Option A
‘Advances
in psychological knowledge can only be achieved by challenging existing
theory and research.’ Discuss this claim, drawing on material from
Chapter 9, ‘Obedience, compliance and conformity’, and Section 5
(‘Research methods’) of Week 25, ‘Performance’.
Word limit: 1500 words.
Weighting: 100% of the EMA mark.
Student notes for Option A
‘Advances in psychological knowledge can only be achieved
by challenging existing theory and research’. Discuss this claim,
drawing on material from Chapter 9, ‘Obedience, compliance and
conformity’, and Section 5 (‘Research methods’) of Week 25,
‘Performance’.
Word limit: 1500 words.
Weighting: 100% of the EMA mark.
Before
you choose which option you will complete, you need to make sure you
understand exactly what the question requires. This means identifying
and understanding the process and content words.
Process and content words
In this question, there is one process word:
‘discuss’. This word asks you to consider and explain key aspects of a
debate about a topic or argument. You will need to use evidence to make a
case for or against a research topic/argument.
For Option A,
‘discuss’ requires you to explore whether advances in psychological
knowledge can only be achieved by challenging existing theory and
research.
You should consider the evidence in relation to
arguments that either support or challenge this claim. This means that
you need to present:
Some examples
that support the claim that advances in psychological knowledge are
made by challenging existing theory and research. This could include
examples where an alternative interpretation is offered for a research
finding or theoretical claim, and examples of research findings that
contradict an existing theory, which may include failed replications.
Some
examples which illustrate that advances in psychological knowledge are
made by building on existing theory and research, or by replicating
original findings.
An evaluation of the quality of the relevant
evidence and research. This means considering the usefulness of the
evidence from your chosen examples.
The implications of the issues discussed (i.e. what this evidence means, and why this is important).
The content words are: ‘Advances in psychological knowledge can only be achieved by challenging existing theory and research’.
Therefore, Option A requires you to:
explain
and provide evidence which shows that advances in psychological
knowledge can be made by challenging existing theory and research
explain
and provide evidence which shows that advances in psychological
knowledge can be made by supporting or confirming existing theory and
research
evaluate the quality of the relevant evidence and research
consider the implications of the issues discussed.
Relevant material
The
essay question is very specific about the material that you should draw
on for EMA Option A: Section 5 (‘Research methods’) of Week 25,
‘Performance’, and Chapter 9, ‘Obedience, compliance and conformity’, in
Encountering Psychology in Context 1. While these materials will
contain a lot of information relevant to the question, when it comes to
selecting examples you may find the following guidance helpful.
Week 25, Section 5, ‘Research methods: an introduction to replication’
explains the concept of replication in psychology. It highlights why
replicating studies is important, and discusses how replications can
either support or challenge the original finding or claim.
Chapter 9 of Encountering Psychology in Context 1 focuses on research that is centred on obedience, compliance and conformity.
Section 1.2
outlines Asch’s (1951) study and discusses evaluations as well as
replications of it. Both these evaluations and replications highlight
how Asch’s original study has been challenged.
Section 1.4 outlines how Jornet-Gibert et al.’s (2013) research is supported by other research studies in the field.
Section 2.2
describes challenges that have been made to Milgram’s experimental
findings (which were described in Sections 2 and 2.1). This includes
more recent alternative explanations for Milgram’s findings as well as
his theoretical claims.
Additional guidance
In addition, you may find it helpful to revisit Section 1 of Week 13, ‘Obedience’, particularly Section 1.1, ‘Explaining the “obedience to authority” experiments’.
These sections contain background information which may help you to
deepen your understanding of the challenges made to, and criticisms of,
Milgram’s research, which you read about in Chapter 9. However, this
additional information should not be used directly in your EMA; please only use the information specified in the EMA question.
After
the next page, you will find tips for writing this essay, but before
you start working on it, you should make sure that you have completed
the online activities relevant to this task. Even if you have previously
completed these in the relevant weeks, you may wish to revisit them as
part of your preparation for the EMA.
Week 27, Section 2 on preparing for the EMA.
This section offers advice on how to complete the final assignment,
including how to choose which option to answer and how to develop an
argument in the essay.
Week 25, Section 4 on essay writing. You may find it valuable to revisit this section to help create an essay plan for the EMA.
Week 26, Section 2 on synthesis.
This section deals with how to present material in an assignment in a
logical and coherent way so that it addresses the question.
Week 2, Section 1.2, on evaluating studies and Week 10, Section 1.1.
These sections introduced you to the PROMPT criteria which is designed
to help you evaluate research. Remember that although the
process word in the EMA is ‘discuss’, rather than ‘evaluate’, the answer
should
include an evaluation of the claim made in the question.
Importantly, before you begin to plan your essay, review the feedback
you received from your tutor for the essay in TMA 03 to see if there is
any advice about the essay structure or content, and so on, that you
could apply to this essay.
It is also important in this EMA that you include a reference list for in-text citations that you will need to include in the main body of the essay.
