Forums
AQA PSYA3 - Need help on sorting out notes on AO1/AO2/AO3

AQA PSYA3 - Need help on sorting out notes on AO1/AO2/AO3

I'm doing relationship, eating behaviour and sleep.

I've got lots of good notes, but i'm having problems on sorting them out into AO1/AO2/AO3 :frown:

Can someone also tell me what exactly is AO3?

is it like reductionism, determinism...etc?

thank you :smile:

Reply 1

Sannn

AO3 refers to the strengths and weaknesses of the study. For example, a lot of studies that investigated theories/ideas in relationships were undertaken in a lab. Lab experiments lack mundane realism, thus limiting their external validity as the results were obtained in an artificial, non-everyday setting. (This would be an AO3 point - critically analyzing a study is going over the strengths/weaknesses)
To counter the above criticism, you can easily point out that other studies (Caspi and Herbener, 1990) undertook experiments on real life couples as a field experiment, so reliability is good.