Areas Flashcards
What are the defining characteristics of the developmental area?
How behaviour changes and develops over someone’s lifespan.
Research on children- this is the most rapid development.
Thinks about whether behaviour is nature or nurture.
How is developmental area similar and different to the social area.
Similar
Both look at nurture as influence on behaviour.
Often controlled research methods.
Both can be seen as ethnocentric- upbringing can differ per culture.
Different to social area
Considers many different influences on behaviour, not just one.
Mostly studies on children.
Often relies on self report measures (interviews).
Often longitudinal research.
Strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive area
Strengths
Useful in court rooms (l+p witnesses can have their memory of an event changed in eyewitness testimony)
Lab experiments so are very controlled and internally reliable
Eliminates extraneous variables.
Experiments allow cause and effect to be established as there’s a clear IV and DV
Weaknesses
Low ecological validity (lab experiments with lots of controls make it less true to life)
Self report method used in studies brings social desirability bias and demand characteristics.
Research is mostly reductionist (L+P- reconstructive memory is only due to the verb in the critical (leading) question) (Grant only focuses on context of memory, ignoring other factors such as upbringing)
Strengths and weaknesses of the developmental area
Research is useful and has many applications to things like childcare and education.
Attempts to answer the nature nurture debate.
Uses methods that obtain both quantitative and qualitative data.
Instead of using different groups, the same participants can be studied for long periods of time as they grow up (longitudinal).
Any research involving children can raise ethical issues like protection from harm.
Children might not be able to express themselves fully in self-report.
Cultural differences in child rearing tends to make research ethnocentric.
Samples tend to be small and not generalisable
Strengths and weaknesses of the social area
Strengths:
- Improve our understanding of human behaviour.
- Useful- practical applications. (Use of an authority figure in classrooms)
- Brings psychology to wider audiences.
- Explains real world events (piliavin)
- High ecological validity (deception used in Bocchiaro, Levine and Milgram and Piliavin is a field experiment).
Weaknesses:
- Findings may not be true for all time.
- Findings may not be true for all places (different cultures and people act differently).
- Difficult to stay within ethical guidelines (emotional trauma-Milgram).
- Social and cognitive area boundaries are blurred.
Strengths and weaknesses of the biological area
Strengths:
Leads to a greater understanding of how the brain works and how it impacts our behaviour. Maguire and B+C confirm brain plasticity within their studies.
Mostly lab experiments with objective measures (MRI scan) and standardised with controls. This enables researchers to establish cause and effect. Brings academic credibility to psychology.
Studies are mostly highly controlled so have high internal reliability and are replicable. This makes the area more scientific (psychology as a science).
It is more deterministic than freewill which increases the usefulness of the study.
Weaknesses:
Sometimes have to rely on self report measures where demand characteristics may be a problem (e.g. Sperry’s split brain study). This decreases construct validity of the study.
The idea that human behaviour is based on biology alone is reductionist. Human behaviour is due to a range of factors (social, cognitive etc…).
Focusses too much on nature without considering other influences e.g. upbringing.
Lab experiments lack ecological validity.
Social vs cognitive area
Similarities
Both support situational.
Both support determinism.
Both collect data through controlled processes- high reliability.
Differences
Social area is typically field experiments while cognitive is lab experiments. Social has a high ecological validity.
Cognitive area is less ethnocentric.
Cognitive uses more self-report measures while social uses observational methods.
Social area more likely to break ethical guidelines to reduce demand characteristics.
Biological vs cognitive area
Similarities:
Both not ethnocentric
Both use lab experiments- low in eco validity.
Both often collect data via self report measures (sperry-bio).
Both uphold ethical guidelines (no deception or harm).
Differences:
Biological area uses technical equipment to measure changes in brain activity and cognitive uses self-report.
Cognitive area supports nature while biological area can also support nurture (brain plasticity).
Cognitive vs psychodynamic
Similarities:
Both considered ethical- (consent given and not deceived).
Both use self-report measures to gain insight into internal mental processes.
Both are deterministic and suggest we don’t have much control over our behaviour (limited attention, memory capacity, unconscious drives).
Differences:
The cognitive area is more scientific than the psychodynamic perspective as it collects objective, numerical data.
Psychodynamic can collect more detail on reasons for behaviour by using a case study.
Psychodynamic research is less generalisable because only a small number of participants are investigated.
Cognitive- situational, psychodynamic- individual.
Biological vs psychodynamic
Similarities:
Both are determinism (brain plasticity, stages of psychosexual development)
Both are socially sensitive (cats harmed, child wanting mother).
Differences:
Biological uses animals (cats) and psychodynamic uses people.
Biological is more scientific as it collects objective, quantitative data.
Biological is situational while psychodynamic is individual.
Principles of the cognitive area
Reconstructive memory.
The inattentional barrier.
Context dependent memory.
Principles of the social area.
The arousal cost reward model.
Obedience to an authority figure.
Diffusion of responsibility.
Principles if the developmental area.
Imitation of a role model.
Operant conditioning.
Stages of moral development. Preconventional, conventional, post-conventional.
