Lesson 1  – This lesson we revisited the assessment objectives and the command words used in the exam. I hope you found it useful to practice the skills of describing, comparing and evaluating – if not I hope you liked the lollipops! 1 Command words

Lesson 2- We revisited the concepts of reliability and validity. These are key terms and it is essential you use them regularly and appropriately. Remember you can find out more about these concepts on pages 66-69 in  the GHG digi book . 

We then finished off our history of psychology lesson. Read pages 8-9 in the GHG digi book .

Lesson 3  – This lesson focused on what we mean by ‘science’. We need to know the key features of science. We also need to consider at what point psychology emerged as a science subject.

Prep

Use the internet/ textbooks to summarise the origins of Psychology in no more that 250 words.  Your summary will be assessed for your level of literacy, effective use of grammar and for plagiarism.  They must be your own words! Due next Wednesday 

By now you should have worked through the chapter of the text book on the approaches, pages 10-21 in the GHG digi book. This will have helped you create your revision cards. Please check you have attempted the quizzes on each double page spread.       If you haven’t, do it NOW.

Additionally check you have read the section in your text book on the Comparison of Approaches pages 22-23 in the GHG digi book .

Have you looked at the summaries on pages 26-27?

Have you looked at the model answers on pages 28-29?

You are now ready to complete the multiple choice questions on pages 30-31 and check your answers (page 31).

Finally —— print off the Idiographic vs Nomothetic essay for your file 

Lesson 4  – Whilst you completed an Approaches check list with key terms, theories, psychologists etc – I handed back your Paper 1 and paper 2 assessments.

All of you are welcome to attend 6.1 lessons on Monday period 2, 3 and 6  and on Tuesday period 1 and Wednesday period 1.

Lesson 5  –  We continued examining the features of science >>> 1 Moho ppt, in so doing we revisited all the different research methods 🙂  Do look at the power point again to ensure you have grasped the key terms. Ensure you read the relevant section of the PHG digital text book pages 82-83

You have some questions to answer >>> Is psychology a science  and a grid to complete, and an essay to write all for Tuesday 2nd October

Describe the contributions to society of the cognitive and psychodynamic approaches, and compare the two approaches in terms of their scientific status (16)

Lesson 1 –  gap fill key term starter then I handed back work from last week, and we revisited measures of central tendency (M M M) and measures of dispersion (range and SD). We considered how marks could be lost if graphs are not properly labelled and given a descriptive title.

Remember to calculate the range it’s the highest score – lowest score (+1)

Wow did we ever get through a tree !- you ended up with a massive pile of handouts designed to help you with evaluation.

GRAVEE – for evaluating a study

CASTLES – for Evaluating a theory or concept

Bridge/Grenade – for remembering the Issues and Debates

KEEP ALL THESE SHEETS IN THE FOLDER YOU BRING TO LESSON

We even got as far as evaluating Monotropic Theory in relation to the Learning Theory of Attachment. In other words, Bowlby vs Dollard and Miller’s Cupboard Love Theory. We used Harlow as our supporting evidence!

RECAP:  Monotropic Theory =  ASCMI =  Adapted behaviour>> Social Releasers>>Critical period>>>Monotropy>>Internal working Model for relationships 🙂

Then we had a fire alarm 😦

Lesson 2 – Sorry – Baseline assessment 2.

You were encouraged to read the Psychology Review magazine if you finished early.

Lesson 3  – We learned about >>> Idio v nomo appraoches in psychology. You completed a number of activities to ensure you understood this concept.

REMINDER: In the psychology shared area you will find Tutor2U folders for the ‘Approaches’ and another one for the ‘issues and debates’. Print off the Idiographic/Nomothetic essay for your folder. 

Prep: You have a doubled sided worksheet to complete for tomorrow’s lesson. Also, I will be checking you have looked at the ‘Apply It’ questions in the PHG digibook (Nomothetic/Idiographic page).

