I copied this from a previous post I put up, but that many of you may not have seen....
well im studying alot of different things at the moment so may be able answer things on the OCR syllabus but as for exam technique :-s
and the tips for revision.....
Unit 4:
learn as much as you can with regards to facts and theories, and learn some basic and advanced criticisms. try and think of ones that could be applied to most of the research in one area, and then try and learn some criticisms which are specific to the study/theory. If you can write concisely and vomit these on to a page you should be heading for the A. as well as TIME MANAGEMENT. half an hour each essay, no more, no less.
unit 5:
just have a quick glance over all your old AS notes. you will really stand out if you can do what the paper asks, as in referring to all different things in psychology youve learnt over two years. but jsut make sure its relevant to the question.
for the therapies and treatments bit and the whole illness thing i think it is, just do as youve done in unit 4 with regards to learning facts and criticisms, and if anything crops up in your head from the old stuff then put it dowm.
debates and issues:
learn them thoroughly. learn one section or the other (i think thats pretty much a given) as well as learning only 3/4 debates/issues (learning a fourth just is a waste of time, learning 3 still gives you the certainty you will be able to at least answer one of the questions in the section). Then just learn them well and their commentaries (A02 stuff) as well as some cool AS facts you could slip in for some extra "wow" factor.
Approaches:
Firstly the key to this in part is to pick the right question. when you read the two stimuli look for the one which sounds most like something which could be actually investigated by a psychologist or could be a maladaptive behaviour. Also have the two approaches in your head which you know really well, and have a back-up one too. Now pick the one which can preferably fit the ones youre most confident with. If youre confident with the approach then answers will just come rolling off the end of your pen, trust me.
this tends to be the bit students find the most difficult as they rely on presumptions....all i can say is templates, templates, templates. Literally have a template with regards to each approach then pick which is suitable, but I would always reccomend social learning theory and evolutionary theory. theyre the most basic. Im gonna take you through them part by part.
Part A:
Many students lose marks for not referring to the behaviour enough, and you could easily just fall in to the trap of giving exactly how every behaviour could be related to evolution for example. So the main point here is to really hone in on the behaviour. Last years for example was hoarding... its not enough to just say that hoarding was adaptive as it heightened chances of reproduction and offspring as well as personal survival, you need to say why.
For example I think i said something along the lines of....
"harding could be evolutionarily successful as it could have enabled hunter-gatherers to conserve energy in the cold winter months where wasted energy could have lead to death. Hoarding also would ensure a healthy food supply despite any possible cut-offs from the natural environment, giving the individual enough supplies and the time to find an alternate food source. Having many different items could also be related to tool use, and many different tools would suggest that individual could have a tool for every occasion. This may also place him in to the role of a dominant alpha male who is valued by others f0r his machivellian intelligence, as items could also be traded and exchanged for goods and services which could also enhance reproductive success or survival. A surplus of items could also be attractive to females, thus increasing the individuals chances of reproduction as the surplus of items could represent for the females that the individual was capable of caring for both her and the child. As this behaviour became useful for survival over time it has been ingrained in to the human genome and still manifests itself despite it no longer being needed and perhaps even becoming maladaptive and harmful in the modern age"
It was probably a bit longer but you get what i mean...
Constantly referring to hoarding, not what the general evolutionary perspective presumes but for that only I'll give a few pointers of what should be mentioned in any evolutionary argument
A. Everything is to do with reproductive success or survival
B. Attraction of mates
C. Machivellian intelligence
D. Enabling adaptation to a wide range of situations
E. Behaviour now ingrained in to human genome
Part B:
Now the skill of this is to learn the general criticisms and then adapt them to fit the situation. 6 marks would denote examiners looking for 3 things, and they would like to see a 2/1 split of either strengths or weaknesses.
So firstly you take your general weakness -
evolutionary approach would say that regardless of culture all behaviour should be the same. this is obviously not the case, collectivist vs. capitalist.
now we make it refer to the specific behaviour -
evolutionary approach suggests that regardless of culture all behaviours should be the same in each culture, it is clear however just by looking at collectivist vs. capitalist cultures this is not the case. For example, in collectivist cultures of both the present and the past, hoarding is frowned upon and it is far more socially acceptable to share everything in some countries. If hoarding ensured reproductive success then cultures which embraced a lack of hoarding should have died out, and this is simply not the case.
Part C:
Now for this you really need to be clued up on your research methods here, but there are certain methods which only apply to some approaches
behavioural/social learning theory - experiments/observations/questionnaires
psychoanalytic - case studies/dream analysis
evolutionary - meta-analysis/cross-cultural analysis
humanist - counselling/discussion/interviews
biological - drugs trials/experiments
Theyre the main 5 anyways...
So all you need for this is to tick all the boxes they are looking for.
Firstly they want an original study. It can be similar to something, but ultimately they arent testing your ability to recreate studies, but to design.
So box 1 : originality and creativity
box 2 : correctly stating your independent variable (name them, then state any levels or operationalisation)
box 3 : sampling (what - type, who - age group, how many, control group?)
box 4: stating a brief recall of the method, as well as an attempt to control for extraneous variables such as counterbalancing and test-retest.
box 5: statistical analysis (no need to name tests, just say to a 0.5 alpha level of significance)
box 6: debriefing and ethical issues (only minor, just say participants were debriefed and then given the right to withdraw if they wanted to do so)
part D:
now lets face it, you wont have thought of everything in this study (and if you have the papers will have already been collected ), and even you can aim to chuck a couple of flaws in it for later
so now jsut re-read what youve written, how crap is it? we're hoping for a response of its alright, but not really that great. now criticise away. remember to take those general criticisms and make them specific to your study.
for example, we all know that experiments lack ecological validity due to their lab settings, but what does that mean for your study. you need to convey you understand that it will be difficult for you to take these results and generalise them to the outside world.
The real good criticisms are really in the methodology and the sampling so just attack away. again its really useful to have the 2/1 split with criticism and positive. And then its all over, youve just dont the unit 5 paper!
Class dismissed, anymore questions
Psychology discussion, revision and homework help.
Useful Resources:
All you will need for approaches exam technique...
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