Carefully read the essay topic and follow your tutor’s guidance.

This is one of the easiest ways to fail to do well. It happened to me once at the start of my second year of study. My tutor said that my essay was good, but I did not address the question well. Essays about altruistic behaviour can vary a lot depending on what you are asked to do, and what year you are.

In the first year of study, tutors will expect less critical thinking than in the third year when it will be mandatory for getting As and Bs. If you are asked to 

 a concept or a theory, you need to show a good understanding of the topic – 

When you become more familiar with different research methods and theories you could be asked to 

knowledge should be 50-60% of your paragraph and the critical evaluation 40-50%

where the emphasis is: theory, research, or applications?

What kind of evidence do you need to bring?

 Is it psychology in general or is it a certain branch of psychology such as: 

cognitive, developmental, evolutionary, forensic?

The following essay examples are all about altruism, but they need to be approached in different ways.

keywords to understand where the focus is.

 Example 2 can be trickier as it does not have keywords. In this case, you should show both knowledge and critical evaluation, and talk about theory and research and application. In Example 3 the focus is on theory and research but in Example 4 only research methods. In Example 5 you are specifically asked to include evidence from social psychology mostly. You could briefly evaluate why social psychology might be better than other branches of psychology, but the focus at all times should be on social psychology.

Example 2: Are people altruistic or selfish?

Critically Evaluate psychological theories

 used to investigate altruistic behaviour?

Manage expectations and don’t set the bar too high

Writing a good essay can be very challenging. The coursebooks have highly qualified authors. Many manuals are nicely written, and this can be intimidating for students. As I did, it’s probably something you need to accept, that as an undergraduate student you don’t yet master the psychological jargon.

By keeping it simple, stupid you will improve the clarity of your writing.

Why is the topic important? You can use some attention-grabbing facts: statistics, news, etc. (Only include this if you have enough space within the word count and keep it short, no more than 1 or 2 sentences).

Write how you will answer the essay question, or what your argument will be.

Speak in the third person: ‘the essay will show that’.

PESEL (Point, Example, Support Evidence, Link) 

Try to keep a good balance between description and explanation 60-40 or 50-50. 

 try to answer the how and the why? to improve critical thinking and move from description to evaluation.

Start the paragraph with a transition word or phrase to improve the flow

 further, furthermore, likewise, moreover, equally important, first, second, third etc

 despite, on the contrary, on the other hand, but, while, unlike etc

 as a result, then, because the, hence, consequently, therefore.

: you can use transition words when you evaluate a study or research to improve the clarity of your argument.

Always link it back to the title of the essay

. Remember, you are talking about an experiment or concept because it brings some more understanding to a certain topic. For example, if you are talking about authoritarian personality, it’s not enough to just describe the Milgram experiment (1961) and state the results, you also need to explain why and how it contributed to our understanding of the authoritarian personality.

Very important: don’t include any new information. The conclusion needs to mirror your introduction.

Summarise the key points and show how you answered the question

Follow PESEL (Point, Explain, Support Evidence, Link)

The structure of the paragraph is a bit like a layer cake: you can refer to concepts and theory, research, and sometimes applications and then link the paragraph back to the title.

Example: Critically evaluate: "are people always helpful?"
You might want to develop the argument that how helpful people are depends on the situation. So, let’s say, in one paragraph from the body, you decide to refer to the 

 - Make a point Bystander effect is a concept that states that in an emergency, people are less likely to offer help if others are present.

 - explain the point How do we know about the bystander effect? Kitty Genovese was murdered, and 38 bystanders failed to call the police.

 - What type of psychological evidence supports the point? You might want to refer to some experiments, for example, Darley and Latané (1968). You will need to briefly describe the experiment and then say what it showed (when others are present, people are less likely to help in an emergency, because they think someone else will take responsibility).

 when you support evidence for your point you can bring more than one piece of evidence. For example, you can also mention another experiment conducted more recently. Critically evaluate: are the conclusions the same as the ones offered by Darley and Latané (1968)? Think if there are any flaws with the design of the experiments, or possibly even with the way Kitty Genovese murder was reported in the news.

