PILS Consultants Project Final Report Name Linda Green PILS Theme Programme Mapping Project Title Seeking the As and Bs: Moving from description to critical evaluation in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) assignments A toolkit for students and associate lecturers Full Project Report Full project description and description of project outcomes What was your initial rationale for your project? How did you go about it? What was your timeframe? What did you find out / produce? If you created a product – were you able to pilot your project? And what refinements did you make as a result of this piloting? 1. Description and critical evaluation in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) A fundamental skill in psychology is the ability to understand and evaluate different perspectives, theories, approaches, concepts and the evidence presented to support them. DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) provides you with a stepped and progressive approach that supports you to develop critical evaluation skills. The course module materials, the study guide, the audio visual materials and the workbook all provide materials that will enable you to develop and practice your critical evaluation skills. Your assignments together with your associate lecturer feedback will help you to develop and improve your critical evaluation skills. You will find, as you progress from DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) to your third level course modules you will be expected to a more independent and critical learner. Gaining and practicing critical evaluation skills within DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) will allow your associate lecturers to provide you with feedback from which you can develop your skills and improve your grades. So don’t just look at your grade when you get your assignments back, reflect on the comments as well. In the DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) workbook you are introduced to and provided with materials to support: active reading and critical engagement how to take notes that incorporate evaluation evaluating evidence within essays evaluating what the key words are in essay titles. This toolkit focuses on critical evaluation in relation to your assignments within DSE212 (Exploring Psychology). It will take you through the essays and assignment requirements and provide you with activities to help you develop and practice your critical thinking skills. These will allow you to critically evaluate and use this skill in your essays and project work, not only within DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) but also in your subsequent course modules whether they are at the same or higher levels. Before we begin have a go at assessing your own critical thinking skills now. Activity 1: Are you a critical thinker? Use your critical evaluation skills to assess whether you are a critical thinker in every day life. For each of the questions, Tick the Box, that best describes the type of person you are : Critical evaluation and everyday life Questions Almost always Sometimes Almost never I am curious about things I do not take things at face value but like to examine and question them I relate ideas to my previous knowledge, experience and wider contexts People might describe me as opinionated but I can always give reasons for my opinion I like to be innovative and creative I like to evaluate all sides of an argument I don’t like it when people make statements and give opinions without having evidence to support what they are saying I like to reflect on things before, during and particularly after the event When other things occur that are related to what I have been doing I’ll think, and sometime talk about how they connect Which columns did you tick for which question? Was there a pattern to your responses? Have a look at the feedback for this activity in the Appendix. 2. The critical thinking staircase At the core of description and critical evaluation is the ability to think critically. You have just had a go at assessing your critical thinking skills in everyday life. There are a number of skills and processes involved in critical thinking and these have been captured within the Critical Thinking Staircase below. You will find that some of the skills are ‘harder’ than others. They require you to: move you away from simply describing the content of the learning materials evaluate the content examine other ways in which the materials may be viewed. The different skills can be seen within the Critical Thinking Staircase. The blue stairs relate to your skills involved in processes involved in working with your course module materials and the green stairs when apply your critical thinking skills in assignments and projects. Use your critical thinking skills now and have a go at the Activity 2 to see if you can match the words to their descriptors Innovate Extrapolate Apply Evaluate Synthesise Compare Analyse Understand Process A Assess the worth of the information in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, evidence base and its relationship to other knowledge, information and experiences B Bring together the different strands of information and make logical connections between the information C Comprehend the key points, assumptions, argument and evidence presented D Explore the similarities, differences and relationships with your own and the knowledge, information and experiences of others E Identify new and different ways in which the subject matter could be explored and taken forward F Identify the key components of the information and examine how they fit together and relate to each other G Take in the information (i.e. in what you have read, heard, seen or touched) H Use critical thinking to develop arguments, draw conclusions, make inferences and identify implications I Use the information in a similar or different context or in response to a question, assignment or project 3. How tutor marked assignments in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) are graded Your assignments in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) will be graded on a 17 point scale and it has been agreed that this grading scheme will be adopted by all the core psychology course modules. 