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Assessment Resource - Internal
Level 3 Psychology
27697, Evaluate issues in psychological studies
Credits: 4
Teacher guidelines:
The following guidelines are supplied to enable teachers to carry out valid and consistent
assessment using this internal assessment resource.
Context/setting:
In this activity students will evaluate issues in psychological studies. These issues may
include; gender bias, cultural bias/ethnocentrism, reliability and validity of research,
ownership of knowledge, and issues arising from using animals in research.
Conditions:
The assessment task as outlined in this support material will be a presentation of
students’ choice. This can be written, oral, or audio-visual. Teachers may choose to
prescribe the presentation format. Students will be given two weeks of class time to
complete their presentation. Work can also be done out of class time. This support
material incorporates scheduled checkpoints to monitor the progress of students’ work.
As students are able to undertake research outside of class time, they will be required to
complete a declaration of authenticity.
You will provide students with a range of studies, from which they will choose to base
their presentation on. The studies you provide the students need to offer the students
the opportunity to evaluate their chosen issues.
References may be oral, visual and/ or written and may be selected from one or several
text types. Texts should be appropriate to Level 8 of the NZC, or have characteristics
that enable students to meet the expected level of understanding. Assessment of this
standard also provides opportunities for students to develop aspects of the key
competencies of the NZC. Students can read texts, collect information and develop ideas
for the assessed presentation both in and out of class time. Teachers will need to
schedule checkpoints to ensure authenticity.
Before assessment begins, teachers should guide students through the process of
exploring texts, reading for meaning, and locating relevant information.
Students need to keep a record of all the source material they use. A suggested
reference record for source material has been provided. Source material can include, but
is not limited to, books, websites, podcasts, journals, newspapers, magazines,
photographs. To encourage students into the habit of using citation styles as used by
psychologists across the world, teachers can teach them how to cite references using
the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style. Guidance on APA citation
style can be found through http://www.apastyle.org/.
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Where student work is to be presented for assessment, constructive feedback should not
compromise authenticity but can validly include suggestions about areas where further
developments are needed. Students should have the opportunity to receive feedback at
each checkpoint to edit, revise and polish their work before assessment judgements are
made.
Resource requirements:
A range of selected psychological studies enabling the students to address issues. This
list includes suggestions only.
Possible studies for use of animals in research could include:
a.
Harry F. Harlow (1958) The Nature of Love. University of Wisconsin
First published in American Psychologist, 13, 673-685
b.
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological
Activity of the Cerebral Cortex. Translated and Edited by G. V. Anrep. London
c.
Overmier, J., & Seligman, M. (1967). Effects of Inescapable Shock Upon
Subsequent Escape and Avoidance Responding. Journal of Comparative and
Physiological Psychology, 63 (1), 28-33
d.
Bozarth, M.A. (1987b). (ed.) Methods of Assessing the Reinforcing Properties of
Abused Drugs. New York: Springer-Verlag.
e.
Bozarth, M.A. (1989). New perspectives on cocaine addiction: Recent findings from
animal research. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 67: 11581167.
Possible studies for cultural bias could include:
a.
Deregowski, J. (1972) Pictorial perception and culture. Scientific American. 227. pp.
82–88
b.
Hans Eysenck’s personality theory (any publication).
c.
Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W. (1961):
Intergroup conflict and cooperation: the Robbers Cave experiment. Norman
d.
Haney, C., Banks, C. and Zimbardo, P. (1973) A study of prisoners and guards in a
simulated prison. Naval Research Reviews. 26. 9. pp. 1–17
Possible studies for gender bias could include:
a.
Kohlberg, Lawrence; T. Lickona, ed. (1976). "Moral stages and moralization: The
cognitive-developmental approach". Moral Development and Behavior: Theory,
Research and Social Issues. Holt, NY: Rinehart and Winston.
b.
Tajfel, H. (1970) Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination. Scientific American.
223. pp. 96–102
c.
On Sexuality Freud, S. Three essays on the theory of sexuality and other works.
Penguin, 1991
There may be opportunity to develop an integrated assessment for standards covering
both the evaluation of issues in Psychological studies and the student’s mode of
