Biological and Cognitive Psychology
Description of Assessment
Coursework 3
In coursework three, you will be completing a literature review. You will synthesize findings across three papers and evaluate how each article (and method) contributes to our overall understanding of the research question as a whole. The aim is to review, critically evaluate, and synthesise published research in cognitive and biological psychology and critically discuss and integrate knowledge across multiple approaches in cognitive and biological psychology. The module learning outcome two will be assessed through the completion CW3, which is a 2,000-word essay.
Summary of Assessment Method: Literature review
Assesses Learning Outcomes:
- critically discuss and integrate knowledge across multiple approaches in cognitive and biological psychology.
- review, critically evaluate and synthesise published research in cognitive and biological psychology.
Content and detailed guidance
You will need to devise a research question relevant to one of the topics below:
- Communication
- Addictive behaviours: Choose Addictive Behaviour
The research question is: Are individuals with addictive behaviour demonstrate strong responses to drug clues through a learning process compared to other group populations?
- Emotion and stress
- Intelligence and thought
The research question that you choose should have been explored using a range of different quantitative research methods (e.g, electrophysiological measures, neurophysiological measures, and behavioural measures). No articles should use Qualitative research. You will need to perform a search for relevant articles that have sought to address the research question that you devise.
Based on the articles you find during the search you will need to select three original research studies (not review papers or meta-analyses). Each article should use a different research method to help answer your research question. For each paper, you should provide a critical review. Specifically, you should:
- explain the key features of the study
- discuss its implications
- evaluate the methods used
You should then synthesise the findings across the three papers and evaluate how each article (and method) contributes to our overall understanding of the research question as a whole. The more successful literature reviews will be those which explain how different research methods (eg, EEG and fMRI) relate to one another and contribute to the overall understanding of the research question.
