OCR A-Level Psychology

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H567/01 - Research methods

Research methods and techniques

1.1 - Experiments and causal claimsExperiments compare conditions to investigate possible causes of behaviour. Learn how laboratory, field and quasi experiments differ, and why the way a study controls its conditions changes the conclusions it can support.
1.1 - Observation methodsObservation records what people do. Learn how an observation can be described along four separate dimensions, and how the recording method, setting, observer's role and participants' awareness affect its evidence.
1.1 - Questionnaires and interviewsSelf-report methods ask people about their experiences, feelings and behaviour. Learn how questionnaires and three types of interview collect different evidence, and why the quality of an answer depends on both the question and the situation in which it is asked.
1.1 - Correlations and their limitsCorrelational analysis asks whether two measured variables vary together. Learn how to collect paired scores, construct and read a scatter diagram, and explain why a relationship alone does not establish a cause.

Planning and conducting research

1.2 - Aims and hypothesesA research aim identifies what a study will investigate, while a hypothesis makes a testable prediction. Learn to formulate experimental and correlational predictions with clear measures, and distinguish directional, non-directional and null hypotheses.
1.2 - Populations and samplingResearchers usually study a sample rather than everyone they want to understand. Learn how four sampling techniques recruit participants, why random selection differs from convenient recruitment, and how sampling affects the scope of a conclusion.
1.2 - Experimental designsLearn how repeated measures, independent measures and matched participants designs arrange people across experimental conditions, and how to choose between them for a particular investigation.
1.2 - Variables and operationalisationLearn to specify what an experiment changes and measures, turn abstract ideas into workable procedures, and control other influences so a result can be interpreted fairly.
1.2 - Designing observationsLearn to turn observable behaviour into clear categories and a coding record, choose time or event sampling, and evaluate what the resulting record includes and misses.
1.2 - Designing self-reportsLearn to choose and write open questions, closed questions, Likert items and semantic differential scales, and evaluate whether a self-report records the intended experience fairly.

Recording and describing data

1.3 - Recording data and numerical precisionLearn to preserve a usable raw data record, convert between decimal and standard form, round to appropriate significant figures, and use estimates to check whether numerical results are plausible.
1.3 - Levels and types of dataLearn what a recorded score represents, how numerical and descriptive information differ, and why the origin of data matters when choosing an analysis.
1.3 - Central tendency, ratios and percentagesLearn to calculate and choose a typical value, express category frequencies as fractions, ratios and percentages, and check that a numerical answer is plausible.
1.3 - Dispersion and standard deviationLearn how range, variance and standard deviation describe spread, calculate them from a small dataset, and interpret them alongside a typical value.
1.3 - Tables, graphs and scatter diagramsLearn to organise frequencies, construct suitable data displays and read their patterns without confusing categories, continuous measurements and paired observations.

Inferential statistics

1.3 - Distributions, significance and errorsLearn how distributions describe scores and how probability, significance thresholds and decision errors limit conclusions from research.
1.3 - Choosing tests and reading critical valuesLearn to select the five required non-parametric tests, recognise parametric assumptions, and use the correct critical-value rule to reach a cautious significance conclusion.
1.3 - Mann-Whitney U testLearn how to compare two independent groups using ranked scores, handle tied scores fairly, calculate U and reach a justified significance decision.
1.3 - Wilcoxon Signed Ranks testLearn how paired differences become signed ranks, why zero differences are excluded, and how the smaller rank sum supports a significance decision.
1.3 - Chi-square testLearn how observed category counts are compared with expected frequencies, calculate chi-square and degrees of freedom, and interpret an association without assuming causation.
1.3 - Binomial Sign testLearn how the direction of paired changes becomes signs, how unchanged pairs alter N, and how binomial probabilities and critical values determine significance.
1.3 - Spearman's RhoLearn how to rank paired co-variable measurements, calculate and interpret rho, handle ties responsibly, and judge significance without turning correlation into causation.

