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.
Category: I dont know
Part 2: Report (50% of the mark for this EMA)
Write a brief report relevant to the areas identified in the scenario provided below.
Word limit: 1200 words
Scenario
You have been requested, as a psychologist, to be part of the panel of a public enquiry following an NHS scandal pertaining to the prevalence of belief in conspiracy theories, extraordinary claims and misinformation in the NHS workforce.
It has come to light that several doctors and nurses have been let go from their posts due to their refusal to administer a new drug to treat meningitis to patients with the star sign Gemini. This is due to a misinformed belief that the medication will cause adverse effects to these individuals due to ‘Gemini’ being a partial anagram of ‘meningitis’. In addition, instead of prescribing medication, the doctors and nurses involved have been recommending homeopathic treatments and are demanding that they are reinstated in their roles on the grounds that they are entitled to their beliefs as a fundamental human right. The NHS, on the other hand, is concerned about patient safety.
Therefore, the panel is seeking guidance from you as a psychologist to do three things.
In reference to appropriate psychological literature, you should discuss why people believe in conspiracy theories and extraordinary claims.
You should discuss the impact of holding such beliefs.
The panel wants you to explain precisely how the Swiss cheese model of accident causation could be applied to the situation, to explain the risks of conspiracy theories and extraordinary beliefs concerning public health.
-assignment
EMA Part 1
For this part of the EMA you should write an integrative essay with the title below.
‘Our sense of identity is shaped by our social context’. Critically discuss, drawing on research evidence presented in Blocks 1 and 3.
For your essay, you must draw on material from Blocks 1 and 3 of the module, integrating evidence from across at least two psychological perspectives. We would recommend making use of content from Weeks 3 and 4, in Block 1, and Weeks 24 and 25, in Block 3. You do not need to draw on all four of these weeks and you will need to be selective in the material used. However, you should ensure that your essay makes use of content from both Block 1 and Block 3. You may want to include material from other weeks in Block 1 and Block 3 if you feel they are relevant to the question.
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 this essay is 1250 words, excluding the reference list but including in-text citations.
The question requires you to critically evaluate the statement that ‘Our sense of identity is shaped by our social context’.
The essay question asks for a discussion around social identity and social context, based on research evidence. Therefore, it is important that you make reference to studies and their findings. Alongside this, it is important to offer critical reflections on these studies and their findings.
It is up to you how you decide to structure your essay; however, keep in mind that you are expected to integrate the material from the two blocks, drawing on evidence from across at least two psychological perspectives. To write a coherent essay, aim to develop your argument by integrating content from Blocks 1 and 3 and developing an essay that reads as a coherent whole. There are different ways you could integrate and critically evaluate the material. However you choose to structure your essay, it is important to keep it focused on addressing the essay question and to focus more on critical evaluation than on description.
To help the markers to identify the new material from outside DE200, please highlight these two (or more) sources in the reference list at the end of your essay.
Relevant material
You must make use of content from both Block 1 and Block 3, drawing on evidence from more than one perspective in psychology. The content in Weeks 3 and 4 (Block 1) and Weeks 24 and 25 (Block 3) is particularly relevant to this question, and we would strongly recommend that you make use of this content in your answer. It is not necessary to include all these weeks, but you must include content from each block. You will need to be selective in the material you include.
Block 1 introduced you to the concept of social identity. Week 3 (Book 1, Chapter 3) focuses on a variety of research in the area of group processes. For instance, topics such as social facilitation, social loafing, social comparison and social change will help you to consider whether our sense of identity is shaped by social context. Week 4 (Book 1, Chapter 4) looks at the social psychology of prejudice, intergroup conflict and conflict reduction. Models discussed in this chapter may be useful in explaining how identity is shaped.
Block 3 considers the definition of identity in more depth. You may want to focus on topics of sexuality and gender; Week 24 (Book 3, Chapter 4) explores a range of explanations for the shaping of identity. For instance, biological, social cognitive and social constructionist perspectives of gender development are discussed, as well as the development of sexual identity. Week 25 (Book 3, Chapter 5) includes discussions around changes in self-identity across the lifespan, which you may also want to consider in your essay. This includes Erikson’s life stage model, cultural and historical processes as contexts for identity, Bronfenbrenner’s systems ideas, Scully’s work on genetic and imagined identities, and ‘fateful’ life-changing moments and transitions. These discussions will help you to consider whether our sense of identity is shaped by social context.
You may also choose to make use of other relevant material in Blocks 1 and 3. As the word limit is only 1250 words, you will need to be selective in the material and evaluation. Ensure that these are kept directly relevant to the question.
Finally, please remember that for this essay you are expected to conduct library research of your own into relevant material beyond the module resources, and to include at least two primary sources not referred to in the DE200 materials. The primary sources you should draw on are likely to be peer-reviewed psychology journal articles, though they could be chapters from academic psychology books – not textbooks. You may wish to revisit the literature searching activity in Week 2. Remember how important it is to evaluate the source, nature and reliability of all the material that you find. You could also consider more recent works by the authors mentioned in the DE200 textbooks, providing they are relevant to the essay question.