Week 27

Preparation for exam

13 April 2016

27.01 Reflection: Study Strategies

Journal Activity

Visit two or three of the sites listed below:

o This site offers fairly standard advice but it is directed at IB students:
How To Ace IB Exams (Links to an external site.).
o This site provides an interview with a science writer who reviews recent
research about effective study and offers a different view to the
conventional wisdom. Think you know how to study? Think again (Links
to an external site.).
o This site is gives advice about how to review for psychology:
Psychology Study Tips (Links to an external site.).
Reflect on the study strategies you have used in the past.
Write a journal entry identifying your suggestions about how to study effectively. Do
they have any grounding in psychological theory?

In the past, I have not been a very efficient studier. I tend to get bored and am not very
motivated. I simply review my notes, focusing the highlighted material and the points that I
know I dont understand. I usually test myself or practice for subjects, such as math and
Spanish, but should also test my memory for psychology. I suggest to myself that I actually
schedule out blocks of time for review of psychology. After reading the NPR article, Think
you know how to study? Think again I realized that I really have not been effective. In order
to better understand the information I need to learn for tests I need to move around and
review the material repeatedly. Cramming for a test is definitely not the most efficient
strategy. I learned from the eHow article How to ace IB exams that I should review past
papers in addition to my personal notes and essay practice. I have to be able to reference
many different studies in relation to the theories and ideas I learned about over the course of
the past school year. Theres such a huge range of information covered, which means
theres no other way to learn than sitting down to review and practice. The about health
article Psychology Study Tips recommends creating an outline while studying over time to
review last minute. However, this of course, includes regular and active studying. I have
some ground in the psychological theory, but Im worried I wont be able to remember the
details of the so many different experiments.

27.02 Discussion: Formative ERQ Self-Assessment and Peer

Review - M2017 Psychology SL Y1(2) A - Helen Loughran

Self-assess your ERQ using the grading criteria found below, and the
marking guide supplied by your teacher. Write your marks for each
criterion, and out of 22, on your ERQ.
Write a brief discussion post giving the reasons for the marks you have
given yourself, and attach your self-assessed ERQ.

Each student should make sure to peer review at least one of their
colleagues' ERQs, by commenting on the ERQ in a discussion forum reply
that includes the marks given, and the reason for giving those marks,
especially if they differ from the self-assessment.

A: Knowledge and comprehension

8/9: The answer demonstrates detailed, accurate knowledge and understanding

relevant to the question, and uses relevant psychological research effectively in
support of the response.
The research is accurately used to answer the question
B: Evidence of critical thinking: application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation
6/9: The answer offers appropriate but limited evidence of critical thinking or
offers evidence of critical thinking that is only implicitly linked to the
requirements of the question.
The response lacks evaluation and should further discuss the ideas to show critical
thinking. The needs of the command term are met.
C: Organization
3/4: The answer is well organized, well developed and focused on the question
17/22
Discuss factors influencing conformity.
week 26 formative ERQ
Conformity is an indirect form of social influence which values and behaviors of a
culture are passed on to its members. It forces people to adapt their feelings,
behaviors, and thoughts to be in agreement or to be accepted by the social norms of

the group. In schools, this influence is otherwise recognized by the phrase, peer
pressure.
There are many different factors which influence conformity found in the Asch
Paradigm, studied by Soloman Asch in 1951. These include gender, age, historical
context, culture and ethnicity, group size, professional confidence, self-esteem,
position of participants seat, and unanimity or having more than one person choose
the incorrect answer. There were many follow-up studies and replications of the Asch
1951 study to investigate why 75% of participants were affected by the social
pressures and conformed at least once during the trials. I find it quite interesting that
so many people tended to simply change their own thoughts just to feel accepted
into their group, even though there were no consequences for going against the
group or an expectancy of the group ever meeting again.
In 1956, Asch continued his research and investigated some of these factors further.
Looking a group size, it was found that the social impact theory and social influence
model can be applied. The theory states that additional members add pressure for
the participant to conform and the model shows that the conformity level increases
to a certain extent before it eventually begins to decrease. The results of Aschs
study showed that 3% of participants conformed when they were only with one
confederate, 14% conformed when in a group with two confederates, and 32% were
influenced with three confederates. The researcher concluded that the rate of
conformity does not increase with any larger groups, but may decrease with very
large groups because individuals feel more comfortable voicing their true opinion.
This may be because of the unanimity of the group. If all of the confederates were to
agree on a single response, then participants tend to go along with the incorrect
answer, so they feel as if they hold a sense of belonging to the group. However, if
one confederate says a different answer, then the participant will also most likely
disagree with the rest of the group and give their proper response, meaning they are
less likely to conform.
Unless, the participant has high-self esteem or strong confidence. In 1973, Stang
studied conformity in relation to self-esteem. He came to a conclusion that people are
less likely to conform if they have a high self-esteem. They tended to stick with their
own choice and not conform to the response of the majority if they knew it was
incorrect.
Perrin and Spencer investigated the factor of confidence in 1988. Their research
found that people are less likely to conform if they make a decision with regard to a
field of ones expertise. The procedure replicated the methodology of the Asch
Paradigm, but replaced the participants with engineering, mathematics, chemistry,
and medical students. The results supported their hypothesis, as only one participant
conformed to the wrong estimation of the majority, out of the 396 trials. This study
also supports the factor of culture influencing conformity, as Americans in the 1950s,
when Asch conducted his original experiment, were taught to follow the majority
opinion, but following the rules of postmodernism, especially after the demands for
social change in the 1960s, the effect of culture is obvious on conformity.
Smith and Bond also looked at culture and ethnicity, in 1996. After reviewing
conformity studied, they found that people who score high on Hoestedes collectivism
scale tend to conform more than those who score low. In 1995, Neto F. also
researched how culture affects conformity. The study included participants who were
women psychology students in a Portuguese university. They were put in a group in a
group with an unanimous majority group and control participants. The results showed
that 59% of the women who were minorities conformed at least once and 28%
yielded three to twelve times while 27% of the control condition conformed at least
once and only 3.3% made more than three mistakes. This investigation proved that

