Using the past papers answer questions. Use this example as a rough guide and attempt to aid your revison by testing yourself. Answer in one colour and mark in a seperate with the accompanying mark scheme.
Unit 1- Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and
Research Methods
Thursday 8 January 2009
8. Outline what research has shown about the effects of day care on children’s aggressive behaviour (6 marks)
There are lots of views about day care- which is when a child is left in the care of someone who is not their mother/father, and whether children benefit from it or not. Maccoby and Lewis carried out a study into the effect of day care on children and they found that the more hours children spend in day care before they were 4 and a half years old, the more behavioural problems they would show in later education, along with increased conflicts with teachers. Field (1988) agreed with their findings and found that children who had been in full time day care were more aggressive towards their peers. However other studies show that day care doesn’t necessarily cause children to be more aggressive, but it can be the other way round as some home-reared children are seen to be more aggressive, as they perhaps don’t have the level of independence that a child who attended day care would have.
The way in which you have approached the question is very good. You have ensured you have included relevant research in order to form a solid answer. I would recommend you use studies from the NICHD and the EPPE to enhance the quality of your response. Overall, you would’ve achieved 5 marks from the 6.
Wednesday 13 May 2009
7. Research has suggested that institutionalisation can have negative effects on children. In the
1990s, many children were found living in poor quality orphanages in Romania. Luca had lived in one of these orphanages from birth. When he was four years old, he was adopted and he left the orphanage to live in Canada. His development was then studied for a number of years.
7 (b) The scenario above is an example of a case study. Outline one strength and one limitation of this research method. (2 marks + 2 marks)
Strength: It would be full of detail and information, a natural experiment, not set up which would make it unethical. – 1 mark – lacks elaboration see example below……
Limitation: It cannot easily be replicated and it’s only reviewing one person so can’t be generalised to others. – 2 marks
Strengths: Rich data, high ecological validity, investigates a situation which could not be set up for ethical reasons.
Limitations: Selection from large amounts of data may lead to observer bias. Findings from one individual can’t be generalised to others.
1 mark each for identification of a strength/limitation. Second mark for some elaboration. For example, an advantage of a case study is that it provides lots of detail (1 mark). This gives great depth and understanding of this single individual (2 marks).
7 (c) Disruption of attachment can occur when children experience separation from their attachment figure during their early childhood.
Outline one study of the effects of disruption of attachment. (4 marks)
Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis suggests that children who have been separated from their mother for 6 months or longer may grow up to be disruptive and aggressive as the majority of the people from the ‘thieves’ group suffered from disruption of attachment.
0 marks.The way you have structured your answer is good, ensuring you have identified research as asked from you. I would focus my answer around either Robertson and Robertson (1989) with John who showed protest and despair when he spent 9 days in a residential nursery or older studies such as Spitz and Wolf (1946) and Bowlby’s (1944) juvenile thieves which would also gain you marks. The mark scheme does not show MDH as a possibility.
Wednesday 12 January 2011
7 (a) Explain the difference between privation and disruption of attachment. You may use examples to help explain the difference. (4 marks)
Privation is when someone is unable to form an attachment, for example not having the opportunity to do so. Genie is an example of this, she was kept away from civilisation and had no regular contact with someone to whom she could form a healthy attachment to. Disruption from attachment is when you’ve had the opportunity to form an attachment but are then separated from that figure. Robertson and Robertson’s study is an example of a young boy who was away from his mother whilst she was in hospital.
For this answer I would award you 4 marks out of 4. Below is from the Mark Scheme. You answer is clear and you have clearly identified what Privation is – with the aid of an example and then explained Disruption again highlighting your understanding with good concise examples.
Privation occurs if children never have the opportunity to form an attachment. Rutter studied children who were looked after in Romanian orphanages where there was no opportunity to form attachments. Hodges and Tizard followed children who went into residential care before they had formed attachments. Disruption of attachment occurs when children have formed an attachment and are then separated from their attachment figure. Robertson and Robertson studied John who was looked after in a residential nursery when his mother went into hospital.
