9 Markers Papier 2 Flashcards
1
Q
Outline and Evaluate Asch’s study
A
- The aim of the study was to investigate if people would be influenced by other people’s opinions to give an answer they knew to be wrong
- 123 male participants were shown sets of 4 lines
- For each set, participants had to say whether line A,B or C was the same length as the test line
- Each participant was tested along With 6-8 confederates who the naïve participant thought were just other students
- There were 18 trials in total
- Confederates were instructed to give the correct answer on the first few trials, but then the confederates were asked to give the same wrong answer on the 12 critical trials
- The naïve participant was always positioned as one of the last to give their response after hearing the majority of the groups incorrect responses.
- On 36.8% of the trails where the rest of the group gave the wrong answer, the participant conformed and gave the same wrong answer as the rest of the group, rather than the obviously correct answer
- 76% of the participants gave at least one wrong answer
- 24% of participants resisted the pressure to conform and gave correct answers in all 18 trails.
- Asch concluded that people conform to fit in with a group, even when they know they are giving an incorrect judgement
- One weakness of the study is that it uses a bias sample of American college students, all of roughly the same age. This means that the study lacks variety in its sample, and the results cannot therefore be generalized to females, or older/younger groups of people.
- Another weakness of the study is that the task used to investigate conformity was not an everyday task that people would have to make a choice in. This is a weakness because it means that the task of comparing line lengths lacks mundane realism and hence the study as a whole lacks ecological validity.
- One benefit of the study is that it was conducted in a laboratory environment. This is a strength because it means that any extraneous variables that may have affected the response of the naïve participant are controlled. Therefore Asch’s study has higher validity.
- Another strength of the study is that it demonstrates the extent to which people show conformity in social situations. When participants completed the line task alone, the error rate was less than 1%, however it rose to 36.8% when performed in a group setting. Interviews done afterward showed that participants knew they were right but said the wrong answer just to fit in with the group.
2
Q
Outline and evaluate Piliavin’s Subway Study
A
- The aim was to investigate whether the appearance of a victim would influence helping behaviour.
- The method was, on a New York subway train, a confederate pretended to collapse. His appearance was altered in different ways. In 38 of the trails he appeared to be drunk- he smelt of alcohol and carried a bottle of alcohol wrapped in a paper bag
- In 65 trails he appeared to be sober and carried a walking stick
- Observers recorded how often and how quickly the victim was helped
- When the victim carried a walking stick, he received help 95% of the time
- When he appeared to be drunk he received help 50% of time
- Also people were more quick to help the man with the walking stick as 87% helped within 70 seconds, whereas only 17% helped the
apparently drunk man within 70 seconds - Piliavin concluded that a person’s appearance will affect whether or not they receive help and how quickly this help is given.
- One strength of Piliavin’s study is the type of experiment that was conducted. This is because in a field experiment, participants are more likely to display their natural behaviours, and less likely to display demand characteristics. Therefore, this increases the ecological validity of the study.
- Another strength of Piliavin’s study is that it was under the researcher’s control. This is because the researchers ensured that for each trial the confederate behaved in exactly the same manner so that the only thing different was their appearance. This means that the procedure was standardized and can be repeated to obtain similar results, which increases the validity of the study
- However, the type of experiment conducted could also be a weakness. This is because extraneous variables outside of the researchers control may affect the participants’ behaviour and response time. Therefore, this could decrease the validity of the study
- Another weakness of the study is the location it was conducted in. This is a weakness because NYC is a city within an urban area. People in cities are probably more used to seeing emergency situations, so may be less likely to help. This means that Piliavin’s study may not accurately predict bystander behaviour in a rural area, making results harder to generalise.
