randomly allocate 10 people to Condition 1 (whole face)
and 10 people to Condition 2 (eyes only). Explain why the independent groups design would be used.
Could you use a different design in this study?

Procedure
The participants simply have to name the celebrity. You will time them using a stopwatch to see how long
it takes to name all ten celebrities in each condition (whole or eyes). Devise a suitable system for
accurately recording total reaction time.

Carry out a pilot study with two or three people prior to the main study in order to test and improve the
procedure and/or materials. You may, for example, have to consider what you will do if the participant
answers incorrectly, or takes a long time to answer.

Results
Produce a summary table and graph to summarise the findings from your study. Which side of the debate
seems to be supported? Explain your answer.

Name and justify an appropriate parametric test which could be used to analyse your data. Name and
justify the use of an alternative non-parametric test.

Activity 12: investigating honesty


Some researchers believe that when we are being truthful, our eyes look to the left, but it we are not
being honest, we gaze to the right and that this process is reversed for left handed people. Other
researchers are not so sure.
Task
Your task is to design two ways in which this could be tested.

Design 1
Design an observational study which could be carried out in a sixth form setting using stratified sampling.

You will need to describe:

 how the researcher could consistently determine gaze direction


 the questions asked in order to elicit truthful and non-truthful answers
 the type of observation undertaken and why
 the ethical issues associated with a study of this nature
 how the stratified sample would be achieved.

Design 2
Design a second experiment in which eye gaze direction could be measured through the use of more
physiological means such as an EOG (look online for this).

You will need to describe:

 the ethical issues associated with a study of this nature and how they differ from the observation study
described above
 an appropriate brief and debrief and how these might differ from those given in the observation study
described above
 the type of experiment undertaken and why. For example, would this be a lab experiment or a field
experiment, and why?

References
In order to practise the skill of reference writing, find three references for studies which have investigated
this topic. Include them here in an academically accepted format.

Hint: look at the reference section of an academic text book. What do you notice about their order and
format?

Activity 13: investigating reliability


When psychologists design studies, they have to consider the reliability (consistency) of their findings.
That is, if someone else were to carry out the same study, would they get the same or very similar
results?

Task
The Psychology teacher should select a 4 or 6 mark memory question from a past Psychology
examination paper. Students will be answering and then double marking this. The mark scheme should
be kept confidential at this point.

Procedure
Students should then consider and devise a system whereby they are each randomly allocated an
identification number. This will replace their names on their answer to the question they are about to
answer. Justify this in terms of appropriate ethical and/or methodological issues.

In silence, students should then write their answer to the question set. An appropriate time limit should be
set for this task. Students should consider what this should be and base their decision on the amount of
time you would normally expect to allocate to 4 (or 6) mark question.

The answer papers should then be randomly allocated to other members of the class for marking
according to the mark scheme.

This process should be done twice. This will allow you to consider inter-marker reliability regarding the
marking of the students answers.

As a possible control of potential EVs, explain why it is important to ensure that the second marker does
not know or see the mark awarded by the first marker. Describe how this could be achieved.

Results
The two marks awarded to each anonymous student should then be examined. What would you expect to
find if the marking is reliable? Briefly outline the results and what these mean in terms of inter-marker
reliability.

Explain how inter-marker reliability could be checked statistically.

Produce an appropriate graphical display of the findings.


Evaluation
As a potential discussion/improvement point, briefly explain why the answers might have been better
word processed than hand written.

Activity 14: investigating crime statistics


Crime is measured in a variety of ways, including official statistics, victim surveys and offender surveys.
The general public is now able to access crime data freely from a variety of online government sources.

Task
Your task is to go online and find the following website which gives information about crime in your
postcode area:

UK Crime Statistics by Postcode


and more specifically, crime within one mile of UK universities:

UK University Crime Statistics


Find the crime data for any two or more UK universities you might be interested in. You will be making a
comparison between levels and types of crime at each university you have chosen. You can choose two
universities for a side by side visual comparison on the website.

Results
You will find that the information is presented in the form of pie charts with percentages as well as
providing actual crime figures with their respective locations.

Produce a graph comparing some aspects of crime – perhaps a bar chart of the most common type of
crime in each university area.

You could provide a comparison of certain types of crime, eg bicycle theft or antisocial behaviour.

You could be even more adventurous and produce a really interesting geographical representation of
crime using mapping techniques similar to those used in geographical profiling.

Analysis
Which statistical test could use to compare crime levels between two of the universities you have chosen?
Justify your choice.
Ethical issues
Outline the way(s) in which the website protects the identity of those experiencing crime. Look under the
'About' link.

Discussion
Consider whether or not you think that the categories of crime are clearly operationalised. Search under
the 'About' link.

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