VCE Psychology Exam - Suggested Answers and Discussion

[EdwinJS]

Guys, can anyone help me with what approach Short Answer Question 2 was?
Also, was tangible support applicable for Question 7?
Lastly, could 'crowding' have been used for Question 10?
Stressing out a bit!! haha
Cheers!

For question 2 I personally went towards the categorical approach and the disadvantage was the labelling and/or social stigma that it brings about - our teacher also agreed with this answer.

For question 7, tangible support sounds reasonable -- we won't know what the examiner wanted until the report is put out or our results come, really.

For question 10, I don't think crowding could be used because how or where is he being affected by it, please tell me your reasoning. I personally went towards the approach of environment temperature (working in the cold coolroom) which would lead to his body needing to keep warm that would later require more energy to remain warm and leading to weaker body and therefore damaging the body over the long term (not exact words - definitely said it better but yeah) also then his nervous system would require energy to aid the stress and being cold can make you get sick and being stress makes it more likely to suffer a cold too, a bit of paraphernalia about that jargon was used, often trying to make myself sound smarter than I am.

-Edwin

[HarryCondon5]

For question 2 I personally went towards the categorical approach and the disadvantage was the labelling and/or social stigma that it brings about - our teacher also agreed with this answer.

For question 7, tangible support sounds reasonable -- we won't know what the examiner wanted until the report is put out or our results come, really.

For question 10, I don't think crowding could be used because how or where is he being affected by it, please tell me your reasoning. I personally went towards the approach of environment temperature (working in the cold coolroom) which would lead to his body needing to keep warm that would later require more energy to remain warm and leading to weaker body and therefore damaging the body over the long term (not exact words - definitely said it better but yeah) also then his nervous system would require energy to aid the stress and being cold can make you get sick and being stress makes it more likely to suffer a cold too, a bit of paraphernalia about that jargon was used, often trying to make myself sound smarter than I am.

-Edwin

Hahaha yes mate I know exactly what you mean!!
Honestly I just froze up and, for the life of me, couldn't think of any other environmental factors of stress bar natural disasters and loud noises hahahah
I defined crowding and related it to him being at university; very weak, I know! Earlier on this thread however I did see someone state that their teaching said that crowding could be relevant! I think I'm clutching at straws hahah.

[DailyInsanity]

I was under the impression that you either had to refer to either his part time work or his university life/responsibilities as potential environmental stressors, explain how they would cause him stress and the relate that back to his physiological response to stress and how that would be more aroused/exacerbated with reference to specific physiological responses? I wrote something like hes part time work may act as an environmental stressor as he may need to meet deadlines, for example, a certain number of hours he must work each week. This would exacerbate his physiological stress response as more stress hormones would be released etc... not exactly like that. Or am I just going off on a tangent?

[vcegenius]

Very confused about section B question 3, were you meant to state that they were in an ASC as opposed to NWC or state what type of sleep or what?

Personally, I said that group 1 was in REM sleep and group 2 was in NREM then explained that the nature of their recordings suggested this. Others interpreted it as us being required to state that they were in an ASC and use the info provided to state why they were not in NWC.

Overall, not a bad exam. Does anyone know the correct way to tackle the first dot point of section C (the psychological determinants of stress?).

[khan17]

Did anyone notice that the mean score (out of 5) for "choosing a wedding venue" a month after the wedding was 0.8?? It stated that it was a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest level of stress and 5 being the highest. Obviously, if 1 is the minimum response then it is impossible for a mean value to be less than 1???

Feels good exposing VCAA's mistakes as they certainly exposed mine today.

[flutenerd]

I don't think so. B and C are saying the same thing, and A is wrong... Babies have tonnes of REM/slow wave, and children either have more or the same as adolescents. (Tbh i thought they had more, but they certainly don't have less, so eliminate B and C, think the answer is D).

That said, it's been 4 years since I sat my exam haha!

In Q6,
b. is saying that children get less NREM sleep than adolescents
c. is saying that children get less REM sleep than adolecents
We all know that children get more REM than adolecents so then b. must be correct

[rooeyboy267]

In Q6,
b. is saying that children get less NREM sleep than adolescents
c. is saying that children get less REM sleep than adolecents
We all know that children get more REM than adolecents so then b. must be correct

A is obviously incorrect due to delayed release of melatonin occurring in adolescence
B also incorrect, the answer is specifically referring to the proportion of slow wave sleep (NREM 3&4) which you may have misread. Children get about 2.5 hours of SWS in a typical 11 hour sleep, compared to a typical adolescent who gets around 1.5 hours of SWS in a typical 8 hour sleep. This leads to children having a higher proportion (%) of SWS than adolescents
C is the correct answer
D is incorrect due to above explanation

[HarryCondon5]

Very confused about section B question 3, were you meant to state that they were in an ASC as opposed to NWC or state what type of sleep or what?