Lesson 4 and 5 – you answered the ‘Apply it’ question we talked about yesterday. This type of question flags up your basic Maths competency. If you struggle with graphs etc you will need to invest some additional time exploring the relevant sections of the GHG and PHG text book. It’s all there – you just have to look for it.

We also spoke very briefly about the key concepts of reliability and validity. 

We then went on to examine the Origin of Psychology with a view to creating a time line so that it makes sense to you. We got 1/2 way through the power point which you will find in the shared area. We had a go at introspecting and that wasn’t easy was it?

Prep:              

Are you doing at least 5 hours of Psychology prep every week? 

Ensure you have ‘banked’ your understanding of the Approaches in Psychology.

Check you are happy with your knowledge. Have you honestly worked through the chapter in the PHG book?    If you don’t do this work now………..when do you expect to find the time to do it?      There are GHG and PHG resources available to help you in the Psychology shared area. There are also Tutor2U essays on all the approaches in a folder too.

Your revision cards are due in next week.

Read pages 66-69 in the PHG digi book about reliability and validity. Remember to click the ‘L’ for key terms; click the ‘E’ and ‘W’ too for fun stuff and ALWAYS take the QUIZ               >>>>>>>>>>>>     There will be an assessment the week after next.

Read pages 8-9 on the Origins of Psychology – remember to click the ‘L’ for key terms; click the ‘E’ and ‘W’ too for fun stuff and ALWAYS take the QUIZ

Moving ahead: We are going on to ask if Psychology is a science?  Then we will move into the 6.2 Biological psychology Unit. I suggest you plan some time to dig out and revisit your 6.1 Bio Approach notes. We need to build on what you did last year 🙂 

Once we have covered the Bio unit we will look at the Reductionism and Holism debate as well as Nature vs Nurture and Freewill and Determinism.

 

Lesson 1 

Ha Ha, I caught some of you out with a ‘read the question first’ activity 🙂  There was a lesson there if you think about it. Never race into answering exam questions without reading the whole question first, turn the page to check over leaf just in case it continues.

Then we played a game of ‘who would say that?’, this was a way to warm up and revisit the approaches in psychology. If you found this difficult it suggests that you need to revise this part of the course 🙂

Have you made a revision card for each of the approaches? 

You then spent the rest of the lesson enduring a baseline assessment test – sorry!!

Lesson 2

I checked whether you had read the hand book by asking about VCOP and I checked you knew the ethical guidelines. Then you did an activity to check your understanding of levels of data, measures of central tendency, and how to draw and label graphs.  Whilst this was happening I fed back to you individually on your summer assignments 🙂

Lesson 3 

One to one feedback continued whilst you completed a key words activity and you also evaluated the psycho-dynamic approach.

Using terminology correctly is incredibly important. Why write a paragraph when a word or short phrase will suffice?

Lesson 4 and 5 

Time for presentations 🙂  This was all about revisiting the approaches in Psychology.

OMG….how good were you guys??? I especially loved the films of Grace and Issy and Molly and Vivian 🙂

I handed out your own version of the specification to be kept in your file for regular checking. We went through the ‘Approaches’ section together. If there are words or concepts you do not understand please do some additional research. Ensure you are confident now. Don’t leave it until it’s too late.

Prep

Your task is now to create a revision card for each approach. On one side you should write the key assumptions of the approach i.e. – what does a behaviourist believe about behaviour? Include on this side any key terms, main psychologists and major theories.

On the reverse side evaluate the approach. You will need a minimum of one strength and one limitation. Explain the evaluation point by giving additional detail and say why it is important. Use the PHG revision guide as a template.   DUE 26th Sept 

Get ready for next week – I will be assessing Paper 2 – do some revision, AND we will be looking at the Nomothetic vs Idiographic debate in psychology  as well as Freewill and Determinism and Nature vs Nurture 🙂

https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/issues-debates-evaluating-the-nomothetic-approach

ADDITIONALLY

Do use the GHG digi book to check your Research Methods basics are in place. You should re-visit the research methods section, specifically pages 190-195. Ensure you know about types of data, descriptive statistics and graphs. 40% of the final examination depends on your understanding the basics.