Practical activities

1.5 - Conducting a self-report practicalLearn to plan, conduct, analyse and reflect on a small questionnaire investigation. The worked records are fictional; completing the written checks does not mean you have conducted the required practical yourself.
1.5 - Conducting an observation practicalLearn how to collect observable behaviour systematically, protect participants, display the data and improve the method. The example records are fictional; the written activities prepare you for a supervised practical and do not certify that it has occurred.
1.5 - Conducting an experiment practicalLearn to turn a causal question into a controlled small experiment, collect and analyse recall scores, and reflect on the real procedure. The example data are fictional; written success does not certify practical conduct.
1.5 - Conducting a correlation practicalLearn to collect paired measurements, construct a scatter diagram, select a correlation test and reflect on a small practical. All worked records are fictional; analysing them does not certify that you have conducted your own correlation.

H567/02 - Psychological themes through core studies

Social core studies

H567/02 Section A - Milgram (1963): obedienceLearn how Milgram measured obedience to a harmful command, what his participants actually did, and how the procedure supports and limits explanations of authority.
H567/02 Section A - Bocchiaro et al. (2012): disobedience and whistle-blowingLearn how Bocchiaro and colleagues separated obedience, refusal and whistle-blowing, and why moral predictions and personality scores did not straightforwardly predict behaviour.
H567/02 Section A - Responses to people in authority: comparing the pairCompare what Milgram and Bocchiaro reveal about authority, including their methods, changing ethical designs, and the limits of claims about individual and cultural diversity.
H567/02 Section A - Piliavin et al. (1969): Subway SamaritanLearn how a staged subway emergency tested helping behaviour, why victim characteristics mattered, and how a cost–reward explanation differs from claiming that crowds always prevent help.
H567/02 Section A - Levine et al. (2001): cross-cultural altruismLearn how three everyday helping situations were compared across 23 cities, what community patterns emerged, and why a city's helping rate cannot define every person or prove a cultural cause.
H567/02 Section A - Responses to people in need: comparing the pairCompare Piliavin's visible emergency with Levine's everyday favours, and judge how the contemporary research changes explanations of helping and social or cultural diversity.

Cognitive core studies

H567/02 Section A - Loftus and Palmer (1974): eyewitness testimonyThe words used after an event can influence how that event is remembered. This lesson follows two experiments on accident films, distinguishes their findings, and considers how far they help us understand eyewitness testimony.
H567/02 Section A - Grant et al. (1998): context-dependent memoryRemembering learned material may depend on the environment in which it is retrieved. Grant and colleagues tested meaningful reading material in silent and noisy conditions, allowing us to distinguish a context match from a simple benefit of silence.
H567/02 Section A - Memory: comparing the pairLoftus and Palmer examined how questions can distort reports of an event; Grant and colleagues examined how environmental context can support retrieval. Comparing their evidence shows what changed in the study of memory and where claims about different people and cultures remain limited.
H567/02 Section A - Moray (1959): auditory attentionWe can follow one voice while missing much of another conversation. Moray tested whether repetition, a person's own name and instructions could make unattended messages reach awareness, using three distinct listening experiments.
H567/02 Section A - Simons and Chabris (1999): visual inattentionAn event can be visible without being consciously noticed. Simons and Chabris tested sustained visual inattention in moving scenes, examining how task difficulty, display type and similarity to attended objects affect detection.
H567/02 Section A - Attention: comparing the pairMoray investigated unattended spoken messages; Simons and Chabris investigated unexpected visual events. Together they show how attention selects information, while their different tasks reveal what the contemporary study adds and what remains unknown about diversity.

Developmental core studies

H567/02 Section A - Bandura et al. (1961): transmission of aggressionBandura, Ross and Ross investigated whether children would reproduce an adult's aggressive behaviour later, in a different room without that adult present. This is the 1961 live-model study.
H567/02 Section A - Chaney et al. (2004): Funhaler studyChaney and colleagues tested whether making an asthma spacer more engaging was associated with better reported use by young children and their parents. Their pilot concerned adherence and ease of use over two weeks.
H567/02 Section A - External influences on children's behaviour: comparing the pairBandura et al. (1961) and Chaney et al. (2004) both investigated environmental influences on young children. Their different mechanisms, outcomes and methods determine how far their evidence can be combined.
H567/02 Section A - Kohlberg (1968): stages of moral developmentKohlberg investigated the development of reasons for moral choices. His question was how a person justifies a decision, rather than whether everyone gives the same yes-or-no answer to a dilemma.
H567/02 Section A - Lee et al. (1997): lying and truth-tellingLee, Cameron, Xu, Fu and Board investigated whether children in China and Canada evaluated statements differently depending on age, the deed being discussed, and whether the statement was true or false.
H567/02 Section A - Moral development: comparing the pairKohlberg (1968) and Lee et al. (1997) investigated children's moral thinking. Compare the questions they asked before deciding whether the contemporary study changes the classic account.