1. X (0): no answer 2. Grade G (12): fail 3. Grade F (22 F-; 32 F; 37 F+) a bare fail 4. Grade D (42 D-; 47 D; 52 D+) a pass grade which just meets the tutor marked assignment requirements 5. Grade C (most common grade 57 C-; 62 C; 67 C+) a clear pass which meets tutor marked assignments requirements but is primarily descriptive and does not show much evidence of your own thoughts and ability to analyse issues 6. Grade B (72 B-; 77 B; 82 B+) a good pass that: is well written and organised demonstrates a good understanding of the course module materials focuses on the question includes well chosen examples and references shows evidence of an argument being developed contains evidence of analytical thinking about key issues (e.g. references to commentaries in book 1) 7. Grade A (88 A-; 93 A; A+ 98) an excellent assignment that: provides a clearly and concisely expressed answer that is relevant to the topic of the question shows an excellent understanding of issues has applied and synthesised broader issues from the course module provides arguments that are well structured, logically developed and are supported by evidence shows some originality of thought and an ability to be critical about evidence/ methods theories / perspectives. 4. Some do’s and don’ts for assignment writing The DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) workbook has a study week devoted to constructing essays and you will be able to try some of the activities set within that week. Box 1 highlights some dos and don’ts which need to be considered when writing your assignments. They are all important when evaluating: what the question means what to put in the answer and what to leave out where materials are complementary (provide explanations which complement each other); conflict (provide explanations that do not agree) and co-exist (provide alternative explanations that ‘live together’) what type of evidence can be used to support your claims how and where to use evidence which terms to use and how to describe them how to select appropriate examples and what these should be in terms of the assignment how to balance any claims you may make how to draw conclusions from the content of the assignment. BOX 1: Some dos and don’ts in assignment writing DO: make sure that you are answering the question – keep referring back to the question – in exams as well!! use terms precisely and define specialised or technical terms – either in your own words or ‘quoted’ using the words of the theorist – remember your associate lecturer needs to know that you understand the terms you are using write your assignment as though it is for another student studying your course module, remembering that not all students get As and Bs be selective when using examples, make sure they are relevant to the question and fit in with your argument. Remember being selective doesn’t just mean less in number, it mean analysing which are the most appropriate to your assignment. remember the word limit remember, associate lecturers are told not to read more that a few lines beyond the prescribed length. It is useful to keep counting your words and thinking about how much more you need to write to answer the question reference materials correctly both within and at the end of your assignment make sure any ‘claims’ you are making about perspectives, theories, approaches, methods and or concepts are clearly presented try to produce arguments from all sides, you can conclude stating that one position is stronger than another, and why you consider this to be so use psychological evidence or logical reasoning (based on psychological evidence) to support any claims you make try to draw on wider material within the course module, e.g. the green pages DON’T use whole chunks from any source without referencing it properly this will be plagiarism just give a list of facts you must show that you understand what you are saying just describe a theory – attempt to analyse what it means give lengthy accounts of personal experiences. Finally, remember is it is not the final view you adopt that is important it is: the quality of your arguments backed up with relevant evidence well organised and structured in your essay expressed clearly. 5. Getting to grips with the terms As we mentioned before, your early assignments in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) are less demanding in terms of critical evaluation skills. You may be asked to outline, identify, explain and/or describe theories, approaches or methods used within the first few Chapters of Mapping psychology 1. These seem simple enough terms, but remember there are different levels of description. The marking scheme in Section 3 has two parts: 1. being able to structure and communicate your ideas in a coherent way 2. relates to levels of description, evaluation and inference. (2) provides the focus for this toolkit. For D grades you need to provide basic description that meets the needs of the question For C grades you need to provide a good descriptive account with some analysis For B grades you need to provide evidence of an argument being developed, analytical thinking about and critical evaluation of key issues For A grades you need to provide evidence of critical and independent thought. These have been captured in the BACEI model. The BACEI model to good grades (Basic, Analytical, Comparative, Evaluative, Inferential) Inferential description Draws out inferences that go beyond the information presented identifying new ideas, issues, implications in relation to the original material presented Evaluative description Evaluates the required content identifying the relative value of the different components that underpin the question Comparative