Link - link the paragraph back to the essay question

 “are people always helpful?”. How and why the bystander effect concept is useful? What are some practical or ethical implications? You can also use a link to link to the next paragraph.

Briefly state the author (year), the hypothesis, procedure (sample and conditions), what were the findings.

 After a short description of the research, (ideally no more than a couple of sentences), use critical thinking, by answering why and how much that research was useful. What did you find? Use critical thinking to state any possible limitations of the study or to find alternative explanations, ways a study could be improved or suggest future research.


You need to be brief when describing a study because you also need to critically evaluate. 

Try to be succinct in your description. If in doubt, search on the internet how that study was described in some research papers, to get a feeling of what is important to include and what to leave out. Also, if you can get hold of the primary source (this is always preferable) look at the abstract – pay attention to how the author summarised the hypothesis (in the case of quantitative research) or the research question (in the qualitative research), design and results.

Unless you are asked to describe, it’s safe to assume you need to make good use of critical thinking to score highly in all your essays. From my experience, many students are using critical thinking when they talk about psychological research, but many have difficulty writing in a way that demonstrates critical thinking.


Try to think if there are there any flaws with some experiments. Are different types of research supporting the arguments? Are the results valid and reliable?

 how to use critical thinking successfully.

 Students (as I did too) think that it is very important to be critical because this shows that you can engage with the material, you understand the research design, and you can critically evaluate the research. But don’t be overly critical and don’t just stop after you critically evaluate a study, write how it helps the understanding of the essay topic.
For example, 

 studied conformity by asking people to match line lengths. Participants were asked to choose one of three lines that were closest in length to another line given as reference. Solomon Asch used deception by placing each participant with a group of actors who were instructed to give a false response on purpose, to see if the participants would comply or not. The task was not difficult, and it was easy to see which line was closest to the reference one, but 37 out of 50 participants agreed with the false decision of the group (made of actors). The study could not be replicated today because of ethical considerations. Solomon Asch did not get informed consent and he used deception. However, seventy years ago the ethical considerations were not as strict, and the study remains important in psychology because it showed that people conform to group pressure.

Find new, interesting research papers through independent study.

 Most of the times tutors expect you to cover some classical or well-known psychological research but it is more difficult to say something new that was not said before. Therefore, it can be useful to look if 

some of that classical research was replicated

 in the last 5-10 years. You can google things like: “replication of Darley and Latané (1968)” for the bystander effect or even “replication of Milgram experiment” for the study of obedience.

Use a new angle when talking about a well-researched concept.

 Example: group membership: Is belonging to a group changing the bystander effect? or cultural differences: Is the bystander effect the same in western or eastern societies? in an urban or rural environment?

Think about the strengths and limitations of a study.

 Some studies have a few limitations such as the participants were psychology students, not a big enough sample size (the sample size is often not important in qualitative studies), the participants were white and middle class.

Many times, the authors acknowledge the limitations of their own research in the Discussion section of published papers.

 When you look at published papers, it’s worth paying extra attention to the Discussion as it can help you gather a lot of good arguments that will no doubt improve your critical thinking.

 The study measures what it was created to measure

 Can the findings of the research be replicated with similar results?

 Biased behaviour of the researcher, prejudice. It can be a bit tricky for students. Most published papers tend to be reviewed and they are supposed to be trustworthy even if sometimes there might be issues with the design of the experiment, or the participants. But there are times when studies are replicated, and different results are obtained. Also, some of the classical studies were culturally biased, as in the case of IQ where the research and results in one culture or population were extrapolated to different cultures.

 When psychological studies are done with animals, the questions one should ask are?

