OCR AL Psychology (New): Research methods H167/1 & H567/1 - 15 May & 07 Jun 2017

Does anyone know where I can find the answers to the Practise questions on the OCR Psychology 2 textbook, the blue one. Thanks.

Reply 101

Virolite

14

i got my hands on a copy of the 2017 paper no worries :tongue:

Reply 102

maddy644

6

Original post by LenniesRabbit

Can anyone please confirm whether it is necessary to learn Histograms (procedure etc) for the exam? On the spec it mentions it but I'm not sure if we will be just given data from a Histogram and asked to interpret it or we actually have to make one ourselves?

Nobody has access to it, try asking a teacher?

Yeh u need to know how to construct histograms x

Reply 103

Rtdsv

14

Original post by LenniesRabbit

Can anyone please confirm whether it is necessary to learn Histograms (procedure etc) for the exam? On the spec it mentions it but I'm not sure if we will be just given data from a Histogram and asked to interpret it or we actually have to make one ourselves?

Nobody has access to it, try asking a teacher?

You do

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Reply 104

StressedCoffee

14

Original post by 2281303

Do LOADS of questions & then mark them. Annotate your answers and write where you went wrong and what you were missing.

For just general revision, I've made flashcards to learn the studies, but that method suits me specifically. Do the revision method that works best for you.

Everywhere I find questions they don't have a mark scheme! I'm doing them anyway to try and memorise content but anything 4 marks+ I could be losing marks on because idk if I'm structuring them right.

Reply 105

blueriver

2

Original post by Virolite

i got my hands on a copy of the 2017 paper no worries :tongue:

Hey bro any possible to share the 2017 paper?

Reply 106

champ101

1

Original post by aruob

Has anyone made any notes for research methods? and component 3, mental illness part. anything that can of help ??

i can help with the assignments

Reply 107

LenniesRabbit

14

Original post by StressedCoffee

Everywhere I find questions they don't have a mark scheme! I'm doing them anyway to try and memorise content but anything 4 marks+ I could be losing marks on because idk if I'm structuring them right.

Where exactly are you finding the questions (From the OCR site or..)? If anything you can type your responses onto here and we can give feedback (it'd be great to see how others answer questions)

Reply 108

Rtdsv

14

I have no notes on mental health ffs

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Reply 109

Morgan N

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/288955-component-1-research-methods-question-bank.pdf

Reply 110

StressedCoffee

14

Original post by LenniesRabbit

Where exactly are you finding the questions (From the OCR site or..)? If anything you can type your responses onto here and we can give feedback (it'd be great to see how others answer questions)

My teachers have put some on our google classroom. But there are loads on this website

https://psychologywithmisssmith.wordpress.com/exam-questionscore-studies/

Reply 111

LenniesRabbit

14

Guys be sure to take a look at the examiner's report for last years exam (AS) that we had done. It's where the head examiners for Psych analyse overall responses to every question and explain why people did badly etc. There are no questions attached unfortunately but people had really messed up on the question of 'Outline 2 conclusions that can be made from the data collected in this study' (Q28) So something like that might come up again.

325499-examiners-report-june.pdf275.5KB

Reply 112

schoolgirl1

5

Original post by LenniesRabbit

I've answered some Section B RSM questions for the OCR A-level paper with a question taken from here: http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/288955-component-1-research-methods-question-bank.pdf
Any suggestions on improvement would great! :smile:

Psychologists are interested in helping people overcome their fears, anxieties and phobias. One way about finding out about these is to ask people to fill out a questionnaire. In this way they can write about their fears, anxieties and phobias and how they can overcome them without having to talk about them.

1. Outline one advantage and one disadvantage of using a questionnaire in this study. (6)
2. Describe what is meant by a semi structured interview. (2)
3. What is a strength of using a semi structured interview over a structured interview? (2)
4. Why has an unstructured interview not been chosen to carry out this study? (2)

1. One advantage of using the questionnaire method in this study is that the participants would be able to give researchers clear and concise answers involving their fears, anxieties and phobias without them having to verbally speak about them. This means that participants would not be put into a possible position of distress whilst trying to explain what their fears are, and they would be more willing to answer more honestly about their fears and phobias without feeling judged by an interviewer speaking to them face-to-face. This is an advantage because it would increase the validity of answers given as they would be honest more explicit, and researchers would thus be able to investigate exactly what they set out to investigate (how to help people overcome their fears).

A disadvantage is that questionnaires may lead to individuals responding according to social desirability. Participants may find describing their fears, anxieties and phobias (as well as personal ways to overcome them) as quite daunting and embarrassing. This means that they may choose to respond according to how others (without fears or anxieties) would respond in order to not appear 'different'. This is a disadvantage because it means that data collected by the psychologists would not be reliable as answers would not reflect the participant's true feelings towards their fears.

2. A semi-structured interview is a data-collection method in which the interviewer is given guidelines to base subsequent questions on. These questions can be open or closed.

3. A strength of using a semi-structured interview over a structured interview is that the interviewer is that the interviewer can influence the timing or phrasing of questions to suit the requirements of the interviewee, whereas structured interview questions are already pre-determined and so limit the interviewer to only asking specific questions in specific ways which may lead to unclarified misunderstandings.

