AQA A2 Psychology PSYA3/PSYA4 Revision Thread 2016

Guyssss, i need some worda of reassurance. Basically i finished relationships and aggression comfortably but it got to eating and my mind went blank. Im so scared right now cause i wrote nothingggggg cause i couldnt remember nothingggggg. If i ace psya4 will that one essay affect it poorly?😢😢😢😢😢😢

Good, the unit 4 exam is definitely easier to get marks in! Hmm maybe they are but there are only a limited amount of questions that can possibly come up, which means you won't have to revise as much, plus research methods can pick you up a lot of marks without much revision! Yeah me too, taking a break until tomorrow morning and then I'll start.

nice to know you're doing the same! can i ask how you're gunna revise? are you gunna prioritise the predictions despite them being ambiguous?

and for research methods, do you or does ANYONE have any notes they can send me, i don't have any and i just need some concise things to revise from... thanks

Yeah, but what I'm saying is if you only wrote about, say, sexual jealousy, and not infidelity, or you wrote about only one aspect of group display, you are not demonstrating any breadth, which is what the 2011 paper required you to do. Therefore, your marks would be limited since you are not covering more than one explanation.

I still argue the aggression question required two "explanationS" and people saying that for aggression, the s on the end of explanations doesn't mean you have to do more than one, I'm just gonna leave this here...


Basically, an aggression question with the exact same phrasing of the one in the exam today, "explanations", has a markscheme that stated only covering 1 explanation is showing a lack of breadth and marks are limited for only covering one explanation. The phrasing of the question is identical, the only difference is that the question is on institutional aggression and not evolutionary aggression. Therefore, I still think for the question in today's exam you needed to talk about 2 explanation to get full marks. The mark scheme states: "Although candidates are required to describe more than one explanation, there is no partial performance criteria on this question. Answers covering only one explanation will lack breadth and can earn a maximum of 6 marks for AO1"

Therefore, why should our exam question be any different? I rest my case...

I did the 2011 question as practice and only talked about xenophobia, my teacher gave me 7/8 and 13/16, I trust their marking considering they're one of the principle examiners. I think this is a topic which has a lot of crossovers and distinguishing one explanation from another doesn't always work, so they're quite lenient with that. Even if someone loses marks for breadth in AO1, if it's not regarded as partial performance then it won't affect the AO2. Anyway, I'm still awaiting a reply from my teacher to confirm what we were supposed to do.

I have been told this before, but you can easily find questions set by AQA that are identical, however in the markschemes the marking criteria varies a lot. Basically, I think it required you to talk about more than one explanation by discussing sexual jealousy and infidelity, because as you said, talking about one leads to talking about another, however hopefully they will count the two as separate explanation. However, some people are saying they either talked about one, either sexual jealousy or infidelity, or they only wrote about one aspect of group display, which means they aren't discussing more than one explanation like the questions asks for.

For biological explanations for AN i talked about neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine and also talked about neural mechanisms saying LH and VMH damage can cause excessive hunger and people dont eat etc causing AN. Does neural mechanisms count as an biological explanation? ?

Surely infidelity and jealousy are linked together. For example, if a partner is having a relationship with another person the she is being unfaithful and the husband will suspect infidelity. This will lead to jealousy which will means that that the husband is likely use aggression and mate retention strategies and sometimes sexual coercion to prevent the women from acting unfaithful to him. By using this form of aggression, sexual coercion will prevent the wife from being unfaithful and enable the husband to pass on his genes.

How would you talk about it separate??

I wrote about group display (sport) and infidelity and jealousy together

You need to write about both because the questions said "discuss explanation(s)" indicating they wanted more than 1 explanation written about. If you wrote about 2 different types of group display, war and sport, then that's two explanations which is fine but I think if you just wrote about sexual jealousy and infidelity that will count as only 1 explanation and you'd get half marks.

Surely infidelity and jealousy are linked together. For example, if a partner is having a relationship with another person the she is being unfaithful and the husband will suspect infidelity. This will lead to jealousy which will means that that the husband is likely use aggression and mate retention strategies and sometimes sexual coercion to prevent the women from acting unfaithful to him. By using this form of aggression, sexual coercion will prevent the wife from being unfaithful and enable the husband to pass on his genes.

How would you talk about it separate??

I wrote about group display (sport) and infidelity and jealousy together

No you're wrong, because infidelity and jealousy are two separate explanations for aggression in humans, whilst sports and warfare are two different explanations for group display.

I did the 2011 question as practice and only talked about xenophobia, my teacher gave me 7/8 and 13/16, I trust their marking considering they're one of the principle examiners. I think this is a topic which has a lot of crossovers and distinguishing one explanation from another doesn't always work, so they're quite lenient with that. Even if someone loses marks for breadth in AO1, if it's not regarded as partial performance then it won't affect the AO2. Anyway, I'm still awaiting a reply from my teacher to confirm what we were supposed to do.

Really hope ive scraped an A* in this psych 3 exam but anyway i havent even started psych 4 revision LOL

I was so happy when I saw Piaget! That and bio explanations for AN softened the blow of GST

Some people learnt it as one explanation, so you could be wrong too. I argue that sexual jealousy and infidelity and so closely linked and one is basically a result of the other, so AQA may count it as one explanation and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I think they also wanted you to include a form of group display as a second explanation.

Some people learnt it as one explanation, so you could be wrong too. I argue that sexual jealousy and infidelity and so closely linked and one is basically a result of the other, so AQA may count it as one explanation and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I think they also wanted you to include a form of group display as a second explanation.