Help with writing Psychology Essays? (AQA A2)

Umm I think our teacher got it online somewhere not sure.

But the ones on the sheet are...

However
Therefore
Support is shown by
The study of
On the other hand
In contrast
One advantage of this view is
A useful application of this
Not everyone reacts in the same way
There may be cultural variations

Stick those in throught the essay and the examiner will love you

Hey
How many paragraphs for each? like i thought around 4 for A01, 5 for A02?

but... if you are asked on 2 theories (i.e. the theories of sleep) then would you do something like this...

2 paragraphs restoration theories
2 paragraphs evaluation
2 paragraphs evolutionary theories
3 paragraphs evaluation

please reply, as you can tell i am MAJORLY confused about this exam!

Yeah, its better to go by times. Also to really get AO1/2/3 drilled into your brain it would be good to write your notes up split into those 3 categories.

When I do the questions I don't judge it by paragraphs.. our teacher has told us to do it by minutes. So 9 minutes for A01, 12 minutes for A02 and 4 minutes for A03. Approximately anyway. That's what I do and it seems to work!

I'm scared

Your not the only one.

I Cant Learn Anything! Someone Help Me!

For the AO1 AO2 AO3

As you know, the quesiton is out of 25marks

AO1 is basically marks for description and explanation that worths 9marks
However, that does not mean 9 excellent points. It is the quality of your description ie. full elaborative description as well as a good range of materials

AO2/3 is 16marks together (AO2 = 12 AO3 = 4)

AO2 are your evaluation points: This includes studies (supporting and opposing evidence) and all you need to do is state the research, what it found and refer back to the quesiton and waht does it show. you can also get evaluation marks on the study for e.g. its validity, generalisability, reliability. For instance, this study lacks ecological validity as it was conducted in an artificial environment, this means it cannot reflect real life situations
You can also use general evaluations for e.g. pointing out strengths and weaknesses of a theory. Moreover, you can use other theories to criticise the theory but you need to be specific about it when you compare the two
For e.g. the biological theory can be criticised by social learning theorist for ignoring the environmental and culture influences in gender/aggression etc etc. They believe that...is learnt through imitation and rewards etc etc

AO3 are debates: These include - does this study/theory strengthen the status of psychology being a science; does this explanation provide a holistic or a reductionist approach to human behaviour; any ethical issues in relation to using animals and humans ie informed consent, harm, animal rights; are there any cultural bias or gender bias in these studies or explanation; does it contribute to human behaviour having free will or is it determined; the main one for most topic on this exam is the nature nurture debate
for e.g. are sleeping disorders learnt or innate? are gender roles innate or learnt? is perceptual development nature or nurture? is intelligence genetic?

As you may know, you cant just state them. you have explain the reason for your claim. This can be done throughout your essay not jsut at the end. You can add your ao3 points when using a study
for e.g. study X found that... this shows... as it shows that the disorders were present at birth, this means that the disorder could be innate and thus falls on the nature side of the debate.

Hope this helps
Also, this website has some additonal exam questions for the exam and the marking scheme will be in there too

http://web.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/A...CEXWPSYA34.PDF


Remember it's the quality of your essay, not the quantity

The link is dead, but an excellent post. Thanks!

oh my mistake,sorry about that

here you go
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-2180-W-TRB-CEXWPSYA34.PDF

what specific topics are you needing help on?

I just have no idea how to learn it all. I have notes on everything, just can't get them to stay in my head

If you want I can send you an example of an essay I wrote of AQA A2 psychology that my teacher graded as an A*? I don't know how to explain it... but she says to use loads of connectives like "however" and stuff to show the examiner that you are showing both sides of the argument.

I would love that! Please!!
I have the same problem. The thing is, I can remember all the information relevant to the question fine, but don't know how to structure the essay and I don't think I include enough A02 & AO3 evaluative marks. :T

Hey I'm really sorry, but I don't have my laptop with that essay on anymore and it's the only essay I've written all year for Psychology (apart from in the exam) so I don't have anymore examples! I'm sorry for being such an awful student lol if I was a better student I'd be able to help you! I'll ask one of my best friends if she has a typed up essay, but she usually hand writes them, so I don't know if she will actually have one.

Just try and think of things that relate to both sides of the argument and use connectives to show that you are doing that. Just make it really easy for the examiner to give you marks. I hardly any revision, only answered section A and section C (kind of guessed the answers and wrote hardly anything for section B) on the PSYA4 exam in January and I got a B (75%). I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I got a B is because of the whole halo effect where you make the examiner think you know what you're talking about