description Uses evidence from the different components required by the question and compares and describes their similarities and differences Analytical description Analyses the main content, thinking about the parts and how each fits together to make the whole Basic description Describes accurately the main content required for each component required by the question Activity 3: The five paragraphs in Box 2 (page 8) have been written in response to the question: ‘Psychological theories of identity aim to define identity and to explain the processes that produce it’. Describe two of these theories and, using examples, highlight the methods they use to underpin their theories. Activity 3A: Use your critical evaluation skills to analyse and evaluate the requirements of the question. Note down the things you would need to address in the essay and how you might use the higher levels of description. Then check your analysis with ours in the appendix. Activity 3B: Read the extracts in Box 2 (page 8), from an essay written in response to the question. Use your practical evaluation skills, to tick the different levels of description (remember there may be more than one in a paragraph) and the grade you appropriate to each paragraph. Then compare your ticks and grade with ours in the Appendix Two things to remember: 1. As the gestalt theorists say (Chapter 6 in Mapping Psychology 1, Book 2) ‘the whole is more than the sum of the parts’; associate lecturers will not be grading on particular paragraphs but on the entire essay. 2. Critical evaluation might be evidenced based but is not an exact science. It depends on your justification and the evidence you use to support this. Do your ticks agree with ours? If not, why not!* 6. Project work and critical evaluation In your qualitative and quantitative research projects you’ll develop, analyse and evaluate evidence underpinning the theories and research associated with your hypothesis or research question. You’ll then have to interpret the results/findings/analysis from your own research and evaluate: whether and how they supported the research cited in your introduction whether and how they supported your hypothesis or research question whether and how you could have done things better or changed things whether and how your results could link to any applied issues any further research that would be relevant for you could to conduct how any further study be conducted - the same methods? different methods? more than one method? whether the research raised any ethical issues, what these were and how/whether they could be overcome in future research In addition, in your qualitative research report you’ll have reflected on, and evaluated your own role in the research process. If you have already completed either of your research reports, look at your discussion. Did you cover all of the above points? If you have not yet completed a research report check that you have covered the above in discussion when you do. 7. Learning from associate lecturer feedback 1. Two theories that seek to explain the processes that produce identity are Psychosocial and Social Identity Theory. They view identity from different perspectives, Psychosocial focusing on personal and social factors and Social Identity Theory focusing on social groups. They can be seen to be complementary in some ways and conflicting in others. Each use different methods to underpin their theories. 2. The psychosocial theory of identity acknowledges the interplay between social and personal factors on identity development. These act as a ‘bridge’ between our central or core identity and the social situation. Identity development from a psychosocial perspective is lifelong involving a series of crisis resolutions that allow individuals to move from of one of Erikson’s eight developmental stages to another. 3. Social Identify Theory (SIT) focuses on the social identity of individuals. It proposes that we self categorise ourselves into particular groups. Individuals and groups, within this theory, seek to improve their status through social mobility, social creativity and social competition. Ingroup similarities and outgroup differences are emphasised and lead, according to SIT, to discrimination and prejudice. Grade Inferential Evaluative Analytical Basic BOX 2 Comparative An essential part of your Open University tuition is through your associate lecturer’s feedback. Your associate lecturers will be aware of the overall marking scheme and will mark according to, and give feedback based on, the guidelines that you and they have been given for particular assignments. Higher grades whatever the level will demand the use of critical evaluation skills and your associate lecturer’s feedback should demonstrate, not only by the grade but also through their comments, any areas you need to improve on. Often this relates the use and evidence of critical thinking/evaluation (or the lack of it) in your assignments. 4. Different methods are used to underpin psychosocial and Social Identity theory. Underpinning psychosocial theory, Erikson used clinical and naturalistic observation and biographies of famous men (as cited in Phoenix, 2007, p53) and Marcia developed semi structured interviews to support the work of Erikson (as cited in Phoenix, 2007, p57). Whereas Tajfel used minimal group experiments carried out in laboratories to underpin Social Identity Theory (as cited in Phoenix, 2007, p62). To address some of the issues of using laboratory experiments Elliot used naturalistic experiments in her ‘class divided’ investigations. All methods, however, have limitations. Experiments, even those in naturalistic settings are not completely natural, therefore it may be useful to develop a naturalistic observational study, focusing on in group and out group interactions. The ‘class divided’ experiment raised ethical issues because of the potential distress and longer term effects it may have had on the children. Clinical and naturalistic observations, could have been influenced by the context in which they were studied and the people being studied. For example, much of Erikson’s clinical work was with veterans of the Second World War. Perhaps a longitudinal study could be carried out with people who are not in a clinical situation to establish whether the development levels are appropriate today. 