A-Level Psychology Essays | Student Resources

Strengths and Weaknesses (Pozzulo et al.)

Using PEEL method (Point-Explanation-Example-Link)

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AS Level

Paper 1 Evaluation Essays

P – The study was a lab experiment
E – Experiment has high level of controls to increase the validity of findings
E – For example, the presentation method of lineups were controlled in which videos and photo arrays were shown displayed via 13-inch laptop screen with PowerPoint program
L – Control reduces the effect of extraneous variable, ensuring that the causal relationship established is more valid

P – Participants in the study had given informed consent
E – All participants participated in their own will and is aware of the aim of the study and what they will be going through
E – For example, parents of children completed the consent form along with demographic sheet on behalf of the children and adults signed a consent form
L – The study complied to ethical guidelines

P – The study collected quantitative data
E – Quantitative data allowed for easier statistical analysis and comparison
E – For example, the study found that children had a 99% correct identification rate for cartoon faces but only had a 23% correct identification rate for human faces
L – Researches can draw more valid conclusions due to lower chances of misinterpretation

P – The study lacked mundane realism
E – Findings cannot be applied to a range of real life situations as the task performed by participants is not a usual task
E – For example, all participants have to watch a six-second clip of an unknown human face then identify the person in a line-up
L – Findings have low ecological validity

P – Repeated measure was used in the study
E – All participants go through all four levels of IV and this increases the possibility of order effect
E – The IV consist of two types of line-up (target-present versus target-absent) and two nature of target faces (cartoon versus human)
L – Findings have lower internal validity as participants’ performance may decline over time as they feel fatigue for constantly repeating the identification process for four times

P – The study used opportunity sampling to recruit participants
E – Participants might be all of the same type, reducing the generalisability of findings
E – For example, all children were recruited from from kindergarten classes in 3 private schools in Eastern Ontario while all adults were recruited from introductory psychology participant pool at Eastern Ontario University
L – The findings are less representative of the target population