all key questions Flashcards
what is the social key question?
how can knowledge of social psychology be used to explain the rise in prejudice and discrimination towards Palestinian and Israeli people due to the ongoing settlement/conflict for land?
KEY Q: social psychology (AO1)
why does answering the question matter for society?
- the ongoing conflict has influenced a huge rise in anti-semitism (2023 documents the highest annual total every reported with a 147% rise, according to parliament) and islamophobia. these 2 religious groups are being discriminated as a result, perpetuating stereotypes not only nationally but internationally, putting many individuals at risk of hate-crimes, for instance.
- people are being displaced or left homeless as a result of the conflict, leading to increased migration or immigration where neighbouring countries are having to accommodate for these individuals. this may constitute to increased financial strain on governments who must provide housing or shelter for those migrating.
- discrimination of Palestinian and Israeli people who reside in other countries more likely to be increased, despite not being directly involved with the conflict.
- a huge number of deaths caused as a result of the conflict and inhumane living conditions (e.g. food and water supply shut off in Gaza/Israel).
KEY Q: social psychology (AO2)
how can psychology be applied to the question?
- knowledge about prejudice, like Sherif’s ‘Realistic Conflict Theory’ can be applied to identify superordinate goals that interest both groups (Palestinians and Israelis). by working towards a superordinate goal (e.g. jobs or contributing to the economy) they can achieve a mutually beneficial objective or outcome and encouraging to work together to resolve the conflict.
- knowledge about Social Identity Theory can be applied to understand why the formation of in and out-groups contributes to out-group hostility and conflict. this may encourage individuals to set aside their differences to achieve peace.
KEY Q: social psychology (AO3)
what are the strengths and weaknesses of applying the psychology to this question?
STRENGTHS of RCT
- applications the idea of superordinate goals has a clear application for reducing prejudice and discrimination. the ingroup and outgroup need to work together towards something that is valued by both of them; then they see others as members of the one group, with a shared goal of achieving resources through cooperation. this is how sherif diffused prejudice in ‘robbers cave’ therefore, it may be successfully applied to this conflict too as it has application value. Allport’s Contact Hypothesis applies here, because prejudice will be reduced if group members get to mingle freely with the outgroup and question their own stereotypes. It is important that leaders (e.g. presidents) and authority figures support this mingling.
- There’s a lot of research in support of Realistic Conflict, especially the “Robbers Cave” study and also a lot of attitude surveys like the Michigan National Election Studies. It is also backed up by common sense (face validity). Football fans tend to have negative stereotypes about rival teams, but no particular view about teams much lower (or higher) in the league that aren’t in competition with their team.
WEAKNESSES of RCT
- generalisability a weakness of the supportive evidence is that the robber’s cave study was carried out on American schoolboys, not adults. they were also of the same social class and wealth status as well as them all being from the same religious background (protestants). testosterone and upbringing might make schoolboys especially likely to form tribes and be competitive, which suggests there is a risk in generalising them to adult behaviour.
- ecological validity the robber’s cave experiment was artificially conducted. it adhered to a standardised procedure, where the conditions were controlled. this suggests that it may be difficult to apply the findings of sherif’s RCT to the palestine-israel conflict because it lacks mundane realism and therefore, ecological validity. overall, it may be difficult to generalise this research to this large scale, life-threatening conflict.
STRENGTHS of SIT
- supportive evidence SIT is supported by Tajfel et al.’s 1970 study into minimal groups. The research showed how boys will discriminate against an out-group and show favouritism to an in-group and that this will happen when the group identity is based on something conflicting (e.g. religion). this may account for how religion could create a powerful sense of self-identity that leads to discrimination.
WEAKNESSES of SIT
- objections a theory of personality like adorno’s authoritarian personality might explain this behaviour better.
what is the cognitive key question?
can cognitive psychology increase medication adherence?
KEY Q: cognitive psychology (AO1)
why does answering the question matter for society?
medication adherence is the ‘degree to which the person’s behaviour corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a health care provider’ (Dobbels et al. 2005)
- 21% of patients have missed at least one dose of a medication they are supposed to take every day (Comres, 2015)
- Non adherence rate 30-50% in patients with chronic health conditions (Elliot, 2009)
this is an issue for society because it contributes to disease progression, meaning the individual’s health condition will worsen. this consequently, affects the individual who will experience reduced functioning and quality of life (e.g. not able to go to work, resulting in financial hardship). this could cause medical complications or hospitalisation, which puts more strain on the NHS/healthcare systems who have to accommodate for these individuals. as well as this, it means that tax payers have to pay more which is an issue for society especially during years like COVID-19 it strains the NHS even more.
