AQA GCSE Psychology - Extraneous variables (Research Methods Lesson 2)

This is the second 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: Define the term ‘extraneous variables’.
LO2: Identify extraneous variables in research studies.
LO3: Explain the importance of standardised procedures and randomisation.

The activities include taking the students through the beginnings of a plan for an investigation or study. There are lots of worked examples, notes and practice questions.

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.