Evaluate one or more studies related to explanations of one or more health problems.

Refer to the paper 2 assessment criteria when awarding marks. These can be found under the “Your tests” tab > supplemental materials.

The command term “evaluate” requires the candidate to make an appraisal of one or more studies related to explanations of one or more health problems by weighing up the strengths and limitations. The focus of the evaluation should be upon the study/studies, not the explanation of health problems. Although both strengths and limitations should be addressed, this does not have to be evenly balanced.

The health problems are likely to come from the list in the psychology guide, namely:

• stress
• obesity
• addiction
• chronic pain
• sexual health.

Relevant studies include, but are not limited to:

• Sohl and Moyer’s (2007) study on the effectiveness of the Health Belief Model
• Dunn et al.’s (2011) study on the effectiveness of the theory of planned behaviour.

Evaluation may include, but is not limited to:

• methodological, cultural, and gender considerations
• contrary and supporting findings
• applications of the research study
• ethical concerns regarding the study
• validity and reliability of the study.

If the candidate addresses only strengths or only limitations, the response should be awarded up to a maximum of [3] for criterion D: critical thinking. All remaining criteria should be awarded marks according to the markbands independently, and could achieve up to full marks.

In questions that ask for evaluation of studies, marks awarded for criterion B should refer to definitions of terms, theories and concepts. Overall, this includes knowledge of the specific topic and general knowledge and understanding related to research methods and ethics (for example definitions of relevant terms in research methodology or ethics in research).

Marks awarded for criterion C assess the quality of the description of a study/studies and assess how well the student linked the findings of the study to the question – this doesn’t have to be very sophisticated or long for these questions but still the aim or the conclusion should be linked to the topic of the specific question.

Criterion D assesses how well the student is explaining strengths and limitations of the study/studies.

This was the most popular question within the option and candidates who were well prepared addressed it. Candidates usually chose to focus on obesity or stress, with a lesser number addressing addiction. In the majority of cases, responses provided two relevant studies and continued with evaluation. The biggest challenge for some candidates was providing evidence of knowledge and understanding by explaining relevant terms related to Health Psychology and research methods. Several well-known studies were used to answer the question, as well as more recent, but still relevant studies. In either case, this answer produced some high quality responses.