With reference to your experience in the classroom, discuss those factors that you consider to be most important in providing an effective learning environment informed by your knowledge of contrasting theories of learning.

With reference to your experience in the classroom, discuss those factors that you consider to be most important in providing an effective learning environment informed by your knowledge of contrasting theories of learning. Classroom practise has come a long way since the traditional teaching strategies criticised in the Plowden Report (1967). We rarely see excessively formal classrooms and the general aim has been to move towards a more action-orientated and child-centred approach, as championed by the Plowden Report. The current intention is for the learning environment to be humane, focused, structured and stimulating; a place the child enjoys being. This essay will consider what is required for both teaching and learning to be effective and worthwhile. The class teacher is by far the most important individual in the classroom; it is their behaviour and characteristics, which influence the general ethos of the whole class and the behaviour and attitudes displayed by the children. The effect of the teacher can be easily observed by the different behaviours the children display when another teacher is in charge. During my time in the classroom I had the opportunity to observe the class being taught by a supply teacher. From the onset the supply firmly laid down her expectations and boundaries and there was a noticeable difference in the behaviours the children

  • Word count: 2603
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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What are the uses of Psychology to People at Work?

What are the uses of Psychology to People at Work Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes (Hilgard, 1996). An understanding of this can be a useful tool for many different groups of people in the work environment, who all have their own interests in what psychology has to offer. Such groups to benefit include managers, employees, Human Resources specialists and Trade Unions. An in depth understanding of human behavioural patterns can be applied positively in order to get the most out of people and increase productivity at work. This is achieved by reducing factors that interfere with the efficiency of peoples' work. This assignment will aim to focus on factors that are ongoing and socially aroused by the interaction between people and their environment, namely: dealing and coping with work stress; lowering the rate of bullying and harassment in the workplace; and maintaining a high level of motivation and effort both in demanding and tedious tasks. Every type of person in an organisation is susceptible to suffering from worry and stress. Stress is a challenge to a person's capacity to adapt to inner and outer demands, which may be physiologically arousing and emotionally taxing and call for cognitive and behavioural responses (Westen, 1999). Stress provokes physical and emotional disturbances, which have the ability to affect both one's

  • Word count: 1518
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Outline and evaluate two or more studies relating to human altruism and/or Bystander Behaviour

Outline and evaluate two or more studies relating to human altruism and/or Bystander Behaviour Human altruism is the idea of people performing completely selfless acts, for example helping others because they feel only empathy for them and want to assist them. However it is often argued that truly altruistic behaviour doesn't exist and there is always some egoistic motivation to help someone because you will be benefit from it in some way. Batson's Empathy Altruism Model explains altruistic behaviour as simply a consequence of empathy with someone in need. It's suggested that when coming across someone who needs your help it will lead to empathetic concern, but only if the perspective of the other person is taken so that it is understood how they feel. Batson believed that three conditions facilitate perspective taking; the first would be that the observer is attached to the victim in some way, either romantically, through family or that they are similar in a way. The second is that the observer has had a similar experience so can understand the distress the person is going through, and the final condition would be that the observer is instructed to imagine what it must be like in the person's situation by other people around them. To test this theory, Batson used a placebo drug that had no real effects but led all female participants to interpret their reactions as high

  • Word count: 945
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Minority Group Influence

Minority group influence One of the biggest problems is that the majority group are weary of change so building up credibility within the group will be good as it will mean that the minority will then have the right to hold different ideas in the group after a period of time. This is often referred to as idiosyncrasy credit and is firstly done by conforming to the group norm in order to fit in. Not only will this enable ideas to put across more willingly but will build up confidence levels so the majority of the group will that the minority is right in what the say. Hollander (1958) argues to support this. He said that prior conformity enhances status which allows greater influence and nonconformity. Result of experiments carried out found that nonconformity which accompanies a task contribution often enhances the influence of an external- status equal, but can have liabilities for members with low external- status. This means for the minority group that because you still have the same status (social workers) then you will need to build up credibility for greater influence. The type of power expressed is also a key thing to use when presenting ideas when in the group. Ideally, expert power would increase the amount of influence spread over the group. This type of power requires insider knowledge of the topic/ ideas being presented. A way to do this would be to use correct

  • Word count: 425
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Outline and evaluate one or more biological explanations for depression. In your evaluation you should refer to research evidence.

Outline and evaluate one or more biological explanations for depression. In your evaluation you should refer to research evidence. (8 marks + 16 marks) The biological explanations for depression centre on the mood disorder being biologically caused. Genetic factors suggest that you are born with a biological weakness which makes you unable to resist stressors, which consequently leads to depression. This is known as the diathesis stress model. The main piece of research that supports this comes from the Maudsley Hospital twin register, where concordance rates of 46% were found in MZ twins and 20% in DZ twins. This suggest that depression must be passed on through genes if there is a high concordance rate between twins which share the same genetic makeup both having depression. However, biological factors such as the amine hypothesis states that if amines such as serotonin and noradrenalin become unbalanced, they can lead to depression. PET scans support this idea as they show that low levels of serotonin are present in people that are depressed. Other supporting evidence is that drugs such as MAOI's, which work by increasing the available amount of noradrenalin in the brain, were found to be effective in alleviating the symptoms of depression. A problem with this is that it doesn't state whether it is cause or effect. Significant support for the biological explanation

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  • Word count: 581
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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I will be discussing some of the sociological concepts which are used to explain the impact of the social world on our identity.

