Using the case study below select one Psychological approach (as studied in  class) in order to consider to what extent this psychological perspective helps us understand the situation.

Billy is 14 years old.  He has attended his local secondary school in an urban area which is defined as socially deprived by all statistical measures.  His behavior in school has become    very difficult.  He regularly responds to teachers setting him tasks by burying his head in his  hands and telling the teachers to ‘f*** off’ .  The school’s discipline code is implemented and he is told to leave the class.  If this happens more than three times he is sent home, and if     that does not result in improved behaviour, he is excluded from school.  This has just happened and the school, reluctantly, are carrying out the exclusion.  Billy was abandoned   by his mother and left to fend for himself at the age of twelve.  Neighbours notified Social    Services who found him alone in his house with no food and no adults to care for him.  He    was looked after and fostered by a a local lady who has raised her own children.  She lives in the same area as his previous house and seems extremely found of him.  She is determined  to stand by him whatever he faces.

Billy never knew his birth father, but his mother has relationships with a number of partners.  She used drugs and drank alcohol during the day.  She would appear at the gate    of the junior school in an apparently drunken state.  When asked, she said that Billy was        rude and abusive at home.  She said that she has seen a TV programme on hyperactivity and had asked the doctor for some tablets, but the doctor had refused.  Overall, Billy, health is    good, although he is inclined to steal food.  His educational attainments are very weak.  His  reading is similar to that of a six-year-olds and he finds it difficult to write, unless copying.     However, he gets bored copying. He draws very well and seems to enjoy it.  While he has      been suspended from school he has been mixing with some older excluded pupils in the        area.  There are suspicions that he may be in contact with groups involved with breaking       and entering houses.  This is not confirmed.

The school has been subject to ‘special measures’ until very recently.  The acting head teacher is unsure whether the permanent job will be his.  Some staff feel unsupported in a  very difficult area of town.  Morale is low.  Although some staff feel very sorry for Billy, he is seen by many as a waste of time and they think that the school is better off without him.

Case taken from:

Yeomans, J., & Arnold, C. (2006).  Teaching, Learning and Psychology.  London: David Fulton.

Foundations of Psychology: Developing Writing

There are many examples of effective practice in submitted assignments each year, and individual students will receive individual, bespoke feedback on this basis.

In an effort to highlight opportunities to develop effective writing, the course team   have based this guide on a set of common comments and insights, evident across a   range of assignments each year.  These points apply to all levels of academic writing, so guide hopefully remains a useful reference document across multiple assignments.

Bear in mind these are general points, not necessarily to be follow to the letter, but to form a foundation for developing effective writing.  More in depth sources are provided below.

BEFORE YOU START

Rome wasn’t built in a day

The best assignments are able to draw upon a rich source of knowledge and understanding. They are able to look across a large body of knowledge and to judge the relative importance of facts, choosing to apply the more relevant and useful to their assignments.  Knowledge should be summary or editing down in application to specific assignment title, rather than a building up on the day of writing.  It is good if you are deciding what (less important) things  might be left out.  This means assignment planning starts early – time is needed to employ   independent reading around a topic.

You should have a range of core sources to drawn up, collated over the semester before you start planning the structure of the assignment. You can pull together further evidence, etc    as the assignment takes shape.

Types of sources should ideally be peer reviewed and/or academic texts (such as those on   the reading list).  Websites and news articles (unless making a point about the source itself) are best avoided.

We do not recommend using essay sites as reference source (or even risk accessing this material).

EARLY STRUCTURE

Get your ducks in a row

All assignment should have an introduction and conclusion as a minimum, but creating an     effective overall structure goes beyond this. How you organise your ideas and arguments is  an essential part of planning.  If you have a lot of source material, you may need to decide a) what warrants inclusion vs. what needs to be left out b) the best way to organise thoughts.

Ideally, there should be a logical and clearly defined series of paragraphs, each addressing  issue(s) related to the assignment title.  Ideally, there should be a rationale for the paragraph structure, relating to the assignment title – e.g. the most important headlines of a topic.  You will know you have an effective structure in place when you are able, in a few sentences, to describe the rationale of your approach in an introductory paragraph.             It might take several drafts to get topics and order right.  Assignment writing is an iterative

process.

Effective paragraph construction demonstrates the following elements:

-     Normally, there are only 3-5 major ‘headlines’ to ensure a balance between breadth and depth.  Lots of little paragraphs means the assignment might be ‘too thin’ .

-     There are linking sentences between major paragraphs – i.e. there is a logical and flow the argument meaning the assignment moves between substantive arguments to create one ‘whole piece’ .

-     In demonstrating criticality, it is worth considering where a paragraph offers counterpoint.  This means examining the opposite or opposing point being made and/or considering how valid or supported it is.  A critical paragraph puts forward a point of       view, considers its robustness through counterpoint, then explicitly summarises its          conclusions in explicit relation to the assignment title.

-     Academic sources (i.e. journal articles and academic texts) are used to support points. An assignment with little to no referencing is unlikely to offer a compelling argument.

DRAFTING

Again, again, again.

As above, effective assignment construction is an iterative process.  This means repeatedly returning to the draft, incrementally editing, tweaking, adjusting and improving. This process can include:

Examining whether description has purpose.  For assignments at this level, there is little to  no value in introducing descriptive information unless it is help an argument or point.  For instance, knowing that classical conditioning originates from Pavlov’s dogs is only relevant if there is a point attached (for instance, a limitation in using animal models to explain behaviour).  You will have decided if this is a headline or not when structuring your assignment. This information does not address the assignment title in and of itself.