There are 2 sections and 3 parts to this exam. All 3 parts have the SAME amount of marks (35). 

Section A: Issues of Mental Health

• There are short and longer questions based on the research, background and applications.
• Detail, precision and concision is really important in this section.

Section B: Options

• There are 3 questions on each of the 4 possible options (child, crime, environment, sport). These come alphabetically in the exam.
• You have to complete all 3 questions on each of the 2 options.

 

• All 3 questions on the option come from the SAME topic area (e.g. forensic evidence).  So … if
  •The material answers more than one question and
  •you think you cannot write something, because you already wrote it in the previous question(s)
  – still write it. 

 

• A style questions = 10 marks on the topic area / key study
• B style questions = 15 marks relating an issue or debate to the topic area 
• C style questions = 10 mark application to specific scenario.

Key Study Summaries
can be found at this link

---

Methodological Issues and Debates in Paper 3 
There are a greater number of methodological issues and debates to be applied in paper 3. 
Nature/nurture
Freewill/determinism
Reductionism/holism
Individual/situational explanations
Usefulness of research
Ethical considerations
Conducting socially
sensitive research
Psychology as a science
Ethnocentrism
Validity
Reliability
Sampling bias

---

Methodological Issues
These are issues with HOW the research is done on the topic area in general NOT just the Key Study.

General Research Methods for Paper 3 Options: Child 

• Child topic 1. Intelligence (Biological) = Self-reports, family (case) studies, correlations
• Child topic 2. Pre-adult brain development (Biological) = Brain scans, post-mortems
• Child topic 3. Perceptual development (Cognitive) = lab experiments, animal studies
• Child topic 4. Cognitive development & education (Cognitive) =lab experiments / controlled observations
• Child topic 5. Development of Attachment (Social) = lab experiments / controlled observations, correlations
• Child topic 6. Impact of advertising on children (Social) = content analyses, case studies

General Research Methods for Paper 3 Options: Crime

• Crime topic 1. What makes a criminal? (Biological) = Family and case studies, correlations, brain scans
• Crime topic 2. The collection and processing of forensic evidence (Biological) = lab experiments, self-reports (for showing the motivational factors)
• Crime topic 3. Collection of evidence (Cognitive) = Lab experiments, self-reports
• Crime topic 4. Psychology and the courtroom (Cognitive) = Lab experiments (not legally allowed to ask jury, so natural experiments and self-reports cannot be done in real life)
• Crime topic 5. Crime prevention (Social) = correlations, anecdotal self-reports
• Crime topic 6. Effect of imprisonment (Social) = correlations on real prisoners, lab experiments like Zimbardo / Haney

child_and_crime_revision_methodological_issues.docx
File Size:	372 kb
File Type:	docx

Download File

---