1.	How much do the findings from studies with animals apply to people?

2.	Were the studies ethical? Many of the early psychological research with animals could not be replicated today because it involves animal cruelty.

3.	Some topics might be particularly difficult to investigate- for example testing animals' abilities to problem solving, or if they have a theory of mind.

Harlow’s Monkey Experiments in the 1950s.

 He used infant rhesus monkeys separated from their mothers, to study the effects of maternal deprivation. After separation, the infant monkey was placed in a cage with two surrogate mothers, one made of cloth and the other made of wire that fed the monkey through a bottle. The monkey preferred the cloth mother, spending most of the time next to it, even though the wire one provided nutrition. Harlow’s experiments showed the importance of the bond and interaction between the mother and the child.

 measured the bystander effect by studying how people respond to an emergency in the ‘alone’ condition and in the presence of others. In some experiments, the participants thought they heard someone having a seizure down the hall. The ones who were alone, were quicker to offer help, showing that when others are present the responsibility is diffused – the bystander effect. However, the participants thought they witnessed a medical emergency and because of that, the experiment would not be ethical today.


 – the study of obedience. Participants took the role of ‘teacher’ in a memory test. They were pressured to administer increasingly high electric shocks to a ‘learner’ sitting in the next room, to help the learner to memorise a list of word pairs. The learner was an actor, and no electric shocks were administered to him. The experimenter wore a white lab coat to appear more authoritative and he kept instructing the ‘teacher’ to keep increasing the electric shock administered. 66% of participants thought they administered the highest, lethal, 450 volts. Stanley Milgram showed that people obey authority, but his experiment was criticised for causing psychological harm to the participants.

 Think about some problems that might arise from research done 50, 70 or 100 years ago in terms of diversity: the gender was binary (male and female), participants were from western countries, white and middle class. Also, social norms and values were different before.

How to write a psychology essay

It’s always a good idea to try to remember the most important concepts and authors, year, and a brief description of each study.

Try to understand what the concepts mean and to explain them in your own words. Many psychology textbooks are written beautifully, and they are very informative, but again, most students are against time pressure, and they procrastinate (it sounds familiar to me too). So, it is impossible to remember everything. The solution is to try to be selective with what you must study. Think about it this way: when you read a chapter, what are the main important ideas the author develops, what are the most important theories, concepts, and pieces of research (evidence)? Pay special attention to the way the concepts are defined. Don’t try to reproduce the definition word-for-word or to remember everything, because it is not very efficient. Instead, think about the important elements of the definition. How would you summarise the definition? The tutors are not expecting students to remember everything. Rather, they want students to understand and to be capable of critically engaging with the material why? and how?

From my own experience, it’s always worth to learn less but better. Concentrate on the important concepts and authors. If you have an idea of what a concept means, but you are not quite sure perhaps you won’t be able to retrieve the information during the exam.

A psychology exam is tests what you know, how you write (essay writing skills) and critical evaluation. Don’t just focus on knowledge and remembering lots of facts in detail, as if you fail to critically evaluate you will miss the chance to get the marks you deserve.

Study tactics: Depending on how much time you have to study

Now, you don’t really have enough time, but when I was studying for my previous degree, there were times when I procrastinated so much that there really was not enough time left. The solution is to focus on what is most important. You don’t have time to read the course books completely. So, a good idea is to turn the pages and browse for definitions, concepts, authors. Depending how much training you have in memorising things, trying to remember lots of authors can be exhausting. Less is always better. Pay some extra attention to the definitions and main concepts to get a good understanding.

Perhaps you don’t have the time to exercise writing entire essays in exam conditions, but you can make essay plans. What would be my main 5 arguments? What would be the concepts and authors included?

