UCLaffiliates: October 2011

Dear affiliate students,

Below are the course assessments for Fall term only students.

Health and Clinical Psychology:Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
(Questions 1-4 are from the health half of the course, questions 5-9 are from the clinical half)
1. Often people who intend to engage in health-promoting behaviours (or not to engage in health risk behaviours) fail to act on their intentions. Why might this be?
2. Why it is so hard to stop smoking and what can be done to help?
3. "Individuals with poorly controlled Type I Diabetes only have themselves to blame". Would you dispute this statement and why?
4."Suffering offers us the best protection for survival" (Damasio, 1994). Explain how pain could function to protect us.
5. Explain the role of cognition in the cause and maintenance of two psychological disorders.
6. To what extent can biological factors explain how an individual becomes addicted to alcohol?
7. Are eating disorders becoming more common and if so, why?
8. What causes an episode of anxiety to persist and turn into a psychological disorder?
9. Among the factors thought to play a causal role in schizophrenia, how important are genetic influences?

Perception, Attention and Action: Two 2,000 word essays.
Do not pick question 6 with question 7.
1. Critically assess alternative theories of pitch perception
2. Describe the structure of a cortical hypercolumn in primary visual cortex.
3. What evidence points to the importance of the configuration of the face in face perception?
4. Do speakers use auditory feedback to control their vocal productions?
5. Assess motor theory as an account of the relationship between speech perception and production.
6. Are we always conscious of our actions and intentions? Discuss.
7. Describe how the brain enables the understanding of others’ actions.
8. Can we simply describe attentional selection as space-based?
9. Critically evaluate the evidence in favour of early selection in vision.

Computing for Psychologists: 1 essay (set for everyone in the class) and 1 project due at the end of term (this will be a slightly easier version of the project set for the rest of the class)

Psychology of Health Risks: Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
1. What determines health risk behaviours? Discuss with reference to contemporary evidence.
2. To what extent have the health models (e.g. HBM, TRA and TPB) led to health gains that would not otherwise have been achieved? Draw on evidence of the centrality of other variables in determining health-related behaviour.
3. Do demographic variables determine risk perception? Explain the ‘white male effect’.
4. What are the shortcomings of a ‘perception’ approach to health risks?
5. How are novel risks interpreted and incorporated into lay thinking, according to social representations theory? Discuss the role played by identity in this process.
6. How does social representations theory differ from ‘risk perception’ theory?
7. What is the pattern of response to many EID? Why is there a recurrent pattern of response?
8. To what extent is the historically abiding response to EID applicable to contemporary pandemics?
9. Evaluate the virtues and problems of disgust-inducing health campaigns.
10. Why do so many health campaigns fail to change the targeted behaviour?
11. How valid conceptually is the distinction between ‘primitive’ responses to epidemics (e.g. accusations of witchcraft) and ‘modern’ responses, as seen in early responses to AIDS or SARS?
12. How does the popular interpretation of the medical understanding of the immune system influence contemporary health practices?
13. Have the health professions become out of step with changes in society and with changing expectations of patients?
14. If current trends continue, how might the relationship your children have with their doctors differ from the one you have?
15. Why is it that certain (rare) health risks, such as the purported dangers of MMR vaccine, seem to create more fear than more common ones, such as the dangers of childhood measles or mumps?
16. Is there anything health professionals can do to increase trust?
17. Is the concern with wellness and ‘care of the self’ new? If so, what wider social forces might be responsible for it? (E.g. ageing baby boomers, increasingly expensive health care)
18. Is the ‘geneticisation’ of social issues in light of the discoveries of the Human Genome Project simply the old nature / nuture debate in new ‘scientific’ clothes?
19. To what extent can you manipulate a patient’s health decision by the way you present the risk statistics?
20. Are there any general principles about what works best in terms of translating statistical data on health risks into information patients can use to make informed decisions about treatment / non-treatment?
21. Is the notion that we should tailor doctor-patient relationships to minority groups patronising? Should all patients be treated the same?
22. How much of the poor relationship between doctors and patients from minority groups might be explained in terms of social class, rather than ethnicity, sexuality or disability?

