psychology as

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PSYCHOLOGY ASPSYCHOLOGY AS

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Why are they so IMPORTANT? Key question

18/30 marks

Pass & fail

A or E

Happiness or despair

Life or death

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In EVERY In EVERY

Part (c) questionPart (c) question

AO1 = 6 marksAO1 = 6 marks

AO2 = 12 marksAO2 = 12 marks

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AO1 skillsAO1 skills

PSYCHOLOGY AS

Knowledge & understanding

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Kinds of AO1 questionKinds of AO1 question

Key terms (definitions)Research

– APFCC – Research findings and conclusions

Research– Explanations– Theories

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AO1 Knowledge and understandingAO1 Knowledge and understanding

6 marks

Accurate and reasonably detailed.

5-4 marks

Less detailed but generally accurate.

3-2 marks

Basic.

1-0 marks

Very brief, flawed or inappropriate.

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DetailDetailExplain what is meant by flashbulb Explain what is meant by flashbulb memory.memory.

Flashbulb memories are like a picture of an emotional event.

Is this detailed and accurate? Is it very brief or flawed? Does this help you understand

what flashbulb memories are? Has it captured the key points?

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Getting enough detailGetting enough detail

Flashbulb memories are like a picture of an emotional event.

Flashbulb memories are a recollection of the context when one first heard about an emotional event.

Flashbulb memories are a detailed and enduring picture of the context when one first heard about an emotional event.

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Explain what is meant by the term Explain what is meant by the term flashbulb memory. (flashbulb memory. (3 marks3 marks))

Identify 3 or 4 bullet points for 3 mark question to help your memory:– detailed and enduring– context – emotional event– For example, remembering what you were

doing/where you were when you heard about the Trade towers

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The devil is in the The devil is in the detaildetail

• ‘Flashbulb memory is related to emotional events .’

• More detail: ‘Flashbulb memory is related to the context of emotional events.’

• Even more detail: ‘Flashbulb memories are detailed and enduring.’

http://www.lincolncountyreddevils.com/Graphics/Devils/graphicsmain.php?ind=47

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• ‘Repression is when you don’t remember certain events.’

• More detail: ‘Repression is when you don’t remember traumatic events.’

• Even more detail: ‘Repression is when you don’t remember traumatic events for example Williams’ study … .’


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• ‘One study found that short-term memory has a short duration.’

• More detail: ‘Peterson and Peterson found that short-term memory has a short duration.’

• Even more detail: ‘Peterson and Peterson found that short-term memory has a short duration, e.g. seconds rather than minutes.’


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To provide detailed answers …To provide detailed answers …• Specify exactly what you mean• Use focussed and/or technical

terms• Use examples• Cite named studies

• Squeeze your sponge

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AccuracyAccuracy• How does one

remember things accurately?

• What do we mean by ‘learning’?

• Processing is the key

Understanding

Accurate recall

Recall vs

recognition

Exam anxiety

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The Goldilocks problem

1. They don’t have enough to write.

2. Sometimes they have too much to write.

What is the biggest problem for candidates?What is the biggest problem for candidates?

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Identify key pointsIdentify key points

• 6 minutes 100 words

• About 6-8 key points

• APFCC = 3-4 points

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Bahrick Bahrick et alet al. (1975). (1975)

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The aimsThe aimsSome studies have looked at the duration of memory over time but have found that memories fade. It is possible that memories actually last a lot longer than was found in these studies. The problem is that the information that people were asked to remember was not very interesting, and that’s why it was forgotten. In real life people have lots of things they do remember over a long time, but these things tend to be personally important. This study aimed to investigate very long-term memory (VLTM) in a natural setting where the things to-be-remembered were of personal significance. The memories to be recalled were of high school classmates. The study also aimed to compare verbal and visual LTM.

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Key pointsKey points

• Past research has found that memories fade over time.

• This may be because they were not very interesting.

• So this study looked at the duration of memories that are interesting to an individual.

• Memories that are personally significant – of high school classmates.

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Reduce this to a list of bullet pointsReduce this to a list of bullet points

– Past research – Not very interesting. – Interesting to an individual.– Personally significant.

