Question 1

Read the following information.

Researchers wanted to find out how personality traits affect whether or not people will say something when they witness anti-social behaviour (eg littering or vandalism).

Participants were given a questionnaire to rate themselves on a number of different personality traits. The personality traits included confidence, extraversion, respect and self-control.

Participants were also asked how likely it is that they would say something if they saw someone doing something anti-social.

The researchers' results showed a number of correlations between the likelihood of saying something and the bystander's dispositional factors.

Outline one strength and one weakness of using correlations in psychological research.

Accepted Answer

For the strength, think about the initial stages of research or situations where experiments are not possible. What can a correlation tell us? For the weakness, recall the most important limitation of correlational analysis. It's often summarised in a well-known phrase.

Question 2

What mistakes do candidates make on this AQA GCSE question?

Accepted Answer

Students often state the strength/weakness without explaining it. For example, just writing 'It doesn't show cause and effect' might only get 1 mark. You need to explain *why* this is a problem or what it means.

How to approach this question

Full Answer

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