presentation such as writing, oral presentation or visual text. Wherever such integration
occurs, teachers must ensure that the work presented for assessment is sufficiently
developed, in order to meet the criteria for both standards being assessed.
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Additional information:
Teaching and learning guidelines that inform psychology as it is taught in New Zealand
can be found at http://www.tki.org.nz/ncea/.
Information on psychology as it is practiced in New Zealand is available from the New
Zealand Psychological Society, http://www.psychology.org.nz.
Information on Maori-focussed psychological research available through Māori and
Psychology Research Unit
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/wfass/subjects/psychology/mpru/
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Level 3 Psychology
Monkey Love
27697, Evaluate issues in psychological studies
Credit: 4
Student Instructions Sheet
During your Psychology programme in class, your teacher will work through a number of
issues that are encountered in Psychology. These issues may include gender bias,
cultural bias, ethnocentrism, reliability and validity of research, ownership of knowledge,
and issues arising from using animals in research.
Assessment task
Your assessment task will be a presentation of your choice and can be written, oral, or
audio-visual. You will be given two weeks of class time to complete your presentation.
Work can also be done out of class time. Teachers will schedule checkpoints to ensure
the authenticity of your work. As part of the assessment process you will also be
required to complete a declaration of authenticity.
You will select two issues on which to base your presentation. Your teacher will provide
you with a range of studies from which you will choose at least two to evaluate your
chosen issues through.
As part of your Psychology programme your teacher will work with you to source
reference texts or other materials.
Keeping a record of reference or sourced material
As you create your presentation you will need to keep a record of all the source material
you will use. This is an important part of the ethical process as well! Your source material
can include books, websites, podcasts, journals, newspapers, magazines, photographs.
Draw up a record sheet so that you can record your sources in an ongoing way over the
course of work. To get you into the habit of using citation styles as used by psychologists
across the world, please cite your references using the American Psychological
Association (APA) citation style. Guidance on APA citation style can be found through
http://www.apastyle.org/.
Example of reference record
Source description
Book – Psychology in Aotearoa/New
Zealand
Picture of prisoner
Journal article
APA Reference
Weatherall, A., Wilson, M., Harper, D.,
McDowall, J., (2007) Psychology in
Aotearoa/New Zealand. Pearson:
Auckland.
Stanford Prison Experiment website,
http://www.prisonexp.org/ accessed 20
May 2011
Harlow, H. F., & Suomi, S. J. (1970).
Nature of love: Simplified. American
Psychologist, 25(2), 161-168.
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Assessment guide
For achieved
For merit
For excellence
The evaluation considers
two psychological studies in
relation to identified issues
arising from the research
methodology and explains
the impact of the issues on
the findings of the research
The evaluation includes a
discussion and critique of
the issues within the
psychological studies that
shows understanding of the
factors creating the issues.
The evaluation includes a
comprehensive discussion
and critique of the issues
and suggested
improvements in research
design to address the
identified issues in the
psychological studies and
rational, logical and
reasonable implications of
the improvements for
psychological practice.
To complete the assessment for this standard there are three checkpoints you need to
complete before you can make your final presentation.
Checkpoint One:
Complete this presentation plan. When completing the section on time management note
the dates you intend to complete each checkpoint.
The format I will use for my presentation is…
The resources I need for my presentation are…
My time management plan for preparing the presentation is
Checkpoint one
Checkpoint two
Checkpoint three
Presentation due date
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Checkpoint Two:
Use the table below to help you achieve your second assessment checkpoint.
Issue One:
Description:
Issue Two:
Description:
Checkpoint Three:
Use the reference record below to help you achieve your third assessment checkpoint.
You will need to evaluate your chosen studies and show how they relate to your chosen
issues.
Source
description
APA Reference
How the study relates to the issue
1
2
3
4
5
6
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You are now ready to begin your presentation!
Checkpoint Four:
Presenting your issues: This may be a written report, data show, audio-visual
presentation etc
1)
2)
For achievement your presentation will include:

