Kerboodle and Edmodo tasks

Kerboodle is an online resource that links in with our Nelson Thornes textbook. You now have logins in the following form:
Username: initial of first name followed by last name with no spaces e.g. 'tlawrence' (if you have spaces or hyphens in your name these are removed so james smith-jones would be 'jsmithjones'.
Password: same but with a 0 (zero) on the end. If your last name is only three letters along, then 00!
Organisation code: 5166

There are two tasks for you to do now, and one for the end of the holiday.

Edmodo is our unofficial school VLE. You can use it to hand in work, which will then be storred online, along with my comments on it. Use your password when you sign up if you haven't done so already - you can use this to log in if you forget your username.
You either need to sign up for this yourself and use the following code to join the AS Psychology group: p537na or log in and click 'join' in your 'groups' panel on the left and enter the code.

For our next lesson on Tuesday 1st November, research and bring a piece of paper with a summary of the following:
What is the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, and the permissive amine hypothesis of depression?

• What is the evidence that these disorders have a genetic basis?

Classificatory Systems

In practice psychiatrists and psychologists don't ever use just one definition, they use a 'classificatory system' which is based on a mixture of these ideas. The use of such systems is often called the 'disease model' or 'medical model' of abnormality, because it assumes that psychological disorders can be classified and diagnosed based on clusters of symptoms, much like physical diseases.

Here is a short presentation on this.

The multi-store model of memory

You need to be able to draw this diagram, but more importantly to evaluate whether it represents a valid model of memory. Evidence that might support it includes the case studies like H.M., Glanzer & Cunitz's serial position curve, and all the STM and LTM studies we have looked at so far this term. This is detailed in the ppt, which is here. However, it is overly simplistic and doesn't account for flashbulb memories or any interaction between the stores.

TV alert

This looks great - if you missed the first episode like I did, catch up on i-player

Defining Abnormality

The first section of our Abnormality topic is concerned with ways psychologists use to categorise people as 'normal' or 'abnormal' - these methods are called Definitions of Abnormality. They are not explanations as to why people may be psychologically abnormal - we will look at how each of the four approaches explains this next.

The definitions you need to be able to explain and evaluate are (click for presentation):

Deviation from Social Norms

Failure to Function Adequately

Deviation from Ideal Mental Health

For Tuesday18th October:

An essay, to be word processed and brought electronically (300-400 words):

"Put the three definitions of abnormality in order from most to least useful. Justify your decision with reference to their strengths and limitations."

More encoding and an ESSAY

‘Give a brief account of the differences between STM and LTM, and consider the extent to which research supports the distinction between them’ (12 marks)

The essay is due on Tuesday 18th October.

A suggested essay plan is here. Any problems, see me before the deadline.

In today's lesson we discussed visual encoding and how it is used as well as acoustic in encoding short-term memories. The ppt with the picture stimuli is here.

Also, we have a class test on Thursday 13th October on capacity, duration and encoding.