5. This essay covered only two of the three theories described in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology). Social constructionism provides an alternative explanation and uses different methods from which to draw its conclusions. Social constructionism considers that multiple identities are constructed from everyday discourse. It could usefully be considered alongside the other two theories covered in this essay to provide different ideas about how our identities develop. Reference Phoenix, A. (2007) Identities and diversities. In D. Meill, A. Phoenix, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Mapping psychology (2nd ed., pp. 43-95). Milton Keynes:The Open University Your associate lecturer may say in his/her feedback ‘you described well…. but you need to: analyse the differences, similarities… compare and contrast the approaches…. show how your ideas link to the different approaches…. look at similarities and differences… provide evidence to support your assumptions… These types of comments indicate that you think more critically about the content in your answer. Your associate lecturer will most probably write notes around your essay. They could highlight where and how you could use your critical evaluation skills. They may also indicate where you need to think about what you include, and how much explanation you give e.g. ‘Why’ can indicate that you have not provided sufficient evidence support your comment. This might refer to your description, analysis, comparison, evaluation or when you make a claim to substantiate an inference you have drawn ‘Explain’ can show that either the statement is not clear or that you may need to add more information to substantiate or clarify the point you are making. Tip: For every paragraph ask yourself: ‘How does it answer the question?” If it doesn’t delete it. Reflect on the outcomes An essential part of critical evaluation is self reflection. When you write assignments, projects or in examination questions, think about your own role in the process. Were you objective? Have you shown any biases or preferences? When you receive an assignment back don’t just look at the grade, think about: What your associate lecturer said about your work that relates to your critical thinking/evaluation skills Whether you described rather than analysed and evaluated Whether you built a convincing argument What your associate lecturer said that you could build on when thinking about future assignments. If you do not understand your associate lecturer’s comments – ask your associate lecturer to explain them further. Have a go at Activity 4 overleaf, use your critical evaluation skills to examine whether you use your associate lecturer feedback effectively. Activity 4: How do you use associate lecturer feedback? For each of the questions, Tick the Box, that best describes what you do when you receive an assignment back Associate Lecturer feedback Questions Do you take a deep breath, whatever the mark, and then work systematically through the feedback? Do you ‘pause for thought’ regularly, and reflect on the feedback thinking how you can improve your grades next time? When you get comments such as ‘explain further’ do you think about how you could have explained it further? When you get comment such as ‘why’ do you think about what you could have put in the assignment to address the why? Do you find yourself querying the feedback in relation to your ideas? If you not agree with some of the claims that your associate lecturer has made do you reflect on them, trying to examine the feedback from your associate lecturer’s (and the question’s) viewpoint? Do you compare your comments with the comments you received for previous assignments to see if you have improved? Do you analyse and evaluate the feedback? Do you go back and look at the feedback again to ensure you understand it and can use it to improve future work? When your associate lecturer wants you to explain something further and you have used up all your words, do you think about what you could have omitted to allow you to include an explanation? Almost always Sometimes Almost never 8. Moving from description to critical evaluation The assignments at the beginning of DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) focus on levels of description. Many of you will have developed an argument in response to the questions and this, together with accurate description and a clear, concise and coherent structure will gain you the high grades. Later in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) you will be expected to take a stance on a particular topic and develop an argument drawn from the evidence in the course module readers. Developing an argument Questions that ask you to develop an argument start with words such as: Discuss…. Compare and contrast….. Evaluate the claims…… To what extent…….. Assess the value of ……….. to our understanding……. They all require you to take a stance on the topic. To be able to do this you need to critically evaluate the materials. Your ‘stance’ and the claims you make within your argument need to be based firmly on evidence related to the question and its component parts. Even if you introduce new ideas you need to have drawn them logically from the course module material. The reader must be able to see what evidence your ideas have been based on, and how valid they are in relation to the arguments and claims you present. You need to show: which theory or theories, approaches, methods or concepts (whatever is relevant to your question) underpin your claims the evidence from the theories, approaches, methods or concepts that support your claims any facts related