Paper 3 - 'To what extent can results be generalised'

[lily-a-b-]

Hi,

I would really appreciate some help that anyone can offer me. I am taking exams this may and I am stuck on what to do for paper 3 - specifically the syllabus point 'to what extent can finding be generalized from qualitative studies'. I understand the content of this point, but am so confused as to how I would apply it to a question on an exam? More specifically, how I will read the provided case study and then answer regarding the extent that the results can be generalized, while including information on 'representational', 'inferential' and 'theoretical' generalizations.

Please help me to understand this & give me some guidance on how to approach such a question?

Thank you in advance for the help!

[ibstudent]

You want to ry and define the different types of generalizations and to use whatever case study given as an example to support the definition.

So like, "this study was done on victims of domestic violence towards women to test the effectiveness of a service to help them cope and develop resilience; inferential generalizations could thus be used as these results can also be applied in shelters for abused women. In that sense, it can be argued that the results of this study can be transferred to similar settings." Like you need to show the examiner that you not only know what they are but that you understand them and can apply them to any given study (which is basically the point of Paper3).

What I'm doing to revise for Paper 3 is I just take random studies from Paper1 and Paper2 and I just answer Paper3 questions on them. Because that way you revise for those studies while practicing Paper3!!

That's part of a mark scheme about a question on generalizations btw, and they don't even include the types of generalizations so I guess if you're generalisations are good enough you don't even need to know that much detail!

Just ten elite swimmers were used in this research. To what extent could the findings of the research be generalized from this study?

Although the number of swimmers in the sample was small, sufficient data has been produced to make some limited generalization possible. The sample indicates that the swimmers were all males, aged between 19 and 27, and that they had competed at an elite level. Their responses were sufficiently similar for the researchers to identify raw data themes that were common to their swimmers.

The extent to which generalization occurs needs to be justified by the candidate. For example it would be legitimate to claim that findings from this study could be applied to the population of elite swimmers from which the sample was selected. The sample and this population would have similar characteristics.

Candidates may well provide other relevant arguments for the extent to which generalizations are possible and these could be awarded high marks. No marks should be awarded where the candidate claims that no way of generalization is possible since the numbers involved are too small, or the claim that it is only when verbal responses are converted to numbers that generalization can occur.

[10 marks]

Hope this helped at least a little!! All the info I got was from the Pearson book the Psychology IB Study Guide,

I recommend you get them if you don't already, because they literally explain EVERYTHING and complete each other!

[lily-a-b-]

Thank you so much for all that, it has really helped me to understand the syllabus point as well as paper 3 as a while, better! I will try get a hold of that book.

Thanks again & good luck with your exams!