Edexcel A Level Psychology Paper 2 June 2024 question paper 9PS0/02

During your studies of clinical psychology, you will have learned about classification systems for mental health, including the DSM and ICD.

Describe the DSM as a classification system.

Explain one strength and one weakness of the DSM as a classification system to diagnose mental health disorders.

Strength

Weakness

Sakura conducted an investigation to see if having a family member with a mental health disorder affected trainee nurses’ willingness to work in mental health.

She used two groups of trainee nurses from a local hospital as her participants.

• Condition A: 19 trainee nurses who had a family member with a mental health disorder.

• Condition B: 19 trainee nurses who did not have a family member with a mental health disorder.

She gave each of her participants a questionnaire asking them whether they would be willing to work in mental health. The participants had to circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

State a fully operationalised non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis for Sakura’s investigation.

Sakura collated her data. The results are shown in Table 1.

Sakura carried out a chi-squared on her data.

State two reasons why Sakura used chi-squared to analyse her data.

Explain one strength of Sakura’s investigation into trainee nurses’ willingness to work in mental health.

Explain one improvement Sakura could make to her investigation into trainee nurses’ willingness to work in mental health.

In your studies of clinical psychology, you will have learned about one of the following disorders:

• Anorexia nervosa

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

• Unipolar depression

Evaluate one non-biological theory/explanation for your chosen disorder.

Chosen disorder

Ferenc is a clinical psychologist. He investigated different attitudes to mental health disorders across cultures.

Ferenc gave his participants questionnaires using Likert scales and open-ended questions about their attitudes towards people with mental health disorders.

The participants were from his own ethnic group, from a different ethnic group within his own Western country or from a neighbouring, Western country.

After Ferenc had collected the data from the returned questionnaires, he analysed the data to see if there were any similarities and differences between the three groups. He found that his own ethnic group had the most positive attitude towards those with mental health disorders.

Discuss Ferenc’s use of cross-cultural research to investigate people’s attitudes to those with mental health disorders.

You must make reference to the context in your answer.

Patti has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder. She sometimes thinks she is a cat. She regularly dresses as a cat and meows to her partner, rather than talking to them, which upsets her partner.

Due to dressing as a cat, Patti has been dismissed from her job as she was required to wear a uniform. This means Patti no longer has enough money to go out for meals with her partner, which she likes to do.

Recently, when thinking she was a cat, Patti saw a large dog and climbed up a tree to escape the dog. However, the branch broke, she fell and had to go to hospital. When seeing a psychiatrist, Patti did admit that she was happy when she thought she was a cat. Patti also said that when she realised she was not a cat, she became upset about the effect this had on her life and on her partner.

To what extent are deviance, dysfunction, distress and danger useful in diagnosing Patti with a mental health disorder?

You must make reference to the context in your answer.

In your studies of criminological psychology, you will have conducted a practical investigation.

Describe the results of your practical investigation in criminological psychology.

Explain one strength of your practical investigation in criminological psychology.

Explain one improvement you could make to your practical investigation in criminological psychology.

Saqlain investigated whether eye-witness testimony was reliable. He gathered his participants from his village using a volunteer sampling technique.

Saqlain showed his participants a video of a car chase between the police and a criminal. He asked the two different groups of participants a set of questions. One question was different between the groups. In condition A, he asked the question ‘Did you see a gun?’, and in condition B, the question was changed to ‘Did you see the gun?’

Describe how Saqlain may have gathered his participants using a volunteer sampling technique.

Explain one weakness of Saqlain using a volunteer sampling technique for his investigation.

Saqlain used an independent groups design in his investigation.

Explain one strength of Saqlain using an independent groups design.

Evaluate the self-fulfilling prophecy as an explanation of criminal/anti-social behaviour.

Maxyme is currently in prison.

He gets very angry when people disrespect him, such as when a teenager pushed in front of him in a queue before he went to prison. He felt the teenager had done it deliberately because they did not like Maxyme. The only reason Maxyme did not start a fight is because there were several other people nearby and he did not want to get into trouble with the police.

Maxyme has been found guilty of robbery and assault. He went with a weapon to a shop and threatened the shop keeper. Once the shop keeper had given him some money, he left the shop. Maxyme assaulted a passer-by when they tried to stop him from getting away.

Whilst in prison, Maxyme is having a cognitive-behavioural treatment.

Assess the effectiveness of one cognitive-behavioural treatment for Maxyme.

You must make reference to the context in your answer.

In your studies of child psychology, you will have conducted a practical investigation.

Describe the results of your practical investigation in child psychology.

Explain one strength of your practical investigation in child psychology.

Explain one improvement you could make to your practical investigation in child psychology.

Saqlain investigated whether children remembered more of a story that was read by a parent at different times of the day. He gathered his participants from his village using a volunteer sampling technique.

Saqlain asked a parent to read the same story to their child over the period of a week. He asked two different groups of children how much they remembered. In condition A, the parent was asked to read to their child in the morning, and, in condition B, the parent was asked to read to their child in the afternoon.

Describe how Saqlain may have gathered his participants using a volunteer sampling technique.

Explain one weakness of Saqlain using a volunteer sampling technique for his investigation.

Saqlain used an independent groups design in his investigation.

Explain one strength of Saqlain using an independent groups design.

Evaluate one biological explanation for autism.

Maxyme works as a nurse at a local health centre. As part of his job, he runs a class for new parents to teach parenting skills. He has a mixture of mothers and fathers attending the class.

Maxyme has noticed that the children react differently to their parents. One child called Jack is always happy to explore the toys in the room and interact with his parent, whereas another child called Fay does not interact with her parent. Some other children in the parenting class do not explore the room but like to stay close to their parent.

Maxyme has decided to investigate this further as part of his professional development. He decides to use the Strange Situation procedure to investigate how all the children in the parenting class react to their mothers and fathers, and how the parents react to their child.

Assess the effectiveness of the Strange Situation procedure as used by Maxyme to investigate the children and their parents.

You must make reference to the context in your answer.

In your studies of health psychology, you will have conducted a practical investigation.

Describe the results of your practical investigation in health psychology.

Explain one strength of your practical investigation in health psychology.

Explain one improvement you could make to your practical investigation in health psychology.

Saqlain investigated people’s attitudes towards a new anti-drugs campaign. He gathered his participants from his village using a volunteer sampling technique.

Saqlain showed his participants a video of a new anti-drugs campaign. He showed two different groups of participants a different variation of the video. In condition A, he showed the participants a video including fear provoking messages, and in condition B, the video was changed to include factual information only.

Describe how Saqlain may have gathered his participants using a volunteer sampling technique.

Explain one weakness of Saqlain using a volunteer sampling technique for his investigation.

Saqlain used an independent groups design in his investigation.

Explain one strength of Saqlain using an independent groups design.

Evaluate one treatment for nicotine addiction, other than aversion therapy.

Maxyme is addicted to alcohol. He always has a drink of alcohol after he has eaten, and every time he goes out, he needs to drink. He finds drinking makes him feel relaxed and more confident and says he started drinking when he was nervous about being in large groups.

Maxyme’s friends used to say he was much more fun when he had a drink, but now that he drinks excessively they are embarrassed by his behaviour. Maxyme gets withdrawal symptoms if he does not have a drink of alcohol in the morning.

His mother used to drink a lot of alcohol, and when Maxyme was younger his group of friends often drank alcohol when they were at the park. When questioned about his alcohol addiction, Maxyme said it is due to seeing his mother drinking when he was a child.

Assess the effectiveness of one learning explanation to account for Maxyme’s alcohol addiction.

You must make reference to the context in your answer.