Cognitive dissonce task

Why is the test bad (limitations)

Self-report bias

• Participants may not answer honestly. They might give socially desirable answers to appear environmentally friendly rather than describing their true behaviour.

Small convenience sample

• Only Year 11 students from one school are tested, so the results cannot be generalised to all teenagers or the wider population.

Why is the test good

• Standardised: Every participant receives the same questions and instructions, increasing the reliability of the results.

• Anonymous: Participants respond using code numbers rather than names, which may encourage more honest answers.

why having no allocation to conditions bad (no control group)

Without a control group, it's harder to be certain that the outcome was caused by the experimental treatment and not by other variables.

Aim

Measure cognitive dissonance in individuals after completing a test on their contribution to the environment

Directional hypothesis:

It is hypothesised that year 11 students at JWACS who complete the test on their attitude and beliefs towards the environment will experience cognitive dissonance in result

two ethical considerations

(a)      I am free to withdraw from the Science inquiry at any time. There will be no consequences if I decline to participate or if I initially agree to participate but later decide to withdraw.

(a)      The nature of the experiment Involves deception, and I will have a debrief after the test on the true intentions of the experiment

Outline how you will select participants for your investigation and provide a reason for this method.

Participants will be selected using convenience sampling. The sample will consist of 3 Year 11 students from John Wollaston Anglican Community School (JWACS) who provide informed consent to participate. Students under 18 years of age will also require parent or guardian consent before participating.

Convenience sampling was chosen because it is quick, practical and easy to organise within a school environment. The participants are readily available to the researcher, making it suitable for a classroom investigation where there are limited time and resources.

Outline the method you will use in your research

This investigation will use a non-experimental research design because no variables are manipulated and there is no control group. All participants complete the same questionnaire and Likert scale in a natural classroom setting.

Participants will be selected using convenience sampling, and there will be no allocation to different conditions, as every participant completes the same procedure.

Materials

• Participant information and consent form

• Environmental attitudes and behaviours questionnaire (12 Yes/No questions)

• Five-item Likert scale measuring cognitive dissonance (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree)

• Pens or pencils

• Data recording table and spreadsheet for calculating frequencies, percentages, mean and median

Procedure

1. Participants receive an information sheet and provide informed consent.

2. Participants complete the environmental attitudes and behaviours questionnaire individually.

3. Immediately afterwards, participants complete the five-item Likert scale measuring feelings of cognitive dissonance.

4. Responses are collected anonymously

5. The results are collated and analysed by calculating frequencies, percentages, the mean and median before being presented in tables and graphs.

6. Participants are then debriefed about the true purpose of the investigation

IV and DV

Independent Variable (IV):

• The environmental attitudes and behaviours questionnaire (the type of questions participants complete).

Dependent Variable (DV):

• The level of cognitive dissonance, measured by participants' responses on the Likert scale.

Describe one control variable and explain how it reduces an extraneous variable

One control variable is that all participants complete the questionnaires in the same classroom under the same instructions and time conditions.

Keeping the testing environment consistent reduces the influence of extraneous variables, such as distractions, differences in instructions or varying amounts of time to complete the questionnaire. This increases the reliability of the results because any differences in cognitive dissonance are more likely to be due to participants' attitudes rather than environmental factors.

Explain the data collection method you will use in your study.

This investigation will collect quantitative data.

The data will be collected using self-report questionnaires, consisting of a Yes/No environmental attitudes questionnaire followed by a five-point Likert scale measuring cognitive dissonance.

Each participant records their own responses anonymously. The Yes/No responses and Likert scale ratings will then be converted into numerical data, allowing frequencies, percentages, mean and median values to be calculated and compared across the sample.

conclusions

The results supported the hypothesis that Year 11 students would experience cognitive dissonance after completing a questionnaire about their environmental attitudes and behaviours. Many participants reported that their behaviours did not always match their beliefs about protecting the environment.

This was shown by a higher number of participants selecting "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" for statements indicating that their behaviour conflicted with their environmental beliefs and that they wanted to change their behaviour. The mean and median scores also indicated that participants generally experienced some level of cognitive dissonance after completing the questionnaire.

Overall, the findings suggest that comparing personal beliefs with everyday behaviours can create psychological discomfort when inconsistencies are recognised. However, because convenience sampling and a relatively small sample size were used, the findings cannot be generalised to all Year 11 students.

improve test

The investigation could be improved by using a larger, randomly selected sample from multiple schools to increase the generalisability of the findings. The Yes/No questions could also be replaced with a 5-point Likert scale to provide more detailed information about participants' attitudes and behaviours, improving the validity of the questionnaire.