Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

OCR AS Psychology: G542: Core Studies - Wednesday 5th June 2013

Scroll to see replies

Hi, I'm currently teaching myself the entire first year of this course, and haven't even started psychological investigations yet...
I've covered all of the studies so far, but I've been confused about the 'changes' part. Could anyone possibly post me their notes on changes for each study if anyone has them online or anything? Would be a huge help, or if not just some advice, as I've no idea what I'm supposed to do!

I also really (really badly!) need some help with the section c part, as the textbook I'm using/Holah website is really lacking on any information about the approaches at all, I have no way of finding out strengths and weaknesses etc, let alone whatever else it is I need to know. If someone could PLEASE point me in the right direction of being able to find this out, or post some model answers, or just ANYTHING at all, I would really appreciate it.

I want to study psychology at university, so it's really important that I don't fail core studies! I'm sure if I was doing it in college it'd be less bad, but at the moment I'm just overwhelmed because I can't find any help!!

Thanks in advance...

Reply 81

ttreb

Original post by Slantedenchanted

Hey don't worry! I'm feeling the stress too but we gotta keep going :smile:

For changes, you need 4 changes that you would make to the study if it were to be carried out again. The changes can be absolutely anything you want but when you are deciding upon the changes to the study, make sure you have a reason as to why you are doing that change and the implications of that change (advantages and disadvantages). For example for Milgram - i would change the sample in the study as in the original study it consisted of males all from the New Haven district of North America only, therefore is seen to be ethnocentric.

Once you have stated your change MAKE SURE YOU COMMENT HOW you are going to do that change. E.G. to change the sample i am going to include males from all over the United States to test in the study.

After doing this, make sue you say the effect/why quiet briefly. E.G. By including a sample from all over the United States this means that there will be a wide range of participants in the study, allowing it to be considered as a generalizable and representative study unlike the original.

Now OCR can be pretty tricky when it comes to these questions because they will either ask a question stating: "Outline changes you would make to the study and the implications of these changes" OR they will ask two seperate questions such as: "outline the changes you would make to the study" and then another question asking for the implications of the study.

For the implications you want to be talking about the advantages of you change and the disadvantages (minimum 1 for each). This is where you can talk about the ecological validity being raised, generalizability being raised, ethics being implemented etc... and then the negative points such as it may be hard to organize in practical terms, it may prove too time consuming etc...

For section C i would really recommend (because you are self teaching) to have a look at the past papers and get a feel for the structure. Mostly always section C follows this structure:

Outline the assumption of the ________ approach

Explain how the ________ approach could explain ______

Describe the similarities and differences between any study's that take the approach

Outline the advantages & disadvantages for the approach

Section C is seen as quite easy because it follows the same structure every year.

I really hope this helps and feel free to ask me anything anytime :smile:

I too really want to take psychology at uni so these exams are vital.

Reply 82

hcki1413

hey how much detail do you need for the studies? really annoying as I'm not sure if ill be wasting time in the exam by writing too much on studies

Reply 83

ttreb

Original post by hcki1413

hey how much detail do you need for the studies? really annoying as I'm not sure if ill be wasting time in the exam by writing too much on studies

You need to know pretttttty much everything about every study because they can ask anything. Section A is general background of every study, Section B is where you write loads and loads, Section C is the approach...be prepared to write loads for that aswell.

Reply 84

Slantedenchanted

Hi, thanks for the reply! That would all be really helpful if I had any way of finding out the assumptions/etc of the approaches, but I literally have nothing, and I'm really struggling... Does anyone have any notes for section C they could post? Any notes on the changes part would literally be a lifesaver too... I'm getting to the point of 'if I don't do this soon there is literally no point even going to any of my exams' HELP.

Reply 85

qs2xo

Original post by ttreb

My psychology teacher told us today that her predictions for section C will be psychodynamic and behaviourism :frown:

dear god no. anything but the perspectives! :eek:

anyone know what study could potentially come up for section b?

Reply 86

lollipopX

Original post by hcki1413

hey how much detail do you need for the studies? really annoying as I'm not sure if ill be wasting time in the exam by writing too much on studies

For Section A its not too much detail, its more like general info like sample size, conditions etc. Sometimes they ask about strengths of weakness of the sample or methodology so just remember some evaluative points and you should be alright for those questions. And remember to put everything in context otherwise you could lose 50% of the marks from section A

For section B its a lot more detail. It's a good idea to try and predict the studies they will come up from looking at the previous exam because they rarely do the same studies. Again think of general evaluative points and put them into context and you can get a few marks from them. Another tip is to remember the type of methodology each study uses (i.e. self-report, experiment etc.) because you should know the strengths and weaknesses of each.

