Content Analysis & Case Studies (AQA A Level Psychology): Exam Questions

A psychologist was interested in finding out whether dream themes differed between males and females, particularly in terms of social interaction. She decided to conduct a pilot study. Twenty undergraduate students (8 male and 12 female) volunteered for the study.

For a six-week period the students were interviewed at 9 am each morning when they arrived at university. Interviewers, who did not know the purpose of the study, carried out and recorded the dream interviews.

Another researcher, who did not know the purpose of the study, carried out a content analysis of the interview data.

Explain how this content analysis could have been conducted.

The psychologist wanted to assess the reliability of the content analysis.

Explain how the reliability of the content analysis could be assessed.

A psychology teacher wanted to investigate the study habits of sixth-form students as they prepared for their mock exams. She was particularly interested in whether students revised differently when working on their own compared to revising in groups.

The teacher asked 12 students from her school to keep a revision log for two weeks. Each day, they recorded how long they had studied for, whether they had revised alone or with others and what revision techniques they had used.

After looking over the revision logs, the teacher gave the same students a questionnaire to find out how motivated or stressed they felt during their revision.

Explain how the teacher could have used content analysis to analyse the revision logs.