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Aqa a-level psychology paper 2 **unofficial mark scheme 08/06/18

Poll

How do you think Paper 2 went?

Only friendliness is welcomed here :smile:

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I will be posting this mark scheme in 3 sections because it is too long to post altogether, please do give me time to come up with the other sections of the mark schemes- I got to message people to ask about other questions and I can’t remember them all. So yeah I ask for time and I ask that you remember I’m not claiming to be an expert, so if you disagree, disagree but do it in a nice, friendly way. J


Approaches:
1. Multiple choice question asking you to identify which of the statement was false about the cognitive approach: (1 mark)


Either A or C
[I personally put A over C because the first one was about inferences being based on behaviour, where I believed it was based on experiences. C was saying that mental processes are studied using scientific methods, I didn’t pick this simply because we have cognitive neuroscience and FMRI therefore studying the mental processes- either way 50%. Can’t lie this question almost threw me. Options so far seemed like:
A) Inferences are based on the studies of behaviour
B) Mental processes are studied using scientific methods
C) Behaviour is inferred directly from mental processes
D) The use of computer analogises and theoretical models are used to make interference about the mental processes]


2. This question gave a little scenario and asked you to give one +ve reason of why schema is used and one -ve reason why we don’t use schema: (4 marks)

+ve- insight into ‘private’ mental processes, insight into the reasoning of mental processes, suggests why people have negative experiences= due to negative schema
-ve- based on the objectivity of the person= more likely to give a socially desirable answer if asked by someone, this work is correlational, can’t test this= not an empirical method

3. Gave a little scenario about Jed and him getting a detention, missing his football game being extremely anger and later getting called in the next day by his teacher to be reprimanded for kicking his locker. You had to discuss the defence mechanism used and relate it to Jed: (4 marks)

Displacement: transference of his anger onto another object (locker) because he can’t outwardly express his own anger on his problem as he fears repercussions from authority figure (teacher), therefore he transfers his anger on an object he can take his anger out on, giving him relief, but it doesn’t mean his anger has dissolved from his original angry.

4. Outline the key features of the behaviourist approach. Compare to the biological approach (16 marks)

[For this answer it was asking you to talk about behaviourist approach and the biological approach- you were not meant to be discussing the social learning theory at all! A few people in my class did this, and spoke to my teacher after, she said they would have been marked down because it made it seem like they didn’t understand the question. The confusion comes from the spec where it looks like the SLT is apart of the behaviourist approach.IT IS NOT. SLT is just a branch of the behaviourist approach, it is not the actual behaviourist approach. Think of it like a tree and a branch, the tree is the behaviourist approach and SLT, if you cut the branch the tree still stands, showing how they are separate, so you must talk about them in separate entities. You could also think of it like ‘what if they gave me a question that asked me to compare the behaviourist approach and the social learning theory?’ If they were the same thing, how would you be able to compare or show difference] I'm getting conformation from my teacher, so don't worry just yet!

A01: Outline the behaviourist approach: either focus on classical or operant conditioning, you didn’t need to do both, focus on the key studies either Pavlov’s dogs or Skinner’s box.
Outline the biological approach: hereditability, heritability, phenotypes, genotypes, genetic basis of behaviour, evolutionary explanations, twin studies as evidence

A03: Its always for a comparison so your focus needed to be on 3 of the following:

- Assumptions of each approach

- Nature or nurture

- Reductionism or holism

- Determinism or free will

- Practical applications

- Nomothetic or idiographic


It wasn’t asking you to evaluate the approaches independent to each other, it was asking you to compare and contrast them.

[I did for A01: classical conditioning, Pavlov’s dogs, and about 3 lines on operant conditioning & genetic basis of behaviour, hereditability, heritability, phenotypes and genotypes and twin studies evidence- Nestadt (2011)

A03: talked about practical applications- behavioural= SD therapy and same with biological: drug treatment development, both approaches are nomothetic and focus on scientific methods to increase validity of findings and my 3rdparagraph was on nature/nurture- behavioural= nurture and biological= nurture and then said how both are reductionist.

Attached to this section I have taken a picture of this table my psychology class came up with to do A03 for this question. I trust that my class did it right, but my teacher was an examiner before she came to teach us, so I trust that she knows what she is doing.]

25700D1B-1CB7-4EFD-88D2-74BAFFEF4BB5.jpg.jpeg
(edited 5 years ago)
Put suggestions of what you think possible answers to the questions could be and I'll amend the mark scheme as I go along.
Does anyone know if saying both approaches are scientific count as a valid comparison? I didn’t mention them being nomothetic - just said studies within these approaches are carried out under highly controlled settings.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by Mystelle
Does anyone know if saying both approaches are scientific count as a valid comparison? I didn’t mention them being nomothetic - just said studies within these approaches are carried out under highly controlled settings.


