WHY STUDY PSYCHOLOGY? WHAT CAREERS CAN PSYCHOLOGY … · Paper 2 Approaches in Psychology Biopsychology Research Methods (assessed in all three papers: 25% of whole A-level) Paper

PSYCHOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY - A LEVEL - PREPARATION WORK

WHY STUDY PSYCHOLOGY?Psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour and the mind. It is an excellent course for any student who is considering a career that involves working with people, as well as providing opportunities to go on to study Psychology at university.

WHAT CAREERS CAN PSYCHOLOGY LEAD TO?A qualification in Psychology can lead to many different career paths. The most obvious is a career as a Psychologist, whether that be an educational psychologist, working in schools helping children with additional learning needs, or a clinical psychologist, working alongside individuals with mental health disorders.

However, a qualification in Psychology can lead to a wide range of careers such as:

- Counselling

- Teaching

- Marketing

- Police Force

- Social work

- Medicine

- And many more!

What will I study?At Rochdale Sixth Form College (RSFC) you will study AQA A Level Psychology. You can find out more information about the specification and look at examples of exam papers by following the link below:https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/psychology/as-and-a-level/psychology-7181-7182

You will study a broad range of topics over two years and will complete three exams at the end of the course. You do not need to have studied Psychology at school in order to study it at college, in fact, most students at RSFC have not studied it before!

W W W. R O C H D A L E S F C . A C . U K | 0 1 7 0 6 7 6 9 8 0 0 | I N F O @ R O C H D A L E S F C . A C . U K

Paper 1 Social InfluenceMemoryAttachmentPsychopathology

Paper 1 – 7182/1Assessed: Written exam: 2 hours96 marks | 33.3% of A level

Paper 2 Approaches in PsychologyBiopsychologyResearch Methods (assessed in all three papers: 25% of whole A-level)

Paper 2 – 7182/2Assessed: Written exam: 2 hours96 marks | 33.3% of A level

Paper 3 Issues and debates in PsychologyRelationshipsSchizophreniaAddiction

Paper 3 – 7182/3Assessed: Written exam: 2 hours96 marks | 33.3% of A-level


PSYCHOLOGY

What will I need to bring with me to college? Organisation is central to success. Below is a recommended list of stationery for your Psychology studies. You will have time to get this during the first week of college.

- Folder - Calculator - Stationery: pens (black, red and green), pencil,

ruler, highlighters

You will also be given an exercise book and a topic booklet for every topic you study. These must be brought with you to every lesson and can be placed in your folders alongside your revision material in preparation for your exams.

Useful Websites to use As always, be very careful when using internet sources (which can be written by anyone). Some reliable websites for A level Psychology include:

- British Psychological Society: www.bps.org.uk - Tutor2u: https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology

Textbooks

You will not need to purchase any textbooks to study Psychology at Rochdale Sixth Form College. All the resources you will need will be provided to you throughout the duration of the course.


PSYCHOLOGYPreparation Activities

To help prepare you for the course and to give you some insight in to what you will study in Psychology at Rochdale Sixth Form College, you can complete the

activities below. Don’t worry if there are some questions you are struggling to answer, we will provide you with an answer booklet at the start of the academic

year and answer any questions you might have. Have a go at the questions to the best of your ability and enjoy your introduction to Psychology!

ACTIVITY ONE: Research Methods in Psychology

Research Methods are the tools that Psychologists use to study human behaviour. Without research methods there would be no Psychology!

Before you come to college we would like to introduce you to some of the main methods that you will come across in your first year of study.

(Research Methods also makes up 25% of the marks for the A level course overall!)

TASK ONE: Experiments

Experiments are one of the most common methods you will see in Psychology. Most experiments take place in a ‘laboratory’ which, contrary to its name, is not like where you had your science lessons in high school! Rather, the term ‘laboratory’ refers to a controlled environment where we can control noise levels, temperature, the set up of the room etc.

All experiments have an ‘independent variable’ and a ‘dependent variable’.

