AQA Marking AQA provide detailed advice on ‘level of response’ marking and outline two key steps: Determine a level Determine a mark

AQA Marking To determine a level AQA suggest: Start at the lowest level of the mark scheme to see whether the answer meets the descriptor for this level. If the answer meet the lowest level, the continue to the next level and decide if it meets this level, and so on.

AQA Marking Look at the overall quality Don’t pick holes with small and specific parts of the answer. Use a ‘best fit’ approach If the answer covers different aspects of the different levels, use a best fit approach.

Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (12 mark) The learning theory of attachment says that children attach to their caregivers because of food. The learning theory is based on Pavlov’s ideas of classical conditioning, for example, if we imagine that the dog is now the baby, the bell (neutral stimulus) is now the mother and the food is now milk. According to learning theory, the baby has no reaction to its mother. However, if the baby is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (food/milk) then the baby would produce an unconditioned response (relief/ happiness from being fed). During conditioning, the milk and mother are presented together, so the baby would form an association between the sight of the mother and being fed. After conditioning, the mother (now a conditioned stimulus (produces a conditioned response). A weakness of this approach comes from Harlow and Harlow, as it was proven that the monkey preferred ‘contact comfort’ from the artificial mother, instead of food. P AO1 Some knowledge of CC, but a rather odd application which is poorly explained. Odd use of the word produce, although some knowledge of CC is presented. P AO1 – Specialist terminology P AO1 – Further elaboration is required to fully explain this point. X Awful use of the word ‘proven’

P P P P P 2 4or5 Develop evaluation ensuring quality over quantity. Aim to write at least one burger paragraph in your next essay. Ensure specialist terminology is used correctly. Some good knowledge in relation to CC was presented and some specialist terminology was also used reasonably well, in places.

Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (12 mark) P AO1 The learning theory is a ‘nurture’ explanation of attachment. Learning theory suggests that we learn to attach through classical conditioning. An example of this is learning is when a child associates their caregiver with food. The food is an unconditioned stimulus which makes a child happy (unconditioned response). The caregiver is a neutral stimulus, so produces no response in the child. During conditioning, the food and caregiver come together which makes the child happy because they’re relived from hunger. After conditioning, the child associates their caregiver with food, so they are happy upon seeing them. The caregiver is now a conditioned stimulus and the response is also conditioned. This shows that we learn to form attachments through classical conditioning and being fed. Support for this theory comes from research by Rutter. He found that adopted children are still able to form attachments, but it just takes longer. This is important because it shows that forming attachments can’t be biological, as we are still able to learn to attach. P AO1 P AO1 Why is the child happy? P AO1 Well the child is… P AO1 P AO1 P AO1 Very vague. Avoid using very definitive words like ‘can’t’. It suggests… Possibly, but how does this support learning theory and the idea of attaching for food? X Awful use of the word ‘proven’

Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (12 mark) A weakness of this theory comes from research by Harlow and Harlow. This study found that the baby monkey would run to the cloth monkey rather than the wired monkey that fed it, when it felt threatened by a scary mechanical toy. This is important as it shows that we attach for comfort rather than by associating a caregiver and food, as claimed by the learning theory. However, it could be argued that results can’t be extrapolated as animals were used in the study. This matters because it is argued that humans have free will and therefore findings can’t be applied to humans, as we are different. P AO3 P AO3 – Partially effective Vague use of ‘free will’ and rather generic

P P P P P 3 8or9 You could have explored the role of operant conditioning in your outline. Aim to include three effective discussion points – e.g. you could contrast this theory with another theory. Accurate outline, with good focus on the question. Some effective evaluation, in particular Harlow.

Peer-Marking Essays This is an excellent activity that has the potential of saving you hours and hours of time. If you can train your students to become effective markers, who write detailed commentary, then your life will become significantly easier. Here’s a few tips...

Peer-Marking Essays Students MUST work in pairs and read the essay together. As they read the essay they must assign the essay a mark band, for each column on the marking grid. The MOST important aspect of this task is for your students to write useful comments (even better if) and therefore it’s useful to model these.

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