A2 Psychology

Good luck everyone Just remember how to structure your answers.

Ahh great, thanks a lot Yep, I'm trying to revise as much as I can it's just that I was worrying slightly because I don't know some things in a lot of depth. Should be okay, hopefully! S'all about the evaluation

Structuring the essays properly is probably my downfall.. I try to plan but it just never seems to turn out well Any tips?

I've been told that all the essay questions this year are AO1- 4 marks and then AO2- 8 marks

Finally, (they love this), what are the implications? (Only a couple of sentences on this).


Think of anything. Politicians agreeing on global warming, sexism in the workplace, boys being good at maths. pull anything out of your arse, you won't be marked down from it.


I generally got 17/18, 18/18 for these essays, they're not challenging provided you know the details of the theories, and the supporting studies.


It's a bit of a memory game, but good luck!

I'm probably just being daft. but what do you mean by implications?

I never used to make a plan, but you know how to approach the essay from the title.

Compare And Contrast

Outline and Evaluate

and so on.

I always had my essays in three parts. The AO1 in the first paragraph, describing. Then the main body criticising (remember this is both positive and negative) then the last paragraph concluding and talking about implications.

In nutshell, that's your A level Psychology essay structure. (It worked for me!)

You have to make sure you get down the basic idea and description to get your 6 marks for AO1, but this shouldn't make up more than about a third or less of your essay. (Outline, describe, compare)

Most of the marks should come from evaluation, criticism (contrast, evaluate, criticise), this is your AO2 mark (eg: on the AQA paper, the 18 mark question is AO1 - 6 marks, AO2 - 12 marks).

Throw in as many criticisms as you can think of. (Not necessarily negative)


Most of your AO2 will come from criticising the actual support for theories you're evaluating. That is, the studies you've learned.


The basics - In terms of criticising experiments supporting the theory:

Can it be generalised? Were the participants all male? White? Middle class? American?

Was it realistic? Was it in a lab? Did they have to sleep with electrodes on?

Is it mundane? Was it just like everyday experience?

Were the participants giving true results? Could they have guessed the aims? Were the same participants used twice? Were the experimenters unknowingly treating a certain group differently for some reason?

Think of any factor that could have influenced/skewed results. Time. Personality. Age. Gender. Confusion. Hunger. Tiredness.


The actual theories/models need to be criticised too. Are they too simple? Can they apply to everyone? Are they reductionist? Do they over complicate? Are they based on facts that may not even be true?

And for all these, did the experimenters use reasonable means to combat this. If not, would you say the experiments and studies are sufficient support for the theory/model/concept? Begin to conclude the whole essay here.


Finally, (they love this), what are the implications? (Only a couple of sentences on this).


Think of anything. Politicians agreeing on global warming, sexism in the workplace, boys being good at maths. pull anything out of your arse, you won't be marked down from it.


I generally got 17/18, 18/18 for these essays, they're not challenging provided you know the details of the theories, and the supporting studies.


It's a bit of a memory game, but good luck!

This is really helpful, thanks a lot Means it's time for some more essay practice.. joy!