For section C it's not actually too bad if you know what you're talking about. The layout's always the same so I just did a load of practice essays for each approach and perspective and got my teacher to mark all of them. A good website is www.holah.co.uk because it has the assumptions and strengths and weaknesses of the approaches. For the perspectives look at the mark schemes from previous exams because they usually tell you what studies to use and some points that might come up. Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 87

lollipopX

Original post by Slantedenchanted

Here are all the assumptions of the approaches (from www.holah.co.uk and mark schemes)
Social:
• It assumes that other people and the surrounding environment are major influences on an individual’s behaviour, thought processes and emotions
• Situational rather individual explanations for social behaviour are often more accurate as context and culture has a strong influence on how we behave

Developmental:
• There are clearly identifiable systematic changes that occur in an individual’s behaviour from conception to death
• The cognitive, emotional and behavioural development is an ongoing process, which changes result from an interaction of nature and nurture
• Children are psychologically different from adults
• Children’s development occurs in stages (Freud – psychodynamic perspective)
• Children learn through behavioural principles of operant and classical conditioning and modelling

Cognitive:
• Internal mental processes such as memory, thinking, reasoning, problem solving and language are important features influencing human behaviour
• How we process information including how we perceive, store and retrieve information, influences how we behave

Biological/Physiological:
• All that is psychological is first physiological – that appears to reside in the brain, all thoughts, feelings and behaviours ultimately have a physiological cause
• It can be expensive because specialist equipment is needed
• Since special equipment is needed, trained operators are needed
• Behaviour problems can be treated by drugs
• Behaviour can be explained by physiological changes

Individual Differences:
• To understand the complexity of human behaviour and experiences it is necessary to study the differences between people rather than those things that we all have in common. For example, the approach tends to focus largely on things such personality differences and abnormality

For all the strengths and weakness just look at the holah website because they have all of them. If you memorised them you would score 12/12. A good tip for section C is to write practice essays for each approach and perspective because the layout is the same for each question and then ask your teacher to mark them. Sorry I don't have anything on the perspectives but look at the mark schemes of past exams because they sometimes tell you what points to make and studies to use (e.g. for psychodynamic it's just Thigpen and Cleckley and Freud). For comparison of studies focus on the methodologies, sample and aim. Hope that helps :wink:

I'm actually an A2 student so I'm so happy I don't have to retake this exam :smile:

Reply 88

jodie.irwin27

Original post by Slantedenchanted

you may be confused about the changes part as you haven't done the psychological investigations module yet. To think of changes, once you have evaluated studies, look at the disadvantages and think of ways to improve these.
For example, Loftus and Palmer used students only for their study into memory. This can be said to not be very representative, as students are generally used to absorbing lots of information and remembering detail for exams, so the results may not be valid or generalisable. A change can be made here: for example, visiting a town centre and using opportunity sampling to gain participants, so that a range of ages of participants are used, thus making the results more valid. :smile:

also for section c, visit www.psychexchange.com , click on subjects then psychology then files and resources, then finally type in something like 'ocr section c model answers'. I know there are some on there that are very useful, and as section C will be the same format every year, then you could just try your best to learn the model answers/incorporate some of the points into your own answers

good luck!

Reply 89

>Username<

What studies do people think will come up in Section B? And what about approaches in Section C?

Hows everyone's revision going?

Mines going slow... I seem to get through something but then I realise there's still so much more to do... :frown:

Reply 90

ttreb

Original post by >Username<

My predictions are: Sperry, Baron-Cohen, Samuel & Bryant for Sec B

Sec C - psychodynamic and behaviourist

Ughh tell me about it. I finish a study and then realise that i have so many more left, along with section C and investigations :eek:

Reply 91

Simran Mars Foster

No one upload the copy of the psy investigations and or core studies paper? I asked my teacher but she is proving to be useless!. :/

Reply 92

kinz96

what are the psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches as we haven't learn about these in psychology yet. we did do a bit about them at the beginning of the year but never after that.

Reply 93

ttreb

Original post by kinz96

what are the psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches as we haven't learn about these in psychology yet. we did do a bit about them at the beginning of the year but never after that.

Bandura, Milgram and Savage-Rumbaugh (i think) are classed as behaviourist. Freud and Thigpen & Cleckley are psychodynamic.

Reply 94

med123

hey
my teacher told me that ocr have said that they won't do two perspectives on one paper so behaviour and psychodynamic can never be on a paper together. One has to be a approach.

Reply 95

ttreb

Original post by med123

hey
my teacher told me that ocr have said that they won't do two perspectives on one paper so behaviour and psychodynamic can never be on a paper together. One has to be a approach.

Unfortunately OCR are not exactly nice when it comes to what they say. January 2013 for example...the A2 spec states that there will be an approach or a method...this year there was two methods so when it comes to what they say i wouldn't trust them.

Reply 96

shyamshah

How is everyone's revision going? Not really focusing on this exam yet as it is after half term and so will have over a week to revise for just this exam but still probably need to do a bit more than I am doing now.

Reply 97

>Username<

Does anybody have the January 2013 paper and mark scheme?

I asked my teacher and she said she doesn't have access to it...? I thought all teachers had access to past papers after a short period of time then after about 6 months it becomes available on the website...

Reply 98

mkhan9035

I plan on revising the following topics for this exam:
•Freud
•Bandura
•Samuel and Bryant
•Loftus and Palmer
•Baron-Cohen
•Savage Rumbaugh
•Rosenhan
•Thigpen and Cleckley
•Griffiths
•Maguire
•Dement and Kleitman
•Sperry
•Physiological Approach
•Piliavin
•Reicher and Haslam
•Milgram
•Psychodynamic perspective
•Behaviourist perspective

I'm missing out developmental, cognitive, social and individual differences mainly because they've come on the june 2012 and jan 2013 paper! Leaving physiological, behaviourist and psychodynamic!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 99

ttreb

i'm just doing intense revision this month! i've managed to revise over the physiological approach for section C (hoping that comes up so badly) and today i'm going to try and go over the three cognitive studies. Just answered past exam questions on Loftus and Palmer so now its baron cohen :smile:

Still crapping myself for the exam.