Unit 2 12-mark questions

Each exam will involve one twelve mark question. Six marks are for knowledge and understanding (AO1) and six for analysis and evaluation (AO2). You should aim to spend about twenty minutes on one of these answers, write about a side and a half of A4 and ensure that you get an even balance between description and discussion of strengths / limitations. In bold below are the actual questions from previous years. In italics are alternatives which could come up.

January 2010
“Abnormality is very difficult to define. It can be hard to decide where normal behaviour ends and abnormal behaviour begins.”
Discuss two or more definitions of abnormality.

June 2010
Outline and evaluate research into the relationship between the immune system and stress-related illness.

January 2011
‘Freud’s views on the origins of abnormal behaviour and ways of treating it had a great impact on psychology.’
Outline and evaluate the psychodynamic approach to abnormality.

June 2011
“Not everyone conforms or obeys authority; some people resist these pressures and remain independent.”
Outline and evaluate research relating to independent behaviour.

January 2012
‘There are several methods used to manage the negative effects of stress. These methods can be biological or psychological.’
Discuss two or more methods of stress management.

June 2012
Outline and evaluate research into conformity.


Discuss the biological model of abnormality.

Discuss the behavioural model of abnormality.

Discuss the cognitive model of abnormality.

Outline and evaluate the use of physiological / biological therapies.

Outline and evaluate the use of CBT.

Outline and evaluate the use of psychoanalysis.

Outline and evaluate the use of behavioural therapy (e.g. systematic desensitisation).

Discuss what research has shown about the relationship between Life Changes and stress related illness.

Discuss what research has shown about stress in the workplace.

Discuss what research has shown about the effect of personality on stress related illness.

Outline and evaluate physiological methods of stress management.

Outline and evaluate psychological methods of stress management.

Outline and evaluate research into obedience to authority.

Unit 2 Mind Maps

http://popplet.com/app/#/24311

I've made mind maps for the Unit 2 topics which I've taught, attempting to clarify what I recommend you focus your revision on. If you're aiming for an A or B grade you will need a bit more detail than is here, e.g. brief details of some additional research which you can find in your textbook which will be useful for evaluation in your longer answers.

Popplet is a fairly new website for mind mapping - it's in beta development meaning that the programming isn't quite finished and they're looking for feedback on how it works, but it's really easy to use and might make this kind of revising painless if you don't enjoy doing it on paper. Give it a try (e.g. by making a detailed mind-map for one topic e.g. 'independent behaviour' or 'stress management').

Update & revision reminder

Apologies for lack of blogging lately. This will be a long post containing all the resources we've used in the last half term.

I last posted about the strange situation. We moved on from that to look at cross-cultural variations in attachment.The powerpoint containing the procedures, findings and conclusions of Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) is here. I think it is also worth learning the findings and conclusions of Takahashi (1990) as this is another good illustration of how attachment types vary across cultures.

We then moved on to look at what happens when an attachment is disrupted or doesn't even form in the first place. We looked at a number of studies by James & Joyce Robertson on the effects of separation. The different children in the studies can be used as examples to illlustrate the factors that will affect whether the effects of separation are mild or severe, or short- or long-lasting. I have a useful paper resource with all the details on - see me if you need a copy. We looked at Bowlby's PDD model, which has been used to describe the stages that children go through when separated from their primary caregiver. The powerpoint is here. You need to be able to briefly describe and then evaluate the model.

We then moved on to day care. I was out on jury service for some of this period and provided a booklet for you to work through at your own pace. A copy of the booklet is here.

Finally we studied the effects of privation and institutionalisation. Make sure you can define these terms. Make sure you can briefly describe the main findings of two privation case studies: Genie and the Czech twins. You also need to be aware of the shortcomings of using case study research. We looked at two natural experiments (Hodges & Tizard and Rutter et al), which, while probably less interesting than the case studies, are a lot more useful in terms of drawing conclusions from. Make sure you know the main findings of each study and be able to evaluate these. The ppt on privation is here and the one on institutionalisation is here.

REVISION

Your job over the Easter holidays is to revise the content of the memory, attachment and research methods topics for the unit 1 exam. In lessons after Easter we will concentrate on exam technique, and how to approach the different question types that you can expect. We will also spend some time making sure we are all OK with all of the RM terminology.

Here is a revision checklist for memory, and here is one for attachment.

Test on social influence so far, and introduction to research into obedience

Here are the instructions for today's lesson, including test questions and yesterday's exam practice question.

Today, in my absence, you are starting to look at Milgram's classic experiment examining obedience to an unjust authority (that is, an authority figure who tells a participant to inflict pain and possibly death on a random person they've just met).

The results, well replicated in a range of settings but still doubted by some, continue to shock. It seems that more than half of us would administer what we believe to be fatal electric shocks to a stranger if we were told that an experiment 'required it'.

Here is the presentation.

This short video has some footage of the actual experiment which gives a flavour of the real thing:

Here is the specification sheet / revision checklist for the whole of Social Influence.

Identification - conformity with a social role

Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) demonstrates the power of a situation with clear social roles (those of prisoner and prison guard) in influencing the behaviour of randomly assigned participants. Her people are conforming to each other, but also to their expectations about the role.

We had a good discussion about whether the fact that they knew they were in an experiment was a problem when it comes to the validity of the study - 'demand characteristics' which allow participants to guess the aims of the study and act accordingly and the fact that people feel less responsible for their actions in an experiment than they do in real life are issues we'll come back to over the next few lessons.

Here is a short presentation with some questions to make sure your notes address.

Here is Zimbardo's full 50 minute documentary about the experiment:

Social Influence Research

Which of these is the real participant?

We have now looked at research into conformity to majority influence (Asch) and to minority influence through the process of internalisation (Moscovici and Clark).

Here is a majority influence presentation.

Here is the presentation from today's lesson which looks at minority influence.

Complete this table for homework:

Here is a nice video summary of conformity research:

Stress management techniques

These are methods used by professionals (doctors and psychotherapists) to help people manage the effects of stress. You no longer need to know about the coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused) that people naturally use to deal with stressors.

Stress management techniques can be physiological - focusing on the body's response to stress (drugs and biofeedback) or psychological - focusing on how we think about stressors (Stress Inoculation Therapy, Hardiness Training and, in a way, biofeedback).

Here is a presentation.