- £500,000,000+ per year cost to the NHS (amas, 2013)
KEY Q: cognitive psychology (AO2)
can cognitive psychology increase medical adherence?
it’s possible that medical non-adherence is because of doctor’s communication of instructions where it is often confusing or unclear for the patient because they cannot process or remember all of the information.
multi-store model
- using the multi-store model theory of STM, doctor’s can tell their patient to pay attention to what they are saying by taking notes for them to rehearse and recall later. this is because the STM has a duration of 7 bits of info up to 20 seconds, meaning that it is unlikely that they will recall all of the information later. by raking notes to retrieve their memory, this enables them to retrieve the instructions when they are at home and taking their medication.
working memory model
- using the working memory model, doctors should speak slowly and avoid complicated jargon which may confuse the patient. by explaining the procedure and instructions for taking the medication, this avoids the issue of overloading their phonological loop, which has a limited capacity. through this, patients can easily process and understand the information making it more accessible to take their medication.
reconstructive memory & schema theory
- using bartlett’s reconstructive memory & schema theory, it is important to consider that patients have unique and individual schemas. these differ to the doctor’s or to other patients, therefore it is important for doctor’s to slowly communicate the instructions and details of their course of treatment to avoid confusion or inaccessibility.
tulving’s LTM
tulving’s LTM argues that episodic memory is encoded based on how it was experienced (encoding specificity principle), which means when a memory is stored, so are the details of time and space where it occurred. using this knowledge, doctor’s can encourage patients to develop context cues (e.g. asking them to visualise their home or a location for them to associate with taking medication) to encourage their medication adherence. this is known as context cues, which refers to things that remind you when or where the original memory was encoded.
KEY Q: cognitive psychology (AO3)
can cognitive psychology increase medical adherence?
KEY Q: learning theories (AO1)
would it be a good idea for airline companies to offer treatment programmes for fear of flying?
why is this an issue for society?
- according to TUI, 1 in 10 people face fear of flying.
this is an issue for society and the individual in a number of different ways.
1) firstly, aerophobia affects the individual’s quality of life. having a fear of flying means individuals (e.g. international students) cannot visit their families abroad, which is upsetting and affects society. furthermore, aerophobia means that students can’t study abroad internationally which could limit their opportunities.
2) secondly, aerophobia limits the economy of the airline company or different countries. people with aerophobia are less likely to travel, which can cause the airline company to suffer as they aren’t receiving enough income which harms the economy. (e.g. airline companies suffering during COVID-19). furthermore, this limits tourism in countries as less people are willing to travel.
BRITISH AIRWAYS
airline company, british airways offers a ’flying with confidence’ treatment programme that has helped 500,000 people over the last 30 years and had a 98% success rate (british airways website). they offer a variety of courses like:
- one day flying with confidence primary
KEY Q: learning theories (AO2)
would it be good for airline companies to offer treatment programmes for fear of flying?
systematic desensitisation can be used to treat fear of flying. systematic desensitisation is based on classical conditioning and has two components:
1) counter-conditioning: counter-conditioning can be applied to fear of flying where individuals could associate the fear of flying with something positive like reading a book or relaxing the whole flight because it’s a peaceful journey away from society where you can switch off. this technique encourages individual’s to associate the feared thing with something pleasant or relaxing to decondition the fear.
2) graduated exposure: the individual can introduce you to the thing you fear in stages. for example, starting the patient off with a picture or video of a plane taking-off and landing safely to encourage the idea that airplanes are safe and not to be feared. they could then gradually build up to seeing a plane take-off and land from an airport and finally, the final stage will be them taking a flight to experience the encounter immediately and hopefully eliminate the fear of flying.
3) participant modelling: sometimes there is a third component where a role model demonstrates being replaced and calm in the presence of a feared object. this may include the individual witnessing someone who they identify as a ‘role model’ (e.g. a parent, sibling or friend etc) flying and noticing that it isn’t something to be feared.
