Friday, 21 October 2011
Schizophrenia - Treatments
Biological Treatments -
I class we have studied: Drugs (a.k.a. Chemotherapy). You must know all about drugs! Here is some extra information -
Information on anti-psychotic drugs
However, you could also learn about ECT. Please see below for some extra information on the use of ECT for treating Schizophrenia.
Psychological Treatments -
In class we have studied two types of CBT (CSE and Beck's and Ellis' therapy) alongside the family intervention therapy known as EE. You must know these! But you could also learn about the use of Psychanalysis in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Information on anti-psychotic drugs
However, you could also learn about ECT. Please see below for some extra information on the use of ECT for treating Schizophrenia.
In class we have studied two types of CBT (CSE and Beck's and Ellis' therapy) alongside the family intervention therapy known as EE. You must know these! But you could also learn about the use of Psychanalysis in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
PSYA4 - Psychopathology: Schizophenia
Biological and Psychological Explanations
Biological Explanations-
Genetics, Neurotransmitter and Neuroanatomy
Psychological Explanations -
Psychodynamic, Behavioural, Cognitive and Socio-Cultural (including Double-Bind, Expressed Emotion and Life Events)
Further reading:
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Developing AO3 in A2 essay - Methodology analysis, Issues and Debates
The A2 course is largely assessed through essays. Within the essays you will need to demonstrate all three assessment objectives. On a very basic level these are:
AO1: Recall and show understanding of scientific knowledge
AO2: Analyse and evaluate scientific knowledge and processes
AO3: Analyse, interpret, explain and evaluate the methodology, results and impact of
experimental and investigative activities in a variety of ways.
N.B: Don't be put off by the word 'scientific'! Psychology is a science so all the theories and studies that we look
at are (generally) regarded as scientific!
AO3 is a specific type of evaluation. One way you can show AO3 skills in your essays is by including evaluative commentary on the strengths and limitations of the methodology of any studies applied. For example, if you think back to AS we studied Milgram's research on Obedience. Methodological evaluation for Milgram would include points such as:
Lacks ecological validity (arguably!)
Lacks internal validity because of demand characteristics (arguably!)
Lacks population validity because it was only conducted on American men (again arguably!)
It should be fairly easy for you to use the skills developed at AS level to complete methodological evaluation of studies in your A2 essays. However, you can also gain AO3 marks by including evaluative points relating to issues and debates. Such issues and debates include: Reductionism, Determinism, Nature/Nurture, Ethics, Gender Bias and Cultural Bias. Again, you will be familiar with some of these concepts from AS. In order to demonstrate basic evaluation using one of these points, think back to the Biological approaches explanation of mental disorders. You could evaluate these explanations as being reductionist (reducing the complexities of humans down to a small number of factors whilst ignoring other important factors e.g. the role of the environment).
During the first lessons of A2 you will learn more about these concepts and how to apply them in essays for effective AO3 marks!
AO1: Recall and show understanding of scientific knowledge
AO2: Analyse and evaluate scientific knowledge and processes
AO3: Analyse, interpret, explain and evaluate the methodology, results and impact of
experimental and investigative activities in a variety of ways.
N.B: Don't be put off by the word 'scientific'! Psychology is a science so all the theories and studies that we look
at are (generally) regarded as scientific!
AO3 is a specific type of evaluation. One way you can show AO3 skills in your essays is by including evaluative commentary on the strengths and limitations of the methodology of any studies applied. For example, if you think back to AS we studied Milgram's research on Obedience. Methodological evaluation for Milgram would include points such as:
Lacks ecological validity (arguably!)
Lacks internal validity because of demand characteristics (arguably!)
Lacks population validity because it was only conducted on American men (again arguably!)
It should be fairly easy for you to use the skills developed at AS level to complete methodological evaluation of studies in your A2 essays. However, you can also gain AO3 marks by including evaluative points relating to issues and debates. Such issues and debates include: Reductionism, Determinism, Nature/Nurture, Ethics, Gender Bias and Cultural Bias. Again, you will be familiar with some of these concepts from AS. In order to demonstrate basic evaluation using one of these points, think back to the Biological approaches explanation of mental disorders. You could evaluate these explanations as being reductionist (reducing the complexities of humans down to a small number of factors whilst ignoring other important factors e.g. the role of the environment).
During the first lessons of A2 you will learn more about these concepts and how to apply them in essays for effective AO3 marks!
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Thinking of studying Psychology at University?
Here are some things you should be thinking about:
1. How good are the universities you are considering?
At lot of research takes place enabling universities to be ranked according to subject - this site is the latest ranking for Psychology departments in the UK
2. Is the university accredited to the BPS (British Psychological Society)? This is very important should you wish to pursue a career within the psychology field.
The BPS website can tell you more about this:
This link informs you of the undergraduate courses that are accredited:
http://www.bps.org.uk/bpslegacy/ac?frmAction=results&Course_IDs_Selected=&CourseType=UG&Search_Type=NC&OrderBy=NAME&OrderDir=ASC&INSTITUTION_NUMBER=&PROGRAMME_TYPE=SHON
http://www.bps.org.uk/bpslegacy/ac?frmAction=results&Course_IDs_Selected=&CourseType=UG&Search_Type=NC&OrderBy=NAME&OrderDir=ASC&INSTITUTION_NUMBER=&PROGRAMME_TYPE=SHON
3. As psychology is a science, the best universities have a vibrant research department. The Research Assessment Exercise has been used to rank universities in terms of their research programmes. Unfortunately the last RAE completed was in 2008, so is slightly outdated, but it is still worth a look!
4. In addition to this, as psychology is so popular it is very competitive! Obviously it is important to get good grades, but with competition so intense sometimes a good set of grades is not enough for the top universities! Therefore you will need to go beyond normal learning and show great commitment and understanding of psychology. A good way to do this (which also leads to an additional AS level) is to complete an extended project within the discipline of psychology. Here is a link summarising the basics of the extended project. Please see me for more information!
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