Official OCR A2 Psychology Thread 2015-2016

I cant give a model answer but here's my advice:

Read the question: they want you to evaluate the treatments/techniques, not the studies, however one of your points could be that the treatments are all supported by valid research (or another evaluation of the studies, but talk about all three, and also criticise the studies as a counter-argument)

Another point you could write about is the real life application of the treatments: All three of them have high potential for real life application. Stress Inoculation Therapy teaches patients cognitive skills to help them cope with stress, and once they know it, they can apply it to any situation and it can potentially be a skill they use for the rest of their life. It's the same with Biofeedback, they learn relaxation techniques through listening to the biofeedback machine and learning how to calm themselves down. they can potentially use these techniques for the rest of their life (however, Budzynski et al was a snapshot study so technically no research backs this, although it is likely). And while social support isn't a therapy, it will (hopefully) be accessible to the patient for the rest of their life: whenever they feel stressed, they can contact a friend.

Then you could say that a problem with SIT (8 therapy sessions) and Biofeedback (16 training sessions) is that both are expensive and time consuming - they are actual therapies. whereas, social support is completely free and accessible to all.

Then make a conclusion about which you think is best.

I hope this helps - but this is just how I would go about answering the question,I am not an A* student so don't take my word for it!

sorry - i got something wrong here - with Budzynskis study - although it was a snapshot study, there was a 'Follow-up with group A 18 months later: 3reported very low headache activity, 1 reported some reduction'

Cheers mate, ill have a go at answering it.

How you finding g543? I don't think I'm gonna be able to learn all the studies in such depth to remember specific samples as it takes so long to do, unlikely to come up an when they do will only get you 1 or 2 marks extra anyway! Really wish I could learn everything but just don't think its possible

Hey guys what structure are you using for part B questions and should it be the same structure for both forensic and health? My teachers have told me different things and idk.
I'm currently using:
Intro, POINT, COMMENT, EXAMPLE, POINT COMMENT EXAMPLE, CONCLUSION.
But not sure if that's right and if it should be similarity or something. So confused


Posted from TSR Mobile

our teacher gave us a sheet which says that for each paragraph, it should go
Point, elaboration, evidence, evaluative comment, counter-argument, comment
she also said we should aim to have 3-4 points
and then conclusion at the end, but she did say no introduction is necessary
and it should be the same structure for forensic and clinical
hope this helps

Is a conclusion essential? My teacher said its not as important as writing 3/4 points. I struggle to manage my time so its hard for me to do all the 15 markers with 3/4 points and a conclusion. Is it possible to achieve around 11-13 marks without a conclusion?

Hey guys what structure are you using for part B questions and should it be the same structure for both forensic and health? My teachers have told me different things and idk.I'm currently using:Intro, POINT, COMMENT, EXAMPLE, POINT COMMENT EXAMPLE, CONCLUSION.But not sure if that's right and if it should be similarity or something. So confusedPosted from TSR Mobile

Conclusion is not essential, but it is helpful for you to summarize what you're exactly saying at the end of each paragraph

So

Claim - Make your statement (Such as One problem with the approach is that the research is low in generalisability)

Reason - Say why this evaluation is so (This is because the sample of the study is quite small...)


Evidence - Provide specific evidence from the study if you can (..only used a sample of 12 people who were mainly male)
(If you can bring in evidence from two studies relating to the question to really back up your point!)

Evaluate - Why is this a problem? (This means that the results of the study might not be representative of human behaviour outside of the studied sample, also as women were under-represented in the sample there could be a male specific variable within the results making the results inapplicable to women)

Counter evaluate - Why the researcher did what they... (..But a larger sample would be very hard to obtain and costly due to the nature of the research so the study would of been inefficient to conduct otherwise and still provides further insight into this approach which could increase funding in later studies)

Conclusion - Just briefly summarize (While a small sample has lower the generalisability of the research making it somewhat less useful, it allowed for quick data to be gathered to support the approach at a low cost.)

Tried to give an example best I could but I'm no expert either haha!

Does anyone have model answers for G544 Section B?

heres a moel script that got 75/80

People doing health and clinical: can we use some things from dysfunctional behaviour in disorders (as disorders can cause dysfunctional behaviour, right?). So could I use systematic desensitisation (a treatment for noise phobia, comes under dys. behaviour (McGrath)) for a treatment of an anxiety disorder?

I don't do disorders, but I could do this, then this is just more options for me in the exam

Well, you could potientally, but in disorders you also need to know the characteristics of Anxiety, Affective & Psychotic.... Then you choose one of those 3 to focus on for explanations... So we're doing schizophrenia and for explanations we need to know Behavioural, Biological and Cognitive, then for treatments we learnt CBT, Drug therapy and social learning therapy (token economy). They have their seperate studies.

So i think you wont be able to do it because you need to know more than one explanation and more than on treatment.... Does that make sense?

OK But could I answer only treatments of a type of disorder question as I've looked at behavioural (systematic desensitisation), biological (phenelzine drugs) and cognitive (CBT) methods for treating phobias. I haven't looked at characteristics of the disorders so I guess I won't be able to answer questions on that.

Well you could, because you know explanations and treatments.... So yes if those come up as 10 & 15 markers you can do it. But only do it if you feel confident....

Hi! I hope I'm not too late in joining.
AS Grade AQA A - B (resitting to boost up to an A)
A2 predicted - A

Could somebody please offer me some guidance on how to integrate the studies into the G544 exam questions? I sat AQA Psychology A at AS and switched exam boards to OCR so I'm not too sure on G544. I feel confident with G543 but really unsure on how to talk about the studies in reference to the debates, perspectives questions. I have a G544 rehearsal next Monday, please help!