A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
An Introduction to Psychology
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Psychological Approaches and Perspectives
Psychology is the study of behaviour and the mind. As there are various types of
behaviour Psychology is not one unified explanation but a whole host of approaches
and perspectives. In general there are five approaches to explaining a person’s
behaviour; the cognitive approach, the developmental approach, the biological
approach, the social approach and the individual differences approach.
The cognitive approach explains behaviour by studying what mental processes
occur before, during, and after behaviour. It is interested in perception, memory,
thinking, reasoning, problem solving and language. One study that is from this
approach is the Loftus and Palmer (1974) study on false memories of car crashes.
The developmental approach explains behaviour by studying the range of changes
that occur to a person during their lifetime. These changes include, cognitive,
physical, and social. In particular this approach focuses on children. A study that
takes the developmental approach is Bandura’s study on how children can learn
aggression through observing adult role models.
The biological approach suggests behaviour is determined by our physiology.
Biological psychologists mainly concentrate on the structures of the brain and
nervous system. One study from this approach is the Sperry study (1968) that
looked at how people with a severed brain function.
The social approach suggests behaviour is determined by interaction between
people and small groups. Social psychologists are interested in prejudice,
discrimination, conformity, obedience, deprivation and discrimination. One study that
takes the social approach is the Milgram study (1963). This study looked at how
individual obey authority when they are asked to electrocute someone.
The individual differences approach suggests that behaviour is not consistent
between people and is in fact regularly different. This approach looks at the
differences in age, gender, intelligence, race and cultural background. Normality and
abnormality is regularly referred to. An example study of this approach is BaronCohen’s study on how autistic people find identifying emotions difficult because they
lack theory of mind skills.
There are also two perspectives that are regularly referred to in Psychology; the
behaviourist perspective and the psychodynamic perspective.
The behaviourist perspective suggests that all behaviour is the consequence of
conditioning and learning. No behaviour is inherited or acquired through physiology.
This perspective assumes that behaviour will be altered by the consequences of
rewards, punishments and stimuli. An example study from this approach is the
Skinner study on superstitious pigeons and conditioned responses.
The psychodynamic perspective suggests that behaviour is the consequence of
our unconscious mind and the conflict that is within it. The mind is seen as a tripartite
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
entity that has an Id (desire), Ego (reality) and Superego (Morality). Individuals will
suffer mental illness if there is an imbalance between the three sub parts of the
unconscious mind. This perspective is primarily concerned with mental health and
the way individuals deal with crises. An example study is Freud’s study of Little
Hans.

Psychological Methods
As well as the seven approaches and perspectives Psychology relies on five key
methods of conducting research. These are experiments, observations, selfreports, case studies and the data analysis technique of correlation.
The experimental method is scientific as it controls variables and tries to find a cause
and effect relationship between two things. This is achieved by manipulating one
variable, recording the result of another variable and standardising other variables
that may alter the results. Experiments look for cause and effect relationships.
There are three distinct types of Experiment. The first is called laboratory
experiment as it is conducted in an artificial room where as many variables are
standardised. The second is called a field experiment and is conducted in a more
realistic setting but with less control of variables. The final experiment is called a
quasi or natural experiment where the manipulated variable has natural differences.
The observation method is also scientific as it records observable behaviour. It is
different to an experiment though as observations do not have a variable they wish
to manipulate and record the consequences. Observations can be overt and covert,
participant and non-participant, direct and indirect.
There are two general sub groups of observation. These are controlled observations
and naturalistic observations. A controlled observation controls some aspect of the
situation and is not in an entire realistic environment. Naturalistic observations are
conducted in natural settings that are not controlled by the investigator.
The self-report method records people’s opinions and perceptions on their
behaviour. It is the method of asking questions.
There are three main types of self-report measures. They are questionnaires,
psychometric tests and interviews. A questionnaire is selection of written questions
that people are asked to give their opinions on. An example study that uses a
questionnaire is Loftus and Palmer’s study on false memories and car crashes.
Psychometric tests are similar to a questionnaire but also measure a person’s
ability in something. An example is an IQ test. Interviews are questionnaires that are
conducted face to face like a conversation.
The case study method is a long term study of behaviour or opinions using one or
more of the methods described above. It is used to determine changes of behaviour
over time.
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
The data analysis method of correlation does not suggest cause and effect
relationships. Instead it states relationships between things that can be caused by
one variable or another variable.

Psychological Evaluation
At every level of Psychology, research and theories are evaluated rigorously.
Findings and conclusions about how people behaved must be based on evidence
that is true and not flawed in some way. At AS level the evaluation of psychological
studies can be remembered by the mnemonic PERVED.
Practicalities - this means how well designed the study is. This includes:
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Were participants confused by the instructions?
