AQA GCSE Psychology - Types of experiment (Research Methods Lesson 3)

This is the third lesson in the topic of Research Methods in the AQA GCSE Psychology 8182 course. Updated February 2023.

I don’t deliver this topic all in one go; I interleave the lessons throughout the other topics. If you are teaching the whole topic in one go, I have tried to make the whole series of lessons about the same imaginary investigation for some consistency and a continued thread of learning.

The lesson covers formulating an aim, null & alternative hypotheses and independent & dependent variables in psychological studies and investigations.
LO1: Identify what is meant by quantitative and qualitative methods.
LO2: Describe the three different types of experiment in psychology.
LO3: Compare the pros and cons of the three different types of experiment.

The activities include taking the students through how to plan the next stages in designing an investigation or study (after aims, hypotheses and variables). I have included examples, notes, practice questions and a worksheet.

I designed this as a single lesson (50 mins) but can be extended or shortened as necessary.

My lessons follow the textbook ‘AQA Psychology for GCSE’ from Illuminate Publishing.