Biological core studies

H567/02 Section A - Sperry (1968): split brain studySperry used carefully separated sensory inputs to investigate what the two hemispheres could do after their main connecting pathways had been cut. The striking finding was a difference between what a patient could say and what the same patient could demonstrate through a hand response.
H567/02 Section A - Casey et al. (2011): delay of gratificationCasey and colleagues followed people first tested as preschoolers to investigate adult impulse control and its neural correlates. The findings connect inhibition to interacting control and reward-related regions, while showing that the attractiveness of the cue matters.
H567/02 Section A - Regions of the brain: comparing the pairSperry (1968) and Casey et al. (2011) both relate behaviour to brain organisation. They answer different questions: how disconnected hemispheres access information, and how intact control and reward-related systems respond when people resist attractive cues.
H567/02 Section A - Blakemore and Cooper (1970): early visual experienceBlakemore and Cooper investigated whether an unusually restricted early visual environment could shape visual behaviour and the response preferences of neurons in kittens' visual cortex. The study connects experience to brain development, while raising substantial ethical and generalisation quest...
H567/02 Section A - Maguire et al. (2000): taxi driversMaguire and colleagues compared the hippocampal structure of London taxi drivers with controls. The important result was a regional pattern associated with navigation experience, not a larger total hippocampus or proof that driving alone caused the differences.
H567/02 Section A - Brain plasticity: comparing the pairBlakemore and Cooper (1970) and Maguire et al. (2000) connect experience with brain organisation. Comparing them reveals both the contribution of adult human evidence and the different strength of their causal claims.

Individual differences core studies

H567/02 Section A - Freud (1909): Little HansFreud used a detailed account of one child's phobia to argue for unconscious conflict. Learn the difference between what Hans reportedly did and Freud's interpretation of it, then judge what this case can establish.
H567/02 Section A - Baron-Cohen et al. (1997): autism in adultsBaron-Cohen and colleagues developed an adult test of inferring mental states from eyes. Learn why the comparison and control tasks matter, what the results show, and where the conclusions stop.
H567/02 Section A - Understanding disorders: comparing the pairFreud (1909) and Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) address the same theme through different questions and kinds of evidence. Compare matched features, then judge how far the contemporary study changes understanding and recognition of diversity.
H567/02 Section A - Gould (1982): bias in IQ testingGould's critical review examines what happened when culturally loaded army-test scores were treated as measures of inherited intelligence. Keep the original army research separate from the later critique and evaluate the consequences of measuring people poorly.
H567/02 Section A - Hancock et al. (2011): language of psychopathsHancock and colleagues examined language in offenders' accounts of their crimes. Learn how they turned narratives into quantitative evidence and why linguistic patterns are associations within a selected sample, not a way to diagnose someone from ordinary speech.
H567/02 Section A - Measuring differences: comparing the pairGould (1982) and Hancock et al. (2011) show both the possibilities and dangers of turning human differences into scores. Compare the original measurement with the review of it, then judge the contemporary study's contribution and limits.

Areas and perspectives

H567/02 Section B - Social psychologyExplain how other people and social settings influence behaviour, use research to assess that explanation, and connect social psychology to other areas.
H567/02 Section B - Cognitive psychologyExplain behaviour through mental processes, use memory and attention research as evidence, and judge where cognitive explanations overlap with other areas.
H567/02 Section B - Developmental psychologyExplain changes in behaviour and reasoning across development, examine the roles of maturation and experience, and use research to judge developmental claims and applications.
H567/02 Section B - Biological psychologyExplain behaviour in relation to bodily systems, use brain research to assess biological claims, and connect biology with cognition, experience and development.
H567/02 Section B - Individual differencesExplain how psychologists investigate differences between people, assess the measures and conclusions, and use individual variation without turning group averages into stereotypes.
H567/02 Section B - The behaviourist perspectiveExplain learning through associations, consequences and observation, evaluate the supporting research, and compare behaviourist and psychodynamic accounts.
H567/02 Section B - The psychodynamic perspectiveExplain psychodynamic ideas about unconscious conflict and early experience, distinguish illustration from confirmation, and compare psychodynamic and learning-based accounts.