Has the experimenter made it biased so something is more likely to happen?
Is the study carried out in exactly the same way for each participant?
Ethics – this means does the study protect the participants? This includes:
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Informed consent
No deception during the study’s activities
Protected from physical and mental harm
Participants’ identities are kept confidential
The right to withdraw from the study at any time
Reliability – this means the results of the study would be the same if the study
was repeated exactly in the way it was done before. It is often referred to as
consistency of measurement. This includes:
 Is anything that changes which is not being investigated controlled so it is the
same all the time?
 Do all the experimenters record the same results when they record at the
same time?
Validity – this means the study objectively measures the behaviour that it aims to
measure. This includes:
 Is the measurement scientific?
 Does it explain why as well as what happened in the study?
 Does it check the results against other similar studies’ results?
Ecological Validity – this means how realistic the study is. This includes:
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How realistic the situation is
How realistic the task is
Does the sample include a cross section of the population?
Data collected – this means what information was collected. It can be
qualitative or quantitative. All studies should have both.
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment

Psychological Debates
Throughout psychology there are a number of big questions that form the basis of
the reasons why research is conducted. These have become the over reaching
debates that different research studies have been used as evidence for one
argument or another. In their simplest form they are bipolar arguments with two
opposing points of view at each end of the spectrum, however these debates are
often multifaceted and difficult to pick apart.
The main debates in psychology are: is psychology a science, the usefulness of
psychological research, free will vs. determinism, nature vs. nurture, individualism
vs. situationalism, reductionism and holism.
The debate whether psychology is a science stems from the various approaches
that psychologists use to measure behaviour. On the one hand psychologists want to
create evidence and facts about behaviour whilst on the other hand they want to
describe the processes and opinions on behaviour. For psychology to be scientific it
must be objective and not subjective, have method, and a means of testing if
something is false.
The usefulness of psychology is concerned about whether psychological
knowledge is useful to the real world. If all psychological research is confined to
artificial sterile environments then the knowledge of behaviour may not be useful as
behaviour in the real world does not occur in a vacuum.
Free will is the suggestion that people can choose how they think and behave.
Determinism suggests that the way you behave is due to different things that have
occurred before. Psychologists are often concerned about the implications of their
research in this debate as free will suggests that people are answerable for their
actions whilst determinism suggests that they cannot stop or control them and
should not be held accountable
Nature suggests that the causes of behaviour are determined by our physiology and
is inherited. Nurture suggests that our behaviour is learned and therefore we are all
initially a blank slate. Psychologists are often concerned about the implications of
suggesting that behaviour is caused by one or the other.
Individualism suggests that a person has something called personality or that they
behave consistently over time and situations. Situationalism suggests that
individuals will act differently depending on the time and place they are.
Reductionism suggests that behaviour can be described in simple terms and basic
ideas. Holism suggests that behaviour is incredibly complex and must be seen in all
its variations. Behaviour cannot therefore be described or recorded in only one way.
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Your task
Research is a crucial part of Psychology. This task will help you to get to grips with
the basics.
All experiments need an independent variable and a dependant variable. Find
definitions of these:
Independent variable:
Dependant variable:
You are going to carry out a simple experiment to help you understand more about
Psychology and to prepare you for your A-level course.
Select one of the following topics:
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Do males forget more than females?
Are the stereotypes true? Do males remember facts, such as football scores,
better than females?
Do females remember emotional events better than males?
Is it easier to remember items that are organised or mixed up?
Does visualising items from a shopping list help in recalling them later?
Do people have a better memory for material presented as pictures rather
than words?
Would it be better to learn lines for a play by repeating them or writing them
out?
A replication of the Stroop effect.
The Mozart effect. Does listening to classical music improve concentration?
Face recognition. Is it easier to recognise the top half or the bottom half of a
celebrity face?
Before any piece of experimental research can be done you need a hypothesis. This
is a testable, predictive statement. Read and complete the hypothesis sheet at the
back of this booklet to see how to write different types of hypotheses. Then write a
two-tailed hypothesis for your study in the space below:
My hypothesis
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
There are three types of experimental design. Research and define them:
Independent measures design:
Repeated measures design:
Matched pairs design:
Choose one of these experimental designs to use in your study. State which one you
are using and why you have picked it. Can you think of any strengths or weaknesses
of organising the participants in your study in this way?
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Ethics
These are very important in Psychology – particularly as our subject matter is people
and we need to make sure they are not harmed by our investigations. Research
some of the main ethical guidelines in Psychology and write about them below. Can
you give examples to help explain your points?