I think you'd get some marks credited to you, because you said how they are scientific right and if you extended that point and said how like talked about standardised procedures, controlled settings- it shouldn't matter too much about the fact you didn't use the word nomothetic.
Im pretty sure the answer to the first question was C. C wasnt the one you said, that was B. C was how behaviour is inferred DIRECTLY from metal processes or something. It was false.
No, SLT is a valid point as it comes under 'behaviorist approach' . Anyway I talked about classical conditioning, Pavlov + Skinner, operant conditioning then a bit about SLT.
And for the 16 marker it only said Outline the behaviourist approach. And then compare the two> So I assumed it meant for A01 talk about the assumptions and a study (Pavolov's dogs) and then for A03 I compared them. I said they both have real world application, both are determinist and both employ highly scientific methods. And a difference was nature nurture.
Original post by CarefreeDreams
I think you'd get some marks credited to you, because you said how they are scientific right and if you extended that point and said how like talked about standardised procedures, controlled settings- it shouldn't matter too much about the fact you didn't use the word nomothetic.


Ah thanks for the reassurance. :smile: I mean this is not paper 3 surely you’re not required to mention nomothetic.
Original post by HustleIsKey
And for the 16 marker it only said Outline the behaviourist approach. And then compare the two> So I assumed it meant for A01 talk about the assumptions and a study (Pavolov's dogs) and then for A03 I compared them. I said they both have real world application, both are determinist and both employ highly scientific methods. And a difference was nature nurture.


Also for the schemas question about advantages/weaknesses, I was unsure so I just put:

Advantages - acts as a mental framework to process lots of info quickly + gathering thoughts through past experiences so if we are exposed to a negative situation, we are more likely to avoid it in the future? sounds really stupid idk aha.

Disadvantage - related it to memory and how emotions active in schemas can distort accuracy of recall e.g. after a car crash.

Is this correct?
Original post by cmonb123
Also for the schemas question about advantages/weaknesses, I was unsure so I just put:

Advantages - acts as a mental framework to process lots of info quickly + gathering thoughts through past experiences so if we are exposed to a negative situation, we are more likely to avoid it in the future? sounds really stupid idk aha.

Disadvantage - related it to memory and how emotions active in schemas can distort accuracy of recall e.g. after a car crash.

Is this correct?

Honestly have no idea I found that question tough af.
I put some absolute BS on how a schema can help you overcome a problem you face and for the negative I out if the person had a bad experience with that info before they arent going to want to process new info on that topic. I really didnt do well on that Q.
Second half of the mark scheme:



Biopsychology:

1. Name one difference between somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system (2 marks)

Somatic nervous system controls voluntary muscle movement, whereas autonomic nervous system controls involuntary muscle movement.
[You could have also said: the somatic nervous system is a lone system, whereas the autonomic nervous system is further divided into 2 sub-systems: sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system]

2. You had to label the picture of the diagram to show which neuron went where (3 marks):
Sensory neuron, then relay neuron in the middle, and last was motor neuron where it said effector muscle.

3. Explain why neurons travel in one direction during synaptic transmission? (3 marks)
[I can’t lie I was confused myself about this question, I had to think hard and I still probably got 1 or 2 marks. I think after talking to my teacher I understand the question better (of course) but it was asking you to not only consider the process of synaptic transmission but also the structure of a neuron too.]

You had to mention something like synaptic transmission being a unipolar system, there are no postsynaptic terminals on the initial neuron which would allow it to travel back, the electrical impulses would have no way to go leading to involuntary muscle spasms, nerve cells only have neurotransmitter storage vesicles going one way, and receptors in one place, axons receive the neurotransmitters that the dendrites release, and can't reverse function, the axons and dendrites of a neuron are aligned end to tail, so they can only transmit in one direction.

4. Gave a scenario about the fight or flight system having negative effects on modern life situations. Asked you to relate fight or flight to why it would be unhelpful for someone taking a driving test (4 marks)

Brief description of F/F- sympathetic nervous system- hypothalamus sends signal to adrenal medulla activating the sympathetic branch to release adrenaline/noradrenaline. This causes affects like increased blood pressure and breathing rate and say how this would impact on the person taking the driving test. I then spoke about the HPA-axis and said how when we have ongoing stressors, we also release cortisol which can negative impact because it causes cognitive impairment, which is obviously not useful for someone taking a driving test.

