lunchtime session 2 Essay writing Step 1 – Prep Know your exam papers inside out and - PowerPoint Presentation

lunchtime session 2 Essay writing

Step 1 – Prep Know your exam papers inside out and upside down Unit 1 (96 marks) – Answer all Qs A: social influence (24) B: memory (24) C: attachment (24) D: psychopathology (24) Questions within answer booklet

Step 1 – Prep Know your exam papers inside out and upside down Unit 2 (96 marks) – Answer All Qs A: approaches (24) B: biopsychology (24) C: research methods and statistics (48) Questions within answer booklet

Step 1 – Prep Know your exam papers inside out and upside down Unit 3 is different A: issues and debates – answer all Qs (24 B: gender (24) C: schizophrenia (24) D: forensic psychology (24) Do not attempt any other sections, you will not get many marks as you do not know it. Question paper and answer booklet separate

Step 2 – Find At the beginning of the exam, go through each paper and find the essays so that you know what you are faced with. Get your timing right. There may be a 16 marker at the end! We cannot predict how many: Last year, Unit 3 had three 16 mark essays. Discuss two or more types of determinism. Refer to the case of Dancho as part of your discussion . (16 marks) Discuss what psychological research has told us about atypical gender development. (16 marks) Describe and evaluate cognitive explanations for offending . (16 marks) That’s half the marks (48) for that paper in just 3 questions

Step 3 - Marks Linked to locating the essays is checking how many marks are available and consider your timing 16 marks 20 minutes 8 marks 10 minutes 6 marks 7 ½ minutes 10 marks 11 ½ minutes

Step 4 - Plan No? The AQA advice is that the essays that receive the best marks tend to have a plan I don’t really see the point of planning essays, just get straight on it!

Four types of essay Levels of complexity in essays Outline and Evaluate Discuss….. Refer to “Stan” in your answer Discuss Outline and Compare

Outline and Evaluate Outline and evaluate the role of the father in the development of attachment Outline (6 marks) Traditional Role: supporting the family financially Evolution/biological: Women – oestrogen – caring / men lack oestrogen = lack bond Fathers take on a different role – playmate Fathers are capable of forming caring attachment, especially if primary caregiver

Outline and Evaluate Evaluation (10 marks) Research studies Issue and debate Applications Biological support   Geiger (1996) fathers’ play = exciting mothers’ play = affectionate & Hardy (1999) fathers less able to detect low levels of distress   However…   Belsky (2009 ) – intmate marriage = greater attachment to child from father Biological determinism: unhelpful as fathers can and do nurture when required/desired,   a softer deterministic approach required Working mothers and stay at home fathers   Adoption by male carers ok

Discuss Discuss plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma Hint: for this particular question, you are discussing these phenomena, rather than setting out strengths and weaknesses. You should still think of AO1 = 6 and AO3 = 10. AO1 Plasticity = brain changes through experience and learning. Functional recovery example of plasticity ex. Clive Wearing Healthy brain areas take over the functions: Axonal sprouting, Reformation of blood vessels , Recruitment of homologous (similar) areas

Discuss plasticity and/or functional recovery of the brain after trauma A03 Led to early intervention programmes and the understanding that neurorehabilitation required for a full recovery Negative plasticity: drug use and phantom limb syndrome Age and gender: younger recovery better, but older can still recover with correct programmes. Recovery may be due to learning rather than brain changes. Some patients make no improvement ex. Clive Wearing Schneider (2014) time spent I n education = better recovery So not strengths and weaknesses or pros and cons, just a highlighting of the challenges and differences in recovery. Its more of a narrative.

Discuss… refer to ‘Tom’ in your answer AO1 = 6 AO2 = 4 AO3 = 6 2 common mistakes No AO2 Not enough AO1/mixed with AO2 Advice Split the essay into these sections

Discuss… refer to ‘Tom’ in your answer Tom is studying both A level Psychology and Sociology. He is busy revising for a Research Methods test for Psychology and a Theory & Methods test for sociology while listening to his favourite music. When he tests himself at home, he can recall the information very well. However, when he is in the exam room, he really struggles to remember what he has learned. What is particularly confusing is that some of the definitions used in both Psychology and Sociology differ slightly in meaning. Discuss explanations for forgetting; refer to Tom in your answer (16 marks)