Debates in psychology

H567/02 Section B - Nature, nurture and individual or situational explanationsThese debates ask different questions: where behaviour comes from, and whether an explanation emphasises the person or their circumstances. Research can support contributions from both sides without showing that each contributes equally.
H567/02 Section B - Free will, determinism, reductionism and holismOne debate concerns whether behaviour is chosen or caused; the other concerns the level and completeness of an explanation. Use evidence to evaluate these positions rather than assume that a study proves a philosophical extreme.
H567/02 Section B - Useful research and psychology as a scienceResearch may improve understanding, guide an application or expose a harmful assumption. Scientific methods can strengthen these contributions, but a precise result is useful only when its interpretation and intended use are justified.
H567/02 Section B - Ethics and socially sensitive researchEthical judgement concerns the way research treats people and other affected parties. Social sensitivity extends that judgement to the consequences of questions, interpretations and applications for individuals and groups.

H567/03 - Applied psychology

Issues in mental health (compulsory)

H567/03 Section A - Historical views, abnormality and classificationLearn how explanations of mental illness have changed, why no single definition of abnormality is sufficient, and what diagnostic categories can and cannot tell us.
H567/03 Section A - Rosenhan (1973): being sane in insane placesLearn what Rosenhan reported about psychiatric diagnosis and hospital experience, and how the study supports a contextual account while leaving important methodological and historical limits.
H567/03 Section A - Affective, psychotic and anxiety disordersLearn the characteristic patterns of three disorder classes using major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and generalised anxiety disorder. Use the examples to reason about fictional cases without treating a few symptoms as a complete diagnosis.
H567/03 Section A - Biochemical, genetic and brain explanationsLearn three biological explanations of mental illness and how to evaluate their evidence. Major depressive disorder is the worked example; biological vulnerability need not have a single cause or determine an individual's future.
H567/03 Section A - Gottesman et al. (2010): family riskLearn how Danish register data were used to estimate offspring risk when one or both parents had psychiatric diagnoses. Interpret the actual schizophrenia and bipolar findings without treating family association as genetic destiny.
H567/03 Section A - Biological treatment of a specific disorderExplain how selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can treat major depressive disorder, assess the evidence and limitations, and apply the reasoning to a fictional situation.
H567/03 Section A - Alternatives to the medical modelExplain learned, cognitive, humanistic, psychodynamic and cognitive neuroscience accounts of mental disorder, using major depressive disorder as a consistent example and judging what each account can and cannot explain.
H567/03 Section A - Szasz (2011): the myth of mental illnessUnderstand the prescribed argument, relate it to alternatives to the medical model, and assess its conceptual, ethical and evidential strengths and limits.
H567/03 Section A - Non-biological treatment of a specific disorderExplain CBT for major depressive disorder, follow a worked fictional application, and evaluate its evidence, usefulness and limits.

Option 1 - Child psychology

H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Intelligence and biological influencesChildren differ in how they learn, reason and solve problems. To explain these differences, psychologists must first decide what intelligence means and how a biological explanation could be distinguished from the effects of experience.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Van Leeuwen et al. (2008) and assessing intelligenceVan Leeuwen, Van den Berg and Boomsma investigated why relatives resemble one another in intelligence. Their extended twin-family study informs biological explanations, while its measurement choices help explain how intelligence can be assessed fairly.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Pre-adult brain development and riskRisk taking involves choosing an action with uncertain outcomes, including possible costs. Brain development helps explain changes in these choices before adulthood, but age alone cannot predict what a particular young person will do.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Barkley-Levenson and Galván (2014) and reducing riskBarkley-Levenson and Galván investigated how adolescents and adults represent the value of a risky choice. Their findings explain one aspect of brain development and help generate strategies that make rewarding opportunities safer.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Perceptual development in childrenBabies experience a world of objects, surfaces and movement before they can explain what they see. Studying perceptual development therefore requires observable responses that provide evidence about perception while accounting for movement, attention and motivation.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Gibson and Walk (1960) and developing perceptionGibson and Walk used a simulated cliff to investigate depth discrimination in infants and other species. Their evidence shows how vision guides action, while the differences between species and rearing conditions complicate a simple nature–nurture conclusion.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Cognitive development and educationCognitive development concerns changes in how children represent information, reason and solve problems. Education depends on those changes, but also helps produce them through experience, language and guided activity.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Wood et al. (1976) and improving learningWood, Bruner and Ross examined how a tutor responds to a developing learner. Their controlled observations produced a description of scaffolding and its changing demands, rather than a randomised test of whether tutoring is better than every alternative.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Attachment development and its disruptionAttachment is a developing relationship with a particular caregiver. Its formation, its quality and the behaviours used to express it must be distinguished before explaining what disruption might mean.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Ainsworth and Bell (1970) and attachment-friendly careAinsworth and Bell used a strange situation to observe how exploration and attachment behaviours change with novelty, separation and reunion. The prescribed 1970 article explains this balance; later attachment classifications and their commonly quoted population percentages should not be substitu...
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Advertising, children and stereotypesTelevision advertising supplies product information and persuasive images. Its possible influence includes what children want to buy and what they learn to associate with particular social groups.
H567/03 Section B Option 1 - Johnson and Young (2002) and reducing advertising effectsJohnson and Young examined how television toy advertising gives gender a voice. Their content and discourse analysis identifies messages within a historical sample; it does not directly test children's learning, purchases or the effectiveness of an intervention.