FUTHERMORE….

Have you discovered the amazing resources at the tutor2U website yet? e.g……..

https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/wundts-contribution-to-psychology

https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/introspection-early-use

Extension Activity

How do you fancy doing an open university module? It is a great certificated course that will give you a massive insight into the history of psychology. Follow the link if you’d like to take advantage of this opportunity. If you complete the course and gain the certificate it can be included in your personal statement 🙂

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/psychology/epoch-psychology-history-timeline/content-section-0?active-tab=description-tab

 

 

Lesson 1-3  our very first session!

My goodness me what a massive lesson 🙂 Didn’t we all do well?? You guys were magnificent 🙂

We covered a great deal today. Hopefully you are now following this blog (become a follower by putting in your school email in the follow button).

I hope you have found the Psychology folder in your shared student drive.

DO read the student handbook – you will see it includes links to both digital text books and both year 12 and 13 blogs.

DO look around and start exploring the specification, ethical guidelines for 2018 etc.

For ETHICS think DDRIPP into the big C of competence. See >>>> Ethics DRIPP sheet -I will check your memory for this soon!

Having explored the shared area, we recapped levels of data (measurement) ‘NOIR’ -we linked each level with the appropriate measure of central tendency (Mode, Mean and Median).

We then started to think about they year 2 course and the importance of pre-reading and consolidation reading – you are really encouraged to develop yourself as an effective learner. My job is to help you become ready for university and future careers. I aim to help you become self-sufficient and confident in your own ability to learn. You might want to print the learning poster and put in it your file.

In order to recap the approaches we read a poem about some blind men and an elephant! Each approach in psychology views the issue slightly differently but to fully understand anything an INTERACTIVE APPROACH is best 🙂

Prep:

Your assignment >>>>> Marketing approaches task

Due Wednesday 12th September – during this  double session you will be marketing your approach to your classmates – we will watch your film clips and smile a lot 🙂

Lesson 4-5

We started the lesson listening to KADY Lang singing ‘Constant Craving’.

As students I know you are constantly craving better grades 🙂

To achieve this you will need to actively engage with the questions you are asked. This means really thinking about how you can use your knowledge to answer the question.

Knowledge (AO1) is of course important, but the ‘A’ level examiner assumes you have some knowledge, after-all, you will have been studying the course for 2 years by the time you sit the exam. BUT nowadays we can easily get knowledge from google! So do not try to become an encyclopedia. This is not how to get an A/A* grade.

The key to exam success is being able to APPLY (AO2) the knowledge you do have in an intelligent and thoughtful way.

Next you should be able to critically evaluate the points you are making. This is what we mean by intelligent discussion (AO3). A discussion is like a written argument where you are writing down different points of view.

To reach the top mark band your answer must make sense. It needs to be coherent. How you use the English LANGuage to express yourself is really important.

REMEMBER   ‘KADY LANG’

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Next we played a scrabble game to get you thinking about the psychological terms we discussed last lesson.

You then designed a “terrible student” – obviously your goal this year is to be the complete opposite of poor Trisha!!

But WHY was Trisha such a weak student? You used the 5 approaches to explain her poor behaviour. This was an opportunity to recall your knowledge of the approaches and to apply your understanding to explain Trisha’s behaviour.

To revisit the Psychodynamic approach you played triominoes and then you matched different characters to Freud’s tripartitie personality.

PREP

As well as the marketing campaign task, I would like you to pre-read the double page spread on idiographic and nomethetic explanations. This is one of the issues and debates we need to become familiar with this year. Use the digital text book. I want you to do more than just read the material. There are videos to watch, key words to learn, a multi choice quiz, and Apply it questions to attempt.

IF YOU WANT A GOOD GRADE IN PSYCHOLOGY YOU MUST BE PREPARED TO DO MORE (PUT IN MORE EFFORT) THAN 90% OF OTHER STUDENTS IN THE COUNTRY. 

MOST STUDENTS WILL NOT DO THE EXTRA WORK REQUIRED FOR HIGH GRADES……..will!