Reference no: EM132933119

Psychology of Everyday Life

Portfolio of Tasks

Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Psychology of Everyday Life assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcome 1. Explain a range of theories in psychology that put forward an explanation of human behaviour
Learning Outcome 2. Understand the differences between popular and academic presentations of psychological theories
Learning Outcome 3. Show knowledge of theories of psychology as applied to everyday issues.
Learning Outcome 4. Demonstrate the everyday relevance of psychological theories.

Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and a word count; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in Arden University.

Assignment Task

Q1. Psychologists often conduct experiments seeking to identify causal relationships between different variables, and how this might influence individuals' choices and behaviour. Dr Jones is interested in whether the prior consumption of fizzy drinks can affect subsequent driver performance in a driving test. He decides to test this experimentally, predicting that those who had previously consumed a fizzy drink would show a superior performance.

Dr. Jones designed a pilot study using twenty participants who volunteered to undertake a two-week intensive driving course. The participants were allocated into two gender groups (10 males in the experimental group and 10 females in the control group). Each participant in the experimental group was given a can of fizzy drink, and each participant in the control group was given a glass of plain water to drink 10 minutes before undertaking their ‘practice driving test'. During the ‘test', the participants' driving skills i.e. the number of ‘minor' or ‘major' errors were assessed and documented by the driving instructor.

After the experiment, Dr Jones wanted to understand more about the effects of fizzy drinks upon the participants' thinking processes. He decided to conduct semi- structured interviews with some of the participants.

a. Identify and outline the Dependant Variable (DV) in this experiment.
b. Identify and outline the Independent Variable (IV) in this experiment.
c. Identify at least two Extraneous Variables (EVs) which may have impacted upon the results and how they might have operated.
d. Imagine that you are Dr Jones, and you need to write a research question to create a focus for your research. Please write a suitable one to reflect the aims of this particular study.
e. The interviews produced qualitative data. Provide a definition for qualitative data, identify and explain one strength and one weakness of collecting qualitative data in this study.

Q2.

Psychology uses various approaches to understand human behaviour. Compare and contrast the following two approaches in psychology which help us to understand how we behave.

(a) The Evolutionary approach, with reference to Charles Darwin's work on ‘natural selection'. Consider how far it can explain gender role development.

and

(b) the Behaviourist approach with reference to Pavlov's ‘Classical conditioning' and Skinner's ‘Operant Conditioning'; exploring their influence upon behaviourist approaches to Leadership.

Q3. Short Essay -

Essay Question:

The current Covid-19 pandemic has seen the emergence of a raft of new behavioural practices and norms.

A. Consider how aspects of the following Social Psychological research traditions might offer scientific explanations of individual and group orientations to the evolving regulations:

(i) Conformity
(ii) Obedience to Authority

B. If you were responsible for setting public policy, outline and explain one Psychological approach to leadership you may adopt in seeking to encourage others to conform to the ‘social distancing' and ‘sheltering' practices designed to protect the most vulnerable members of society.

Attachment:- Psychology of Everyday Life.rar