Discuss… refer to ‘Tom’ in your answer Tom is studying both A level Psychology and Sociology. He is busy revising for a Research Methods test for Psychology and a Theory & Methods test for sociology while listening to his favourite music. When he tests himself at home, he can recall the information very well. However, when he is in the exam room, he really struggles to remember what he has learned. What is particularly confusing is that some of the definitions used in both Psychology and Sociology differ slightly in meaning. Discuss explanations for forgetting; refer to Tom in your answer (16 marks) AO1 Interference: Proactive (old interferes with new) retroactive (new interfers with old) Retrieval failure: Tulving (1983) coding specificity principle context and state dependent forgetting

Discuss… refer to ‘Tom’ in your answer Tom is studying both A level Psychology and Sociology. He is busy revising for a Research Methods test for Psychology and a Theory & Methods test for sociology while listening to his favourite music. When he tests himself at home, he can recall the information very well. However, when he is in the exam room, he really struggles to remember what he has learned. What is particularly confusing is that some of the definitions used in both Psychology and Sociology differ slightly in meaning. Discuss explanations for forgetting; refer to Tom in your answer (16 marks) AO2 Proactive (old int with new) retroactive (new int with old): Tom will be confused during coding as the first info (ex psychology) interferes with his learning of the second inform (ex sociology) Retrieval failure (context) Tom can recall info in his room as familiar surroundings act as cues.

Discuss… refer to ‘Tom’ in your answer Tom is studying both A level Psychology and Sociology. He is busy revising for a Research Methods test for Psychology and a Theory & Methods test for sociology while listening to his favourite music. When he tests himself at home, he can recall the information very well. However, when he is in the exam room, he really struggles to remember what he has learned. What is particularly confusing is that some of the definitions used in both Psychology and Sociology differ slightly in meaning. Discuss explanations for forgetting; refer to Tom in your answer (16 marks) AO3: Underwood (1957) repeated lists, more errors later on. Schmidt (200) Dutch study on Maps Context = Godden and Baddeley (LL = 37% LW= 24% WW = 32% WL = 23%) Comment on ecological validity Applications – education, finish with helping Tom!

Compare Examples: Outline and compare approach X with a pproach YOutline and compare two explanations of attachment Outline and compare the multi-store model with the working memory model Outline and compare two explanations of offending behaviour Outline the cognitive explanation of gender development. Compare with one other explanation

Outline and compare two explanations of attachment AO1: outline of both behaviourist approaches and Bowlby’s monotropy theory (classical and operant conditioning; food; ucs , ucr , ns, cs , cr , primary and secondary reinforcement,) (Monotropy, internal working model, social releasers, innate, critical period) AO3: “When comparing the two approaches….” similarities: both useful applications for parenting Comparisons: little scientific support for Behaviourism, Bowlby supported by research (Bowlby, Ainsworth, Harlow) Behaviourism can explain multi-attachments but Bowlby finds this difficult. Behaviourism cannot account for the critical period seen in animals and some studies of humans Bowlby explains difficulty in recovery after severe deprivation, behaviourism would suggest that recovery is possible under the right conditions

Examiners’ report 2017 Poor handwriting was an issue on some scripts that were barely legible, which posed a particular challenge for examiners using on-screen marking. use of psychological terminology was frequently inappropriate and there was a widespread tendency to sprinkle any and every answer with terms such as ‘reductionist’ and ‘nomothetic’.

Examiners’ report 2017 Discuss two or more types of determinism. Refer to the case of Dancho as part of your discussion. (16 marks) Use of terminology was frequently inappropriate , for example ‘ behavioural determinism’ and ‘psychological determinism’ Some students became side-tracked into a discussion on the approaches or nature-nurture debate and completely lost focus on the question. A number of students presented fairly ineffective pre-prepared essays on the free-will and determinism debate

EXAMINERS’ REPORT 2017 Describe and evaluate cognitive explanations for offending . (16 marks) Unfortunately, there was often insufficient focus on offending , where students presented long accounts of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, with details of stages and the Heinz dilemma, but with no mention of offending . YOU KNOW YOUR STUFF, SO ANSWER THE QUESTION AS IT IS WRITTEN

Thanks: Next session Friday 11 th May in the sports café (TBC) Focus on the approaches questions: how to get top marks (using issues and debates too) Enjoy the weekend and work hard!