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Assam HS Class 11-12 Psychology study materials
Assam HS Class 11-12 Psychology study resources

Assam HS Class 11-12 Psychology practice questions

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Question 1What is Psychology?

In the standard definition used in Class 11 psychology, psychology is best described as the scientific study of behaviour and which other feature of organisms?

  1. Moral values
  2. Political institutions
  3. Economic systems
  4. Mental processes Correct answer.

Explanation

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes, which include thinking, feeling, memory and perception. Moral values, political institutions and economic systems belong to other disciplines and are not part of this core definition.

Question 2What is Psychology?

The word 'psychology' is derived from two Greek roots. Which pair correctly gives those roots and their meanings?

  1. Psyche meaning mind and bios meaning life
  2. Psyche meaning soul and logos meaning study Correct answer.
  3. Pathos meaning feeling and logos meaning study
  4. Logos meaning soul and psyche meaning word

Explanation

Psychology comes from the Greek 'psyche', meaning soul or mind, and 'logos', meaning study, discourse or knowledge. Together they originally meant the study of the soul, which later shifted to the study of the mind and then of behaviour.

Question 3What is Psychology?

A researcher observes how long students persist on a puzzle after being told they failed. Which goal of psychology is being served when the researcher simply records and describes the pattern of persistence?

  1. Description Correct answer.
  2. Control
  3. Prediction
  4. Modification

Explanation

Description is the first goal of psychology: observing and recording behaviour accurately without yet explaining why it occurs. Control and modification involve changing behaviour, and prediction involves forecasting it, so recording the pattern is description.

Question 4What is Psychology?

Which pair of goals of psychology involves using psychological knowledge to change behaviour in a desired direction?

  1. Control and modification Correct answer.
  2. Observation and recording
  3. Classification and labelling
  4. Description and prediction

Explanation

The goals of psychology are description, explanation, prediction, control and modification of behaviour. Control and modification both concern influencing or changing behaviour, for example through therapy or training.

Question 5What is Psychology?

The branch of psychology that deals with the study, diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders is called:

  1. Clinical psychology Correct answer.
  2. Cognitive psychology
  3. Social psychology
  4. Developmental psychology

Explanation

Clinical psychology focuses on understanding, assessing and treating mental disorders and psychological distress. Social psychology studies social interaction, developmental psychology studies change across the lifespan, and cognitive psychology studies mental processes such as memory.

Question 6What is Psychology?

A psychologist studies how factory workers' productivity changes when the lighting in the workplace is increased and then decreased. This study belongs most clearly to which branch?

  1. Industrial and organisational psychology Correct answer.
  2. Educational psychology
  3. Sports psychology
  4. Forensic psychology

Explanation

Industrial and organisational psychology applies psychological principles to the workplace, including productivity, working conditions and employee behaviour. Lighting and productivity in a factory are classic workplace variables, so this is an industrial-organisational question.

Question 7What is Psychology?

Wilhelm Wundt is important in the history of psychology because he:

  1. Introduced the concept of the unconscious mind
  2. Founded the behaviourist school of thought
  3. Established the first laboratory for experimental psychology in 1879 Correct answer.
  4. Developed the theory of operant conditioning

Explanation

Wundt set up the first formal laboratory of experimental psychology at Leipzig in 1879, an event often treated as marking psychology's emergence as a science. He used methods such as introspection to study conscious experience.

Question 8What is Psychology?

Which school of psychology held that psychology should study only observable behaviour and reject the study of mental states?

  1. Psychoanalysis
  2. Structuralism
  3. Behaviourism Correct answer.
  4. Gestalt psychology

Explanation

Behaviourism, associated with Watson and later Skinner, argued that psychology must be objective and study only observable, measurable behaviour. It rejected introspection and the study of inner mental states as unscientific.

Question 9What is Psychology?

A student feels anxious before an examination. Which pair best illustrates the distinction between behaviour and mental process in this example?

  1. Both the pacing and the anxiety are behaviours
  2. Behaviour is the student's pacing outside the hall; mental process is the feeling of anxiety Correct answer.
  3. Behaviour is the feeling of anxiety; mental process is the pacing outside the hall
  4. Both the pacing and the anxiety are mental processes

Explanation

Behaviour refers to observable actions such as pacing or speaking, while mental processes are internal experiences such as feelings and thoughts. Anxiety is an inner experience, and pacing is an outward action, so the pair maps correctly onto the distinction.

