The task for this essay is to critically evaluate the contribution that a selected qualitative study has made to a relevant field within social and developmental psychology. You must write your essay to address one of the following three questions:

Social identity
Drawing on psychological theory and research evidence relating to social identity theory, critically evaluate the contribution that McNamara & Parsons (2016) makes to our understanding of how membership of social groups influences health behaviours.

We’re not expecting a full methodological critique of the selected paper. Instead we want you to contextualise the paper within the relevant literature and evaluate its contribution to the field. This is likely to include consideration of both theoretical and methodological contributions or weaknesses.

Marking Criteria:
Assessment of your essay will be based on you demonstrating that you can:
(a) Answer the question as set;
(b) Integrate material from different sources, including lecture slides, set readings, and readings you have independently located;
(c) Synthesize evidence from research conducted using different methodological approaches (e.g., qual and quant);
(d) Develop a planned and well-structured argument;
(e) Support the argument with evidence;
(f) Critically evaluate evidence and arguments on methodological and conceptual grounds.