AQA Psychology for GCSE: Student Book

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What was the study’s aim?: The study was conducted to see if children are able to see things from another person’s perspective at an earlier stage than Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggested. Results: 90% of the children aged between 3.5yrs and 5yrs were able to hide the boy doll from the two policeman dolls. Piaget’s cognitive development theory and its stages have been heavily criticised. Other psychologists have shown that the ages Piaget said children could learn certain tasks we're incorrect. More recent studies have shown how babies develop object permanence before eight months (Hughes “Policeman Doll” study 1978) and children can lose their egocentric thinking and conserve before the age of seven (McGarrigle and Donaldson’s Naughty Teddy study 1974). There is also now the belief that children enter the formal operational stage much later than age 11, and some never reach this stage at all.

Cara Flanagan is one of the best-known and most respected authors for A Level Psychology. A practised teacher with examining experience and a well-known conference presenter, Cara is renowned for creating resources that students love to use. For AQA GCSE Psychology students, teachers and parents, our outstanding resources cover the latest 9-1 specification in immense detail and depth for the entire course. Jean Piaget believed that a child’s intelligence developed from them discovering things for themselves and they needed to explore objects and situations to learn about them. Piaget also believed that children needed to be ready to learn and that they could only gain new concepts and understanding if they were at the right stage of their development as predicted by his stage theory of cognitive development.

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People believe that if you teach a student in a way they learn best based on their preferred learning style, they should learn better. Other criticisms of Piaget’s theory focuses on how he conducted his experiments. For example, in the conservation tasks, he asked children the same question more than once before and after the counters had been moved. This could have resulted in researcher bias as the children may have believed that their first answer may be incorrect and so changed this.

Mark Jones is Head of A Level Psychology at a large and successful FE college in Bristol. Mark has many years' examining experience and has also worked as an advanced practitioner, liaising with teachers and colleges to help improve performance. Animal studies have been used to demonstrate how nurture is important for early brain development. One study compared two groups of rats with one group having toys to stimulate them while the other did not. The results found that the rats that lived with the stimulating toys developed bigger brains and showed better problem-solving skills compared to rats living on their own without stimulation. This shows how nurture can affect brain development. We've included exercises and practice application based questions across each topic at the end of every textbook to help students improve their understanding. Perfect For Studying or Teaching Our experienced educators and subject experts have carefully crafted the content to ensure that it is accessible and easy to understand, without sacrificing depth or accuracy. With summaries, explanations of key terms and exam-style questions at the end, our textbook is the perfect resource for both classroom learning, teaching and independent study.

Praise for AQA GCSE Psychology Second Edition

Some research studies have shown that IQ between identical twins is very similar which implies nature plays a significant role in intelligence. Other research studies have found personality is also shaped by nature; one study compared the behaviours of identical twins who were raised apart. Twins share exactly the same genetic makeup whereas non-identical twins do not. If identical twins are found to have similar characteristics then this is seen as evidence that supports nature as the cause. Despite these criticisms, Piaget’s theory has enjoyed a lot of mainstream support. His experiments were easy to replicate and his research had a major impact on early years education where his ideas are still used to this day.

Dave Berry is an experienced psychology teacher and examiner. He regularly leads face-to-face and online training courses for a major awarding body. Dave teaches psychology at Bolton School, Lancashire.

AQA GCSE Psychology answers

With all the uncertainly that the new GCSE specifications are bringing, this book will be a very useful tool in any GCSE Psychology teacher's toolkit. It directly follows the new AQA specification in a logical and well thought-out format. The clear layout and format will be a hit with both students and teachers alike. It really is a dual purpose textbook, a starting point for teachers preparing materials for their lessons and a student resource book too. Willingham disagreed with this and believed that learning styles do not exist in the ways suggested. As part of his learning theory, he pointed out that there was no experimental support for their existence or effectiveness. Other research studies have also shown that teaching in a students preferred learning style has no effect on their exam results. Willingham agreed that visual and auditory memory may be better within students but this did not help in the classroom environment. Willingham argued this was because teachers want students to learn the meaning of things rather than what they sound or look like. Regardless of whether the information was presented visually, actively or audibly, the student still needed to extract the information and its meaning to effectively learn. This would then explain why teaching in a students preferred learning style appears to have no effect on their exam results. Study design: A laboratory setting was used where there was control over some of the extraneous variables. All procedures were standardised to ensure replicability and reliability of findings. Eighty (80) children between the ages of 4yrs and 6yrs old took part in the study. The brain stem is shaped like a widening stalk and connects the spinal cord to the brain. It controls basic autonomic functions such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and sleeping. At the sixth week of pregnancy, the baby’s heart is beating regularly and blood pumps through the main vessels.

Identical twins may be treated similarly by people such as parents or peers and therefore their behavioural similarities may be due to nurture (and being treated the same) rather than their genes. Many potential students often ask "is psychology a hard GCSE subject?". The tutorial above will hopefully answer this question but in short, the answer is no, GCSE psychology is not a particularly hard subject to learn provided you revise sufficiently and learn the key theories and how to evaluate them. Newborn babies are useful to study as there is little chance for nurture (environmental influences) to have impacted the child. Psychologists have found that besides being able to cry, they can also recognise faces. This would suggest that nature is responsible for these abilities.The layout is very student friendly and the activities and suggestions for further reading will really consolidate a student's knowledge and ensure they are well prepared for the examination. It is written with students in mind and the language and layout are very student friendly.... They were found to be very similar when they met for the first time when aged 39. Both of them drove the same car, went on holiday to the same place as well as bit their nails. Ruth Jones is a practised teacher with examining experience and is Head of Psychology at a school ranked 'outstanding' by Ofsted in its last two inspections. Ruth also has a Masters Degree in Education.