Question 10What is Psychology?

Introspection as a method in early psychology required participants to:

  1. Record dreams and interpret them symbolically
  2. Measure reaction time using laboratory instruments
  3. Report their own conscious experiences in response to a stimulus Correct answer.
  4. Observe other people's behaviour without their knowledge

Explanation

Introspection involves trained observers reporting their own inner experiences, thoughts and feelings as they occur. It was central to Wundt's and Titchener's work, though it was later criticised for being subjective and hard to verify.

Question 11What is Psychology?

Which statement best explains why psychology is regarded as a science rather than merely a body of common-sense beliefs?

  1. It studies only events that cannot be observed or measured
  2. It accepts traditional beliefs that have been passed down for generations
  3. It uses systematic methods and verifiable evidence to test claims about behaviour Correct answer.
  4. It relies on the personal opinions of experienced teachers

Explanation

A discipline is scientific when it gathers evidence through systematic, replicable methods and tests claims against observations. Psychology uses experiments, observation, surveys and tests to verify or reject explanations of behaviour.

Question 12What is Psychology?

A psychologist explains a student's poor marks by pointing to low motivation, poor study habits and an unsettled home environment. This explanation best reflects which idea about behaviour?

  1. Behaviour has a single cause that can always be identified
  2. Behaviour cannot be explained scientifically
  3. Behaviour is entirely determined by heredity
  4. Behaviour is influenced by multiple factors acting together Correct answer.

Explanation

Psychology recognises that behaviour is multi-causal: biological, psychological and social factors usually combine to produce an outcome. Attributing poor marks to motivation, habits and home environment together reflects this multi-factor view.

Question 13What is Psychology?

The debate about whether behaviour is shaped mainly by inborn factors or by experience is known as the:

  1. Conscious versus unconscious debate
  2. Nature versus nurture debate Correct answer.
  3. Stability versus change debate
  4. Free will versus determinism debate

Explanation

The nature-nurture debate concerns the relative contributions of heredity (nature) and environment or experience (nurture) to behaviour. Modern psychology usually treats the two as interacting rather than as opposing forces.

Question 14What is Psychology?

A therapist helps a client replace irrational beliefs with more realistic ones. Which perspective in psychology is most directly reflected in this approach?

  1. Cognitive perspective Correct answer.
  2. Psychodynamic perspective
  3. Biological perspective
  4. Behaviourist perspective

Explanation

The cognitive perspective holds that behaviour is influenced by the way people interpret and think about events. Changing irrational beliefs targets thought processes, so this therapy reflects the cognitive perspective.

Question 15What is Psychology?

Which statement most accurately describes the relationship between psychology and psychiatry?

  1. Psychology is a branch of medicine, while psychiatry is a branch of philosophy
  2. Psychology and psychiatry are identical in training and scope
  3. Psychiatry studies only normal behaviour, while psychology studies only abnormal behaviour
  4. Psychiatry is a medical speciality that can prescribe treatment for mental disorders, while psychology is a broader scientific discipline Correct answer.

Explanation

Psychiatry is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and medical treatment of mental disorders, whereas psychology is a broader scientific discipline studying behaviour and mental processes. Their training, legal powers and scope therefore differ.

Question 16What is Psychology?

A researcher wants to establish whether a new teaching method causes better retention than the existing method. Which method is best suited to this aim?

  1. A case study of one student
  2. An opinion survey of teachers
  3. Naturalistic observation of a classroom
  4. A controlled experiment comparing the two methods Correct answer.

Explanation

Only a controlled experiment allows the researcher to manipulate the teaching method and compare outcomes while controlling other variables, which supports causal conclusions. The other methods describe or correlate but cannot establish causation as directly.

Question 17What is Psychology?

Which of the following is the clearest example of a psychological test being used for prediction?

  1. Using an aptitude score to forecast how well a candidate will perform in a technical course Correct answer.
  2. Teaching a candidate new study techniques after a low score
  3. Describing the items that appear on an aptitude test
  4. Explaining to a candidate why he scored low on a test

Explanation

Prediction means using information about present behaviour or abilities to forecast future behaviour or performance. Using an aptitude score to forecast course performance is a predictive use of a test, whereas the other options describe, explain or modify.

Question 18What is Psychology?

