For Part 1 of TMA 02, you are required to answer a series of questions concerning when and how to reference. You will also be asked to write some references using the OU Harvard style.
Before you begin you should make sure that you have completed Online Activity 6.3:Referencing (Part 1) – Why reference? and Online Activity 7.3: Referencing (Part 2) – How to reference. These activities explain in detail why it is important to reference and provide the necessary preparation for Part 1 of TMA 02.
Further resources for this part of the assignment include:
- At the end of Online Activity 7.3: Referencing (Part 2) – How to reference there is a link to a handout entitled Referencing Guide for DE100 (OU Harvard Style)[Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] which would be useful to print out and keep to hand when completing this, and other DE100 assignments.
- Under ‘study resources’ on this module website there is a link to ‘library services’ which provides further practical advice and examples in its ‘OU Harvard guide to citing references’ (found in its Help and Support section).
For questions 6–8, you should state in a single sentence what is wrong with, or missing from, the in-text reference and then reproduce the sentence, with the correct format of the in-text reference.
The idea of five factors of personality was postulated by Goldberg (2012, p. 21).
In experiments the design can be either within-participants or between-participants (InvestigatingMethods, p. 98).
Personality can change in relation to different contexts and environments. Is personality fixed?(Part 2) (Robinson, 2014, video).
For questions 9 and 10, you should state in a single sentence what is wrong with, or missing from, the reference and then write the correct version of the reference, as it would be included in a reference list.
Byford, J. (2014) Investigating Methods, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 47–82.
The Open University (2014) ‘Big Five’ (Video), DE100 Investigating Psychology 1. Available at the OU website (Accessed date).
Outline the similarities and differences between Milgram’s (1963) and Slater et al.’s (2006) studies on obedience.
70 per cent of the mark
Word limit: 1000 words
You are asked to ‘outline the similarities and differences between Milgram’s (1963) and Slater et al.’s (2006) studies on obedience’ in a 1000-word essay.
Specifically, you need to identify the similarities and differences between two different studies on obedience.
Before you start work on your essay, the first thing you need to do is make sure you understand exactly what the question requires, which means identifying and understanding the process and content words.
Process and content words
There is one process word: ‘outline’ (which means to convey the main points). In this case you need to outline the main points of similarity and difference between Milgram’s (1963) and Slater et al.’s (2006) studies on obedience.
The content words are ‘similarities and differences between Milgram’s (1963) and Slater et al.’s (2006) studies on obedience’. This means that the essay should specifically focus on these two studies, which you encountered in Chapter 2 of Investigating Psychology.
The content words specify that the focus is ‘similarities and differences between Milgram’s (1963) and Slater et al.’s (2006) studies on obedience’, so for this essay you only need to include material that relates to these two studies. There is a great deal of material available to you for this essay; therefore, you will need to be selective in what you choose to include and keep your focus firmly on the topic of the question: the similarities and differences between the two studies.
- Chapter 2 of Investigating Psychology contains a lot of information about the research on obedience. Section 2 outlines the study by Milgram (1963) and the results, while Section 4.2 introduces Slater et al.’s (2006) research. These two sections are likely to be of greatest relevance for this TMA. You may wish to draw on other sections of Chapter 2, but be sure to maintain a clear focus on the TMA topic.
- Video material: Milgram on Milgram, which you listened to in Week 7, may be helpful as it contains some original footage of the Milgram experiment including footage of original participants. Remember to ensure that any points drawn from the source address the specific essay question set.
- Chapter 2 of Investigating Methods contains information about replication which you might find useful in considering the study by Slater et al. (2006). Section 2 discusses replication and Section 3.1 provides an example of replication where an experimental procedure was varied to address the issue of ethics. Again, make sure that you maintain focus on the question.
- Week 8 Video material: Replicating Milgram, may be useful in thinking about the points that you wish to include in your essay. Again, however, only make use of this to directly address the topic of similarities and differences between the two pieces of research.
Tips for writing your essay
Having worked through the online activities, and having identified the process and content words in the essay, the first step in beginning to answer the question is to select the material that you will use in your essay. This means identifying and making notes about some similarities and differences in the studies by Milgram (1963) and Slater et al. (2006) that you identified while reading the relevant material. It is a good idea to create an essay plan in order to help organise the points that you may wish to make into a logical structure and think about ‘the story’ of the essay in terms of how it begins, proceeds through the points and then ends. In essence, an essay plan helps you to work out what you want to say and what order to say it in, so that a reader can see clearly how you have addressed the question.
For this essay you must discuss both similarities and differences. Note, there is no need to have equal numbers of each. However, you should provide a balanced argument and therefore you must address both. If you find the task difficult, start by asking yourself the following:
- Who and what was studied?
- What methods did the researchers use and where did they carry out their research?
- What were the findings of the two studies?
- How have the studies contributed to our understanding of obedience?