Analyse means to examine in detail the contribution the perspective makes to explaining the behaviour. Remember in the materials we identified the 4 important points of an analysis
o Keyassumptions
o Application
o Research(studiesbyPsychologiststosupport/refute) o Evaluation–e.gthemesanddebates,comparisontoother
perspectives and methodological issues
• If any of these steps are missed from your answer it will not meet all of the assessment criteria.
• The question asks for a range of perspectives – by this we mean three.
So you will complete this process of analysis three times (for three different perspectives).
• Make sure that you research the behaviours carefully before choosing which behaviour to consider. You have a choice of bystander behaviour and phobia and there are links below which will help with research on both of these. When you have chosen your
Subject: Psychology
Unit title: Psychological Perspectives and Behaviour
behaviour think about which three psychological perspectives you will analyse (you do not have to cover all of the perspectives).
• When planning your essay you will need to go through the 4 components of analysis three times (for each perspective) and also introduce and conclude your essay.
Suggested structure
Introduction
Briefly outline the behaviour and perspectives you are going to consider in your answer.
Perspective 1
Go through the key assumptions of the perspective and relate these to how the behaviour can be explained by this perspective. Outline any research evidence which supports this explanation. Evaluate the way this perspective explains the behaviour using any relevant key themes and debates.
Perspective 2
Go through the key assumptions of the perspective and relate these to how the behaviour can be explained by this perspective. Outline any research evidence which supports this explanation. Evaluate the way this perspective explains the behaviour using any relevant key themes and debates.
Perspective 3
Go through the key assumptions of the perspective and relate these to how the behaviour can be explained by this perspective. Outline any research evidence which supports this explanation. Evaluate the way this perspective explains the behaviour using any relevant key themes and debates.
Conclusion
Summarise the contribution of the three perspectives in explaining the behaviour.
It will be very important to plan your essay to using this structure to help but adding details of the specific assumptions, application, research and evaluation you will use in each paragraph.