During a counselling session, a client says one thing to the counsellor but behaves very differently at home. Which characteristic of behaviour does this most directly illustrate?

  1. Behaviour is always conscious
  2. Behaviour can be covert as well as overt Correct answer.
  3. Behaviour is entirely predictable
  4. Behaviour is purely biological

Explanation

Psychologists distinguish overt behaviour, which is observable, from covert behaviour, which is internal and not directly visible. A client's report of private feelings that differ from public actions illustrates this distinction.

Question 19What is Psychology?

Which of these best explains why early structuralism declined as a school of psychology?

  1. It refused to study conscious experience at all
  2. Its reliance on introspection produced subjective reports that were difficult to verify or replicate Correct answer.
  3. It was replaced because it denied the existence of behaviour
  4. It was rejected because it relied on animal experiments

Explanation

Structuralism depended on trained observers reporting conscious experience, and these reports were subjective and hard to check by others. This lack of verifiability, along with disagreement over its findings, contributed to its decline.

Question 20What is Psychology?

Gestalt psychologists argued that perception cannot be understood by analysing its parts in isolation. Which statement best captures their central claim?

  1. Experience must be broken into its smallest elements
  2. The whole of an experience is more than the sum of its parts Correct answer.
  3. Unconscious drives explain all perception
  4. Only observable responses deserve scientific study

Explanation

Gestalt psychology held that organised wholes have properties that are not found in their components taken separately, so experience must be studied as a structured whole. This directly opposed the element-by-element analysis of structuralism.

Question 21What is Psychology?

A researcher finds that students who sleep more also score higher on a memory test. Which conclusion is most defensible from this finding alone?

  1. Better memory definitely causes longer sleep
  2. The finding proves that sleep is irrelevant to memory
  3. Sleep and memory scores are associated, but causation cannot be assumed from a correlation Correct answer.
  4. Sleeping more definitely causes better memory

Explanation

A correlation shows that two variables vary together but does not establish which one causes the other or rule out a third factor. Concluding causation from a correlation alone is a common methodological error in psychology.

Question 22What is Psychology?

A psychologist insists that behaviour is fully determined by unconscious conflicts formed in early childhood. Which criticism is most relevant to this position?

  1. It ignores the role of observable behaviour entirely
  2. It rejects the influence of childhood experience
  3. It denies that any behaviour can be explained
  4. It relies on concepts that are difficult to test empirically Correct answer.

Explanation

A key scientific criticism of strongly psychodynamic claims is that unconscious conflicts are hard to observe or measure, making the propositions difficult to test and falsify. Testability is a central requirement for scientific explanations of behaviour.

Question 23What is Psychology?

Which statement best explains why psychology cannot rely on common sense alone to explain behaviour?

  1. Common sense is identical to the findings of psychology
  2. Common-sense beliefs often conflict with one another and are not systematically tested against evidence Correct answer.
  3. Common sense is always scientifically accurate
  4. Common sense is based on careful laboratory measurement

Explanation

Common-sense explanations are often contradictory and untested, so they cannot reliably distinguish true from false claims about behaviour. Psychology replaces them with systematic observation and evidence-based testing.

Question 24What is Psychology?

A school counsellor uses psychological principles to help teachers design lessons that suit different learning styles. Which branch of psychology is being applied most directly?

  1. Clinical psychology
  2. Forensic psychology
  3. Environmental psychology
  4. Educational psychology Correct answer.

Explanation

Educational psychology applies psychological principles to teaching, learning and classroom practice, including adapting instruction to learners' needs. Designing lessons around learning styles is therefore an educational-psychology application.

Question 25What is Psychology?

In the definition of psychology used in the Assam HS syllabus, psychology is best described as the scientific study of:

  1. brain anatomy alone
  2. the soul and its destiny
  3. social customs and rituals
  4. behaviour and mental processes Correct answer.

Explanation

Modern psychology is defined as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. Behaviour covers observable actions, while mental processes cover internal events such as thinking, memory and emotion. This definition separates psychology from philosophy and from purely biological study of the brain.

Question 26What is Psychology?

A psychologist measures how quickly a person reacts to a traffic light turning red. This study is mainly concerned with:

  1. cultural beliefs about traffic
  2. unconscious motives
  3. reaction time as a behavioural measure Correct answer.
  4. the structure of personality

Explanation

Reaction time is an observable, measurable behavioural response, so recording it is a behavioural measurement. Because the psychologist records speed of response rather than asking about inner feelings, the focus is on measurable behaviour. This makes reaction time a standard laboratory index in psychological research.

