These ideas led to this investigation of whether the same sex parent really does have more influence on their child. This will be investigated by considering whether cooking behaviour in parents is imitated by their children. The survey method will be used because participants are easier to find for a questionnaire and an experiment would be both impractical, as long term behaviours cannot be tested in short times, and ethically dubious, as it could affect people’s future gender behaviour.
Hypotheses:
H : If the same sex parent has primary responsibility for cooking it is likely that the same sex child will grow up to also take primary responsibility for cooking.
H : The sex of the parent primarily responsible for cooking will have no significant affect on whether the child goes on to take primary responsibility for cooking or not.
This is a one tailed hypothesis.
Methodology:
Data:
The statistical test used will be the chi-squared test because independent measures and nominal data were used.
Design:
Independent measures will be used because the sample compares males and females. The survey method will be used to measure whether the same sex parent had more influence over the cooking behaviour of the child than the opposite sex parent. There were six questions, the key question of which being number five (see appendix A).
Materials:
Questionnaire including standardised instructions ( see appendix A ), and pen.
Participants:
Opportunity sampling was used. The participants were 17-18 years old, an equal gender split of thirty males and thirty females was used and they were all from schools in Gloucester. No participants had ever participated in any other project similar to this one.
Procedure:
Each participant was asked if they would be willing to participate in a psychology study by filling in a questionnaire. Those who agreed were given a questionnaire. After being filled in the questionnaire was taken back and the participant was thanked again for their participation in the study.
Ethics:
Consent was gained, the option of withdrawing was made clear, a debriefing was given, the questions would not have harmed the participants in any way or caused them distress and their confidentiality was respected.
Controls:
Standardised instructions were given, each questionnaire had the same format and the participant filled it out alone. This should eliminate experimenter bias.
Results:
Descriptive:
Table 1(below) shows that the number of participants who do currently follow their same sex parent in cooking behaviour is 77% and the number of people who do plan on following their same sex parent with their own children is 70%. This is illustrated in Fig:1, overleaf.
Appendix C shows the raw data from the questionnaires. Questions two and six can be used to show that 93% of participants had a female cook for them as children, and 92% believe that a mother makes a better cook for children. However, only 7% believe that a female makes a better chef. This could be due to the fact that only a small amount of participants would have a mother who is a chef, but the majority have had the influence of their mother being the cook for children; thus demonstrating the influence of the same sex parent.
Table 1: A summary of the results showing cooking behaviours
Inferential statistics:
The obtained value = 9.92 at df=1. The critical value, for the chi-squared test, at p • 0.05 = 2.71, the obtained value exceeds this, therefore, the null hypothesis can be rejected with 95% confidence. (see Appendix B for full working of chi-squared test)
Discussion:
Both the descriptive and inferential statistical results support the hypothesis that children do follow the same sex parent regarding cooking behaviour.
However, the results gained could also be the result of other influences. The survey method can be problematic in that it often lacks validity. It is known that attitudes aren’t necessarily linked to actual behaviour, so it is possible that some participants may have given false answers to try to meet social norms. Also, the questions had a limited choice of answers and this could have led to demand characteristics, i.e. an answer was given because they thought that was what was expected and not because it was actually the whole truth. Another problem is whether the questionnaire actually accurately predicts future behaviour i.e. the answers may not actually be the same in 10 or 20 years time, it is merely a prediction. Both of these problems could affect the validity of the investigation. Another issue regarding validity is that the main basis of the research is based on a single question in the questionnaire that only measures one thing, this could have been mis-interpreted or mis-understood thus it would have measured the wrong thing, reducing the validity. The study could be improved by using more questions including stereotypically male and female roles. The survey also lacked ecological validity because it was only theoretical answers that could be given and this provides an opportunity for participants to lie about what actually happens and what they actually do.
However, the survey method can provide reliable results as the investigation is easy to repeat, to see whether the same results are obtained and so judge its reliability. It is also easy to perform on large numbers of people, which provides lots of data that is easy to analyse. Other research methods would not have been appropriate because it would be impossible to observe participants as children and adults in their own homes. Also, an experiment could not be used as it could only show current behaviour, not what shaped that behaviour.
Another problem with this investigation is that the results could be due to biological influences i.e. it is possible that people have certain roles because they are genetically suited to them, not due to parental influence. It is also possible that the participants’ peers and societal expectations as a whole could influence them more than their same sex parent.
A problem caused by using opportunity sampling is that the sample was not very representative as the participants were all of the same age and a similar background i.e. they were too similar and the sample too small, so the results could not be generalised resulting in a lack of reliability. The study could be improved by using a larger, random sample to try and account for different groups in society, for example, age and ethnicity (to limit ethnocentrism). However, random sampling would be very time consuming and difficult to carry out in practice.
Further research could look at other influences on behaviour, for example the influence of the media and it’s relation to the perceived stereotypical roles in this society.
References:
Freud cited in Atkinson R.L, Atkinson R.C, Smith E, Bem D and Nolen-Hoeksema S, (1999), Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology, Harcourt College Publishers: London
Bandura (1961) cited in Gross R, (1999), Key Studies in Psychology, Hodder and Stoughton: London
Lamb (1979) cited in Gross R, (1996), Psychology The Science of Mind and Behaviour, Hodder and Stoughton: London
Chi-squared statistical test cited in Searle A, (1999), Introducing Research and Data in Psychology, Routledge: London
Natalie Neal
Psychology Research Report
Contents:
Abstract – 110 words
Introduction – 362 words
Hypotheses – 67 words
Methodology – 231 words
Results – 187 words
Fig:1
Discussion – 486 words
References
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Total word count: 1441