to the original materials (and sometimes from other sources, especially at the higher levels of study were you are expected to think independently) that support your claim how you analysed and evaluated the theories etc., to come to your conclusions the steps in your thought processes how the different parts of your argument fit together to make a cohesive whole that your argument is balanced rather than just taking a stance from one point of view. You need to ask yourself: Is there enough evidence to support my claims? Do I need to rethink, or tone down my argument? You need to make sure that you write your argument up as an argument not just as your opinion. The types of things you would want to ask, for example, to build an argument in response to a perspectives question are: Are you confident about the perspective(s), some or all of the theories, approaches, and methods? Are there any ethical considerations related to the perspective(s) and/or the research underpinning the perspective? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the differing perspectives? Which viewpoint do they use (insider/outsider viewpoint etc,) and what are the advantages and disadvantages of these? How are they similar (complement each other)? How do they differ (conflict)? Do/can they ‘live together’ to further our understanding of a particular psychological topic (coexist)? Activity 5 Examine the following statements and use your evaluatory skills to match the statements to the terms you think are the most appropriate. Statement It is clear that learning can occur by conditioning i.e. that in response to given stimuli, through stages of continuous and then intermittent reinforcement of the behaviour, learning to do a particular task can ensue. This is the basis operant conditioning and is fundamental to the behaviourist’s perspective. Term Different perspectives in learning can be seen to “offer different insights into the diverse processes of learning’ i.e. the live quite happily together offering alternative explanations ‘Behaviourists use experiments to explain behaviour, whereas cognitive psychologists use experiments and their findings make inferences about mental processes’ Biological psychologists use a predominantly ‘outsider viewpoint’ but recent neuroimaging techniques have allowed ‘insider viewpoints’ when the researchers ask questions about their experiences as they record brain activity. Together these may give a more holistic view of the biological processes that underpin behaviour. The advances in neuroimaging techniques over the past ten years have revealed some interesting insights into the biological bases for behaviour and different neurological conditions. In the future as the techniques improve further it may be possible to redefine many psychological problems in terms of their biological bases. A biological psychologist may ask questions about depression from a biological point of view (genetic inheritance, structure of synapses, about neurotransmitters). On the other hand social psychologists might study a person’s recent life events, social networks and relationships. Both perspectives can provide useful findings at different levels of analysis but they could result in treatments that could be used together, e.g. antidepressants and psychological counselling The behaviourist perspective does not take account of the mental processes that cognitive psychologists focus on Terms: Co-existing; Analysis; Inference; Comparative; Conflicting; Complementary Thinking about essays that demand an ‘argument’ In DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) you will come across essays that demand you to critically evaluate the evidence throughout your assignments and in your examination. These will involve questions relating to the content of individual chapters or give you a free choice to select from one or two chapters or examples from Chapters. Below are three questions that relate to theories of perception (Chapter 6, Book 1), select 1 and discuss what your group would include in the answer. Question 1: To what extent can perception be understood from a ‘phenomenological’ perspective? Question 2: Discuss the assertion that perception is actively constructed Question 3: Different perspectives can be seen to complement each other. Draw on two Chapters in Book 2 to illustrate this. Box 3 on page 12 might help you to Organize your thoughts. Box 3 Stance Claims Levels of analysis Ethics Introduction Key point 1 Key point 2 Key point 3 Key point 4 Conclusion Content Evidence Glossary Analyse Identify the key components of the information and examine how they fit together and relate to each other Apply Use the information in a similar or different context or in response to a question, assignment or project Claims Ideas that are used to support an argument, these should be based on and derived from evidence that can be clearly stated and referenced Co-exist Where particular perspectives, theories and methods on a particular topic, have not point of contact, they neither conflict nor complement each other i.e. they provide alternative explanations that ‘live together’ Cognitive Processes that take place in the brain Compare Explore the similarities, differences and relationships with your own and the knowledge, information and experiences of others Complement Where contrasting claims are mutually compatible and can be accommodated within a common explanatory framework i.e. they provide explanations which complement each other Conflict Where conflicting claims from different perspectives, theories and methods are mutually exclusive and cannot be resolve i.e. they disagree Description An explanation of the key points, assumptions, argument and evidence presented Epistemology Knowledge about the way in which different psychologists try to understand or explain people and their behaviour and experience. It is related to the questions that are asked, the methods that are used, the sort of evidence that is examined and the criteria