In this essay I will be discussing some of the sociological concepts which are used to explain the impact of the social world on our identity. It seems that our primary Socialisation- from our parents and close family plays an important role in our identity. Right from the start parents are conditioning their children to behave in a certain way depending on their gender, using phrases such as 'pretty girl' and 'big strong boy' children form ideas in their heads that this is what they should be. Painting a baby's room pink or blue depending on their gender and the clothes they wear, also add to the gender stereotype, if people see a baby in a blue baby-grow they will assume it's a boy. Children are also given toys depending on their gender, dolls for girls and cars for boys. Our parents are our first contact with how adults behave, children learn by copying their parents, girls may have a baby doll to look after like mum and boys may have a toy tool kit to fix things like dad, this is children working out their role in society. Children may look up to an older brother or sister and may strive to be like them especially if they see the older sibling being praised by the parents for say an academic or sporting achievement. Children feel a need to please their parents they like to be praised, given smiles and cuddles so, they behave in a way they know their parents will approve

  • Word count: 1127
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Job stress

Job stress has proven to be a difficult issue for the workplaces and the labor movement to tackle. Unlike physical or chemical hazards, there is not an obvious tangible hazardous agent. This issue has also been preempted by corporate stress management, health promotion, or employee assistance programs, which explain stress as a purely personal reaction, and often treat the symptoms, not the causes, of job stress. The occupational stress field also has been plagued by a variety of definitions and difficulties in measurement of stress.(Buunk,De-Jong,Y-Bemas&De wolff,1998) In addition, changes in job design or work organization are often inherently more "systems challenging" and require more radical restructuring of workplaces than reducing levels of exposure to toxic substances or ergonomic hazards. According to Mclean (1979) stress affect everyone in the workplace whether blue collar or white collar workers. Hughes (1971, p342) supported Mclean by stating that" the essential problems of men at work are the same whether they do their work in some famous laboratory or in the messiest vat room of a pickle factory" So this essay will review the major explanations that have been given for the higher rates of stress amongst working women's based of the interview conducted on south African female worker. Part one of this paper will discuss how the factors such as Gender's, race,

  • Word count: 2686
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Describe and evaluate the theories of attraction and relationship formation.

Describe and evaluate the theories of attraction and relationship formation (24 Marks) The matching hypothesis (Walster et al. 1996) states that people are attracted to others of a similar level of attractiveness to their own. We are likely to seek out people similar to ourselves in other attributes such as intelligence etc. There are many possible reasons for our attraction to physically attractive people; there is also the potential cost of rejection from someone who doesn't see us as physically attractive. Self -esteem also affects this process e.g. people feeling low in self- esteem is more likely to target someone who's less likely to reject them. Murstein (72) provides supporting evidence for this, in the study; photos of faces of 'steady or engaged' couples were compared with random couples who were just paired for a photo. The results were that real couples were constantly judged to be more similar to each other in physical attractiveness than random pairs. It was concluded that individuals with equal market value for physical attractiveness are more likely to form intimate relationships. However, no homosexual couples were studied. There are consequences of mismatching with the matching hypothesis; the less attractive partner may feel unattractive to their partner. Mismatching can also place strains on the couple and threaten their long term success of that

  • Word count: 1065
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Bandura Essay

Laura Henderson Psychology Bandura Essay A) The Bandura study aimed to see if children copying aggression that they see in adults. In the study a male or female model was aggressive toward a bobo doll, the children were then observed to see if they imitated any behaviour shown by the model, or if they were/weren't aggressive. There were also 2 control groups, one of which had seen a non aggressive male/female model and another group was observed after seeing no model. The results showed that the children were more aggressive when they had seen the aggressive model. Boys were, on average, more aggressive than girls. The gender of the model also had an affect on the behaviour of the children. Boys were more aggressive (both verbally and physically) when they had seen the aggressive male model. Girls were more physically aggressive when they had seen the aggressive male model BUT were more verbally aggressive when they had seen the aggressive female model. B) Snapshot studies can be very useful for looking at specific details of behaviour or if the experimenters are lacking time and money. There are, however some problems of snapshot studies, like the one carried out by Bandura. 1. Snapshot studies are time specific; this means that the results are dependant on whatever is going on at the time. For example the mood of the participants or experimenter can change on a daily

  • Word count: 1148
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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My Opinions On Smoking And Drinking

Awo Mohamed 8th November 2005 My Opinions On Smoking And Drinking I, personally think that smoking and drinking should be banned from the world. I don't want to be in their company, if I am in a room with a smoker, I am smoking too, I am breathing in their poison even when I don't want to. Smoking and drinking bring nothing but makes problems. More people are getting killed everyday, people lose their mother's, dad's brothers and any other member of their family because of smoking and drinking. it is an addictive drug and very hard to give up when you start. If the government made it against the law, that would be a start. People spend millions and millions of pounds on smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. One way to stop people from smoking would be to make it very, very expensive- say about twenty pounds per packet. Then if they still want to smoke and kill themselves, their money can be used to help sick children or to build hospitals. Children at the age of ten start smoking these days and they are being sold cigarettes and alcohol at these ages. Children think they are big and grown-up and clever when they smoke. They shouldn't have smoking in films maybe then they wouldn't copy. Children at the age of fifteen suffer from all kinds of illnesses including cancer and even some born as disabled or handicapped because their mum smoked when she was pregnant.

  • Word count: 293
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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