there is an obvious difference between the psychology students in Portugal and

control group, being that there is a lower conformity rate to unanimous peer group
opinions than the American male students from Aschs study. The females in this
study were also the minority of the experiment, which relates to the minority
influence is when the majority of the group is forced to accept the beliefs of the
minority after exerting their disagreement to bring a change in society. This is
affected by the factors of conformity including group size, level of consistency, and
situational factors.
Conformity is influenced by the factors of gender, age, historical context, culture and
ethnicity, group size, professional confidence, self-esteem, position of participants
seat, and unanimity. All of these factors can be seen through the studies investigating
the psychological process of conformity further, including Asch 1956, Perrin and
Spencer 1988, Stang 1973, Smith and Bond 1996, and Neto F. 1995. This idea of
conformity with support of these studies studied at the sociocultural level of analysis
proves that humans are social beings.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Rl3t2hMFmaz0FAo2vEHN5VSU1c5faqbrXB4nFQEXk/edit#

27.03 End of Year Exam Review Plan

Find below a list of possible activities you might like to undertake to study
for the End of Year Exam
o read your journal posts
o read over all your SAQs and ERQs and rewrite those that need
improvement
o write outlines for possible SAQs and ERQs. Remember that all
questions are based on the Learning Outcomes
o read your text
o practice writing SAQs and ERQs
Create a document entitled <Your name> End of Year Exam Review Plan.
This review plan will span Weeks 27, 28 and whatever week has been set
aside as your exam week by your SBC. (Weeks 29-31). You need to outline
what you plan to do in these three weeks and when you will complete
each of these review activities. Be specific.
Submit your assignment here as early as you can.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fG6drZY3lz3c1L2NoRf1zUCunZsgQqo3e0KJmrFwnY/edit#
Essential Skills: Self-Management
Your review plan brings into play a number of the self-management skills you have
been developing this year in IB Psychology. In particular aim to devise SMART goals
(Links to an external site.) for your review plan and think carefully about how to
manage your time (Links to an external site.).

27.03 End of Year Exam Review Plan

Week 27
- travelling to Rome
Create a plan
Set SMART goals
o Specific
o Manageable
o Attainable
o Relevant
o Time bound
Manage my time and PRIORITIZE studying for psychology
Review exam criteria/rubrics
o Section A
SAQs

1 hour
3 questions
1 question to respond to from each level of analysis
BLOA
CLOA
SCLOA is material from pgs. 101-123
250-300 words
Out of 8 marks
Section B
ERQ

1 hour
Choose 1 question of of the 3 options
Marked out of 22
800-1,000 words
Fill out empirical checklist
Review journal
Review of the SCLOA
o read over all your SAQs and ERQs and rewrite those that need
improvement
o write outlines for possible SAQs and ERQs. Remember that all questions
are based on the Learning Outcomes

Week 28
Journal reflection
Review of the BLOA

read over all your SAQs and ERQs and rewrite those that need
improvement
o write outlines for possible SAQs and ERQs. Remember that all questions
are based on the Learning Outcomes
Review of the CLOA
o read over all your SAQs and ERQs and rewrite those that need
improvement
o write outlines for possible SAQs and ERQs. Remember that all questions
are based on the Learning Outcomes
Choose a test date with coordinator
Review livelessons
Finish and upload 22.04 SCLOA empirical checklist
o

Week 29
Create a list of theories
Compile a list of studies with summaries
Review outline of each level of analysis
Week 30
study
Week 31

study

27.04 SCLOA Empirical Studies Checklist