Psychology assignment 5

Today we're going to start on the final psychology assignment (you should hand in the assignment that you were completing over Easter). You will be working in small groups to think of a question that you can investigate to find out about people's psychology - e.g. high self-esteem related with good mood; good social support related with higher happiness score; happy early childhood (consider ethics here) related with happiness score later.
Today you need to choose groups (no more than four people) and decide on a question that you will investigate. Once you have done that, you can start writing your questionnaire. We will be working on this for the next 3 weeks so make sure you save your work!

Practical assignment

Today we're going to start thinking about the final psychology assignment, which we'll complete after easter. You will need to plan and carry out a psychological test, and discuss the results. Answer the following in your books to get you started:

1. What are four common types of psychological investigations? Explain how a self report works:
2. Take this stress test. What is good and bad about it?
3. Try this quiz to assess your happiness. Do you prefer this quiz to the first one? Why?
4. Finally, try one of these quizzes. How could these types of questions cross ethical boundaries?
5. Give some advantages and disadvantages of quizzes like these:
6. Read the information here. What specific factors would you be interested in studying with your experiment?                                                                                                          
7. For your experiment, try and come up with a title - e.g. 'the effect of diet on happiness'.
8. What might be some valid questions you could ask in this study?
9. How could you try and make the results from the test more reliable?

Psychology P5

For P5, you need to compare the ethics documents of the British Psychological Society and the American Psychological Society. The details for the assignment are on the assignment sheet which is on the shared area.
For the British Society, use the 'Code of ethics and conduct' link on this page. For the American Society,  explain the five key principles.
What you need to do is read through both documents, and then comment on what each one contains. For example, the British code is built around four key points that Psychologists are expected to uphold. You need to explain what these are and do the same for the American ethics, then comment on any similarities or differences.
This can be done in a word document or as an essay, or as a leaflet if you prefer. It will be due straight after Easter.

Psychology Assignment 3

Today we're going to start work on assignment three. You need to use the internet and the notes you have already been given to complete a powerpoint covering each task.

Notes for assignment 3

The first two things for today are to make sure that you've completed the first two assignments, and finish off any outstanding work. Once you've done that, complete these questions on the next section which is about treating mental disorders.

1. Using your notes, what are the two main types of treatments for mental disorders?
2. What is CBT? Explain what the assumptions behind it are and how it seeks to help patients:
3. Use your notes to define PIT, and explain where it is and isn't suitable:
4. What are the three main biological therapies? Outline each one, then talk about it's advantages and disadvantages:

Psychology

Today we've got two different things to do.

• Firstly, you need to make sure that you've completed and handed in the first assignment for P1 and M1.
• Secondly, you need to answer the questions below to make some notes on the next section, which is on diagnosing psychological conditions.

1. This journal article is quite long, but very relevant to what we'll be looking at next. Read it and explain why a diagnosis might be unreliable.
2. How can the culture someone is part of influence their psychological state?
3. What is validity in psychology? How could something be reliable but not valid?
4. What is the DSM IV TR? What is it used for?
5. Explain how a psychologist would use the DSM IV TR to help with the diagnosis of a patient. Use the terms validity and reliability in your answer:

Causes of psychological conditions

Today we're going to look more at how psychological conditions are caused. Answer the following in yoru books:

1. Explain what biological and psychological cuases for mental conditions may be. Give an example of each. Why is it often hard to identify just one cuase of metnal conditions?
2. What is the DSM IV? We will be using this for a merit task in assignment 2, so have a look now and find one condition caused by biological factors and one cause by psychological ones (hint: look in the 'etiology' section once you get to the condition's page).
3. Try this test. Remember that is only meant to be used as an indication of your stress levels. What does it suggest about your stress levels? What could you do to change them?
4. For number three, do you think stress is a biological or psychological cause of mental illness? Why?
5. For assignment one, we will need to explain how mental conditions are diagnosed by doctors. Read this article about diagnosis, and make notes about the steps involved:
6. Later in this unit, you will plan and carry out an ehtical psychological investigation. Watch this video about the Milgram experiment.  Do you agree with putting people through this test or not? Why?

Psychology

Today we're going to start looking at the psychology unit (the last part of the course!). You are going to compile some notes on how psychological disorders arise, and how they are diagnosed.
Use some of these websites to start with, but find your own as well. If you can produce a page or two of notes for later in the unit you'll be well set up:
DSM-IV
Website explaining how different disorders can arise and how they present.
DSM-IV again, but talking about diagnosis of different conditions.

Unit 18 D2

For D2, you need to write a short essay about why the observed percentages of characteristics could be different to the expected ones.
The main reasons are the random nature of meiosis with chromosome behaviour ( think about the merit task you've already completed).
The other reason why the frequency of alleles (and so characteristics) might differ from what was expected relates to the Hardy-Weinberg theory. If the population doesn't meet these assumptions, the real values may differ from the expected ones.

Assignment 4 distinction work

This link will help you explain the stesp in genetic engineering to produce gm organisms.

Assignment 4 merit work

This is a really usefu link to do with the electrophoresis merit work. You need to explain the steps of the process, and this interactive will help you describe them in order.

Assignment 4 photos

The photos of the DNA extraction are in the shared area. Make sure you explain the process step by step, using the sample method.

Genetics assignment 4

Today we're going to be starting work on the fourth assignment for unit 18. Complete the tasks on the assignment sheet which is also in the shared area.  To help you get started, you could look back at the University of Utah website which we've used quite a lot for this unit.

This website has information about the materials we used and what the steps were for the DNA extraction (P6).

Finally, make sure you read the task sheet carefully, as some tasks require you to work in PowerPoint, while others need to be completed in word.