3
Q
Outline & evaluate evaluate Milgram’s agency theory
A
- Milgram said that normally, we feel responsible for our own actions and are free to choose how we behave (autonomous state)
- He said that we are more likely to follow orders in the agentic state (when we believe we are acting on behalf of an authority figure so we no longer feel accountable for our actions)
- Instead we see the responsibility being with the person who gave us the orders
The move from autonomous to agentic state is called agentic shift
One strength of Milgram’s agency theory is the supporting research evidence. It showed how 65% of participants were prepared to give a fatal electric shock of 450 volts to someone else when a perceived authority figure told them to do so. Milgram said that participants were in an agentic state on behalf of the experimenter because participants were being paid to perform a role and were told the experimenter would take responsibility for their own actions. This increases the validity of Milgram’s agency theory.
One weakness of Milgram’s agency theory is that we do not all blindly follow orders, so some people are less likely to enter the agentic state than others. Milgram’s theory only focusses on social factors that affect obedience, but other psychologists like Adorno have suggested that dispositional factors such as an authoritarian personality are more important in determining how obedient people are. Therefore reducing the validity of Milgram’s agency theory.
4
Q
Dispositional factors affecting obedience:
Outline & evaluate Adorno’s Theory of Authoritarian Personality
A
- Adorno believed that an authoritarian personality develops because of strict parents who show their child very little love, raise an individual
- The child grows up feeling anger towards its parents but is too anxious to fight back against them
- Instead they displace their feelings onto a person or particular group they see as inferior to themselves
- This scapegoating results in prejudice and discrimination against such minority groups
- Another feature of an authoritarian personality is a particular way of thinking- ‘black and white’
- They prefer to believe in rigid stereotypes e.g. all men are bullies and all women emotional as they have a rigid cognitive style
- A weakness is that Adorno’s F-Scale questionnaire was criticized for being flawed as it enabled a response bias and if people tended to answer yes instead no to questions they would end up with a higher authoritarian score making them seem more prejudiced and therefore obedient. This questions the validity of authoritarian personality as a factor affecting obedience as it is based on poor evidence
- Another weakness is that Adorno only found a correlation. This means that he cannot establish a cause and effect relationship to suggest that high authoritarian personality causes high obedience. In fact, some of the most obedient participants did not experience authoritarian upbringing as predicted by Adorno. This reduces the validity of this factor affecting obedience
- A third weakness is that it cannot explain all cases of obedience. This is because the millions of Nazi soldiers who were all prejudiced and obedient in WW2 could not have had the same exact upbringing and personality. Therefore there must be some social factors too like Adorno’s own experience which can explain the high levels of obedience shown
5
Q
Outline and evaluate Piaget’s theory of language the thought
A
- Piaget thought that children develop language by matching correct words to their existing knowledge
- They have schemas (templates of knowledge about the world) then they use words to express their understanding of it
- This means that understanding comes first then language, and language can only be used at a level that matches our cognitive development
- Sensorimotor stage: babies just simply copy sounds they hear others making, e.g. Googoo gaga, mama, dada
- Pre-operational stage: children are egocentric. They use language to voice their internal thoughts, rather than communicate with others, e.g. I am hungry, I am cold, I am tired
- Concrete stage: the ability to use language has developed a lot, but still can only be used to talk about actual concrete things, e.g. a chair, a bird, a red car
- Formal Operational stage: language can be used to talk about abstract, theoretical ides, e.g. talking about ghosts, religion, etc.
- He states that thought comes before language
- One strength of Piaget’s theory of language and thought is that it can be applied to everyday life. This is a strength because we can observe children developing language over time within the education setting and teacher’s can prepare tasks based on their stage of language development. Therefore, Piaget’s theory has a good ecological validity.
- One weakness of Piaget’s theory is that it is not the only way to understand language. This is because Sapir-Whorf’s theory says that language comes before thought. This decreases the validity of Piaget’s theory
- A weakness of Piaget’s theory is the way he collected data. This is because he used his own children and small samples which are not only unrepresentative of all children, but also because his personal biases may have affected his judgement. This decreases the reliability of Piaget’s study.