The independent variable is the variable that changes or is manipulated (by the researcher) to see if it has an effect on the dependent variable.

The dependent variable is the variable that the researcher measures. To see the effect of the independent variable.

See if you can spot the independent and dependent variables in the example studies below:

a) Does Ribena or water lead to a faster reaction time in seconds.

b) Do different colours cause a physiological reaction – does blue or red cause a participants’ blood pressure to rise or fall.

c) Do action films cause people to eat more popcorn during a movie than romantic films?

d) Does gender influence your ability to remember a list of ten words?


PSYCHOLOGYCHALLENGE: You will cover lots of experiments in this introduction to the course! Asch and Milgram are two examples. Once you have completed the activities for Social Influence, see if you can you work out the Independent and Dependent variables for these two studies?

TASK TWO: Observations

Observations are another method that psychologists use to study behaviour. To put it simply, they watch how people behave, either in person or through a video recording, record the behaviour and make conclusions about how people behave from what they have seen.

There are lots of different ways that psychologists could observe behaviour:

- Overt observation: The researcher is be present when observing behaviour and participants are aware they are being watched.

- Covert observation: The researcher is hidden when observing behaviour, perhaps watching the behaviour from a video recording. Participants would not be aware they are being watched in this kind of observation

- Controlled observation: The researcher may control different aspects of the observation such as getting a teacher to drop a pile of books on the floor and then observing whether or not students will help the teacher and pick up the books.

- Natural observation: In this case, the researcher just watches spontaneous behaviour, behaviour that would normally occur in its normal setting. Basically, there is no interference from the researcher.

Watch the following observation on the bystander effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac&safe=active and answer the following questions:

Definition of bystander effect: individuals are less likely to help a victim or someone in need when there are other people present.

This could be because there is a diffusion of responsibility – they think somebody else will help, or they may think somebody else is better qualified to help. Alternatively, it could be

because they look to what other people are doing and don’t want to ‘stand out’.

1. This is an example of a covert observation, why is this classed as a covert observation?

2. Why would the observation not be as good if it was an overt observation? How might it change the results?

3. Why did it make sense to use a controlled observation and use a confederate as an actor lying on the floor, rather than doing a natural observation?


PSYCHOLOGYCHALLENGE: How would you create your own observation to observe the bystander effect?

TASK THREE: Questionnaires

A questionnaire is probably something you have seen before! Questionnaires are a great tool for psychologists to find out information from lots of people quickly and cheaply.

Questionnaires, like all other methods in psychology, are not without their problems. For example, do you think people always tell the truth?

‘How many portions of fruit and vegetables did you eat yesterday?’

0-1 ___

2-5 ___

6-8 ___

Some questions can suffer from ‘social desirability bias’ which is where people lie in order to present themselves in the best light to the researcher!

Questions on questionnaires can be open or closed. Open questions tend to produce very detailed information e.g.

‘Describe your views on the Harry Potter book series’

Closed questions tend to produce more basic information which is easier to analyse but does not tell us very much about the participant / their views.

‘Have you read the Harry Potter book series?’ Yes No

Questionnaires are not just used in Psychology, for example, many different sectors including Business, Health and the government rely on them to find out people’s views.

Construct your own questionnaire on the use of social media in members of your household, include at least 2 open and 2 closed questions. You can write your questions in

the space below.


PSYCHOLOGYTASK FOUR: Ethics in Psychology

When a psychologist carries out research, like in the methods you have explored in the activities above, they must follow ethical guidelines to protect and respect their participants (people who take part in their research).

Psychologists must consider the following ethical considerations before they carry out any research and try to avoid breaking the guidelines where possible.

Consider what you believe the following ethical guidelines to mean, check your answer underneath:

Consent

Deception

Confidentiality

Debrief

Withdraw

Protection from harm

Consent Psychologists should gain fully informed consent from participants whereby they tell participants the true aim before the study before the

participants agree to take part. For participants under 18 years old, parental/guardian consent would be needed.

