EMA Part 2
For this part of the EMA you should write guidance for a school, as outlined below.
A school wants to increase recycling and has asked you as a psychologist to come up with some ideas. Using the principles of social learning theory and conditioning (Book 2, Chapter 4), produce a guidance document that outlines three key recommendations, using theory and research to support your recommendations. In your guidance to the school, please outline the strengths and limitations of such an approach to encourage recycling.
You must draw on evidence from Week 16 (Book 2, Chapter 4) of the module. In addition, you must draw on and discuss at least two academic journal articles or equivalent primary source material not referred to in the DE200 module materials. These need to be highlighted in the reference list for the EMA markers.
The word limit for your guidance is 1250 words, excluding the reference list but including in-text citations.
Structure
Your guidance document should be divided into two sections. In Section 1, you are asked to provide a brief summary (250 words) of three key recommendations in the context of the scenario provided. These recommendations should be based on your reading of relevant psychological material covered in Block 2, Week 16, and they should take the form of concise statements of advice written with the target audience in mind.
Please note that these recommendations should be practical (i.e. they should be implementable by the school). Try to be as specific as possible so that the school can understand what needs to be done to increase recycling. Remember that each of your recommendations must then be justified in Section 2 by referring to social learning theory or conditioning. You may use bullet point lists for these recommendations if you prefer. You are not expected in Part 2, Section 1, of the EMA to review the details of any psychological research.
In Section 2, you are asked to develop a scientific justification for your recommendations (1000 words). This requires you to support them by drawing on relevant psychological research and theory (i.e. social learning theory and conditioning). You should also evaluate the recommendations you have made in the context of the scenario provided (i.e. to assess the strength of the evidence that supports them). Do remember, however, that this task is not asking for your personal opinion; rather, you will need to use material drawn from the module to support your position.
Relevant material
For the second section of your guidance document, you will need to include material on how our behaviour is shaped through learning processes (i.e. social learning theory and conditioning) and relate these processes to the context of encouraging recycling in a school. Week 16 and Book 2, Chapter 4, provides an overview of the key material that will be useful in developing your answer.
Tips for writing
You should begin your work on Part 2 of the EMA by revisiting the material from Block 2 suggested in the ‘Relevant material’ section to re-familiarise yourself with the ideas presented there.
Based on this material, you should formulate concrete recommendations about how to encourage greater recycling in the school. Make sure your recommendations are concise and clearly relevant to the scenario provided.
Keep your audience in mind. You are developing advice for a school. This means that, while the people working there are professionals, they are non-specialists in this area. Consider what their concerns might be; for instance, ensuring that any recommendations can be easily adopted by the school and that adopting these measures will increase recycling permanently, rather than just temporarily.
As well as being easily understandable, the recommendations you develop should consider what information might be most valuable to help the school encourage recycling.
In Section 2 of your guidance document, you need to bring together evidence that supports your recommendations. To do so, you may want to highlight the findings of key studies or discuss psychological theories relevant to the guidance you provide. As noted earlier, you should look for opportunities to evaluate the strengths and limits of psychological work in this area and discuss any criteria or conditions that may be needed to ensure success in increasing recycling.
To help the markers to identify the new material from outside DE200, please highlight the two (or more) sources in the reference list at the end of your guidance document.
