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Deconstruct - Psychology Investigation - Coggle Diagram
Deconstruct - Psychology Investigation
Variables
Independent
Music Genre (Rock music or Jazz/Calm music)
Dependent
Heart Rate (BPM)
Extraneous
Participant variables: gender, emotional state, music exposure/preference, ingestion of substances (caffeine)
Was it music alone, or were participants thinking about stressful things
Situational variables: time of day, the thought of heart rate monitors, volume differences
Repeated measures, all participants listened to 1 music type first
Controlled
Strengths
Listening to the music for an extended period of time (10 minutes), allows the participants' level of physiological arousal to be taken at multiple points and finding the most representative results.
Given that all participants listened to the same songs, the results are able to be correlated with the intensity of the song, and not the specific song they listened to (if the songs were all different, each could have the potential to create different results which would not allow for correlation among the genre but rather the song).
Weaknesses
Length of time listening to music: Participants listened to the music for 10 minutes, so may have become accustomed to it.
Order in which songs were listened to: Participants all listened to the music in the same order, possible impact on response and data.
Consistent songs: All participants listened to the exact same songs, so the data can only really be correlated to those two songs.
Ethics
Confidentiality
All participants were randomly allocated a three-digit identification number that was used throughout the practical in order to keep their results private.
Informed Consent
All participants received a document outlining all aspects of the practical. Either the participants or their legal guardians (if under 16) had to provide written consent in order to participate.
Voluntary Participation
All participation was voluntary, and participants were not pressured to participate in any way.
Right to Withdraw
All participants were allowed to withdraw at any time, without any negative consequences.
Accurate Reporting
All data was reported exactly as it was stated by the participants.
Debriefing
Given that all participants involved were also the researchers, they were already aware of everything that was going on, so debriefing was not necessary (deception was also not used).
Experimental Investigation Design
Advantages
All results were compared to a baseline
Greater control over extraneous variables due to the manipulative nature of the investigation design.
Easy to replicate which enables the ability to test the reliability
Disadvantages
Results may not be applicable to real life scenarios (e.g. listening to a song for 10 minutes straight, awareness of measuring heart rate, etc.)
Method
Heart Rate Monitors
Validity: Did this measure what it was supposed to?
Strengths: Accurate way of measuring HR instead of taking pulse
Reliability: consistency in measurement
Limitations: Heart rate monitors required wetting - this could dry without perspiration
Validity of music tracks - how can you be sure that an arousal track does what it is meant to do?
Sample
Size:
77 Stage 1 Psychology Students
Middle Income Suburb
Awareness/interest in Psychology
Representativeness
Not representative of greater population
Strengths
The sample used is likely to have exposure to a wide range of music genres, given their age, which is representative of a large population of music taste.
Limitations
Results are only generalised to a student population
It is difficult to generalise the affect of music on arousal to the greater population
Awareness of investigation and studies - confirmation bias - students may give to responses they believe are required/desired for the experiment