Evaluate one or more studies related to the treatment of one or more psychological disorders.

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 by weighing up the strengths and limitations of one or more studies related to the treatment of one or more psychological disorders. The focus of the evaluation should be upon the study/studies, not the treatment of psychological disorders. Although a discussion of both strengths and limitations is required, it does not have to be evenly balanced to gain high marks.

The disorder chosen is likely to come from the list in the guide:

• anxiety disorders
• depressive disorders
• obsessive compulsive disorders
• trauma and stress related disorders
• eating disorders.

Relevant studies may include, but are not limited to:

• Rossello and Bernal’s (1999) study adapting cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for Puerto Rican adolescents
• Mason and Hargreaves’ (2001) qualitative interviews regarding effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
• McLay et al.’s (2011) assessment of the effectiveness of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for post-traumatic stress disorder
• Kuyken et al.’s (2008) randomized control trial of MBCT and anti-depressive medication 
• Caspi et al.’s (2003) study on treatment of depression
• Luty et al.’s (2007) randomized control trial of IPT and CBT
• Elkin et al.’s (1989) controlled outcome study on treatment of depression.

If the candidate provides studies on causes of disorder (rather than treatment of disorder) the response needs to make a clear link between the underlying cause and how it can be approached in treatment for the responses to gain credit.

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

• methodological and ethical considerations
• cultural and gender considerations
• supporting and/or contradictory findings
• how the findings have been interpreted and applied.

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 best fit approach.

In questions that ask for evaluation of studies, marks awarded for criterion B should refer to definitions of terms and concepts. Overall this could include some knowledge of topic but more specifically knowledge and understanding related to research methods and ethics of chosen studies.

Marks awarded for criterion C assess the quality of the description of as study/studies and assess how well the student linked the findings of the study to the question – this does not need 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 also popular for candidates. Unfortunately, some candidates ignored the "one or more studies" part of the question and wrote thorough responses on treatments of psychological disorders this approach had quite an adverse effect on their overall marks. Popular choices included studies which compared two types of treatments in a controlled trial.