Describe and evaluate a study proposal examining whether daily outdoor walking affects the mental health of office workers. Volunteers are recruited through...
Question 1 Report
Describe and evaluate a study proposal examining whether daily outdoor walking affects the mental health of office workers. Volunteers are recruited through employers, allocated to a 20-minute lunchtime walk group or their usual routine, and complete a wellbeing scale before and after four weeks.
(a) Identify the independent and dependent variables. [2]
(b) Explain one reason random allocation would improve the investigation. [2]
(c) Use the scenario to describe one standardised procedure. [2]
(d) Evaluate two limitations of the proposed study. [3]
Answer Details
(a) Independent variable: lunchtime condition, walking or usual routine [1]. Dependent variable: change in wellbeing-scale score / post-study wellbeing score [1] (b) It reduces allocation bias [1] and helps make participant characteristics, such as initial fitness or stress, more evenly distributed between groups [1] (c) Any suitable standardisation, for example all walks last 20 minutes [1] and the same wellbeing scale is completed at the same two time points [1] (d) Any two developed limitations, 1 mark each for limitation and 1 mark for linked consequence, maximum [3]: volunteers recruited through employers may not represent all workers; participants may not follow their assigned routine; self-report wellbeing may be affected by demand characteristics; weather or workload may affect mood.
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