Personally, I said that group 1 was in REM sleep and group 2 was in NREM then explained that the nature of their recordings suggested this. Others interpreted it as us being required to state that they were in an ASC and use the info provided to state why they were not in NWC.

Overall, not a bad exam. Does anyone know the correct way to tackle the first dot point of section C (the psychological determinants of stress?).

I did the same as you regarding question 3 mate, however the states of consciousness probably does sound right :/ ;(

[vcegenius]

I did the same as you regarding question 3 mate, however the states of consciousness probably does sound right :/ ;(

I don't think it sounds quite right... it asks for the "state of consciousness" that they are in, I don't think an ASC would be correct as this is not a specific state of consciousness. I'm not quite sure what they're asking for here, but part b strongly suggests that they were looking for the type of sleep they are in (why else would they ask for EOG recordings?).

I think stages of sleep would have to be at least 2/4 marks.

[nt2387]

I don't think it sounds quite right... it asks for the "state of consciousness" that they are in, I don't think an ASC would be correct as this is not a specific state of consciousness. I'm not quite sure what they're asking for here, but part b strongly suggests that they were looking for the type of sleep they are in (why else would they ask for EOG recordings?).

I think stages of sleep would have to be at least 2/4 marks.

Pretty sure they were looking for specific stages of sleep in that question and not ASC vs NWC.

I thought it was dodgy that they labelled it as a states of consciousness experiment because this could be quite confusing.

[vcegenius]

A is obviously incorrect due to delayed release of melatonin occurring in adolescence
B also incorrect, the answer is specifically referring to the proportion of slow wave sleep (NREM 3&4) which you may have misread. Children get about 2.5 hours of SWS in a typical 11 hour sleep, compared to a typical adolescent who gets around 1.5 hours of SWS in a typical 8 hour sleep. This leads to children having a higher proportion (%) of SWS than adolescents
C is the correct answer
D is incorrect due to above explanation

To quote the Macmillian textbook "A newborn infant sleeps for around 16 hours a day, about 50% of which is REM sleep. By the end of infancy, total sleep time drops to around 12–13 hours and about 25–30% is REM sleep. By the end of childhood and onset of adolescence, total sleep time drops to around 9 hours and about 2 hours or 20% is REM sleep."

Assuming VCAA are considering "childhood" and "adolescence" as the beginning of these stages, it is clear that adolescents spend a smaller % of their sleep time in REM sleep, thus meaning all answers except B can be considered incorrect. I don't think VCAA would ask us a question which relies on us working out specific percentages of time spent in sleep stages during stages of development which aren't even properly defined as to what age they actually occur in.

Pretty sure its Q6 is B.

[vcegenius]

Also, can someone please explain the psychological determinants of stress?

[nadiaaa]

Also, can someone please explain the psychological determinants of stress?

I had no idea what this was!!! i just talked about psychological factors of stress like difficultly concentrating  etc and where it was mostly experienced according to the results and where it affected them the most, basically just bullshitted my way through it hahah so its probs not even right..
What did u say?

[HasibA]

Yo guys, in the multiple choice I used a hb pencil, and shaded firmly, but I don't think not firm enough or as hard as I can? Am I in trouble ? Only noticed it after finishing bio today, learnt to shade in as hard as I can once I'm happy with my answers for the next exam Ty :')

[sarangiya]

I had no idea what this was!!! i just talked about psychological factors of stress like difficultly concentrating  etc and where it was mostly experienced according to the results and where it affected them the most, basically just bullshitted my way through it hahah so its probs not even right..
What did u say?

My teacher and some girl in my class said it was the differentiation of eustress and distress. After Googling, it seems they were right (first link).
#rekt when you referred to like personality etc lmfao. I think I said that the personality, presence of mental health problems and coping strategies could affect the way one interprets stress lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Did anyone notice that the mean score (out of 5) for "choosing a wedding venue" a month after the wedding was 0.8?? It stated that it was a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest level of stress and 5 being the highest. Obviously, if 1 is the minimum response then it is impossible for a mean value to be less than 1???

Feels good exposing VCAA's mistakes as they certainly exposed mine today.

lmao

Pretty sure they were looking for specific stages of sleep in that question and not ASC vs NWC.

I thought it was dodgy that they labelled it as a states of consciousness experiment because this could be quite confusing.

Agreed. Really threw me. I was (still am) sure they're stages of sleep, so they're both ASC - whaaa? Rip I didn't explicitly say ASC I just said the stages ugh

Yo guys, in the multiple choice I used a hb pencil, and shaded firmly, but I don't think not firm enough or as hard as I can? Am I in trouble ? Only noticed it after finishing bio today, learnt to shade in as hard as I can once I'm happy with my answers for the next exam Ty :')

I think you'll be fine. I used HB and didn't even shade that darkly but I thought they were obviously darker than the white so.