All Areas - Principles, Strengths, Weaknesses and Applications

Question 1

Cognitive Area - Principles (2) and Application

Answer 1

Principles:

1. Mental processes are key to understanding human behaviour.
2. The mind can be seen as an information processor i.e. Input, processing and output of information

Application:

Improving memory – we can suggest techniques such as context dependency or avoid using leading questions

Question 2

Cognitive Area - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 2

Strengths:

• The cognitive area is useful due to its practical applications in the real world which can improve human welfare e.g.
• The cognitive area takes a scientific approach with the use of well controlled experiments, reducing the effect of extraneous variables

Weaknesses:

• The cognitive area’s use of lab experiments can be criticised as this reduces the ecological validity of research
• The cognitive area may lack validity, as mental processes can’t be studied directly. We can only infer what someone is thinking

Question 3

Social Area - Principles (2) and Applications (2)

Answer 3

Principles:

1. Human behaviour can be strongly influenced by individuals and groups
2. Area assumes that our behaviour is strongly influenced by situational factors

Applications:

1. Increasing obedience in schools, prisons
2. Reducing blind obedience – grooming, radicalisation

Question 4

Social Area - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 4

Strengths:

• The social area can explain many phenomena e.g. Social obedience
• Social influences have been shown to have a strong influence on people’s behaviour.

Weaknesses:

• The social area can often create unethical situations which can cause psychological stress to participants e.g.
• Social area research has been criticised for having restricted samples.

Question 5

Biological Area - Principles (3) and Application

Answer 5

Principles:

1. Changes to brain structure cause changes to behaviour.
2. Different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours.
3. Psychologists should study how the brain affects behaviour, looking at brain structure, hormones and neurones

Application:

• Brain damage rehabilitation – localisation of function and neuroplasticity can help treat traumatic brain injury e.g. stroke

Question 6

Biological Area - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 6

Strengths:

• The biological area is very scientific with the use of well controlled experiments and precise scientific apparatus e.g.
• The biological area is useful as it can explain the biological basis of our behaviours.

Weaknesses:

• The methods used by the biological area have been criticised for lacking ecological validity
• The biological area has been criticised for being reductionist, trying to explain complex behaviours in terms of simple biological features.

Question 7

Developmental Area - Principles (2) and Application

Answer 7

Principles:

1. The area suggests that behaviours develop over our lifespan and may be in response to nature or nurture influences.
2. Individuals change their thinking and behaviour systematically through crucial stages of development.

Application:

• Improving child welfare –we can promote positive behaviours through role modelling or reinforce healthy behaviours using rewards like the funhaler

Question 8

Developmental Area - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 8

Strengths:

• The developmental area can widen our understanding of how children learn and develop
• The developmental area has many useful applications to society.

Weaknesses:

• the study of children has many issues e.g. demand characteristics, attention span etc.
• The developmental area raises ethical issues e.g. parental consent, protection from harm

Question 9

Individual Differences Area - Principles and Application

Answer 9

Principles:

1. Individuals differ in their personality, thinking and behaviour.
2. It is possible to measure and study individual differences.

Application:

• Psychometric testing – we can measure aspects of psychological functioning e.g. intelligence, theory of mind to help understand/treat others

Question 10

Individual Differences Area - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 10

Strengths:

• The individual differences area helps to explain diversity and why people’s behaviour differs
• The individual differences area is useful as it helps to improve how we measure differences and understand disorders.

Weaknesses:

• The individual differences area sometimes uses measures which may not be objective and are open to bias e.g.
• The individual differences area can sometimes be unethical when studying individual differences and disorders

Question 11

Behaviourist Perspective - Principles (3) and Application, Relevant studies and Key Terms (8)

Answer 11

Principles:

1. Psychology should study observable behaviour.
2. We are products of our environment.
3. We acquire our behaviour through learning

Application:

Behaviour modification – we can change behaviours through reinforcement or modelling behaviours

Relevant studies:

• Bandura - provides empirical support for social learning theory.
• This is shown through children imitating the aggressive behaviour of the role models that they observe.
• Chaney - provides empirical support for operant conditioning.
• Results found increased adherence, due to the positive reinforcement provided by the Funhaler

Key Terms:

• Tabula rasa
• Nurture
• Behaviour is learnt
• Operant conditioning
• Classical conditioning
• Social learning theory
• Vicarious reinforcement
• Stimulus-response

Question 12

Behaviourist Perspective - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 12

Strengths:

• The perspective takes a scientific approach with the use of well controlled experiments which reduce the effect of extraneous variables e.g.
• The perspective is useful as it has many applications e.g. operant conditioning can be used to modify behaviours

Weaknesses:

• The behaviourist perspective can be reductionist as it ignores mental processes and just focuses on stimulus -> response
• The behaviourist perspective’s use of controlled investigations can often lack ecological validity

Question 13

Psychodynamic Perspective - Principles (3) and Application, Relevant studies and Key Terms (8)

Answer 13

Principles:

1. Behaviour is strongly influenced by the drives of the unconscious mind
2. Our unconscious mind protects the conscious mind from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings through ‘Defence mechanisms’.
3. Development is affected by early relationships

Application:

• Treating disorders – psychoanalysis identifies unconscious causes of disorders so they can be processed

Relevant studies:

1. Freud - Psychoanalysis of Hans’phobia. Displaced unconscious fear of father coming from Oedipus Complex, a feature of the phallic stage of psychosexual development
2. Hancock – language of psychopaths – the psychopaths reveal their unconscious thoughts and desires in their language. For example the predatory world view of psychopaths are shown in instrumental language (because, so, since etc)
3. Kohlberg’s study is not psychodynamic, but within his paper he explicitly positions his own work against Freudian views of the origins of virtue (as “…superego-identification with parents generated by a proper balance of love and authority in family relations”).

Key Terms:

• Unconscious processes,
• Childhood experiences,
• Impulses,
• Psyche: id, ego & superego,
• Defence mechanisms,
• Psychosexual stages,
• Conscious & subconscious,
• Neurosis

Question 14

Psychodynamic Perspective - Strengths and Weaknesses

Answer 14

Strengths:

• The perspective can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviours, including phobias, dreams and anxieties associated with a phobia.
• The psychodynamic perspective is useful as it can suggest treatments such as psychoanalysis.

Weaknesses:

• The psychodynamic perspective’s theory about the unconscious mind, and his theory of the Oedipus complex are impossible to test scientifically.
• The perspective’s use of case studies to analyse individual’s dysfunctional behaviour are considered unscientific. It is hard to generalise from the small samples studied in case studies.