casey Flashcards
1
Q
research methods
A
- casey tested their participants experimentally under strictly controlled conditions
- experiment was a quasi design due to naturally occurring high/low delayers group.
- a strength for using technical equipment such as the software for the no/no-gp tasks enabled the reactions of the particioants to be recorded with split second accuracy
- the use of fMRI to measure brain activity gave detailed and objective obervations of the brain activity in the areas of the brain associated with self-control and rewards and enabled the researchers to draw conclusioms about the differences between the low delayers and high delayers in their brain function
- longnitudinal study as it was following up on a group of particiants who had been tested at age 4, in their 20s and again in their 30s
- this is a strength as it allowed the researchers to come to the conclusion that the ability to resist temptation is a relatibelu stable characteristic
2
Q
data
A
- collected quantitative data which is easily summarised. e.g. each conditions performance could be summarised as a single percentage of errors scores
- numerical values are easy to compare between conditions
- casey used bar charts to demonstrate the difference between low delayers and high delayers in the number of errors made in the go/no-go tasks
- this makes data easy to read and be easily repeated and tested making it reliable
3
Q
ethics that were upheld
A
- informed consent was gained
- no deception
- no harm
- right to withdraw
4
Q
validity
A
- high design validity: their study was done under controlled conditions using standardised instructions and testing procedures.
- this means that extraneous variables are controlled
- low population validity: only 59 agreed to be in caseys study meaning that the sample of the study reduces in size and so it may not be generalisable to the original sample (135)
- low ecological validity: the go/no-go tasks do not have a direct equivalent in everyday life
- caseys findings might not tell us how people respond under normal conditions
- being scanned in an fMRI scanner while doing a Go/No-Go task is not something that a person would have to do everyday and the strangeness of it could have had an impact on the performance of the participants on the test
5
Q
relaibility
A
- low internal reliability: due to the study being longnitudinal, they are not time and cost effective so it cannot be replicable
- high external reliability: large enough sample to establish a consistent effect
6
Q
ethnocentricism
A
- not ethnocentric: since casey tells us that self-control and deferred gratification is affected by the anatomy and physiognomy of our brain, caseys study is not ethnocentric as it was investigating cognitive behaviour
- ethnocentric: however, the research was only conducted in america and it may be that the culture of capitalism and consumerism influences peoples behavipur as it may put temptation in people way more than other cultures might meaning there may not be as many ‘low delayers’ in other cultures
7
Q
psychology as a science
A
- casey carried out a controlled lab experiment which fulfils the scientific criteria of theory, control, evidence and replication
8
Q
usefulness
A
- resisting temptation in favour of long term gosl is important for individual, societal and economic functionining
- protects against physical and mental health problems such as high BMI, drug usage.
- shows that such predictions are significant as perhaps we could create strategies to train the brains of low delayers aged 4 years as we might help them to protect them from vulnerability to these problems in later life
9
Q
nature
nature/nurture debate
A
- at the age of 4 there is a stability of a lack of self-control over time
10
Q
nurture
nature/nurture debate
A
- ## by the time we are 4, we have learned about the ability of our environment to reward us and will have seen through others modelling resisting temptation or not by that age
10
Q
deterministic
free will/determinism
A
- imilar to nature/nature debate, some people may be predetermined to become high/low delayers - possibly due to difference in brain activity.
11
Q
free will
free will/determinism
A
research shows that when cooling techniques are used, they are able to resist temptation a lot better than people who focus on hot cues, use of free will to change ability to delay gratification.
12
Q
how does caseys study link to the biological area
A
- it is investigating whether there are specific regions of the brain that impact on our ability to resist the temptation of rewarding stimuli
- if it provided empirical evidence that our biology has a significant part to play in our ability to defer gratification
13
Q
key theme of casey
A
- regions of the brain
14
Q
how does caseys study link to the key theme
A
- caseys study reveals that there are 2 regions of the brain that have an impact on our ability to resist temptation and defer gratification
- the study found empirical evidence for the hot and cool task processing systems in the brain that affect self control
(hot system is in the ventral striatum and cool system is the the inferiro frontal gyras)
15
Q
how does caseys study change our understadning of the key theme
A
- adding to sperrys research by telling us about the role that other regions of the brain appear to play.
- it also suggests other ways to research regions of the brain
- The inferior frontal gyrus is involved in the level of self-control shown when resistance to temptation is tested suggesting that there are biological individual differences involved in the ability to display delayed gratification.
16
Q
A
17
Q
how does casey change our understanding of cultural diversity, individual and social diversity
A
- cutural diversity: does not change our understanding of cultursl diversity since sperry and casey were studying the brain structure or functon of individuals in america and both were not concered about social or cultural diveristy
- individual diversity: casey studying typical participants whereas sperry studying atypical particioants who have suffered epilepsy and commissurotomy.
- this meas that casey has confirmed that there was individual differences in the brain structure in the general population which could influenc their behaviour meaning casey has changed out understanding of individual diversity as it suggests that there are brain differences in typical people in the areas of self control.
18
Q
how is casey and sperry similar
A
- studies were both highly controlled lab experiments
- the studies both demonstrate the functions of specific regions of the brain: sperry showing that the corpus callosum plays an important role in the communication between. the 2 hemispheres and casey showing that the ventral striatum and inferior frontal gyrus are important in self control
- the studies were conducted ethiclly
- it would be difficult to establish the reliability of either study as it is not possibe to find a suitable sample for a replication of sperrys study since commissurotomy is no longer used as a treatment for epilepsy. caseys study would be difficukt due to using longnitudinal study
19
Q
how is casey and sperry different
A
- casey studied the brains of normal adults, sperrys research was conducted on abnormal subjects so caseys research may be more generalisable than sperry
- caseys study was longnitudinal whereas sperry was a snapshot study
- casey was able to benefit from the technology now available using brain imaging techniques (fMRI) and was able to scientifically observe the functioning of the regions of the briain they were interested in.
- sperry did not have any benefit from technology so any activity from the right hemisohere could only be inferred from what the split brain pateints could or could not do