Human-Computer Interaction: Answer 2 questions in total. Question 1 is compulsory. Also write one additional essay, choosing between questions 2 and 3 (2,000 words).
Question 1
Suppose you have been commissioned to conduct a usability evaluation of an interactive system designed to support and encourage behaviour change. Your evaluation should consider the quality of the design from the perspective of one potential user group.
You should focus your evaluation on one of the target user populations. You should identify and address the following key evaluation questions.
1) How well does the system support the client in conducting their therapy?
2) Any interactive system that provides this kind of support should be a positive user experience, making the user feel confident in the privacy and efficacy of the system. How well does the chosen system fare in providing a positive user experience?
Write an academic report (up to 2,000 words) that outlines your plan for this evaluation (you are not required to conduct the evalution). In this, you should:
·Justify your choice of techniques and participants, and describe how you planned and would conduct the evaluation studies.
·Discuss and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen evaluation questions and techniques. You are encouraged to relate this discussion to literature, in addition to grounding it in your own experience of conducting such evaluations.
Question 2
Explain how advertisers use visual features to attract users’ attention to adverts on a webpage. Why do people not always notice such adverts?
Question 3
How can theories of the causes of slips and mistakes give guidance to design?

Speech: Two 2,000 word essays or one 4,000 word essay. Orienting questions given at the start of the lecture used for essay questions

Stuttering: Two 2,000 word essays or one 4,000 word essay. Orienting questions given at the start of the lecture used for essay questions

Human Learning and Memory: One 2,500 word essay (in line with what non-affiliates are doing). Pick your own title, subject to approval by David Shanks when you submit a title and abstract at the end of reading week.

Multivariate Statistical Methods in Psychology: One exam towards the end of the last week of term. Three hours comprising of two computational parts and one essay question.

Topics in Neurobiology: Two 2,000 word essays. Pick your own questions from past exam papers. These can be found at:
http://digitool-b.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8881/R/YKVF11C5RYVG63LR5RPNKKFXAPJ5RRX2JAGSFXT55JRJ7TLADK-03517?&local_base=EXAMPAPERS
or, questions given on the lectures slides.

Genes and Behaviour: Two 2,000 word essays.
1. Discuss why children growing up in the same family are often remarkably dissimilar to each other.
2. Discuss the ethical concerns surrounding genetic research.

Organisational Psychology: Two 2,000 word essays. Pick your own questions from past exam papers. These can be found at:
http://digitool-b.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8881/R/YKVF11C5RYVG63LR5RPNKKFXAPJ5RRX2JAGSFXT55JRJ7TLADK-03517?&local_base=EXAMPAPERS

Concepts and Methods: Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
1. Describe classical (Pavlovian) conditioning. What factors determine whether an animal will become conditioned to a particular stimulus?
2. How do expectations and schemata affect memory?
3. How does the way in which infants interact with other people change over the first year of life?
4. What have data from aphasic patients suggested about how the brain processes language?
5. What is meant by ‘executive function’? Under what circumstances can executive function fail, and what are the consequences?
6. Describe, in detail, how action potentials are generated and propagated in neurons
7. What are the strengths and weaknesses of what is known as the Medical Model of psychopathology?
8. Discuss how cocaine produces its effects with reference to the underlying processes of
Neurotransmission?
9. Explain how the ‘James-Lange’ and ‘Cannon-Bard’ theories differ in the way they address the relationship between the various constitutive aspects of emotion.
10. What did the study of H.M. contribute to understanding about memory mechanisms?
11. Children learn about the different aspects of language in an orderly sequence. Discuss.
12. Are humans well-equipped to perceive and respond to other people?

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