- Another weakness is that schemas cannot be scientifically measured. This is because it is very difficult to know if schemas exist because we cannot directly measure them. This shows that Piaget’s theory of language and thought is not based on solid scientific evidence.
6
Q
Outline and evaluate Sapir Whorf’s theory of language the thought
A
- Sapir & Whorf suggested it is not possible to think about something you don’t have words for
- So, they say that language comes first and thought afterwards
- There are two versions of the hypothesis: one which believes words determine our thoughts and one which says they influence them
Strong version
- If there are no words for a thought, object or idea then you can’t think about it
- This is why it is difficult to translate ideas from one language to another
Weak version
- Words help to carve up the world, however, you can still imagin something with no words for it
- So language influences thought, so if you don’t know the word for something, you can still think about it, it would just be more difficult
- A weakness of Sapir-Whorf’s theory is that it is directly challenged by Piaget. This is because Piaget directly contradicts Sapir-Whorf by saying that thought comes before language. This reduces the validity of Sapir-Whorfs theory
- Another weakness of Sapir-Whorf’s theory is that people who grow up not being able to or lose the ability to talk (eg. stroke victims are still able to think). This would suggest that language doesn’t come first and understanding comes first as Piaget suggested. This reduces the validity of Sapir-Whorf’s theory.
7
Q
Outline & evaluate the Von Frisch bee study
A
- The aim of the study was to investigate how bees communicate the location of a food source to each other
- Glass containers filled with sugar water were placed at different locations
- A hive with glass sides was used to easily observe the bee’s behaviour
- When the bees visited the containers of sugar-water to feed, they were marked with a tiny spot of different coloured paint, this made the bees easily identifiable
- The researchers recorded the movements {hat
the bees made when they returned to the hive after collecting the food - The bees made different movements depending on how far away the food source was from the hive
- When the food was no further than 100m away from the hive, the bees did a round dance by turning in rapid circles to the right and then the left
- When the food was further away, the bees performed a waggle dance
- The bees moved forward in a straight line, wagging their bodies from side to side, before turning a circle to the left
- This was followed by the bees moving forward again before turning in a circle to the right
- Von Frisch found that the number of turns a bee makes in 15 seconds of waggle dancing is actually communicating how far away the food source is
- Von Frisch concluded that bees use a variety of different movements to communicate to each other the distance and direction of food sources
- One strength of Von Frisch’s study was that his work made an important contribution to science. This is a strength because people knew that bees danced but had no understanding of the meaning of movements. Therefore, it shows how valuable the research was to the scientific community, increasing its credibility
- A weakness is that the importance of sound was overlooked. This is because when bees performed dances in silence, other bees would not then go on and investigate food sources. This shows that sound based signals also play apart in directing other bees, which is something that Von Frisch did not consider.
