Psychology C/W

We've just begun our psychology coursework for A2 Level. I've decided to base mine on conformity. Wot me and my friend are doing is asking 15 pupils from yr8 to write the estimates of the big ben- pilot group. And the otha 15 puils who are the experimental group will be able to see otha ppls estimates (which will be higher then the actual height of the big ben) and we will see if they conform. But the prob is that each pupil will go back to there lesson and discuss there estimate which is really difficult to control.

Has anyone else begun there A2 psychology c/w...?
Wot do think about mine...?

thanks

Reply 1

saiyamanadingdongbanana

ummm, could you minimise the interaction time by conducting the second test straight after the first group has been done. Well, you will unfortunately need to sort out the information whilst you are testing the initial group for this :frown:

Or why not keep the initial 15 participants in a 'waiting area' until you have tabulated results, and set up for the next group... then swap over :smile:

Reply 2

Sanna.M

OP

1

good idea.. could prob have a waiting room where will reduce intereaction between pupils....

Reply 3

Emsy

1

sannamanir

We've just begun our psychology coursework for A2 Level. I've decided to base mine on conformity. Wot me and my friend are doing is asking 15 pupils from yr8 to write the estimates of the big ben- pilot group. And the otha 15 puils who are the experimental group will be able to see otha ppls estimates (which will be higher then the actual height of the big ben) and we will see if they conform. But the prob is that each pupil will go back to there lesson and discuss there estimate which is really difficult to control.

Has anyone else begun there A2 psychology c/w...?
Wot do think about mine...?

thanks

I've been given mine ... i have no idea what to do, i might do memory because it's easy to make up a test isn't it. Yours sounds good, it can never be perfect though, which helps you evaluate it too.

Ems x

Reply 4

Sanna.M

OP

1

in our school the teachers have already designed the experiments for each topic. Also we're allowed to copy the previous yrs ideas and can alter it, if we want. But yeah mines quite straight forward.

The Stroop Test... dats really easy, if you were yo use that was ur experiment??

Reply 5

sokas

8

I did expectation in the perceptual set, thats quite a good one to use, doing the man/mouse ambiguous figure and presenting it with different sets of images e.g. animals and then faces and seeing if they had an influence on peoples choice

Reply 6

candystrippa

2

can anybody give me ideas on A/S psychology coursework, as i am planning to take it up myself without going to lessons

Reply 7

sokas

8

which board do you plan on doing? AS you can look into topics such as memory which is quite an easy one to do, perception, social conformity etc. I did memory at AS basically based on Tulvings study (if you google it, it will come up)

Reply 8

candystrippa

2

i plan on taking edexcel, any recommended textbooks/ revision books ?

Reply 9

Sanna.M

OP

1

for AS Level or A2 Level???

Reply 10

peacenik

1

sannamanir

We've just begun our psychology coursework for A2 Level. I've decided to base mine on conformity. Wot me and my friend are doing is asking 15 pupils from yr8 to write the estimates of the big ben- pilot group. And the otha 15 puils who are the experimental group will be able to see otha ppls estimates (which will be higher then the actual height of the big ben) and we will see if they conform. But the prob is that each pupil will go back to there lesson and discuss there estimate which is really difficult to control.

Has anyone else begun there A2 psychology c/w...?
Wot do think about mine...?

thanks

I wanted to do something very similar but found a few peoblems. Firstly our teacher told us the board (AQA) are clamping down on things on under 16's for ethical reasons. Also apparently there is very little research into it which you need for the intro and discussion.

Now I'm doing one into whether men and women look for different characteristics in prospective partners. Finding it quite hard simply because I've never done psychology coursework before, wish we could do a practice or have access to quite a few past ones....though then there is the issue of plagerism. peacenik x

Reply 11

aleathiel

16

candystrippa

can anybody give me ideas on A/S psychology coursework, as i am planning to take it up myself without going to lessons

im planning to do the same thing, maybe we could help each other getting info and such... :smile:

Reply 12

Sgt.Pepper

1

You will have ethical issues due to lack of informed consent and deception of the participants - I take it you are not going to ask "Do you want to partake in an experiment in which we will be looking at whether you conform to other peoples estimations?". Whilst I personally would say that such a simple study will cause no lasting harm or what-not to the participants, I would double check with your teacher that it is OK to do something that is ETHICALLY WRONG. All psychology experiments must conform to BPS ethics, INCLUDING AS and A2 level coursework. Yours won't. If your teacher does allow you to go ahead it would be important to give a FULL debrief afterwards [although the BPS guidelines do explicitly say this does not cover for earlier ethical breaches but it's still best to do one] as well as asking participants after the debrief whether they will allow you to use their results. You should also state in your write-up somewhere that you believe the deception is necessary given the nature of the experiment and you feel that since you will be debriefing fully there should be no lasting impact. It is still a bit iffy though so the choice is yours.