• When revising check that you can remember

all your bullet points.

• And for each bullet point write a full sentence.

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Why it worksWhy it works

• Ensures you learn just the right amount (not too much or too little)

• Processing: YOU select your points and practice ELABORATING them

– Levels of processing theory– Processing increases understanding– Processing and elaborating improves recall

(versus rote learning)– Cues help recall (cue retrieval theory)

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Six mark version of GAS• Alarm stage: stressor perceived. • E.g. increased heart rate, liver releases

sugar. • Effective coping strategy• Resistance: restore equilibrium• Resources slowly depleted • Prolonged stress exhaustion• Adrenal glands enlarged, organism tired • Collapse and physical illness

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AO2 skillsAO2 skills

PSYCHOLOGY AS

Evaluation & commentary

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AO2 marking allocation

Commentary,

analysis & evaluation

Selection & use of material

Range of issues and/or evidence

12-10 Informed and effective

Effective Broad range in reasonable depth or narrower range in greater depth.

9-7 Reasonable Not always effective

Limited depth or narrower range in greater depth.

6-4 Basic Basic Superficial consideration of restricted range.

3-0 Rudimentary or absent

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SHOCK HORROR!

There is no such thing as AO2, only material that is used as AO2

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To make AO2 effective use THE AO2 ‘VOCABULARY’

• This suggests that…

• So we can see that…

• This would imply…

• A consequence would be…

• An advantage of this is…

• An alternative explanation could be…

• This is supported by…

• This is challenged by…

• Not everyone reacts the same way, for example…

• There may be cultural variations…

• This has been applied to…

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Orne and Holland claimed that Milgram’s studylacked external validity because it did not relate to events in the real world. Milgram disagreed with this claim, and argued that it was the same underlying psychological process (agentic shift) operating in his laboratory studies of obedience as was operating in many of the atrocities carried out during the Holocaust, therefore his researchcould be said to apply to the real world. However, Mandel (1998) criticises this view and claims that Milgram’s study was not sufficientlysimilar to events in the Holocaust to justify this conclusion. In support of this claim, Mandel used evidence from a study of the massacre of Jews at Jozefow in Poland. In this event,the murderers were under minimal supervision,and continued to carry out the killings despitewitnessing some of their peers refusing to carry out the order. This was in direct contrast to thefindings in Milgram’s research, when the absence ofdirect supervision led to lower shock levels, and witnessing defiant peers led participants to also defy the experimenter.

Orne and Holland claimed that Milgram’s studylacked external validity because it did not relate to events in the real world. Milgram disagreed with this claim, and argued that it was the same underlying psychological process (agentic shift) operating in his laboratory studies of obedience as was operating in many of the atrocities carried out during the Holocaust, therefore his researchcould be said to apply to the real world. However, Mandel (1998) criticises this view and claims that Milgram’s study was not sufficientlysimilar to events in the Holocaust to justify this conclusion. In support of this claim, Mandel used evidence from a study of the massacre of Jews at Jozefow in Poland. In this event,the murderers were under minimal supervision,and continued to carry out the killings despitewitnessing some of their peers refusing to carry out the order. This was in direct contrast to thefindings in Milgram’s research, when the absence ofdirect supervision led to lower shock levels, and witnessing defiant peers led participants to also defy the experimenter.

WHEN IN ROME…• Make life easier

for the examiner AND better for you by… ‘Speaking AO2’

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If you leave it out, it’s not AO2

STM has a short duration. Peterson and Peterson found that it was less than 18 seconds.

STM has a short duration. This was demonstrated by Peterson and Peterson who found that it was less than 18 seconds.

This was a laboratory study using nonsense words.

This study may not tell us much about real life STM because it was conducted in a laboratory with nonsense words.

Statement

Effective use of evidence

Statement

Effective criticism

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‘SPEAKING AO2’

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

• This demonstrates that you understand exactly what a piece of research has accomplished.

• e.g. Considering what a study of obedience has actually shown.

• Use ‘This shows that…’ to demonstrate that you understand what the conclusion is.