4. An unstructured interview is not based on any pre-determined or closed questions and so interviewees are free to interpret and respond to the question how ever they wish. This is a problem as participants who have fears, anxieties and phobias may end up giving too detailed and unfiltered of an explanation information about their feelings and emotions towards having such fears, which could cause ethical problems such as distress or trauma.

Hey! These answers are really good!!
I went through and tried to come up with some suggestions for improvement, let me know what you think or if this helps!!

So for question 1, the general structure for this type of question should be
1) Name an advantage of questionnaires
2) Explain in context to fears, phobias and anxieties
3) Then overall explain why it is an advantage
Then you would repeat but for the disadvantage
So for the advantage: Your answer is really good and it generally follows the structure to get the marks, but I would maybe suggest a different advantage, I can see where you're coming from about the judging face to face thing, however I would think that on questionnaires participants are just as likely to lie - especially if it is not anonymous and confidentiality is not kept. I feel like your advantage contradicts your disadvantage by saying that questionnaires will produce more honest answers, and then in your disadvantage you have written about social desirability so maybe just come up with a different point! Your context is good as you have referred back to the language of the question well which will get you lots of marks!! My teacher says you should refer to the language in the Q until it sounds like you're repeating yourself! So for this one, you would get marks in your answer for using the words fears, phobias and anxieties which your answers did well!
I would try to remember the key strengths and weaknesses of questionnaires for these types of questions and then all you have to do is link it to the context given to you in the questions. This is a good site for that: http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/psychology/research-methods/revise-it/questionnaires-and-interviews but there are loads of sites online that suggest strengths and weaknesses that you could learn for the exam!
I hope this makes sense, this is what I would probably write:

1. One advantage of using the questionnaire method in this study on helping people overcome their fears, phobias and anxieties, is that the research will be replicable due to the standardised questions that will be the same for each participant. This will mean that the answers can be compared and analysed easily by the psychologists in order for them to help the participants overcome their fears, phobias and anxieties. This is an advantage as the data collected on fears, phobias and anxieties will have high internal reliability.

As for your disadvantage, the answer is also really good, and there aren't many things to suggest for improvement, however on the last sentence where you write about reliability, I would say that social desirability is more validity than reliability! Other than that it is a very good answer and uses lots of context too! :smile:

So for the last sentence I would just change it to:
This is a disadvantage because it means that data collected by the psychologists would not be valid as answers would not reflect the participant's true feelings towards their fears, phobias and anxieties.

Q2- Remember that your not describing what a structured interview is, you should be describing a semi-structured interview, so essentially it is where some questions are already planned however the interviewer is allowed to seek clarification or ask more questions to extend from a response. So in your answer I think you may have got them confused.
I would write something like this:

A semi-structured interview is a qualitative method of data collection which combines a pre-determined set of open questions and allows the interviewer to seek clarification and explore responses further.

Q3 - Your answer has good understanding of the question and I'd say your answer would get 2/2!

Q4 - Although you answer the question - I would suggest using a disadvantage that is more general to do with unstructured interviews (e.g difficult to compare or something) and THEN link it to the context of the study since to get the marks you want to make sure what you write will be guaranteed to be included in the examiners mark scheme and I'm not sure that ethical harm issues would be included, but then again I'm just assuming
So maybe write something like:
One disadvantage of unstructured interviews in this study on overcoming fears, phobias and anxieties is that the interview may become less focused on the aim of overcoming fears, phobias and anxieties since there are no set questions. This is a disadvantage as the psychologists will find it more difficult to compare and analyse the data collected on fears, phobias and anxieties due to them being asked potentially very different questions on their fears, phobias and anxieties.

I really hope this helped!! Let me know if you have any questions or if you have any improvements to my responses also, I think that marking other people's work is a good way to revise!

Reply 113

schoolgirl1

5

Original post by Virolite

i got my hands on a copy of the 2017 paper no worries :tongue:

Where did you find it?? :smile:

Reply 114

schoolgirl1

5

Original post by LenniesRabbit

Can anyone please confirm whether it is necessary to learn Histograms (procedure etc) for the exam? On the spec it mentions it but I'm not sure if we will be just given data from a Histogram and asked to interpret it or we actually have to make one ourselves?

Yes learn histograms!! I would recommend getting the 'Essential Maths Skills for A-Level Psychology' CGP revision book!! it has all the things you need to learn including histograms!
Or if it's too last minute to order it I could send pictures of the histogram pages for you? :smile:

Reply 115

LenniesRabbit

14

[QUOTE="schoolgirl1;71728608"]

Original post by LenniesRabbit

Can anyone please confirm whether it is necessary to learn Histograms (procedure etc) for the exam? On the spec it mentions it but I'm not sure if we will be just given data from a Histogram and asked to interpret it or we actually have to make one ourselves?

Yes learn histograms!! I would recommend getting the 'Essential Maths Skills for A-Level Psychology' CGP revision book!! it has all the things you need to learn including histograms!
Or if it's too last minute to order it I could send pictures of the histogram pages for you? :smile: