Practise Edexcel Psychology questions on Brendgen et al. (2005), applying twin evidence to physical and social aggression and evaluating genetic and environmental factors.
In your studies of biological psychology, you will have learned about the following contemporary study in detail:
- Brendgen et al. (2005) Examining genetic and environmental influences on social aggression: A study of 6-year-old twins.
Describe the results of the contemporary study by Brendgen et al. (2005).
(2)
AO1 (2 marks)
Credit up to two marks for accurate description.
For example:
- When teachers rated physical aggression the genetic variance was
at 63\% and peers rated it as 54\% (1). The teachers rated social
aggression as 20\% due to genetics which is a lot lower than the
rating for physical aggression (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
(2)
Explain one strength and one weakness of the contemporary study carried out by Brendgen et al. (2005).
Strength
Weakness
AO1 (2 marks), AO3 (2 marks)
Credit one mark for accurate identification of one strength/weakness
(AO1)
Credit one mark for justification/ exemplification of one
strength/weakness (AO3)
For example:
Strength:
- The teachers rating for aggression were cross referenced with the
peers rating for aggression (1), the correlations were similar for
both the teachers and the peers suggesting that the results have
reliability (1).
Weakness:
- Only some of the twins were DNA checked to ensure they were
monozygotic, the rest were just checked for physical resemblance
(1), and therefore it could be that some twins that were thought
to be monozygotic were not so affecting the validity of the results
(1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
(4)