Question 27What is Psychology?

Which pair correctly matches a mental process with an example of it?

  1. Learning - blinking when dust enters the eye
  2. Emotion - recalling a phone number
  3. Memory - solving a jigsaw puzzle
  4. Perception - interpreting an incomplete figure as a whole shape Correct answer.

Explanation

Perception is the mental process of organising and interpreting sensory information, so reading an incomplete figure as a complete shape illustrates it. Each other pair must also link the process to a matching example for the option to work. Matching process to example is the key skill being tested here.

Question 28What is Psychology?

Psychology is called a science chiefly because it:

  1. uses only questionnaires to collect information
  2. accepts the authority of senior psychologists
  3. relies on systematic observation and verifiable evidence Correct answer.
  4. explains behaviour through personal intuition

Explanation

A discipline qualifies as scientific when its claims rest on systematic observation, controlled methods and evidence that others can check. Psychology follows this by testing hypotheses about behaviour with replicable procedures. Authority and intuition are not accepted as sufficient grounds for scientific claims.

Question 29What is Psychology?

A researcher studies how students' test performance changes as the amount of background noise in the examination hall is varied. This investigation belongs to which subfield of psychology?

  1. Clinical psychology
  2. Experimental psychology Correct answer.
  3. Developmental psychology
  4. Industrial and organisational psychology

Explanation

Experimental psychology uses controlled manipulation of variables to study basic processes such as attention, perception and performance. Varying noise level and measuring test performance is precisely such a manipulation. The other subfields apply psychology to disorders, workplaces or age-related change.

Question 30What is Psychology?

Which subfield of psychology is most directly concerned with how people select, train and motivate employees in an organisation?

  1. Social psychology
  2. Industrial and organisational psychology Correct answer.
  3. Cognitive psychology
  4. Educational psychology

Explanation

Industrial and organisational psychology applies psychological principles to the workplace, including personnel selection, training and motivation. Its concerns are employees and organisational systems. The other branches focus on learning in schools, social influence, or mental processes such as memory and attention.

Question 31What is Psychology?

A psychologist argues that behaviour is shaped by observation and imitation of others, and that rewards and punishments maintain what is imitated. This view belongs to the:

  1. behavioural perspective Correct answer.
  2. psychoanalytic perspective
  3. humanistic perspective
  4. biological perspective

Explanation

The behavioural perspective explains behaviour through learning, including observation, reinforcement and punishment. Imitation followed by reinforcement is a classic behavioural account of how responses are acquired and maintained. Other perspectives stress unconscious conflict, self-actualisation or physiological mechanisms.

Question 32What is Psychology?

A counsellor helps a client recognise that his belief 'I must never fail' is unrealistic and replaces it with a more balanced belief. This approach reflects which perspective?

  1. Cognitive perspective Correct answer.
  2. Biological perspective
  3. Behavioural perspective
  4. Psychoanalytic perspective

Explanation

The cognitive perspective holds that disturbed feelings often arise from faulty or irrational thinking, so therapy targets those beliefs. Replacing an unrealistic belief with a balanced one is a cognitive intervention. Behavioural, psychoanalytic and biological approaches would target conditioning, unconscious conflict or physiological factors instead.

Question 33What is Psychology?

The method in which trained observers report their own conscious experiences in response to a stimulus under controlled conditions is known as:

  1. the case study method
  2. introspection Correct answer.
  3. naturalistic observation
  4. the experimental method

Explanation

Introspection required trained participants to look inward and report their conscious experiences to a stimulus. It was the chief method of structuralism. Naturalistic observation, case studies and experiments involve different procedures and forms of evidence.

Question 34What is Psychology?

A student claims that psychology is unnecessary because 'everyone knows people behave differently when praised'. The strongest scientific objection is that:

  1. common-sense beliefs are often contradictory and untested, so they need systematic verification Correct answer.
  2. praise has no effect on behaviour
  3. common-sense statements are always false
  4. psychology rejects all everyday observations

Explanation

Common sense offers many plausible but conflicting maxims, such as 'opposites attract' and 'birds of a feather flock together'. Science resolves such conflicts by testing claims under controlled, verifiable conditions. Psychology therefore does not reject everyday observation but submits it to systematic check.