Option 2 - Criminal psychology

H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Physiological and other explanations of crimeWhy do some people offend while others in similar circumstances do not? An explanation should identify a process connecting a risk factor to behaviour. Crime is a legal category, whereas aggression is a behaviour: aggression can be lawful, and fraud need not involve aggression. Evidence about one...
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Raine et al. (1997) and biological crime preventionRaine, Buchsbaum and LaCasse investigated brain functioning in a selected group referred for forensic assessment. Their findings inform possible biological pathways to violence. A separate intervention study is needed to establish whether changing a biological factor prevents harmful behaviour.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Motivation and bias in forensic evidenceForensic evidence includes material such as fingerprints, biological traces and fibres. Its evidential value depends on collection, preservation, analysis and interpretation. A physical trace can be objective while decisions about which traces matter remain vulnerable to human judgement.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Hall and Player (2008) and reducing forensic biasHall and Player tested whether emotional case information affected fingerprint experts. Keep two outcomes separate: feeling affected by information and changing a final comparison decision. They need not move together.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Evidence from witnesses and suspectsAn interview account can reveal what happened, suggest new enquiries or challenge an early explanation. Witnesses and suspects have different roles, but neither role guarantees that an account is accurate or inaccurate. Psychology helps examine how information is obtained and how it should be wei...
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Memon and Higham (1999) and police interviewsMemon and Higham's prescribed research is a critical review of the cognitive interview. It examines how to judge an interview technique, as well as how to help a witness retrieve information. The review is not one experiment with its own new participant sample.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Psychology and courtroom persuasionLearn how impressions of witnesses and defendants can influence jurors, and distinguish persuasive presentation from evidence that establishes accuracy or guilt.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Dixon et al. (2002) and jury decisionsLearn how Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks investigated accent and perceptions of guilt, evaluate the evidence, and apply a reasoned strategy to jury judgement.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Neighbourhoods and crime preventionLearn how neighbourhood design, informal social control and responses to disorder may influence crime, and evaluate the reasoning behind zero tolerance.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Wilson and Kelling (1982) and preventing crimeUnderstand Wilson and Kelling's broken-windows argument, distinguish its different sources of evidence, and apply a proportionate prevention strategy.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Punishment, imprisonment and reformDistinguish the aims of punishment and reform, explain psychological mechanisms of rehabilitation, and assess evidence about reducing reoffending.
H567/03 Section B Option 2 - Haney et al. (1973) and reducing reoffendingLearn the design and findings of the simulated-prison research, evaluate its situational interpretation and ethics, and apply a carefully supported reform strategy.