• e.g. This shows that… …people tend to ignore feelings of compassion and empathy for the victim when ordered to behave in a destructive way by an authority figure.

This makes This makes your AO2 your AO2

OBVIOUSOBVIOUS and and therefore more therefore more likely to earn likely to earn

marksmarks


OBVIOUSOBVIOUS and and therefore more therefore more likely to earn likely to earn

marksmarks

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‘SPEAKING AO2’

USING RESEARCH

• It isn’t sufficient (or even appropriate) to simply describe supporting research, it should be built into an evaluative statement.

• Use ‘This is supported by…’ or ‘thus supporting the view…’ to demonstrate that you understand how this study relates to a point of view.

• “Evidence from Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987) showed that a minority of one who refused to change his position had little effect on others…

• …thus supporting the view that flexibility rather

• than consistency is important in minority influence”.


EFFECTIVEEFFECTIVE and more and more

likely to earn likely to earn higherhigher marksmarks




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‘SPEAKING AO2’

USING RESEARCH

• It isn’t sufficient (or even appropriate) to simply describe supporting research, it should be built into an evaluative statement.

• Use ‘This is challenged by…’ or ‘thus challenging the view…’ to demonstrate that you understand how this study relates to a point of view.

• This is challenged by… Mandel (1998), who found, in his studies of real life events during the Holocaust, little evidence of the types of ‘blind obedience’ proposed by Milgram.







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‘SPEAKING AO2’

ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS

• There is always an alternative explanation for theories or research findings.

• Use ‘This would challenge…’ to demonstrate that you understand how this contrasts with the theory or research conclusion.

An alternative explanation might be… that participants went along with the experimenter’s instructions because they knew they were not giving real electric shocks.This would challenge the claim that… people readily engage in destructive acts against another person simply because they are locked into a subordinate relationship with an authority figure.

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‘SPEAKING AO2’

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

• People are different, which challenges the view that all people react in the same way.

• Use ‘Not everyone reacts in the same way…’ and use research evidence to support your claim.

• How does this limit the validity of whatever it is you are evaluating? (e.g. it may make the finding less universal)

• Not everyone reacts in the same way… e.g. some studies have found that women are more conformist than men (Eagly and Carli, 1981) because they are more concerned with social relationships.

But…

Masc Fem Neutral

Males 34.15 43.05 39.65 Females 42.75

34.55 39.10 [Sistrunk & Mc David, 1971]

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Meta-commentary

• Orne and Holland claimed that the study lacked internal validity (participants didn’t really believe they were giving shocks and only pretended during the study).

• Milgram disputed these claims, arguing that participants showed considerable stress during the study and in post-experimental interviews said they believed they were giving shocks.

This type of evaluation is a form of debate (a bit like a

tennis match), as one point is met by another which is

in conflict with the first.

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‘SPEAKING AO2’

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

• Cultural differences exist in many different aspects of behaviour.

• Use ‘A consequence of this is that…’ to demonstrate that you understand what this means for the research in question (and earn extra AO2 credit)!

There may be cultural variations in this behaviour…. e.g. Bond & Smith, (1996) found that participants from collectivist countries tended to show higher levels of conformity than participants from individualist countries.

A consequence of this is that… research into conformity using members of one culture may tell us little about conformity in other cultures.

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‘SPEAKING AO2’ APPLICATIONS

• Much of the psychology you have studied has VALUE through its applications.

• Use ‘This research has been applied to…’ to introduce the application and say why this is valuable.

This research has been applied to… commercial pilot training in the US, where flight captains and first officers are assessed on the ‘obedience dynamic’, i.e. excessive domination (captain) or excessive obedience (first officer) so that accidents attributable to this relationship can be minimised.

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DEPTH … ELABORATION

THREE POINT RULE….

• Identify your criticism (“What is it?”)

• Justify it (“How do I know that?”)

• Elaborate it (e.g. “Why is this a good or bad thing?”)

• ‘What do I know, how do I know it, and so what?’

