Increasing Recycling in Schools
A school wants to increase recycling and has asked you as a psychologist to come up with some ideas. Using the principles of social learning theory and conditioning (Book 2, Chapter 4), produce a guidance document that outlines three key recommendations, using theory and research to support your recommendations.
In your guidance to the school, please outline the strengths and limitations of such an approach to encourage recycling. You must draw on evidence from Week 16 (Book 2, Chapter 4) of the module. In addition, you must draw on and discuss at least two academic journal articles or equivalent primary source material not referred to in the DE200 module materials. These need to be highlighted in the reference list for the EMA markers. Your guidance document should be divided into two sections.
In Section 1, you are asked to provide a brief summary (250 words) of three key recommendations in the context of the scenario provided. These recommendations should be based on your reading of relevant psychological material covered in Block 2, Week 16, and they should take the form of concise statements of advice written with the target audience in mind.Please note that these recommendations should be practical (i.e. they should be implementable by the school). Try to be as specific as possible so that the school can understand what needs to be done to increase recycling. Remember that each of your recommendations must then be justified in Section 2 by referring to social learning theory or conditioning. You may use bullet point lists for these recommendations if you prefer.
You are not expected in Part 2, Section 1, of the EMA to review the details of any psychological research.Week 16 explores how human and non-human animals learn.
Part 2 of this EMA, like TMA 01, is asking you to consider how psychology might be used to resolve a psychological issue in this case, the lack of recycling in the school. It offers you an opportunity to check you have understood key material covered in the second block of the module and to apply relevant ideas to a scenario. This should help consolidate your learning of how psychological theory and research can be used in a specific context.
In Section 2, you are asked to develop a scientific justification for your recommendations (1000 words). This requires you to support them by drawing on relevant psychological research and theory (i.e. social learning theory and conditioning). You should also evaluate the recommendations you have made in the context of the scenario provided (i.e. to assess the strength of the evidence that supports them). Do remember, however, that this task is not asking for your personal opinion; rather, you will need to use material drawn from the module to support your position