← Psychology syllabus

ScotlandPsychology

Research

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do psychologists analyse and present the data they collect?

Analysing and presenting data: qualitative and quantitative data, descriptive statistics including measures of central tendency and dispersion, methods of presenting data, and drawing conclusions from research findings.
The SQA Higher Psychology research content on data: the difference between qualitative and quantitative data, descriptive statistics such as the mean, median, mode and range, methods of presenting data in tables and graphs, and how psychologists draw and justify conclusions from findings.
12 min answer →

How do psychologists design studies to investigate behaviour?

Research methods and the experiment: the main research methods used in psychology, the experimental method, hypotheses and variables, experimental designs, and the strengths and weaknesses of each method.
The SQA Higher Psychology research content on methods: the experimental, observation, survey, case study and correlational methods, the structure of an experiment including hypotheses and independent and dependent variables, experimental designs, and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
13 min answer →

How do psychologists sample participants, act ethically, and make studies trustworthy?

Sampling, ethics, reliability and validity: methods of sampling participants, the ethical issues and guidelines in psychological research, and the concepts of reliability and validity used to judge a study's quality.
The SQA Higher Psychology research content on sampling and quality: random, opportunity, self-selected and other sampling methods, the ethical issues and guidelines such as consent, deception and protection from harm, and the concepts of reliability and validity used to evaluate research.
13 min answer →

What is the Higher Psychology assignment and how is it assessed?

The Higher Psychology assignment: an overview of the researched report worth 40 marks, including the research question, the use of research methods, the analysis of findings, and the conclusions and evaluation.
An overview of the SQA Higher Psychology assignment: the 40-mark researched report in which a candidate plans a research question, gathers and analyses information using research methods, presents findings, and draws and evaluates conclusions under controlled conditions.
11 min answer →