- Another weakness is that bees do not always respond to the waggle dance. This is because bees do not use the information from the waggle dance to fly to nectar if it was placed in a boat in the middle of the lake. This shows that Von Frischs account was incomplete
8
Q
Discuss the function of eye contact in human communication
A
Flow of conversation:
- Eye contact makes conversations run smoothly by giving the other person feedback about the listener’s level of interest and emotional state
- A study by Adam Kendon (1967) investigated pairs of participants through a two-way mirror, who were meeting for the first time
- Kendon (1967) found that eye contact was important in encouraging turn taking, so speakers look away when they were about to speak and prolong eye contact when they were about to finish talking
- This is how people knew whose turn it was to talk. If it did not happen, there would be awkward pauses in the conversation
Signalling attraction:
- Eye contact is often the first signal we use to communicate our attraction to someone
- We may ‘check out a person’ from a distance. - - Our level of eye contact may increase when we are talking to someone we like
- A study by Clair Conway et al., (2007) suggests that people who maintain eye contact are judged to be more attractive than people who do not
- In their research, students were shown photos of males and females looking straight at them or looking away slightly
- The faces looking straight at them were rated as more attractive, even when it featured a negative expression such as disgust
- Conway and her colleagues concluded that eye contact is an evolutionary behaviour to signal attraction to a potential mate
Expressing emotion:
- Eye contact is also used to express emotion, particularly how intense the emotion is that is being felt
- Adams and Kleck (2005) gave participants pictures of faces showing different emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and sadness. Some of the faces showed a direct gaze (looking straight at the participant) and some showed an averted gaze (looking away)
- The task was to judge how intense the emotion was in each picture
- Adams and Kleck (2005) found that joy and anger were judged as most intense when there was a direct gaze and fear and sadness were most intense when there was an averted gaze
- Suggesting eye contact is used in different ways to express how intense the emotion we are experiencing is
One weakness of eye contact as a communication tool is that we do not solely react on eye contact. This is because we have to consider other non-verbal communications like facial expressions, and body language. Therefore, this means that eye contact alone may not be the most effective way to understand a conversation
Another weakness is that research conducted into eye contact’s role in communication only reflects the behaviour of the sample used. For example, Conway looked only into students. Therefore results would be harder to generalise to a wider population like old people
One strength is that research that has investigated eye contact is that it has a good real world application. This is because we can understand the role that eye contact plays in our daily conversations. Therefore, we can apply this in order to have a more harmonious society.
9
Q
Discuss the function of body language in human communication
A
Body posture - open and closed posture
- Crossing your arms whilst in conversation is called closed posture
- This indicates that your are unfriendly and makes you seem unapproachable
- Having your arms uncrossed and relaxed is known as open posture
- This makes you appear friendly and approachable
- Research studies have shown that posture impacts on how well someone is liked
- Open posture makes people think you are more friendly and attractive
- Closed posture means you are more unfriendly and less attractive.
Posture echo
- People who like each other tend to copy or mirror each other’s posture
- Research has found that when someone mirrors your posture and shows posture echo it is an unconscious sign of friendliness and people are more liked because of it
Touch
- Touch is a very powerful signal that can produce unconscious emotional reactions
- There are huge cultural differences in the amount of permitted touch between individuals
- British society seems to be more restricted than other Western societies, and there are big differences in touch between genders too
- Research conducted in a library, where the librarian was told to briefly touch the hand of some of the students as they returned a book, showed that even though they were not aware they had been touched, those that had, had a much more positive attitude towards the library and the librarian
- One weakness of the role of body language as a form of non-verbal communication, is that one its own its functions are limited. This is a weakness, because we have to consider other forms of non verbal communication like facial expressions and eye contact. Therefore, we cannot rely solely on eye contact
- A strength of research into body language is that it can be applied to real-world situations. This is a strength because This is because we can understand the role that body language plays in our daily conversations. Therefore, we can apply this in order to have a more harmonious society.
- However, body language research only reflects the culture of the sample used. For example, research conducted in a library is limited to the cultures of the participants, because different cultures have different ways of using body language to express emotion. Therefore, the study cannot be applied to other cultures.