WHY?Because it takes you from ‘reasonably effective’ to ‘effective’ (which may be the difference between a Grade C and a Grade A)

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Criticisms: The three point ruleCriticisms: The three point rule

• Name the criticism

• Present evidence to support this

• Explain why it is a criticism

• Study lacked ecological validity.

• The word lists used to test memory didn’t resemble the kinds of things people do in the real world and involved one kind of memory.

• This means you can’t generalise the findings to memory related to different kinds of tasks.

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• Study was unethical.

• Participants were not able to give fully informed consent and therefore agreed to participate in something that could cause them distress.

• This undermines the value of this research because human rights were abused.

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• Study was replicated.

• A similar study was conducted by X in a different setting and produced similar findings.

• This replication supports the original findings providing external validity.

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INFORMED COMMENTARYMilgram’s study is unethical.Milgram’s study is unethical

because the participants were psychological harmed.

The participants were sweating and one reportedly had an epileptic fit.

Baumrind (1964) suggested Milgram showed little respect for his participants and didn’t adequately protect them.

An opinion but it’s not informedAn opinion with some justification

A little bit more informed

Very informed

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AO1 + AO2 skillsAO1 + AO2 skills

PSYCHOLOGY AS

18 Mark questions

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1. Have an opinionThe part (c) question is your chance to show that you can think about a topic in such a way as to answer a slightly more challenging question than in the part (a) and part (b) questions.

Your opinions must be supported by psychological knowledge = informed.

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2. AO1 and AO2Each question has an AO1 component and an AO2 component.

• Outline and evaluate….

• Discuss at least two criticisms that have been made of research into majority influence.

• To what extent does research (theories and/or studies) into deprivation and/or privation support the view that such experiences are reversible?

• Consider methods of stress management in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

How do you know what is AO1 and AO2?

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3. Timing

18 marks = 18 minutes

18 – 3 = 15

AO1/AO2 = 5/10 minutes

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300 words is enough

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4. Organise your 4. Organise your thoughtsthoughts

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5. Be balanced (and structured)

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THREE PARAGRAPHS TECHNIQUE

1. AO1 (100 words)

2. AO2 (100 words)

3. AO2 (100 words)

e.g. ‘Outline and evaluate….’

• Outline of theories/explanations or studies = 100 words

• Evaluation of first theory or studies = 100 words

• Evaluation of second theory or studies = 100 words

AO1

AO2

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ALTERNATIVELY…Mix and Match, but…

Get the proportions right!

1. AO1 then AO2

2. AO1 then AO2

3. AO1 then AO2

etc.

AO1

AO2

AO1

AO2

AO1

AO2

AO1

AO2

Whatever approach you take….Remember that overall…

one third AO1 and two-thirds AO2

in all Part (c) questions

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WORKING BACKWARDS FROM YOUR CONCLUSION

• What is my conclusion?

• What evidence would lead to that conclusion?

• What arguments (or evidence) might I meet along the way, and how would I discount them?

Appropriate for questions such as ‘To what extent has research shown that day care has negative effects on cognitive and/or social development?’

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6. Answering the question that was set

• Describe and evaluate ethical issues in psychological research.

• Describe and evaluate how psychologists deal with ethical issues in psychological research.

• Discuss research studies into majority influence.

• Discuss at least two criticisms that have been made of research into majority influence.

Spot the differenc

e

Spot the differenc

e

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Spot the difference

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The secrets of success Have an opinion AO1 should be detailed and the right amount AO2 should be effective, elaborated and informed Have a plan Be balanced Timing

They are skills which need practice.

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A note on bullet pointsA note on bullet points

It is acceptable to write in bullet points in an exam but they should be elaborated bullet points not one word or phrase:

THISPast research has found that memories fade

over time.

NOT

Past research

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Use subheadingsUse subheadings

• Aims xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


• Findings xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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Make your own LITTLE BOOK of Make your own LITTLE BOOK of AO1 notesAO1 notes

• Three mark versions of all definitions• Four mark versions of APFCC• Six mark versions of research

findings/conclusions (for part (c) questions too)• Three and six mark versions of explanations and

theories• Criticisms

• Keep it brief• And practice elaborating

psychology as

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