Deception Deception is when the participants are not told the true aim of the study. Psychologists sometimes do this in order to stop participants from

changing their natural behaviour, but deception could be seen as unethical.

Confidentiality Participants details and data (findings) should remain anonymous so they cannot be identified in the research. The researcher could use

fake name (pseudo names) or initials for participants.

Debrief At the end of a study, the participant should be given a debrief. In which, they should be told all details of the experiment and be able to discuss the procedure and findings with the psychologist. If participants

were deceived, they must be told and explained why this was necessary. They should be able to ask any questions they may have.

Right to Withdraw Participants should be given the right to withdraw at any point during the study. They can even withdraw their data at the end of the study, if

they wish. They should be informed of this before the study starts.

Protection from harm

Participants should be protected psychologically and physically, for example, participants should not be frightened, embarrassed, offended or harmed. They must not be placed at more risk than encountered in

everyday life.

Remember the phrase:

‘Can Do, Can’t Do With Participants’

To help you remember the ethical considerations!


PSYCHOLOGYACTIVITY TWO: Social Influence Now you have explored how research is conducted and what guidelines need to be followed, you will now look at specific pieces of research which you will study in the first term of Psychology.

What is social influence?

Social influence is the first topic you will be studying in Psychology. It looks at how society and other people affect our behaviour.

Our behaviour can be influenced in two main ways we can either:

- Conform: change our behaviour and/or beliefs as a result of real or imagined group pressure.

- Obey: follow orders from a perceived legitimate authority figure.

For example, if I asked you to match line x to either line A, B or C, what would your answer be?

The answer is obvious isn’t it?

Then why is it that when Asch did this research, asking the same easy question, that many participants chose the wrong answer?!


PSYCHOLOGYWithin Social Influence you will study key pieces of research, for example:

Asch’s research study investigating conformity

Milgram’s research study investigating obedience

TASK ONE: Your task is to read the summary/watch the YouTube clips included for Asch and Milgram’s studies and summarise them into your own words in the table on the next page.

Things to consider:

1. Who were the participants? E.g. gender/age (referred to as subjects in the clips)

2. What were the participants asked to do?

3. What were the results of the research? For example, how did the participants reactin the study/how did their behaviour change?

4. What do the results suggest about human behaviour?

Conformity: Asch – Line study: ONLY WATCH TO 3 MINS 50 SECONDS

Conformity is when people change their beliefs or behaviour to fit in with a group. They may do this because they believe the group is correct and they want to be right. Or they may do this because they want to ‘fit in’ and be liked by the group, this is what Asch investigated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA&safe=active

Obedience: Milgram – Electric Shock study

Milgram was interested in obedience to authority, in particular, he sought to answer the question of why Nazi soldiers in Germany committed such atrocities during World War 2 under the commands of Adolf Hitler. Many of the soldiers stated that they were ‘following orders from superiors’. Milgram wanted to investigate if ordinary individuals would too be obedient to authority. Would participants in the study deliver what they believed to be electric shocks (these were actually fake!) to another person for an incorrect answer in a memory test if told to do so?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOUEC5YXV8U


PSYCHOLOGY

Research Summary

Asch: Line Study (Conformity)

Milgram: Electric Shock Study (obedience)


PSYCHOLOGYTASK TWO: Applying ethical guidelines to Social Influence research

Now you have summarised the two studies above, consider the ethical issues you looked at in activity one. Did Asch and Milgram consider the ethical guidelines before carrying out their piece of research?

Look again at the following ethical guidelines and briefly explain whether or not each experiment considered the guideline. Explain your reasoning with reference to the research study.

Asch Milgram

Deception

Informed Consent

Protection from Harm

Right to withdraw

N/A


PSYCHOLOGYChallenge task: Evaluation – Strengths and Weaknesses

Throughout your Psychology A-level you will be required to evaluate research, for example, strengths and weaknesses of the research. As you will have just outlined, Asch and Milgram’s research both break ethical guidelines in some way, this is a weakness of their research as they are not protecting participants as they should, making their research less respectable. You may be wondering why they were allowed to conduct this research? …The research was conducted in the 1950’s and 60’s, back then there were not as strict ethical guidelines in place as there are today.