10
Q
Outline and evaluate Darwin’s theory of non-verbal communication
A
- Charles Darwin proposed a theory of evolution which can be used to explain non-verbal behaviour as innate
- Genetic characteristics that increase an organism’s chance of survival and successful reproduction are more likely to be passed down to future generations
- Darwin suggested that we have evolved several ways such as serviceable habits, which are behaviours that have a purpose
- For example humans may have used biting as an early form of self-defence which is a serviceable habit because when we are in a similar experience, the behaviour doesn’t have the same purpose
- Darwin also suggested that some forms of non-verbal communication are due to the construction of the nervous system
- Darwins theory suggests that non verbal behavior is innate and we have evolved several ways of expressing emotion
- He refers to survival of the fittest which means successfully adapted organisms that have made changes in order to fit in with their environment are more likely to survive
- For example, serviceable habits
- A strength of Darwin’s theory is that it is supported by research. Ekman et al. identified six primary emotions” surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness that are found in all people. This is because if a behaviour is universal, this suggests that it is in our genes. Therefore, Ekman’s evidence supports Darwin’s evolutionary theory
- Another strength is that there is further support from the studies of newborn babies. This is because research found that babies are born with the ability to smile and maintain eye contact, suggesting that these behaviours are present and birth and therefore, innate. Therefore, this supports the idea that these behaviours have been selected by evolution to help the childs chances of survival
- A weakness is that Darwin’s theory struggles to explain cultural differences in non verbal communication. This is because personal space and gestures are expressed differently in different cultures. For example, research has shown that Arabs have a lot less personal space than the English. This suggests that the theory only takes nature into account however it overlooks the impact of nurture
11
Q
Outline & evaluate Yuki’s study
A
- The aim of Yuki’s study was to investigate if culture affects how facial cues are used when understanding other peoples emoticons
- Yuki showed American and Japanese participants emoticons with 6 different combinations of eyes and mouths
- The eyes and mouths were happy, neutral, or sad
- Participants were asked to rate from 1-9 how happy they thought each face was
- The Japanese students gave the highest ratings to the faces with happy eyes and lowest ratings to the faces with sad eyes
- The American students gave the highest rating to the faces with happy mouths, and the lowest ratings to faces with sad mouths
- The results suggest that Japanese and American people give more weight to different parts of the face when interpreting another persons emoticons
- The Japanese focus more on the eyes, whilst the Americans focus more on the mouth
- This may lead to differences in understanding facial expressions
- Yuki concluded that people learn their own culture’s norms for the expression and interpretation of emotions
- American people may be brought up to express emotions more openly, using both eyes and mouths
- Japanese people may be brought up to hide their emotions and so the eyes are the most truthful way of telling how you are feeling
- A strength of Yuki’s study is the research method used. This is because questionnaires are easy to make online, and they can usually be made in around 10 minutes. Therefore, questionnaires are extremely time and cost effective, and they get you results that you desire.
- A weakness in Yuki’s study is that emoticons may not represent human faces. This is because emoticons do not contain those tell-tale lines on people’s faces which give us further information of how to interpret their eyes and mouth. This means the results of the study may lack ecological validity.
- Another weakness is the study only investigated two types of emotion. This is because, in everyday life, faces express a whole range of emotions - fear, surprise, disgust, etc. Therefore, the study does not give us insight into how the full range of emotional expressions are interpreted by people of different cultures.
12
Q
Outline and evaluate the James-Lange theory of emotion
A
- William James noticed how the fight-flight reaction happens. He gave the example of tripping as you go down the stairs, and saving yourself from falling by grabbing the banister. Your reaction happens very quickly, but afterwards you feel your heart speeding up, your breathe deeply, and you start sweating - in short, arousal kicks in. James said that it is then that you begin to feel scared. You experience the changes felt by your body and interpret these as emotion. James believed that our emotions are really us perceiving physical changes in the body. The brain makes sense of these changes by concluding that we are feeling certain emotions. This theory led to a number of studies investigating different aspects of this idea
- A weakness of this theory is that other researchers have not been convinced that the theory is an accurate explanation of how we experience emotional arousal. This is especially the case because for the theory to be correct, there would have to be separate and distinctive patterns of psychological arousal - a different pattern for each emotion, which is not something researchers have found. Therefore, this decreases the validity of the theory