used to evaluate explanations Evidence The data, facts, studies etc used to support the information presented. Evaluate Assess the worth of the information in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, evidence base and its relationship to other knowledge, information and experiences Extrapolate Use critical thinking to develop arguments, draw conclusions, make inferences and identify implications Implications The effect and issues arising out of the original topic of study in relation to other topics and areas of study Inferences To go beyond the information presented identifying new ideas, issues, and implications in relation to the original information. These should be based on evidence and/or on logic propositions developed from the original materials Innovate Identify new and different ways in which the content of the learning materials can be explored and taken forward Interpret Drawing together of conclusions based on the information provided Justify Valid and evidenced information provided to support what you are saying Notes Summary of the information presented, those that involve critical thinking are notes that analyse the materials, group them together as a whole, link them to other areas of study and include your own ideas with the evidence to support these Paradigm Philosophical framework made up of assumptions about the subject matter and the ways it should be studied. In DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) the ‘doing’ of psychology within a given paradigm is called a perspective Perspective A style of psychological explanation that are affected by historical tradition that underpins their ideas and methods Process Take in the information (i.e. in what you have read, heard, seen or touched) Reasoned arguments Arguments where the claims, reasoning, rationale and evidence to support the propositions being made are clear Synthesise The drawing together different strands of information and making logical connections between the information Think more deeply Thinking that involves you interacting with the information in ways that develop your understanding of the subject; enable you to relate new knowledge, ideas and concepts to previous knowledge, ideas and experience; examine and relate evidence to conclusions you may draw and to better examine the logic of any arguments put forward Thinking skills A set of skills that enable you to process and make connections between information Understand Comprehend the key points, assumptions, argument and evidence presented Answers and feedback on Activities Activity 1 Mainly almost always: Well done, you are obviously a critical thinker, practice these skills and apply them to you studies and you’ll do well Other combinations: Most people have a combination of these skills. Work through some of the critical thinking learning objects on the Open University’s Skills for Study website and you’ll most probably be surprised about the critical thinking skills you possess Mostly almost never: You might want to have a go at using some of the skills identified in the questions and try to use them in your daily life, but especially relate them to you studies. Activity 2 Identify new and different ways in which the Innovate subject matter could be explored and taken forward Extrapolate Apply Use critical thinking to develop arguments, draw conclusions, make inferences and identify implications Use the information in a similar or different context or in response to a question, assignment or project Assess the worth of the information in terms of its strengths, Evaluate weaknesses, evidence base and its relationship to other knowledge, information and experiences Synthesise Compare Bring together the different strands of information and make logical connections between the information Explore the similarities, differences and relationships with your own and the knowledge, information and experiences of others Identify the key components of the information and examine how they fit together and relate to each other Comprehend the key points, assumptions, argument and evidence presented Analyse Understand Process Take in the information (i.e. in what you have read, heard, seen or touched) Activity 3 Question: ‘Psychological theories of identity aim to define identity and to explain the processes that produce it’. Describe two of these theories and, using examples, highlight the methods they use to underpin their theories. Activity 3a The question is about identity (so it would be useful to define identity). DSE212 (Exploring Psychology) covers three theories and their methods (need to select 2). Psychosocial Social Identity Theory Social Constuctionism Lifelong development (8 stages) Core identity developed through normative crises at end of each stage Takes account of social and person (but treats as two separate systems) Adolescence (moratorium stage important) We self-categorize ourselves as belonging to social groups Importance of social identities Individuals try to improve their status through group social mobility, social creativity and social competition Groups treated as individuals We have multiple identities that are constructed through everyday interaction No distinction between social and personal identities Identities created in social contexts May neglect the experience of a ‘stable identity’ Semi-structure interviews (Marcia) Clinical and naturalistic observations, biographies (Erikson) Minimal group quasi experiments (Tajfel and Elliot) Discourse analysis (Hall) 2. The psychosocial theory of identity acknowledges the interplay between social and personal factors on identity development. These act as a ‘bridge’ between our central or core identity and the social situation. Identity development from a psychosocial perspective is lifelong involving a series of crisis resolutions that allow individuals to move from of one of Erikson’s eight developmental stages to another. √ Evaluative √ √ √ √ Grade Comparative 1. Two theories that seek to explain