Area Summaries Flashcards
1
Q
What are the key principles of the social area?
A
- assumes our interaction and communication with people has a significant effect on the way we think, feel and behave
- the presence or perceived presence of others will impact everything we do
- suggests psychologists should focus on situational explanations of our behaviour because we can only understand people in the context of their interactions with others
- this is because our behaviour is primarily motivated by maintaining membership of social groups
2
Q
What are the strengths of the social area?
A
- usually has high ecological validity
- tends to be useful as it puts forward solutions to real world problems
- contributes to the free will vs determinism debate as it suggests all behaviour is determined by the way we interact with others
3
Q
What are the weaknesses of the social area?
A
- there are a number of methodological problems with studying social behaviour, particularly demand characteristics
- because ecological validity is so important, studies often lack control - this makes it more difficult to establish the IV as the cause of behaviour
- often ethnocentric as it is generalised, despite culture being an important factor
- research tends to be unethical and socially sensitive
4
Q
How does Milgram relate to the social area?
A
- relates because it focuses on the influence of interaction on behaviour
- participants placed in a position of moral conflict as a result of two opposing interactions
- the learner’s responses make them want to disobey, but the researcher puts pressure on them to continue
- this demonstrates the effects of situational factors
5
Q
How does Bocchiaro relate to the social area?
A
- relates because it focuses on the influence of interaction on behaviour
- participants placed in a position of moral conflict as a result of two opposing interactions
- perceived future interaction with those they nominated to partake in a sensory deprivation study likely to be negative, but their interactions with the researcher puts pressure on them to continue obeying
- demonstrates the effects of situational factors, as majority obeyed without blowing the whistle
6
Q
How does Piliavin relate to the social area?
A
- relates because it focuses on the influence of interaction on behaviour
- participants placed in a position of moral conflict as a result of two opposing interactions
- victim needs assistance so perceived future interaction with them is likely to be positive, however perceived interaction with others may be negative
- this is because if others aren’t acting, we may not act ourselves, in order to maintain membership of social groups (pluralistic ignorance) - however this wasn’t seen in the study
7
Q
How does Levine relate to the social area?
A
- relates because it focuses on the influence of interaction on behaviour
- participants placed in a position of moral conflict as a result of two opposing interactions
- perceived future interaction with person who needs help is likely to be positive, motivating helping behaviour
- however, perceived interaction with others may be negative, for example they may be late to meet someone, who may or may not approve based on cultural values, particularly simpatia
8
Q
What are the key principles of the cognitive area?
A
- considers the brain to be an information processor, like a computer - it inputs, encodes, stores, retrieves and outputs information
- any unusual behaviour can be explained as a result of a fault somewhere in the process
9
Q
What are the strengths of the cognitive area?
A
- reductionist nature of the approach means scientific methods are used, ensuring research is reliable
- it can have useful, practical applications in a wide range of fields
10
Q
What are the weaknesses of the cognitive area?
A
- we cannot study the cognitive processes directly, only the input and the output - therefore relies heavily on self-report and observation to fill in the gaps, meaning the validity is questionable
- reductionist, ignoring social and emotional factors - this is in part due to the use of lab experiments
- tend to have low ecological validity
- use of lab experiments means participants are vulnerable to demand characteristics
11
Q
How does Loftus and Palmer relate to the cognitive area?
A
- relates as it examined how manipulating aspects of the cognitive process can impact behaviour
- did this by using leading questions to affect retrieval
- this is because information at the retrieval stage is merged with information received at the time of the event, causing some participants to change the output
- shown as participants in the smashed condition gave the highest estimated speed (40.8) compared to those in the contacted condition giving the lowest speed (31.8)
12
Q
How does Grant relate to the cognitive area?
A
- relates as it examined how manipulating aspects of the cognitive process can impact behaviour
- did this by creating different conditions in which the noise environment at input and retrieval were either matching or non matching
13
Q
How does Moray’s study relate to the cognitive area?
A
- relates as it examined how manipulating aspects of the cognitive process can impact behaviour
- showed that when two pieces of information are inputted at the same time, only the attended information can be retrieved, as it is never encoded
- however, adapting the input to include affective information can ensure that information in the unattended message is encoded
- shown as participants followed instructions in the unattended message 51% of the time when affective info was present, compared to 11% of the time when it wasn’t
14
Q
How does Simons and Chabris relate to the cognitive area?
A
- relates as it examined how manipulating aspects of the cognitive process can impact behaviour
- showed that when two pieces of information are input at the same time, the majority of participants cannot retrieve information about the unexpected event when questioned, as it if never encoded
- however, adapting the input by making the video footage non-transparent can increase the chances of the unexpected event being encoded
15
Q
What are the key principles of the developmental area?
A
- the study of the change in our mind and behaviour over our lifetime (as a result of maturation), with specific changes taking place at certain times
- development is a consequence of interaction between innate behaviours and the environment, i.e. both nature and nurture (referred to as ontogenesis)