For many students studying at least 3 days is good enough. It allows you to pay some extra attention to some of the most difficult concepts. My method of studying for psychology was to start with what I found most difficult. Studies show that we tend to remember better what we study first. For example, I had an exam when I had to remember a lot of information from biological psychology. Remembering how the visual system, neural pathways and optical illusions work was not easy. But I memorised it through small chunks of information at a time and I took pride in the fact that I could remember stuff. Chances are, if you find something extremely difficult, most students will as well.When trying to build your memory muscles, try to pay attention to what you are learning, what things mean, and make sure you really understand the words, concepts, etc. When in doubt, use a dictionary or the internet for extra clarification. It’s not a good idea to try to remember things we don’t understand.

Tip: don’t try to remember everything. You have almost enough time to study, but you need to make sure you can remember what you study. You can aim to memorise 20 things a day (authors, concepts, definitions, etc). If you find it difficult to remember so much, try at least 15 elements. You need to make sure you will be able to retrieve the information during the exam. Think about how you can make sentences using some of the new concepts (terms) you learned during your course.

Practice essay structures or essay writing is if you have the time.

Five days - Two weeks to study before an exam 

Now you are enjoying luxury study time. Perhaps many students just don’t have this much time, or they procrastinate. Try following the tips I gave for “3-5 days of studying” only that now you have enough time to practice essay writing under exam conditions.

Tip: start with what you find most challenging first.

You have time to do some extra research for the exam, to google for some more studies, research for some more evidence and think more about critical thinking. It is very likely you are going to get an A.
Good luck

How to write a psychology essay in exam conditions

As a foreign student, I needed to be determined and resilient. When I started, I was overthinking everything. I was even doubting my grammar and I was afraid I was going to make a fool of myself. I even considered postponing the start of my degree. But in the first year of studying, I did my best to adopt the mindset that I wanted to do well and that I had what it took to succeed and to finish with a first-class degree. Unlike most of the other psychology students, I asked lots of questions: during tutorials, after receiving feedback on my assignments and I even had a couple of in-depth conversations with some of my tutors. I welcomed all the feedback, and I tried to avoid making the same mistakes. I remember one particular time in my first year of studying psychology when, after two weeks of hard work, I received a B on my essay. In all honesty, I thought I deserved a better grade. The structure was good, the referencing was perfect, I answered the essay questions, so I did not know where I went wrong. The tutor was kind enough to have a phone conversation with me and to explain how the essay could have been improved. The main problem with it was that it was too descriptive. I did not quite critically evaluate enough, making reference to different types of evidence and showing how they supported the theory. I was surprised. I told my tutor, ‘well, I knew how to do that, I read the materials, I knew about different types of research, advantages and disadvantages’ The problem was I did not know that I was supposed to critically evaluate the research that supports the theory. ‘Nobody told me’ I said. I did take on board all the advice I received and by the end of the second year of studying psychology, my grades were mostly A+. Remember, essay writing is not only about knowledge it is also about developing good writing skills. If you are not doing as well as you’d hoped, please don’t worry. The fact that you are reading a blog about essay writing shows that you are already walking the extra mile and you are putting the extra work into achieving better grades. Writing psychology essays is a learning curve – it takes time and practice.  But developing your knowledge and skills can be fun.

If you ask for more feedback or even if you challenge a grade, do it in the nicest possible way. Tutors are people and their work is stressful. There is a small chance that they are slightly unfair on some essays, but then other times they are perhaps a bit too generous with their marking. I experienced both situations. Asking for more feedback and ways in which you can improve is the best you can do. 

Determination and Resilience while studying

Writing essays and psychological assessments can be tricky at times. Most students spend a lot of time getting things wrong before they learn from their mistakes, how to improve. This method of learning is trial and error, and it is not very efficient and constructive as often it does not lead to confidence building. When I started studying psychology, I was not getting the results I wanted, and sometimes I was doubting myself and feeling frustrated. Perhaps the biggest challenge in the way psychology is taught is that independent study and original thinking are valued at the expense of actually teaching students how to write amazing psychology papers.

Psychology Essay Tips and Tricks