Evaluate psychological research relevant to strategies for reducing violence.

Refer to the paper 2 assessment criteria when awarding marks.

The command term “evaluate” requires candidates to make an appraisal by weighing up the strengths and limitations of theories and/or studies relevant to strategies for reducing violence. Although a discussion of both strengths and limitations is required, it does not have to be evenly balanced to gain high marks.

There are a number of different strategies that candidates may refer to. A strategy is any plan of action or a programme for reducing violence.

Examples of psychological research relevant to strategies for reducing violence may include, but are not limited to:

• Olweus’s (1993) longitudinal study on the effect of Olweus’s bullying prevention program (OBPP) on bullying
• metropolitan area child study (MACS), 2002 – longitudinal study on the effectiveness of a community-based strategy
• Aronson’s (1979) jigsaw classrooms research
• Wilson and Kelling’s (1982) broken windows theory
• Feshbach and Feshbach (1982) on the effect of empathy training on reducing violence
• Ferguson et al.’s (2007) meta-analysis of effectiveness of school based programmes.

Evaluation of the selected research may include but is not limited to:

• ethical considerations
• methodological considerations
• cultural and gender considerations
• the effectiveness of the strategies
• supporting and contradicting evidence
• the applications of the empirical findings.

Candidates may evaluate a small number of theories and/or studies relevant to strategies for reducing violence in order to demonstrate depth of knowledge, or may evaluate a larger number of theories and/or studies on the effectiveness of strategies for reducing violence in order to demonstrate breadth of knowledge. Both approaches are equally acceptable.