Psychology PSYA3/PSYA4 revision thread for 2014

how many studies are you going to remember for relationship topics and i noticed that within the relationship topic the maintenance of relationships has never come up, i have this weird hunch that it might this year xD

Probably about 4 or 5... it depends on how much I can remember haha
I'm not including general criticism/support and IDAs in that though

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
I always struggle trying to elaborate as I'm used to the sciences were you just make lots of brief points to get marks haha. So would I put IDAs throughout it instead? My teacher has never gone over structuring psychology essays it's something I struggled with lol.

For PSYA3 - Relationships, does anyone know whether cuckoldry is relevant to Parental Investment Theory or Sexual Strategies, I'm a bit confused which one it's part of

No problem at all

Yeah I get that I would suggest ending paragraphs with "this supports/contradicts x theory because.." that way you're making sure you've explained everything you need to. Yeah, IDAs should be used throughout, and you can't get full AO2 marks if it isn't imbedded effectively throughout essays

looooooool aha true, i am going to try to remember 2 studies for each theory and 2 ida's as well, because if you dont include ida you are only limited to 8 out of 16 marks in evaluation, oh yeah we have to aim for 15 marks in each essay minimum for an A in psya3, coz its like 40 marks for a B, so how are you going to revise for it

Had another attempt. If anyone could gloss over it and give me advice or a mark for it I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.




Ohh I see. Thank you. Do you have any essay plans you always follow or do you just 'go with the flow' when you're in the exam?

haha yeah I meant I would revise my IDA's on top of the 4 studies besides I find IDA's easiest as when you get the hang of them you kind of do them naturally! We're doing timed essays every week and at the moment I'm just running through topics and selecting relevant info for AO1 and for AO2 and writing it down like a plan as my revision I know other people in my class find all the possible essays titles from the topic and write those but that wouldn't work for me

AO1: 6
AO2: 14

Definitely a better essay I would say. Your description of the equity theory wasn't as clear or descriptive as it could be, but the gist was understood. Also, your first evaluation point was a bit muddled, I think if you were to include a bit of research such as Lott (in a few words) it would have probably strengthened. E.g. Lott found that women in collectivist societies would do more work and expect less in a relationship.. at least here you could see that sort of cultural dimension.

I don't really use essay plans, I use notes and my textbook, but that's pretty much it. I think I'm going to memorise essays for the exams

I had an attempt at breakdown of relationships but I don't think it's much good lol. If anyone could look over it I'd appreciate it but don't feel obliged as I've already had previous ones looked at which was incredibly generous and helpful.


Thank you so much. I need to go back to my notes and revise all the little studies I think as I keep forgetting them haha.

Does anyone know what this study means?

Davies (1992) found that addicts explain their behaviour in different ways depending on whom they are with. When in the presence of professionals, they may use the language of addiction e.g their behaviour is out of control and they can't help themselves yet, when with peers, they use a different kind of language that suggests they are exercising preferences that are rational and understandable given the circumstances in which they life. This suggests that the language of addictive behaviour serves an important function for the individual e.g it may serve to absolve them from personal responsibility for their behaviour.

I'm not really sure how they came to that conclusion. I don't understand how using different language helps them get rid of the responsibility.

If I said to you "I can't help smoking. I want to stop but I can't" it makes it seem like my addiction to smoking is totally beyond my control and by saying this to you, I am convincing my self and you to believe this is the case. If I, as the study has pointed out other addicts do, actually believe that I cannot control my addictive behaviour, I may go to the conclusion that I can't stop it - it's completely beyond my reach. This will probably lead to me not looking for ways to stop smoking because I simply think I can't control my addiction anyway.

ps i'm not addicted to smoking, nor do I study addiction, but this is how i interpreted it lol.

OMG!! thank you sooo much nm786 you sir are a truly a wonderful human being and awesome person!!! thank you so much for the tips and essays xD thank you, thank you do you have any advice for unit 4?

i am doing the exact same topics!!! that would help so much thank you, especially since i will be without a psychology teacher unitil january, do you have any advice for retaining so much information?

No problem.
I retained the information by starting early and reading each essay over and over and then reciting all the main points and studies. It took a long time but it worked for me. Try anything that works for you.

For unit 4 just do lots of past papers!





No problem, as promised I have now uploaded all the potential 24 mark essays on Relationships, Aggression and Eating Behaviour.

In the document:
-the grade that was given for each essay is top right hand corner.
-The main A01 points are underlined.
-All the researchers names are in Blue
-IDA points are in green.


some tips:

-Make sure your A01 is concise
-Do not start your A02 points with a researcher's name, they will mark it as A01! make sure you start your A02 points with e.g. 'There is research to support..., for example .... found'
-Make sure you have 1/3 A01 and about 2/3 A02.
-Make sure you have IDA points!
-SLT and deindividuation are not reductionist!
-Always refer back to what you said in your A01
-wherever the word and is on the spec that means you could be asked two seperate 24 mark questions e.g. 'neural and hormonal explanations of aggression' you could be asked to discuss neural explanation of aggression (24 marks) and to discuss hormonal explanations of aggression (24 marks)
-make sure you are ready for 4 mark, 8 mark, 12 mark and 24 mark question for each essay.

and finally:

No problem.
I retained the information by starting early and reading each essay over and over and then reciting all the main points and studies. It took a long time but it worked for me. Try anything that works for you.

For unit 4 just do lots of past papers!





No problem, as promised I have now uploaded all my 24 mark essays on Relationships, Aggression and Eating Behaviour.

In the document:
-the grade that was given for each essay is in top right hand corner.
-Main A01 points are underlined.
-All the researchers names are in Blue
-IDA points are in green.


some tips:

-Make sure your A01 is concise
-Do not start your A02 points with a researcher's name, they will mark it as A01! make sure you start your A02 points with e.g. 'There is research to support..., for example .... found'
-Make sure you have 1/3 A01 and about 2/3 A02.
-Make sure you have IDA points!
-SLT and deindividuation are not reductionist!
-It is not acceptable to argue that an explanation is reductionist because it ignores other explanations!
-Always refer back to what you said in your A01
-wherever the word 'including' is on the spec that means you could be asked two seperate 24 mark questions e.g. ‘Biological explanations of AN, including neural and evolutionary explanations’ you could be asked to:


If you are asked about biological explanations then you can used neural explanations and/or evolutionary explanations.
-make sure you are ready for 4 mark, 8 mark, 12 mark and 24 mark question for each essay.

and finally:



To download the document, click this link: http://download1482.mediafire.com/l2m3i833jbrg/2hairlb5rc1dtas/PSYA3+Essays+-+Relationships%2C+Aggression+and+Eating+Behaviour.pdf