Question 35What is Psychology?

A student reports feeling nervous before an examination, and the psychologist records that the student's hands tremble and that the student leaves the room. Which statement correctly distinguishes these observations?

  1. Trembling and leaving are mental processes; nervousness is behaviour
  2. All three are mental processes because they occur in the student
  3. All three are behaviour because they are reported by the student
  4. Nervousness is a mental process; trembling and leaving are behaviour Correct answer.

Explanation

Behaviour refers to observable, measurable actions such as trembling or leaving a room. Nervousness is an internal feeling and therefore a mental process, accessible mainly through self-report or inference. Keeping this distinction clear is essential when describing psychological data.

Question 36What is Psychology?

Which characteristic most clearly distinguishes psychology from pseudoscientific claims about behaviour?

  1. Its findings are stated with certainty and never revised
  2. Its claims are open to empirical testing and possible refutation Correct answer.
  3. It avoids collecting numerical data
  4. It relies on the charisma of its practitioners

Explanation

Scientific claims must be testable and open to being shown false, which is what separates psychology from pseudoscience. Psychological knowledge is provisional and revised as evidence accumulates. Certainty, charisma and avoidance of data are features of pseudoscience, not science.

Question 37What is Psychology?

A psychologist explains a person's shyness entirely by inherited temperament and ignores family experiences and cultural expectations. Which criticism of such a biological explanation is most appropriate?

  1. It completely denies that genes influence behaviour
  2. It overlooks the interaction of heredity with environment Correct answer.
  3. It confuses psychology with psychiatry
  4. It relies on introspection rather than observation

Explanation

Most psychologists accept that behaviour results from the interaction of heredity and environment. An explanation that invokes only inherited temperament ignores environmental and cultural contributions. The criticism is therefore about one-sidedness, not about denying genes any role.

Question 38What is Psychology?

A researcher finds that children who eat breakfast regularly also perform better in class. Which conclusion is most defensible from this correlational finding?

  1. No meaningful relationship exists between the variables
  2. The two variables are associated, but causality cannot be established from this design Correct answer.
  3. Classroom performance certainly causes children to eat breakfast
  4. Eating breakfast certainly causes better classroom performance

Explanation

A correlation shows that two variables vary together but cannot by itself establish which one causes the other. Other factors, such as family income or parental attention, might influence both. Only a controlled experiment could support a causal conclusion.

Question 39What is Psychology?

Which statement best describes the relationship between a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist?

  1. A psychiatrist studies only normal behaviour, while a clinical psychologist treats only severe disorders
  2. A clinical psychologist typically holds a doctoral degree in psychology, while a psychiatrist holds a medical degree Correct answer.
  3. Both must hold a medical degree and prescribe drugs
  4. Both are restricted to laboratory research on animals

Explanation

A psychiatrist completes medical training and may prescribe medication, whereas a clinical psychologist is trained in psychology and typically holds a doctoral degree. Both may assess and treat psychological problems, but their training routes differ. The distinction rests on qualifications and legal scope of practice.

Question 40What is Psychology?

A school wants to identify students likely to struggle with reading so that extra support can be arranged early. Which use of psychological assessment does this illustrate?

  1. Control of behaviour
  2. Description of behaviour
  3. Prediction Correct answer.
  4. Explanation of behaviour

Explanation

Prediction uses assessment results to forecast future performance or risk, as when a reading test identifies students likely to need support. Description merely records what is observed, explanation accounts for why it occurs, and control aims to change behaviour. Here the aim is early identification of likely difficulty.

Question 41Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

A psychologist wants to know whether sleep duration affects memory test scores in Class 11 students. Which statement best describes the first step of the scientific method in this enquiry?

  1. Collecting data from as many students as possible before thinking about variables
  2. Formulating a testable hypothesis linking sleep duration and memory scores Correct answer.
  3. Deciding in advance that sleep has no effect on memory
  4. Publishing the results in a journal before analysing the data

Explanation

Scientific enquiry begins with identifying a problem and stating a tentative, testable hypothesis about the relationship between variables. Collecting data indiscriminately or deciding the answer beforehand reverses the logic of enquiry. Publication comes at the end, after analysis.

Question 42Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

In an experiment on the effect of background music on concentration, the music played is the independent variable. Which feature makes it the independent variable?

