Health psychology (option): standardised questionnaires, the ALQ and focus groups

Standardised questionnaires

A standardised questionnaire has fixed items, fixed response options (often Likert scales) and fixed scoring and instructions, so every respondent completes it in the same way. Many have been tested for reliability (test-retest, internal consistency) and validity, and have norms for comparison.

Examples in this topic: the SRRS (Holmes and Rahe), the Hassles Scale (Kanner et al.), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Valentine and Mesout), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and DASS-21 (Avdagic et al.), the RSQ-OAV (Russell et al.). The specification names the Adolescent Lifestyle Questionnaire (ALQ) as an example: a standardised questionnaire used to assess aspects of adolescents' lifestyle and health.

• Strengths: quick to give to many people; quantitative and comparable; replicable; objective scoring.
• Weaknesses: self-report (social desirability, lack of insight); fixed answers may not capture what people mean (lower validity); may be culture-specific; respondents may misunderstand items, especially younger people.

Focus groups

A focus group is a guided group discussion (usually about 6 to 10 people) led by a facilitator, used to explore people's views, experiences and language in depth. Nakonz and Shik (2009) used four focus groups with migrant workers.

• Strengths: rich qualitative data; participants spark ideas from each other; can reveal shared meanings and cultural norms; useful for designing questionnaires (as in Russell et al.'s exploratory stage, which identified stressors from adolescents themselves).
• Weaknesses: dominant members and conformity may shape what others say; confidentiality cannot be guaranteed among group members; small, non-random samples limit generalisability; analysis (thematic analysis, Unit 1 and 2) is time-consuming and can be subjective.

Choosing methods in health research

• To measure how much stress or how often a behaviour occurs across many people: a standardised questionnaire.
• To understand why and how people cope in their own words: interviews or focus groups.
• To show cause and effect of a treatment: a randomised controlled trial (Avdagic et al.).
• Physiological measures (cortisol, heart rate) add objectivity (Valentine and Mesout's validation study).

Combining methods allows triangulation.

Worked example

A researcher wants to know why teenagers in her town start smoking. Should she use a standardised questionnaire or focus groups? Justify.

1. She wants to know **why**, in the teenagers' own words, so focus groups would give rich qualitative data about reasons, peer pressure and meanings.
2. But peers in the group may conform or exaggerate, so she could follow up with an anonymous standardised questionnaire to measure how common each reason is.

Answer: Focus groups for reasons, then a questionnaire for prevalence.

Check yourself

1. What makes a questionnaire standardised?
   • It is given to a large sample
   • It uses only open questions
   • It is completed in a group discussion
   • Fixed items, response options, instructions and scoring for everyone
   Show answer

   Fixed items, response options, instructions and scoring for everyone. Everyone completes it the same way.

2. A focus group is
   • a questionnaire completed alone
   • a guided group discussion used to explore views in depth
   • a laboratory experiment
   • a brain scan
   Show answer

   a guided group discussion used to explore views in depth. Group discussion led by a facilitator.

3. Which is a weakness of focus groups?
   • They produce only numbers
   • They cannot be used with adults
   • They are always fully confidential
   • Some members may conform to others or be dominated by confident speakers
   Show answer

   Some members may conform to others or be dominated by confident speakers. Group dynamics.

4. In the specification, the Adolescent Lifestyle Questionnaire (ALQ) is given as an example of
   • a standardised questionnaire used in health psychology
   • a focus group schedule
   • a brain region
   • a biological treatment
   Show answer

   a standardised questionnaire used in health psychology. It is named under standardised questionnaires.

5. A researcher wants to compare stress scores in 500 nurses and 500 teachers. The best method is
   • a focus group
   • an ethnography
   • a standardised questionnaire
   • a single case study
   Show answer

   a standardised questionnaire. Large samples and comparable scores.

6. Explain one strength of using standardised questionnaires in health psychology.
   Show answer

   Every participant answers the same items with the same scoring, so results are reliable, quantitative and can be compared between groups and studies.. Standardisation plus benefit.

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification, Issue 6 (November 2024, first assessment January 2026)
• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification, Issue 6 (November 2024, first assessment January 2026)
• Pearson IAL Psychology summary of studies: WPS03

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.