ED209 Tutorial 4

							ED209
Tutorial 4

Thinking about the exam
The exam for 2007 takes place on:


      Friday 19th October 2007, from 2.30pm until 5.30pm


This means you have 150 days left until the exam – plenty of time…if you
start planning your strategy NOW.


To plan your strategy:


   1. Look at past exam papers and analyse the structure – see what you
      are being examined on.
   2. Choose which areas of the exam you wish to focus on – but don’t
      completely ignore sections.
   3. Make a revision timetable – the earlier you start, the better.
   4. Learn the course materials
   5. Practice answering some questions
   6. Check out the arrangements for the exam – where will it be held,
      parking, bus routes etc.
ED209
Tutorial 4

Example exam questions
      Describe and evaluate the role of play in children's social and
       emotional development. (1999)
      Discuss the ways in which children are thought to develop an
       understanding of self. Identify the processes which you consider to be
       most important, and justify your choice. (2000)
      Is adolescence a distinct stage of development with its own
       characteristics? Draw on research to support your argument. (2001)


Choose one of these questions and consider:


          1. What is the examiner asking you to do?
          2. What are the key theories you need to discuss?
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Tutorial 4

The “seen” question
In Part 2 of the exam you will be expected to answer the following question:


      “Discuss the ways in which developmental psychology
      can contribute to understanding and influencing
      children’s cognitive and social abilities.’


Choose ONE chapter of Book 4: Developmental Psychology In Action
Use this chapter to steer you towards research papers you find in a literature
search.
Outline your answer to include information from Book 4 AND your literature
search.
Remember your answer should talk about the ways in which development
psychology can contribute; to make that obvious you need to also mention
ways in which it cannot contribute.
Remember too that your answer needs to include cognitive AND social
abilities.
Your answer also needs to discuss understanding AND influencing. Hence
your essay is being asked to look at four things…! (Understanding cognitive,
understanding social, influencing cognitive, influencing social.)
Remember also you will only have one hour to write this essay in exam
conditions. Most people can only hand write around 1,000 words comfortably
in one hour. Your essay therefore needs to be concise and well focused. It will
need to be shorter than a TMA.


IMPORTANT: Don’t worry about your seen question now. Get TMA05 and
TMA06 done first, then concentrate on the reading and literature search.
However, you may want to dip into Book 4 just to get an idea of which subject
area you’d like to concentrate on.
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Tutorial 4

TMA04 – Practical Assignment
This assignment requires you to present qualitative data as your results. You
need to be sure to separate the qualitative results form interpretation of those
results – which should be in your discussion section.
You might find it helpful to separate your Results section into three sub
sections:
      Evidence for developmental trends in self description
       Compare the percentages of responses which fall into the P, C, R and I
       categories.
      Evidence for developmental trends in locus of self knowledge
       This relates to questions 7,8 and 9. Just present the number of times
       interviewees indicate ‘self’ or ‘other’. Is there a shift with age?
      Other findings
       Are there any other differences you noticed between the interviewees’
       responses? Can you compare these differences to Rosenberg’s
       findings?
When you discuss the results, it may be useful to stick to these three
subheadings as well in the Discussion section.


NOTES:
The fact that you are only using interviews with two children is NOT an
argument for saying you didn’t find anything. You will find something.
If you have studied DSE212 (or DSE202) before you will have covered the
theoretical background to this study. You are, though, being assessed on
what you did in this study NOT on the material you already know from
previous courses. Credit will be given if you include relevant material from
DSE212/202, but this should not dominate your answer.
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Tutorial 4

TMA04 – Writing Practicals
Your practical report MUST include the following sections, each presented
with its own subheading as follows:


       Abstract (150 words)
       Introduction (350 words)
       Method (400 words)
       Results (300 words)
       Discussion (750 words)
       Conclusion (50 words)
       References


You MUST also provide your report with a Title.


Some important points to remember:
Your abstract needs to convey a summary of your entire report. Write one or
two sentences to summarise each section. Hence write your abstract LAST.
Your introduction needs to introduce your study by setting it into theoretical
context. Your introduction should end with your hypothesis.
Your method section needs to convey exactly what you did so that anyone
could repeat your study without error, even if they only had a basic
understanding of psychology.
Your results section must only convey results; commentary on results must go
in the discussion section.
Your discussion section should connect your results to your introductory
theory and hypothesis. It will probably be the longest section of your report.
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Tutorial 4

TMA04 – Coding
To write your practical report you will need to code statements made by
children during interviews.
Code the following statements yourself, then compare your coding with a
partner and discuss your coding, especially any disagreements you make.
The allowable codes are:


P = Physical descriptor
C = Character description
R = Relationships
I = Inner traits




Statement                                Your Code          Partner’s Code
My name is Graham
I am 7 years old and I am a boy
I like watching TV and my favourite
programme is Power Rangers
My best friend is Josh and he likes
playing football with me
I go to Judo every Thursday
My favourite food is curry


I’m a 15 year old girl called Cathy
I would like to be an actress when I
leave school
I’m quite easy going and laid back
I love languages and learning how to
speak to foreign people
My favourite group is Arctic Monkeys
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Tutorial 4

Teenagers




These brands were the three most popular brands with teenagers last year.


Why might each of these brands appeal to teenagers?
What do teenagers achieve by being associated with each of these brands?
What can teenagers do with these branded products that adults cannot?