An introduction which identifies and explains your two issues.

A general description of your chosen studies.

An explanation of how your issues impact on the findings of the research.

A reference list.
For Merit and excellence your presentation will also include:

A comprehensive discussion and critique of the issues as they apply to the
studies.

Suggestions for improvements to address the issues in your chosen studies.

Resulting implications for psychological practice.
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Assessment schedule
27697 Judgement Statements: Evaluate issues in psychological studies
Achieved
Achieved with Merit
Achieved with Excellence
The candidate will identify and explain
the impact of two issues on the reliability
and/or the validity of the findings of two
or more psychological studies
The candidate will make an evaluation
includes a discussion and critique of the
issues within the psychological studies.
Discussion shows a level of
understanding into the factors creating
the issues.
The candidate will make an evaluation that includes
a comprehensive discussion and critique of the
issues and suggested improvements in research
design to address the identified issues in the
psychological studies and rational, logical and
reasonable implications of the improvements for
psychological practice.

As for Achieved, plus:
As for Merit, plus:

 At least 2 improvements are suggested in
research design that shows an in depth
understanding of addressing the issues.
At least two issues that impact on the
findings of the research are identified
and explained within at least two
psychological studies.
Two issues are discussed and a
factor creating the issue considered
for each issue.

Evidence of wider implications is well thought
out.
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27697 Evidence Statements: Evaluate issues in psychological studies
Achieved
Achieved with Merit
Achieved with Excellence
For example: Gender Bias:
Gender bias is the tendency to discriminate
against people of a certain gender.
Historically both the theories and research
in Psychology have shown either bias
against women or have ignored women,
specifically, preferring to assume that their
development would be no different from
men's. The first of these is described as an
‘alpha bias’, in that some theories suggest
an enduring difference between genders.
An example of this being Freud's
psychosexual development theory. Another
example of this can be found in Kohlberg’s
theory of moral development. The second
kind of bias can be described as a ‘beta
bias’, this is the tendency to minimise or
ignore differences between the sexes.
For example: Cultural Bias:
Ethnocentrism is an example of cultural
bias and can be explained as the tendency
to view something from a viewpoint that is
informed by one’s own culture. Most
psychological knowledge has been
produced by a small group of people,
about a small group of people. In
particular, it has been produced by middle
class, white, male European/North
Americans. Therefore, the majority of this
knowledge has been informed by a specific
set of social beliefs, language and culture.
For example: Animals in research:
The use of animals in psychological
research has been the subject for much
debate. The development of ethical
guidelines for animal research by bodies
such as the British Psychological Society
and other equivalents has meant that
animal research has been more tightly
regulated. What might once have been
considered ethical, or perhaps not even
‘considered’ is now greatly changed. These
guidelines have continued to be altered as
greater concern for animal welfare and
advancements in technology continue. The
implications of this in psychological
practice are considerable.
Examples of points made about the issues
within the studies:
 Kohlberg stated that most men
would reach higher in the stages of
development than women.
 Kohlberg’s dilemmas were abstract
and based more on ideas that were
male dominated.
Examples of discussion of issues within the Examples of improvements and
implications:
studies:
 Harry Harlow’s “Monkey Love”
 The Robbers Cave Experiment, by
experiments of the 1960s would
Sherif et al. was set in an all-boys
need a great number of
summer camp, which in itself is a
improvements to make them ethical
culturally specific (American)
by today’s standards. Before even
phenomena. The study investigated
considering embarking on the
the intergroup conflict and co New Zealand Qualifications Authority 2016
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operation. When the study was
replicated by a researcher in
Lebanon, it had to be abandoned
because of tension between Muslim
and Christian participants, which
overrode the orchestrated
intergroup conflict. In this case the
issues were the relative strength of
group/social identity for
experimental in comparison to
religious groups.
 Deregowski’s literature review of
pictorial perception and culture had
underlying ethnocentrism - for
instance, answers which are not
typical of western interpretations
are described as "incorrect". He
adopted a deficit model - the
different answers of African
participants are explained as "lack
of learning". A better explanation
might be that non-Western people
interpret images differently not
because of a lack of learning, but
because of different learning.
Possible factors creating
Gender bias;
Religious beliefs
Societal values [Freud’s ideas are
contextually placed in his time]
Ethnocentrism
The majority of psychological

research a thorough cost-benefit
analysis needs to be completed to
show that the results will be
extremely beneficial to humanity.
That is the costs of using the
monkeys in research, is outweighed
by the benefit gained from learning
about attachment between mothers
and babies. Harlow’s research was
controversial and, ironically, an
implication of the studies
themselves was the awareness of
treatment of laboratory animals and
the development of ethical
guidelines around use of animals.
An example of an improvement to
Seligman’s study of learned
helplessness in dogs would be to
use an unpleasant stimulus that was
not as extreme as an electric shock,
such as an unpleasant odour or loud
noise. Another improvement would
be to use humans (without the
shocks of course) instead of dogs
as if the results are to be
generalised to humans, then it
makes sense to use them in the first
place. Seligman himself went on to
carry out studies using human
participants in which they completed
tasks in the presence of a
distracting noise, thus rendering the
use of animals and cruelty both
unnecessary.
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research is WEIRD and so the norm
W: Western
E: on Educated people
I: in Industrialised countries
R; which are Rich
D; and have a Democratic tradition
Notes:



The evidence statements for Achieved, Merit and Excellence have been selected to demonstrate answers across a range of
issues. This does not mean that three issues must be covered.
Statements are indicative and not exclusive.
Students must provide references
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