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Designing your study
You can now start to plan your study. Detail is very important here. I should be able
to take your plan and carry out your study EXACTLY without having to ask you for
any more information about what I need to do. Give specifics such as examples of
questions or tasks and make sure you answer the following:
Who will take part in your study – where will you get them from?
What is the task they have to do?
Where will they do it?
When will they do it?
How will they do it?
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Now carry out your study – make sure you
record the results carefully!
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Results
You need to display the results of your study in a way that is useful and easy to
understand.
Produce a suitable graph of your data:
There are three types of data we use in Psychology. Write definitions of each type:
Nominal data:
Ordinal data:
Interval data:
Which sort of data do you have in your study?
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Inferential statistics
Level
of data
Difference
Correlation
Independent measures
design
Repeated measures
design
Nominal
Chi-square
(Binomial sign test)
Ordinal
Mann-Whitney U test
Wilcoxon signed-rank test
Spearman's rho
correlation
coefficient
Which test should you use with your data?
Inferential statistics help us to decide whether what we have found in our research is
something genuine (significant) or whether it has just occurred by chance.
The results from our inferential tests help us to decide how confident we can be that
our research is significant.
During Yr12 you will learn how to do these statistical tests and how to look up the
number you get on a significance table. This gives the ‘p’ or probability value.
The p-value tells us how likely it is the research from our results occurred by chance.
In Psychology we want a p-value of 0.05 or lower. This means the probability of our
results being just down to chance is only 5% - so we can be 95% confident that we
have found something genuine – which is pretty good odds!
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Conclusions
Once you have your results you need to draw some conclusions about what you
have discovered.
Outline what you found
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Evaluation
All good psychologists evaluate their work to help them improve. Think about what
went well and what may have been a weakness. Remember it is very difficult to
design a perfect piece of psychological research, so there are probably plenty of
ways you could criticise it. Look back to the information at the start of this booklet to
help you.
Strengths of my study (make sure you say why!)
Weaknesses of my study (make sure you say why!)
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
Aims and Hypotheses
Aims
An aim is a reasonably precise statement of why a study is taking place e.g. to
investigate the effect of alcohol on reaction time. It should include what is being
studied and what the study is trying to achieve.
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is much more precise and predicts what is expected to happen e.g.
alcohol consumption will significantly affect reaction times. Hypotheses are testable
statements. There are two types.
Experimental Hypothesis
These predict significant differences in the DV as a result of manipulation of the IV.
They predict that any differences will not be due to chance. E.g. there will be a
significant difference in reaction time as a result of alcohol consumption. The
term experimental hypothesis should only be used with the experimental method.
For all other methods alternative hypothesis should be used.
Null Hypothesis
This is the hypothesis of no differences. It predicts that the IV will not affect the DV. It
predicts that results will simply be due to chance e.g. there will be no significant
difference in reaction time as a result of alcohol consumption.
After the study has been completed one of the above two hypotheses must be
accepted and one rejected.
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A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
One Tailed
These state the direction in which the results are to go. E.g. there will be a significant
increase in reaction time measured in seconds as a result of alcohol consumption
measured by units consumed. They are called one tailed because they state the
direction in which the results can go.
Two Tailed
These state that there will be a difference but don’t state the direction of the results
e.g. there will be a significant difference in reaction times measured in seconds as a
result of alcohol consumption. In this example reaction times could either increase or
decrease and so they’re called two tailed.
When to choose a one tailed hypothesis
Traditionally you choose a one tailed hypothesis when you have good reason to be
able to predict the direction of your result. For example if you are repeating previous
experiments which have consistently produced results in the same direction.
EXAMPLE
Lack of sleep affects reaction time
The faster you drive the more likely you are to crash
Bald men look older than men of the same age with
lots of hair
Girls talk more than boys
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ONE or TWO TAILED?
A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
High temperatures make tomatoes grow quickly
High temperatures affect the amount of work done
People who sit next to each other in class at the
beginning of the year are likely to become friends
The quality of service in a restaurant affects its
popularity
Age affects short term memory
The price of rail tickets affects the number of
passengers on the train
Now re-write the hypotheses above so that those that were one tailed are two tailed
and vice versa.
EXAMPLE
REWRITE THE HYPOTHESIS
Lack of sleep affects reaction time
The faster you drive the more likely you are to
crash
Bald men look older than men of the
same age with lots of hair
Girls talk more than boys
High temperatures make tomatoes grow quickly
Miss Harris – Summer 2015 – eharris@moseleypark.org
A-level Psychology pre-course assignment
High temperatures affect the amount of work
done
People who sit next to each other in class at the
beginning of the year are likely to become
friends
The quality of service in a restaurant affects its
popularity
Age affects short term memory
The price of rail tickets affects the number of
passengers on the train
Miss Harris – Summer 2015 – eharris@moseleypark.org