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.