the processes that produce identity are Psychosocial and Social Identity Theory. They view identity from different perspectives, Psychosocial focusing on personal and social factors and Social Identity Theory focusing on social groups. They can be seen to be complementary in some ways and conflicting in others. Each use different methods to underpin their theories. Analytical Basic BOX 2 Inferential Activity 3b You may have ticked and graded the paragraphs the same as in Box 2. If not have a look again at where your ticks don’t match ours and evaluate why yours are different. You may still disagree with us. Remember it’s a matter of judgment and evidence; you might be able to argue for your responses just as we could if we were debating the issue with you. B C √ √ √ 4. Different methods are used to underpin psychosocial and Social Identity theory. Underpinning psychosocial theory, Erikson used clinical and naturalistic observation and biographies of famous men (as cited in Phoenix, 2007, p53) and Marcia developed semi structured interviews to support the work of Erikson (as cited in Phoenix, 2007, p57). Whereas Tajfel used minimal group experiments carried out in laboratories to underpin Social Identity Theory (as cited in Phoenix, 2007, p62). To address some of the issues of using laboratory experiments Elliot used naturalistic experiments in her ‘class divided’ investigations. All methods, however, have limitations. Experiments, even those in naturalistic settings are not completely natural, therefore it may be useful to develop a naturalistic observational study, focusing on in group and out group interactions. The ‘class divided’ experiment raised ethical issues because of the potential distress and longer term effects it may have had on the children. Clinical and naturalistic observations, could have been influenced by the context in which they were studied and the people being studied. For example, much of Erikson’s clinical work was with veterans of the Second World War. Perhaps a longitudinal study could be carried out with people who are not in a clinical situation to establish whether the development levels are appropriate today. √ 5. This essay covered only two of the three theories described in DSE212 (Exploring Psychology). Social constructionism provides an alternative explanation and uses different methods from which to draw its conclusions. Social constructionism considers that multiple identities are constructed from everyday discourse. It could usefully be considered alongside the other two theories covered in this essay to provide different ideas about how our identities develop. √ √ √ √ √ √ 3. Social Identify Theory (SIT) focuses on the social identity of individuals. It proposes that we self categorise ourselves into particular groups. Individuals and groups, within this theory, seek to improve their status through social mobility, social creativity and social competition. Ingroup similarities and outgroup differences are emphasised and lead, according to SIT, to discrimination and prejudice. C √ A B Reference Phoenix, A. (2007) Identities and diversities. In D. Meill, A. Phoenix, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Mapping psychology (2nd ed., pp. 43-95). Milton Keynes: The Open University Activity 4 Mainly almost always: Well done, you are obviously thinking critically and reflecting well on the feedback your associate lecturer gives. Using the critical thinking skills that underpin the questions should help you to develop your critical thinking skills and to improve your assignments Other combinations: Most of you will have ticked a combination. The questions contain important strategies to help you use your associate lecturer feedback to improve your grades. Have a look at the ones that you clicked almost never for and next time you receive associate lecturer feedback Mostly almost never: You might want to have a go at using some of the skills identified in the questions the next time you receive feedback from your associate lecturer You might also want to print the questions off and pin them up on the wall as a reminder of the skills to practice when you are working with other students. Activity 5 Statement Term It is clear that learning can occur by conditioning i.e. that in response to given stimuli, through stages of continuous and then intermittent reinforcement of the behaviour, learning to do a particular task can ensue. This is the basis operant conditioning and is fundamental to the behaviourist’s perspective. Analysis Different perspectives in learning can be seen to “offer different insights into the diverse processes of learning’ i.e. they live quite happily together offering alternative explanations Co-existing ‘Behaviourists use experiments to explain behaviour, whereas cognitive psychologists use experiments and their findings make inferences about mental processes’ Comparative Biological psychologists use a predominantly ‘outsider viewpoint’ but recent neuro imaging techniques have allowed ‘insider viewpoints’ when the researchers ask questions about their experiences as they record brain activity. Together these may give a more holistic view of the biological processes that underpin behaviour. There is evidence that in the future as neuroimaging techniques improve it may be possible to redefine many psychological problems in terms of their biological bases. Inference A biological psychologist may ask questions about depression from a biological point of view (genetic inheritance, structure of synapses, about neurotransmitters). On the other hand social psychologists might study a person’s recent life events, social networks and relationships. Both perspectives can provide useful findings at different levels of analysis but they could result in treatments that could be used together, e.g. antidepressants and psychological counselling Complementary The behaviourist perspective does not take account of the mental processes that the cognitive psychologists focus on Conflicting