OCR Psychology A Level Book 2 sample

Long answer questions It is likely you will have at least one 10-mark question which may require you to link your knowledge about issues in the mental health topic to an issue or debate, or to compare two explanations or treatments. 1. Discuss the nature–nurture debate in relation to the medical model of mental illness. [10] 2. To what extent does the behaviourist explanation of mental illness support psychology as a science? [10] 3. Compare one treatment based on the medical model of mental illness with one treatment based on the alternatives to the medical model. [10] 4. Discuss the determinist/free will debate in relation to explanations of mental illness. [10] 5. Assess the extent to which the medical model of mental illness is ethnocentric. [10] 6. Compare the social sensitivity of the medical model of mental illness with one alternative explanation of mental illness. [10] 7. Discuss the usefulness of the medical model of mental illness and one other explanation of mental illness. [10] 8. Larissa is concerned about her cousin, Jen, who has recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia. She is displaying symptoms of lack of motivation and flattened affect, which Larissa thinks could be symptoms of depression rather than schizophrenia. With reference to Larissa and Jen explain the issues that psychiatrists face when giving a valid diagnosis of a disorder. [10] Short answer questions 1. Outline one definition of abnormality. [2] 2. Outline how one treatment based on the medical model can be used to treat a specific disorder. [3] 3. Outline the characteristics of an affective disorder. [3] 4. Compare two historical views of mental illness. [4] 5. What does Rosenhan’s (1973) key research suggest about categorising mental disorders? [4] 6. Explain what Gottesman et al. ’s (2010) research tells us about genetic explanations of mental illness. [5] 7. Outline one similarity and one difference between the biochemical explanation and the brain abnormality explanation of mental illness. [6] 8. Compare the behaviourist explanation of mental illness with one alternative explanation (cognitive, humanistic, psychodynamic or cognitive neuroscience). [8] Section A questions 35 marks: Approximately 10 AO1 (description), 11 AO2 (application), 14 AO3 (evaluation). Exam preparation: Questions The Applied Psychology (Component 03) examination is divided into two sections. You answer the whole of Section A (worth 35 marks) and select two options from Section B (each option has questions worth 35 marks): ◾ Section A is short-answer questions and longer answer questions on the Issues in mental health topic. These questions are compulsory—it doesn’t matter which ‘options’ you have taken, everyone answers the mental health questions. ◾ Section B contains questions about the Applied options . You will have studied two of the following four options: • Option 1 — Child psychology • Option 2 — Criminal psychology • Option 3 — Environmental psychology • Option 4 — Sport and exercise psychology Explicitly relate your answer to the question To achieve the high marks in section A of the exam you need to be very careful that your answer explicitly answers the question. In particular you need to focus on the part of the specification referred to in the exam question. This is considered a big differentiator— lots of students know the content, but are unable to explicitly relate it to the requirements of the exam question. What does this actually mean? • Respond to the injunction —for example, ‘to what extent’ means you need to discuss both sides of the argument and come up with a conclusion. If a question says ‘discuss’ this means that you could either discuss both sides of the argument or you could discuss the relative merits and drawbacks of different arguments. ‘Compare’ means consider the similarities AND differences. • Place your answer in context —for example, in a question on treatments, rather than referring just to behaviour in general in your answer, consider which behaviour you are referring to, for example depression or hallucinations. Chapter 1: Issues in mental health 50 The questions on this spread are examples only to help you focus on the likely requirements of Section A of Component 03.