  1. It is the outcome measured by the researcher after the task
  2. It is the variable held constant across all participants
  3. It is the variable that changes randomly between trials
  4. It is the variable deliberately manipulated by the researcher Correct answer.

Explanation

The independent variable is the condition the experimenter deliberately varies or manipulates. The dependent variable is the measured outcome, while controlled variables are held constant to prevent confounding. Random change is not a defining property of any planned variable.

Question 43Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

A researcher studying exam anxiety asks students to rate their anxiety on a scale from 1 to 10. Which type of data has been collected?

  1. Ratio data
  2. Nominal data
  3. Ordinal data Correct answer.
  4. Interval data

Explanation

A rating scale ranks participants in order but the distances between points are not equal or meaningful, so the data are ordinal. Nominal data only label categories, interval data have equal units without a true zero, and ratio data have equal units with an absolute zero.

Question 44Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

Which observation method requires the researcher to record behaviour exactly as it occurs, without influencing the situation being studied?

  1. Controlled observation
  2. Participant observation
  3. Clinical interview
  4. Non-participant observation Correct answer.

Explanation

In non-participant observation the researcher stays detached from the group and records behaviour without joining in. Participant observation involves the researcher entering the setting, controlled observation arranges conditions in a laboratory, and a clinical interview is a verbal method rather than an observation technique.

Question 45Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

A psychologist studies whether a new relaxation programme reduces test anxiety by comparing a group that receives the programme with a group that does not. Which design is being used?

  1. Correlational design
  2. Experimental design Correct answer.
  3. Case study design
  4. Ex post facto design

Explanation

An experimental design involves manipulating an independent variable, here the relaxation programme, and comparing groups on a measured outcome. Correlational designs examine association without manipulation, ex post facto designs study already-occurring differences, and case studies examine a single individual in depth.

Question 46Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

Which of the following is a primary source of psychological information for a student writing a review?

  1. A newspaper summary of a research finding
  2. A blog post explaining a popular theory
  3. A textbook chapter citing a study second-hand
  4. The original research report published in a journal Correct answer.

Explanation

A primary source is the original report written by the researchers who conducted the study, giving first-hand methods and results. Newspaper summaries, textbook citations and blog posts are secondary sources that interpret or condense the original work and may introduce distortions.

Question 47Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

A researcher interviews adolescents about their screen habits and writes down only the answers that confirm her own belief that screens harm study. Which ethical and methodological problem does this illustrate?

  1. Sampling error, because adolescents are a small population
  2. Demand characteristic, because participants guess the aim
  3. Placebo effect, because participants expect improvement
  4. Observer bias, because expectations shape what is recorded Correct answer.

Explanation

Observer bias occurs when a researcher's expectations distort the recording or interpretation of data. Sampling error concerns how representative the sample is, demand characteristics concern participants' guesses about the study's purpose, and the placebo effect concerns improvement from expectation of treatment.

Question 48Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

Which of the following best describes the purpose of a control group in a psychological experiment?

  1. To provide a baseline against which the effect of the manipulation can be judged Correct answer.
  2. To eliminate the need for a hypothesis
  3. To ensure that every participant receives the treatment
  4. To increase the sample size of the study

Explanation

A control group does not receive the experimental manipulation and therefore provides a baseline for comparison. Without a baseline, changes in the experimental group cannot be attributed confidently to the independent variable. It does not increase sample size or replace the hypothesis.

Question 49Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

A researcher studying children's play behaviour records whether each child shares toys, hits, or talks to a peer during a ten-minute period. Which method of data collection is this?

  1. Unstructured clinical interview
  2. Structured observation with a behaviour checklist Correct answer.
  3. Psychometric testing
  4. Questionnaire survey

Explanation

Recording specific, pre-defined behaviours during a set period is structured observation using a checklist or coding scheme. Surveys and interviews rely on self-report, and psychometric tests measure traits through standardised tasks rather than direct behaviour recording.

Question 50Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

Which measure of central tendency is most affected by an extreme outlier in a small data set?

  1. The mode
  2. The range
  3. The mean Correct answer.
  4. The median

Explanation

The mean uses every score in its calculation, so an extreme value pulls it strongly in the direction of that value. The median depends only on position in the ordered data, and the mode depends only on frequency, so both are more resistant to outliers. The range is a measure of dispersion, not central tendency.