There are also a number of other weaknesses to these pieces of research.

Focusing on Asch’s line study, in to conformity, use the questions below to help you tease out other weaknesses in his research:

1. Asch’s participants were all students, why might this present a problem for Asch’sconclusions about how people conform? How might the results have been differentif older people had been participants?

2. Think about the line task, does it matter if the participant gets the answer wrong?What do you think would happen to the rates of conformity if getting the answerwrong, and going along with the confederates, resulted in a consequence for theparticipant, like failing an important exam? Why might this be a weakness for Asch’sexperiment?

3. Can you think of any other strengths or weaknesses in Asch’s research?


PSYCHOLOGYEXTENTION - ACTIVITY THREE: Psychology in the real world: Practical ApplicationsSo far within this booklet you have looked at the methods psychologists might use to research behaviour and you then looked at specific pieces of research that psychologists have conducted.

But what’s the point in studying human behaviour, why do we use research methods and research?

One of the reasons is because research can help us to understand or explain human behaviour in ‘real-life’. We call these practical applications and there are some examples of these below. Practical applications are a vital part of your psychology A-level and will be referred to throughout your two years of study.

Treating phobias: Systematic Desensitisation

A phobia is something you might have heard of! A phobia is an irrational fear – psychologists are interested in how someone might develop a phobia so that they understand how to treat it.

You may have heard of common fears such as a fear of spiders or heights, but people can develop phobias of anything. One potential theory is that individuals may learn a phobia from a negative experience – for example, somebody afraid of wasps may have been stung by a wasp in the past and are now afraid. This process is called ‘classical conditioning’ and is a key theory in psychology.

Using this knowledge that individuals may learn a phobia, treatments can be created to help individuals un-learn their phobia. Psychologists can help people to un-learn their phobias through a process called ‘Systematic Desensitisation’. This is where, whilst practising relaxation techniques, people are exposed to their phobia gradually, in a safe environment, until eventually they have learned to be relaxed around their phobic stimulus, rather than afraid. You can see an example of this with a man with a baked beans phobia here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt_XT0pthvI

Forensic Psychology: Offender profiling

Offender profiling refers to a set of investigative techniques used by the police to try to identify perpetrators of serious crimes. It involves working out the characteristics of an offender by examining the characteristics of the crime scene and the crime itself. Suspects could be categorised in to ‘organised’ or ‘disorganised’ criminals and this can give an indication as to who may have committed the crime. But it isn’t always reliable!

Organised offenders – seem to plan the crime, leave little evidence at the scene, often have above average intelligence, socially competent, often married.

Disorganised offenders – crime not planned, evidence may be left at the scene, tend to live alone, may live close to where the crime took place.


PSYCHOLOGYHelping behaviour: Good Samaritan Laws

In the early hours of March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was stabbed outside the apartment building across the street from where she lived, in an apartment above a row of shops in New York City. Two weeks after the murder, The New York Times published an article claiming that 38 witnesses saw or heard the attack, but none of them helped, for example, by calling the police.

The incident prompted inquiries into what became known as the ‘bystander effect’. The bystander effect states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.

You can learn more about the bystander effect here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac&safe=active

One of the potential reasons for people not helping is that there is a diffusion of responsibility as the bystander believes somebody else will help, another theory is that they assume other bystanders are more qualified to help, such as doctors or police officers and that their intervention would not be needed. They may also be afraid of the legal consequences of offering inferior or dangerous assistance. For this reason, ‘Good Samaritan Laws’ exist which limit blame for those who try to provide help in an emergency.

Over to you

Can you think of or find your own example of a real life or practical application of psychology? You could use the Internet to help you, there are lots to choose from!

Documents

WHY STUDY PSYCHOLOGY? WHAT CAREERS CAN PSYCHOLOGY … · Paper 2 Approaches in Psychology Biopsychology Research Methods (assessed in all three papers: 25% of whole A-level) Paper