Core Studies: Individual Differences Area | OCR A-Level Psychology (H567)

Core Studies: Individual Differences Area

141 questions
13 subtopics
Component 02: Psychological themes through core studies
Component 02

Core Studies: Individual Differences Area is examined on component 02 of OCR Psychology, Psychological themes through core studies.

141 recall questions across 13 subtopics.

Sample questions from Core Studies: Individual Differences Area

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Freud (1909) Little Hans: background, method and early history

Which method was used?

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It was a longitudinal case study of a single child, producing mainly qualitative data.
Freud (1909) Little Hans: the horse phobia and fantasies

Describe the plumber fantasy and its interpretation.

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Hans imagined a plumber giving him a bigger widdler like his father's, which Freud read as identification with his father and the start of a resolution.
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) autism in adults: background, method and sample

State the aim of Baron-Cohen et al.'s study.

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To find out whether adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome are impaired on an advanced adult test of theory of mind, and to check that any deficit is specific to reading mental states.
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) autism in adults: the Eyes Task, control tasks and results

Why was the Strange Stories task included?

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As a validity check, because it is an established advanced test of theory of mind on which the autism group would be expected to do poorly.
Understanding disorders: comparing Freud and Baron-Cohen et al.

How did the data each study collected differ?

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Freud's data were qualitative dreams, fantasies and remarks, while Baron-Cohen et al.'s were quantitative test scores.
Gould (1982) bias in IQ testing: background and the army tests

What did the Army Beta test consist of?

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It was a pictorial test for recruits who were illiterate or who had failed the Alpha, using tasks such as completing pictures, running mazes and counting cubes, with instructions given by demonstration.
Gould (1982) bias in IQ testing: consequences and evaluation

What longer-term human consequence does Gould attribute to those quotas?

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That many people later trying to escape persecution in Europe were refused entry to the United States.
Hancock et al. (2011) language of psychopaths: background and procedure

What were participants asked to do?

Show the answer
They were asked to describe their homicide in as much detail as they could, in an interview lasting around half an hour.

The 13 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Freud (1909) Little Hans: background, method and early history	Recall questions on Freud's aim in the 1909 case of Little Hans, why a child's case mattered, the case study method, the father's data collection, the period of study, Hans's early preoccupation, the threat he was given and the birth of his sister.	8
Freud (1909) Little Hans: the horse phobia and fantasies	Recall questions on the incident before Little Hans's phobia, his fear of horses and the features that frightened him, Freud's interpretations, and the giraffe, plumber and final fantasies and their significance.	9
Freud (1909) Little Hans: conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Freud's conclusions about Little Hans's phobia, the phallic stage, defence mechanisms, and the evaluation of the case study method, the father's role, alternative explanations, reliability and falsifiability, ethics and generalisation.	9
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) autism in adults: background, method and sample	Recall questions on theory of mind, why a new adult test was needed, the aim, method and design of Baron-Cohen et al.'s 1997 study, and the autism, typically developing and Tourette syndrome groups.	8
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) autism in adults: the Eyes Task, control tasks and results	Recall questions on why Baron-Cohen et al. included a Tourette syndrome group, the materials and procedure of the Eyes Task, the gender recognition, basic emotion and Strange Stories control tasks, and the groups' Eyes Task scores.	8
Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) autism in adults: further results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Baron-Cohen et al.'s findings on sex differences and IQ, their conclusion about a specific deficit, and the evaluation of the design, ecological validity, forced choice format, vocabulary and applications.	9
Understanding disorders: comparing Freud and Baron-Cohen et al.	Recall questions on the similarities between Freud and Baron-Cohen et al. in aims, samples, applications, ethics and approach, their differences in method, data, explanations of disorder, objectivity, reliability, comparison and falsifiability, and what the pair adds on disorders and diversity.	18
Gould (1982) bias in IQ testing: background and the army tests	Recall questions on Yerkes's army mental testing programme, why recruits were tested and how many, the nature of Gould's 1982 article and his argument, the Army Alpha and Beta tests, and cultural bias in test items.	9
Gould (1982) bias in IQ testing: Yerkes's conclusions and how the tests were given	Recall questions on why the Army Beta was not culture-free, Yerkes's conclusions about white recruits, immigrants and black recruits, length of residence and test scores, and the failures in how and where the tests were administered.	9
Gould (1982) bias in IQ testing: consequences and evaluation	Recall questions on evidence against the hereditarian interpretation, the reification of intelligence, the immigration quotas and their consequences, forms of bias, lessons about numbers in psychology, and the strengths, weaknesses and present relevance of Gould's analysis.	10
Hancock et al. (2011) language of psychopaths: background and procedure	Recall questions on psychopathy and how it was measured, the aim, method, design and sample of Hancock et al.'s 2011 study, exclusions, the interview task, preparing transcripts, the Wmatrix and Dictionary of Affect in Language tools.	12
Hancock et al. (2011) language of psychopaths: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Hancock et al.'s findings on conjunctions, needs, tense, articles, emotional tone and disfluencies, their main conclusion, and the evaluation of the analysis, validity, causation, sample, applications and ethics.	14
Measuring differences: comparing Gould and Hancock et al.	Recall questions on the similarities between Gould and Hancock et al. in topic, data, quantification, social sensitivity, samples and validity, their differences in research type, data size, measures, objectivity, consent and use, and what the pair adds on measuring differences and cultural diversity.	18

Core Studies: Individual Differences Area is 141 of the 3,537 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.