PYC1502

Examination preparation
What to expect
The examination will be 50 multiple choice questions,
similar to those we have done in class and those asked in
assignment 92 (in tutorial letter 202).

You will have two hours to complete the exam.

30 marks will come from Study units B in your study guide

(except of B1502-SOP Science of psychology, which will be
included in the next section).

20 marks will come from study units A (plus B1502-SOP)

in your study guide.
Study Units B
B1502 COS Stress
B1502 HBM Motivation
B1502 IPR Interpersonal relationships
B1502 NGF Group functioning
B1502 NOF Emotion
B1502 NSC Self psychology
B1502 NSP Societal issues
B1502 POW Psychology of work
Study Units A
A1502 CFS Presenting data visually
A1502 PPR Presentation
A1502 POP Expert opinion
A1502 DPP Psychological programmes
A1502DPR Psychological research

B1502 SOP Science of Psychology

As you can see from the previous two slides, it is important
to study all the chapters for all the units!

What we will look at now, is which parts of chapters have

come up often in past exam papers. There is no
guarantee that your exam paper will have the
same questions!

My advice is to study everything, but to make sure that you

know the following parts extra well.

Note: the number between brackets refers to where the

questions on a particular topic can be found in the past
exam papers.
 B1502 COS Stress (21-24)
The effects of stress
Relationship between stress and performance
(You must be able to apply the Yerkes-Dodson law)
Relationship between Stress and health
(Chronic stress, response specificity, burnout)

The process of stress

The GAS model
The contextual model (know the model, but make
extra sure that you can identify the different types of
stressors)

The psychophysiology of stress

No emphasis in past papers
B1502 HMB Motivation (9-12)
In past exam papers, they have asked something from each
part of two motivation chapters. However, more questions
have come from the Nature chapter, compared to the
Process chapter.

Nature of motivated behaviour

Everything
(Definition, Dimensions, Sources/theories)

Process of motivated behaviour

Everything
(Maslow and Davies, Internal and external
barriers)
B1502 IPR Interpersonal relationships (5-8)
As with the motivation chapters, questions have come from all three
chapters. However, there has been an emphasis on Dynamics in the
past (11 of the 16 questions have come from that chapter).

Interpersonal communication
Everything
(They have asked about cultural differences and elements)

Interpersonal dynamics
Everything NB!
Do not leave out a single paragraph!

Interpersonal relationships
Everything (In the past they have asked students to identify
what relationship it is, rather than asking about the
characteristics of a specific relationship).
B1502 NGF Group functioning (1-4)

Attributes of human groups

Attributes of human groups NB (know this inside out)
Note: They have not asked about leaders in the past
papers on myunisa. However, they might still ask
about it in your exam paper.

Differentiation of groups
Make sure you know the core of the three ways group
differentiation occurs.

Interaction of groups
No emphasis in past papers.
B1502 NOF Emotion (29-30)
Past papers have asked questions from the following
sections of the chapter:

Definition of emotion
Components of emotion
Theories of emotion
Classification of emotion
Factors influencing interpretation of emotion
Emotional intelligence
Relationship between emotions and behaviour
B1502 NSC Self psychology (13-16)
The concept of self
Distinction between:
- Nature of self and
- Content of self
The double self

The dynamic of self

The four opposing dimensions
(Johari window NB)

The foundations of self

Introspection
B1502 NSP Societal issues (17-20)

Questions have come from each section of this chapter.

Some sections that have come up more often include:

The four forms of violence (page 304)

Traditional and modern racism
The patriarchal ideology (discrimination)
The four elements of the environment as a social system
 B1502 POW Psychology of work (25-28)
In the past, more than half the questions have come out of The ethic
of work chapter. Other information that has been asked includes:

Concept of work
Definition of work
Phases of work

Dynamics of unemployment
No emphasis in past papers

The ethic of work NB

6 different ethics (socio-politics of ethics)
Psychological factors influencing work ethic

Motivation in the workplace

Personal meaning we attach to work
B1502 SOP Science of Psychology (40-44)

In the past, questions from this chapter included:

Implications of Psychology as a scientific discipline

Identifying whether something refers to ontology,
epistemology, methodology or ideology
Identifying the research question
Conceptualising and operationalising the variables
Identifying key concepts
Questions about section B in the study guide focus on
knowledge. This means you need to know what the
concepts mean and what the different theories entail.

Questions about section A in your study guide focus on

skills. This means you need to use the skills you gained in
this module to comment on the work of others or give a
critical opinion. By work of others I mean they will
present you with a short scenario or comment, which you
have comment on.

In the next five slides, we will look at the skills they have
focussed on in past papers.
A1502 CFS Presenting data visually (37-39)

In the past they have asked students to:

- Indicate whether a visiogram, expandable tree

structure or flow chart would be better for displaying
certain information.

- Judge whether the diagram is well formed, valid and

complete.

- Indicate what changes need to be made in order to

make the diagram well formed, valid and complete.
A1502 PPR Presentation

Tutorial letter 202 states that Presentation are

part of the prescribed work. However, I could not
find examples of questions from this section in
past papers.

Please do not leave this section out, as the lecture

may include questions from this section in your
exam paper!
A1502 POP Expert opinion (46-47)
In the past they have asked students to:

- Identify the aim and concepts described in a paragraph.

- Identify which sentence is the conclusion.

(34-36)
- rearrange the order of the sentences so that the paragraph
makes logical sense.

- Identify structural and procedural information.

- Decide whether or not the paragraph should be split into

two paragraphs or not.
A1502 DPP Psychological programmes
(31-33 and 48-49)
In the past they have asked students to:

Consultation scenario/interviews (31-33)

- Identify the client

- Identify the need

- Decide whether something is a need, concern,

expectation, or contextual information

Psychological programmes (48-49)

- Who is the target population

- What is/are the programme resource/s

A1502DPR Psychological research (45 and 50)

In the past they have asked students to:

- Indicate whether they would use a t-test or a

correlation coefficient.

- Interpret the results of a t-test or correlation

coefficient.

Please try and work through the following

examination questions. The questions focus
specifically on questions from section A in your study
guide.