- Another weakness is that the two factor theory of emotion criticizes James-Lange because it suggests we also need social cues to correctly label the emotion we are feeling - eg. A racing heart could be a threat situation or a romantic one. The two factor theory explains how we can interpret the same physical state in very different ways, whereas the James Lange theory overlooks this, hence decreasing the validity of the theory
- A strength of this theory is that there are real life examples of emotions following physiological arousal such as phobias - eg. A person may trip in public which leads to an emotional reaction like anxiety or embarrassment. This then may lead to them avoiding public situations due to associations between the situation and the emotion being formed. Therefore, this supports the theory increasing its reliability
13
Q
Outline and evaluate Hebb’s theory
A
- Hebb suggested that when we learn, our brain changes, neural pathways expand, and connections become stronger
- He said the brain is like plastic because it is not fixed in structure but constantly developing and changing
- When you learn something new, it leaves a trace in the brain called an engram. An engram is like a sparkler because it will fade as the spark dies out. However, unlike a sparkler the trace the learning makes can be made permanent by practising and rehearsing that thing
- This is done through cell assemblies
- Cell assemblies are collections of groups of neurons that fire across the neural pathways, leading to stronger more efficient synoptic connections
- To describe this, Hebb said ‘cells that fire together, wire together’
- One weakness of Hebb’s theory is that it is reductionist. This means it explains learning in terms of neurons only. This is a weakness because learning is a complicated activity that involves a range of levels and understanding. This reduces the validity of Hebbs theory as it fails to consider a range of factors
- A strength of the theory is that it has real world application to education. Originally a school headmaster, Hebb believed that a rich and stimulating environment leads to more cell assemblies growing to learn. He found that raising rats in this environment were way better at finding their way through a maze. This could be applied to education by creating more stimulating environments to encourage learning
- A weakness of Hebbs theory is that it was developed in the 1950s. This is a weakness because, since then, there have been many more psychological advancements as well as improvement in science and technology. Hence, this reduces the validity of the theory
14
Q
- Outline and evaluate Penfield’s study of the interpretative cortex
A
- The aim of the study was to investigate the workings of the conscious mind
- The experimental method was a lab experiment
- Patients with epilepsy laid on the operating table conscious
- Local anaesthetic was used
- Penfield stimulated different parts of the brain using the montreal procedure, and recorded the patients’ response
- Stimulation of the temporal lobe made one patient report that he heard the piano playing and could even name the song
- When a different place was stimulated, the patient reported clear memory
- As a control, the surgeon told the patient he was about to stimulate again but didn’t turn on the electrodes, after a pause, the patient reported nothing
- Penfield concluded that there was clear evidence for localisation of function in the cerebral cortex and that the temporal lobe is active in interpreting meaning.
15
Q
Outline and evaluate Tulving’s Gold Mine study
A
- Aim was to investigate the connections between types of memory and brain activity
- 6 volunteers including Tulving himself and his wife, were injected with a small amount of radioactive gold
- Once the substance reached the brain, a PET scan was used to measure the blood flow to different areas of the brain
- The study compared episodic memory (eg. something they had experienced personally) to semantic memory (eg. facts they learnt from a book).
- Each participant performed 8 trials - 4 episodic and 4 semantic in a random order
- A repeated measures design was used as participants took part in all conditions
- Clear differences in blood flow were found
- When participants were thinking of episodic memories, there was greater flow of blood to the frontal and temporal lobe
- Semantic memories resulted in greater activation of the occipital and parietal lobes
- Tulving’s study suggests that episodic and semantic memories are separate forms of long-term memory. It also seems likely that these types of memory are located in different parts of the brain. This would support the idea that memory has a biological basis, and that different types of memory are localised in different areas of the brain
- A strength is that the study produced scientific evidence.
It used evidence from brain scans that is difficult to fake, unlike other psychological investigations where you can be less sure that participants are behaving genuinely.
This means that Tulving produced unbiased evidence. - A weakness is the participants used. Only six participants including Tulving were used and differences in blood flow for episodic and semantic memories were seen in only three participants. This means the results were inconclusive.
- A weakness is that episodic and semantic memories are
often very similar. Memories for personal events also contain facts and knowledge about the world so it is difficult to work out which type of memory is being studied. This may explain why the evidence from Tulving’s study was inconclusive.