Also I would point out that by working with a prtner you are already limiting the maximum mark you can get. There are marks for working on autonomously and you aren't but again that's up to you.

Hope this helps. Sgt.P.

Reply 13

Sgt.Pepper

1

Firstly our teacher told us the board (AQA) are clamping down on things on under 16's for ethical reasons. Also apparently there is very little research into it which you need for the intro and discussion

1. Both my studies [at AS and A2 level] were on under sixteens. This should be ok if you do what I did which is to firstly ask the form-tutors if its ok to use their pupils, secondly write to the head-teacher explaining FULLY the investigation and asking his permission and thirdly, if bothe the form tutors' and Heads' consent are gained ask the POTENTIAL participants as well. Even though it is not possible for them to give informed consent [which you have already gained from the head etc] because they are minors, it is worth asking them to further cover your back and show the lovely markers that you care and are not FORCING them to do something on the grounds that the teachers etc have said you could.

2. For conformity there are quite a few major studies you could look at. You only need one or two to talk about. Asch 1955 springs to mind and if you don't know it then you jolly well should if you are doing a conformity study :tongue:

. Quite easy to evaluate too but I ain't doing that for you. It's your work!

Hope that helps. Sgt.P.

Reply 14

Brown Eyed Girl

under 16s should be avoided realy.

other wise your going to have the anoyance of ethics... and the gathering of consent forms. there is a HUGE focus on ethics in a2.. my teacher is on about it constantly. you know need consent from parents other wise you can loose up to 6 parks for ethics.
if your teacher is helping even a little thats 1 mark down - which is what our class is doing.

also working with some one can nock 2 marks of and your papers have to be diferent or there sent back.

im still curently writting up my proposal for mine and i'm doing it on Cognitive Dissonence. with vegetarians lol

good book is eyesnikcks student hand book.. for anything really. its just a general good book!

Reply 15

Sgt.Pepper

1

other wise your going to have the anoyance of ethics... and the gathering of consent forms

You have to gain consent regardless of the age range. As you pointed out the A2 coursework is ethics heavy. If you use participants who are not minors and don't gain consent you will lose the same amount of marks.

The advantage of using school age kids is that they make for good opportunity sampling. A sample of 30ish should be obtainable from one class on one afternoon registration session meaning the time to do the actual experiment is greatly decreased. It is also worth noting that if you only need to get the Head's permission in theory as during school hours it is he who is resposible for the kids.

Sgt.Pepper

Reply 16

Brown Eyed Girl

Parental consent for under 16's.

you have to have a consent form from the parents.

consent from some on over 16 is easier as all you have to do is point out that you gave them the right to with draw. we were advised against using under 16's for as as well.

Reply 17

bohogirlie

3

sannamanir

We've just begun our psychology coursework for A2 Level. I've decided to base mine on conformity. Wot me and my friend are doing is asking 15 pupils from yr8 to write the estimates of the big ben- pilot group. And the otha 15 puils who are the experimental group will be able to see otha ppls estimates (which will be higher then the actual height of the big ben) and we will see if they conform. But the prob is that each pupil will go back to there lesson and discuss there estimate which is really difficult to control.

Has anyone else begun there A2 psychology c/w...?
Wot do think about mine...?

thanks

I would say firstly don't use under 16's as their are problems with ethics (i.e. informed consent). This was the first thing my teachers said when doing courseowork, only use 16+ people. Can't you just make all participants take the experiment at the same time, in silence, so they can't discuss?

Reply 18

amie

14

A girl in my class did her coursework on under sixteens, and she had so much hassle trying to get parental permission. I think hers was an investigation into cognitive development in very young children, so there was no way she could do it on other sixth formers.

Sannamanir, it might be a lot easier for you if you do your experiment using other sixth formers who don't take A-Level psychology, since there would be less of an issue surrounding consent. Your experiment doesn't seem to be dependent on the age of the participants, so if I were you, I'd use some Year 12's or something.

And just out of interest, my coursework was loosely based on the work of Karen Dion, about the halo effect and physical attraction. Oh, and there was a sort-of second part to it too, about whether the halo effect of physical attraction is stronger than that of central personality traits :smile:

Reply 19

hollywollydoodle

1

i did mine on whether pictures or words were remembered better, i would advise you to pick an area where you know roughly what the result should be and one that has lots of research avaliable. i could hardly find any studies on my topic and i searched online for ages, also make it simple.

Psychology C/W

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you