Option 3 - Environmental psychology

H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Environmental stressors and biological responsesExplain how features of an environment can become stressors, how the body responds, and why the same exposure need not have the same effect on everyone.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Black and Black (2007) and managing stressUse the prescribed aircraft-noise research to distinguish exposure, reported stress and health, evaluate community evidence and apply an environmental stress-management strategy.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Biological rhythms and disruptionExplain biological rhythms, how internal timing is coordinated with the environment, and how disruption can affect sleep and behaviour.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Czeisler et al. (1982) and shift-work or jetlagExplain the prescribed workplace intervention, evaluate what its results establish, and apply a circadian scheduling strategy to a new shift-work setting.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Recycling and conservation behaviourExplain conservation and recycling behaviour through beliefs, social influence and practical control, while distinguishing favourable attitudes from actions.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Lord (1994) and motivating conservationExplain how Lord tested message framing and source in household recycling, evaluate the evidence and apply an ethical communication technique to a new conservation setting.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Ergonomics and cognitive overloadErgonomics adapts work to the people doing it. This lesson explains how environmental demands can overload attention and memory, and how to judge whether a workplace redesign improves performance safely.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Drews and Doig (2014) and workplace designDrews and Doig tested whether an integrated display helped nurses assess simulated patients. This lesson examines the design, measures and selective findings, then applies the display principle while distinguishing laboratory performance from outcomes in real care.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Built environments and wellbeingBuildings and neighbourhoods can change access to rest, contact, privacy and control. This lesson explains these possible routes to wellbeing and considers how to assess environmental changes, including urban renewal and its consequences for existing residents.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Ulrich (1984) and design for healthUlrich compared surgical recovery records for patients with tree or brick-wall views. This lesson explains the matched comparison and its findings, evaluates what they establish, and uses them to reason about accessible views in healthcare design.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Territory and personal space at workTerritory, personal space, privacy and personalisation describe different ways people relate to a workplace. This lesson distinguishes them and develops fair, adaptable design choices for shared and assigned spaces.
H567/03 Section B Option 3 - Wells (2000) and office personalisationWells investigated office personalisation through surveys, interviews and observation. This lesson examines how the methods support an indirect association with wellbeing, evaluates the sample and conflicting findings, and develops cautious applications for workplace choice.

Option 4 - Sport and exercise psychology

H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Arousal and anxiety in sportA fast heartbeat can accompany excitement, worry or physical exertion. Understanding performance therefore requires separating activation from anxiety, then matching a response to the athlete and the task.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Fazey and Hardy (1988) and managing arousalFazey and Hardy challenged the idea that one smooth curve explains every relationship between activation and sporting performance. Their prescribed work is a theoretical monograph, not a single experiment with a newly recruited sample.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Exercise and mental healthExercise can affect mood, confidence and social connection as well as physical fitness. Explaining these benefits requires distinguishing a plausible mechanism, an observed change and a demonstrated treatment effect.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Lewis et al. (2014) and exercise for wellbeingLewis and colleagues examined mood around a social-dance programme in older adults with and without Parkinson's disease. OCR prescribes this research as Lewis et al. (2014); the final journal issue appeared in 2016. The prescribed year remains 2014.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Motivation, imagery and self-beliefBelieving you can execute a particular skill, feeling generally confident in sport, and defining success as beating an opponent are related but different. Those distinctions help a coach choose a motivation strategy and measure the intended outcome.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Munroe-Chandler et al. (2008) and motivationMunroe-Chandler, Hall and Fishburne examined imagery use and confidence in young soccer players. Their study identifies an association useful for developing a strategy, but it did not experimentally train imagery or measure improved match performance.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Personality and sports performanceTwo athletes can respond differently to the same competition. Personality offers one explanation, but useful sport psychology also asks how personality is measured and how it interacts with training, coaching and the demands of a task.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Kroll and Crenshaw (1970) and personality in sportKroll and Crenshaw examined whether athletes from different sports could be distinguished by their whole personality profiles. The study offers evidence about sporting groups, but overlap and its design limit prediction about an individual athlete's success.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Teams, coaching and leadershipA team combines people whose actions depend on one another. Technical skill matters, but coordination, relationships and coaching determine how those skills are used together.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Smith et al. (1979) and effective coachingSmith, Smoll and Curtis tested whether training youth coaches could improve their behaviour and players' experiences. Their evidence distinguishes observed coaching, players' perceptions, self-esteem and winning rather than treating them as a single outcome.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Audience effects and home advantageThe same crowd can help one performance and disrupt another. Audience effects depend on what the performer is doing, how well the response is learned and how the social situation is interpreted.
H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Zajonc et al. (1969) and spectator sportZajonc, Heingartner and Herman studied social enhancement and impairment using cockroaches. A straight runway and a cross-shaped maze let them test whether social presence strengthens a response that may be appropriate in one task and inappropriate in another.