[This question was about knowing the F/F and then applying it to the scenario given]

5. Julia’s baby is up all night and doesn’t sleep but sleeps all day. Julia can’t get sleep and wants to improve/or get here baby into a sleeping pattern. Using psychological research and your knowledge on exogenous zeitgebers, discuss how Julia can get her baby to sleep during the night (8 marks):
[A lot of people have been asking this, but whenever a questions says discuss regardless of anything else, you MUST put A03 in, you cannot get into whatever level is the highest one without some short of A03 point for this question. Whenever you hear discuss, automatically think A03 as well. My teacher did definitely say that you need some evaluation of some sort for this question.]

Paragraph: Exogenous zeitgebers: environmental cues are responsible for resetting the biological clock, the most important one being light, I went on to then talk about SCN- suprachiasmatic nucleus (love that word btw!) and how it contains receptors sensitive to light synchronising the body, talked a little about melanopsin- the protein in the eye which is sensitive to light and carries signals to the SCN telling it to reset the body clock- you could have also referred to the circadian rhythm at this point

Paragraph: Application to Julia and her baby: this bit slightly more harder, I spoke about introducing the light (either natural or a simulation- light box) cue to her baby during the day so it gets use to it, as being exposed to light tells the body when to be awake/sleep, the baby’s body will tell when its been awake too long (circadian rhythms) as light was introduced during the day the baby should fall asleep in the evening, therefore showing how the circadian rhythm of the baby has been reset.

Paragraph: A03- I personally talked about Siffre cave study but you could have also talked about:

- the abnormal hamsters with the 20 hours circadian rhythms, then the SCN being transplanted into normal hamsters= their circadian rhythms were affected
- the chipmunk study to match this one
- the light being shone on the back of the knees study
- research support for melanopsin- blind people some light perception

6. Gave you data when Julia recorded when her baby falling asleep, you had to calculate the mean hours the baby slept at night to 2 significant figures, show working(3 marks):
[My AS maths teacher would be soo ashamed of me, I definitely am because I still do not know what significant figures are- I even took further maths at GCSE and got an A. I just won’t understand]

You should have got a value of like 8.3578473 and then to 2 significant figures it was: 8.4 hours

7. Say why the mean was used as the appropriate measure of central tendency for this data (1 marks)

Lots of answers for this one:

- Doesn’t include any outliers or anomalies

- Uses interval data

- Considers all the data sets given

(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by HustleIsKey
Im pretty sure the answer to the first question was C. C wasnt the one you said, that was B. C was how behaviour is inferred DIRECTLY from metal processes or something. It was false.


I can't lie you probably are right, my mind is muddled right now, I'll amend, but the one I said was a multiple choice option right?
Original post by cmonb123
No, SLT is a valid point as it comes under 'behaviorist approach' . Anyway I talked about classical conditioning, Pavlov + Skinner, operant conditioning then a bit about SLT.


Fair enough, my teacher is checking it over the weekend, she lives in a house full of psychologists, when I see her next week, she said she'll have an definite answer- I'll let you know.

What did you talk about for A03?
Original post by CarefreeDreams
I can't lie you probably are right, my mind is muddled right now, I'll amend, but the one I said was a multiple choice option right?

Ah fairs, guess a levels do that lool. Yeah g it was an option.
Original post by HustleIsKey
And for the 16 marker it only said Outline the behaviourist approach. And then compare the two> So I assumed it meant for A01 talk about the assumptions and a study (Pavolov's dogs) and then for A03 I compared them. I said they both have real world application, both are determinist and both employ highly scientific methods. And a difference was nature nurture.


Okay I will amend that question.

Did you talk about A01 points for biological too or no?

Your A03 points sound good, I don't think you would have lost marks there. Have you seen the chart I provided at the bottom? Can you see the type of things you had to talk about and what you did?
Original post by cmonb123
No, SLT is a valid point as it comes under 'behaviorist approach' . Anyway I talked about classical conditioning, Pavlov + Skinner, operant conditioning then a bit about SLT.


no it doesn’t they both come under learning theory but they’re separate
Also guys for the question with the schemas i related it to gender schema theory for gold and negative self schema for bad. idk if that would be correct
Original post by cmonb123
No, SLT is a valid point as it comes under 'behaviorist approach' . Anyway I talked about classical conditioning, Pavlov + Skinner, operant conditioning then a bit about SLT.


Both my psychology teachers are markers and they both drilled it into us to keep Social Learning Theory separate from the Behaviourist Approach as they both branch of the Learning Approach and to only mention Social Learning theory if they ask for The Learning Approach in general or Social Learning theory specifically x
Guys can't lie I'm gonna need a lot of help to remember some of these research questions, please respond to this post if you have any you can remember, I got a few but I know I'm missing some.

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