Areas Flashcards
Why is the Cognitive Area is useful?
Practical applications
eg. lawyers and police officers not using leading questions
What are the strengths of the Cognitive Area?
- not ethnocentric (brain functions, species-specific)
- improve our understanding of human behavior
- practical applications
- favors the scientific method and lab experiments, gives psychology more credibility
What are the key assumptions in the Cognitive Area?
- suggests mind works like a computer processor
- investigates how mental processes can affect behavior
- people decided how they behave
How is research carried out in the Cognitive Area?
- highly controlled lab experiments (high reliability, low ecological validity)
- relies on self - report
- tends qualitative data
- tends adult participants
What debates does the Cognitive Area link to?
- Individual/Situational - both
- Conducted ethically
- Freewill/Determinism - freewill as we decide how we behave
What are the weaknesses of the Cognitive Area?
- lack ecological validity as lab
- limitations on how data can be gathered (self-report)
- lab increases demand characteristics
What are the key assumptions in the Developmental Area?
- behavior is due to environmental or innate factors
- early experience can affect how children develop
- assumes our behavior changes throughout our life
Why is the Developmental Area useful?
- practcial applications (childcare, education)
- watershed on TV at 9pm
What are the strengths of the Developmental Area?
- practical applications
- attempts to answer nature/nurture debate
- variety of quantitative + qualitative data
- can study participants over time to reduce participant variables
What are the weaknesses of the Developmental Area?
- working with children may raise ethical issues
- research may be constrained by time or culture due to early changes
How is research carried out in the Developmental Area?
varies from case studies, observation, biological methods and lab
What debates does the Developmental Area link to?
- nature/nurture - both
- usefulness of research
- freewill/determinism - Bandura
- individual/situational - Chaney
What are the key assumptions in the Social Area?
- we behave differently in different situations
- other people influence our behavior
- relationships affect our behavior
Why is the Social Area useful?
- makes us aware (blind obedience)
- figures of authority control our behavior
- improve our understanding of how behavior is affected
- practical applications (bring to wider audience)
What are the strengths of the Social Area?
- high ecological validity
- improve our understanding of how behavior is affected
- practical applications
What are the weaknesses of the Social Area?
- not true for all time as social changes
- not true for all places/cultures
- hard to stay within ethical guidelines
- boundaries blurred between areas- inform
How was research carried out in the Social Area?
- field experiments
- surveys
- lab experiments
What debates does the Social Area link to?
- Individual Situational - situational
- Freewill/ Determinism - deterministic
- usefulness - police, teachers, also malicious
What are the key assumptions in the Individual Differences Area?
- why people differ and reasons
- why people fall out of normal
- develop understanding of disorders
Why is the Individual Differences Area useful?
- research all behaviors not common ones
- Freud - unconscious thoughts
- mental disorders and treatment
- tries to answer freewill/determinism debate
What are the strengths of the Individual Differences Area?
- inform freewill/ determinism
- social benefit as mental disorders
- study rarer human behaviors
What are the weaknesses of the Individual Differences Area?
- more disagreement
- socially sensitive
- measuring not always valid
What debates does the Individual Differences Area link to?
- nature/nurture - Yerkes and then Gould, Freud both
- psychology as a science - Yerkes tried, Freud no
- socially sensitive
What are the key assumptions in the Biological Area?
- largely explained by our biology
- should study brain and nervous system
- should be seen as science
Why is the biological area useful?
- how brain works - Sperry corpus callosum
- importance of early visual experience and brain plasticity
What are the strengths of the biological area?
- greater understanding of the physiognomy
of the brain, works and impact - cognitive neuroscience is at the cutting edge of scientific research (normal + abnormal)
- favors scientific method (brings credibility)
What are the weaknesses of the biological area?
- limitations on data gathered (self report increases demand characteristics) reduces validity
- MRI scans are objective (know somethings happening but not exactly what)
- reductionist - explanations can be too simplistic
What debates does the Biological Area link to?
- main focus of psychology as a science
- biological determinism
- often supports nature side
