Classic Studies Flashcards
P1: Social Psychology (Aim, Sample)
- Sherif et al (1954/1961)
- Aimed to explore how competition and frustration can lead to stereotyping and prejudiced attitudes towards an outgroup, increase ingroup solidarity
- Field experiment, Robbers Cave State Park
- Sample = 22 boys, aged 11yrs, from Oklahoma, white, Protestant backgrounds, similar educational backgrounds (matched for IQ and sporting ability) - ensure none of the boys are seen as outsiders
- Gained parental consent
AO3 ‹+› matched for participant variables (IQ, age, gender), increased internal validity, confident the results are due to the field experiment itself and not pre-existing prejudices based on ethnicity, age etc.
AO3 ‹-› sample is androcentric and ethnocentric, less representative, not generalisable to females or other cultures, lowers population validity
P2: Social Psychology (AO1 - Procedure, Results)
- Ingroup formation:
- Rattlers and Eagles spend time bonding within their groups through activities (hiking, swimming, flag making), establish social norms
- Unaware of the other group’s existence
- Friction phase:
- Both groups became aware of each other and participated in a tournament (baseball, tent pitching) for zero-sum resource such as a trophy, medals etc.
- Shouted insults at each other, Eagles burnt the Rattlers’ flag
- 6.4% of Rattlers’ friends were Eagles -> 36.4%
- 7.5% of Eagles’ friends were Rattlers -> 23.2%
- Used hidden microphones to record their conversations, calculated how much time the boys spent with their ingroup and outgroup
- Integration phase:
- Set up tasks (superordinate goals) that required both groups to work together to complete e.g. repairing the water tank/supply, reduced intergroup conflict, increased outgroup friendships
P2: Social Psychology (AO3)
AO3 ‹+› multiple methods used to collect quantitative and qualitative data (questionnaires, observations, hidden microphones), statistical analysis and greater insight into the behaviour of the boys towards their outgroup
AO3 ‹-› interpretation of qualitative data is subjective, low reliability
Social Psychology (Conclusion)
- U.A. introduction of superordinate goals to reduce conflict in the workplace and in educational settings
- Limited generalisability due to being set in a summer camp and the small sample size (22 boys)
P1: Cognitive Psychology (Aim, Sample)
- Baddeley (1966b)
- Aimed to see if LTM is impaired by semantically similar words or acoustically similar words
- Independent Groups Design
- Sample = 72 young men and women (mainly students and housewives), volunteer, from the Applied Psychology Research Unit at Cambridge University
AO3 ‹+› volunteer sample, memory can be tested in anyone, no specific criteria needed to be outlined in advert, time-efficient way to recruit participants
AO3 ‹-› biased sample, consist only of those who like memory tests or are confident that they have a good memory, excludes those who do not like memory tests and did not volunteer, less generalisable to others
P2: Cognitive Psychology (AO1 - Procedure, Results)
- Allocated to one of four conditions where they have to memorise 10 words presented at the rate of 1 every 3 seconds using a slide projector
- Acoustically similar words (cab, can, man)
- Acoustically dissimilar words (pit, few)
- Semantically similar words (great, large, big)
- Semantically dissimilar words (good, huge)
- Given 40 secs to write them in the correct order = repeated 4 times
- Completed an interference task (copying digits) to prevent rehearsal using STM
- Then asked to recall the 10 words in the retest stage (words displayed around the room, not in order)
- Semantically dissimilar list - words recalled significantly more accurately (approx 90% accuracy) // semantically similar list - 60% accuracy
- LTM encodes semantically
P2: Cognitive Psychology (AO3)
AO3 ‹+› standardised procedure (words at the rate of 1 every 3 secs, 40 secs for recall), replication with participants, check consistency, increase reliability
AO3 ‹-› study involved participants having to recall a list of 10 random words in the correct order and take part in an interference task to prevent the use of STM to asses memory, lacks task validity, LTM used in real-life to remember conversations or phone numbers in a social context
Cognitive Psychology (Conclusion)
P1: Biological Psychology (Aim, Sample)
- Raine et al. (1997)
- Aimed to look at direct measures of both cortical and subcortical brain functioning using PET scans in a group of murderers pleading not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRIs) and compare these to controls
- Sample = 41 NGRIs (39m/2f), 41 controls, matched for sex, had a similar age (31.7 years) and medication free for 2 weeks before the study
AO3 ‹+› use of control group matched with the NGRIs for variables (sex, age), screened for physical and mental health (exclude those with a history of head trauma or substance misuse), important participant variables controlled, allows for reliable comparisons between both groups
AO3 ‹-› only represents a small group of violent offenders (NGRIs), not representative of all types of violent offenders, reduces generalisability to non-NGRIs and their behaviour
P2: Biological Psychology (AO1 - Procedure, Results)
- All participants injected with a radioactive glucose tracer and required to carry out a continuous performance task (CPT - shown to increase glucose metabolism in the frontal lobes)
- After 32 mins, participants given a PET scan
- Found that NGRIs had a lower activity in their prefrontal, parietal areas, corpus callosum and left amygdala compared to controls
- Concluded that his findings supported dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex being linked to impulsive behaviour
- Abnormal activity in subcortical structures linked to unusual emotional responses (lack of fear)
P2: Biological Psychology (AO3)
AO3 ‹+› standardised procedure (CPT for 32 mins before PET scan, med free for 2 weeks), replication, check consistency, increase reliability
AO3 ‹-› took place in an artificial, controlled laboratory setting with participants completing a task not related to violent behaviour, may act differently when committing a crime in real-life, lack ecological validity
Biological Psychology (Conclusion)
- U.A. use findings as a diagnostic tool to identify individuals who match the NGRI population to predict violent behaviour, lead to earlier interventions
- May lead to people not being held accountable for their criminal behaviour, socially sensitive issue
P1: Learning Theories (AO1 - Aim, Sample, Pre-conditioning Testing)
- Watson & Raynor (1920)
- Aimed to see if they could condition an emotional reaction in a 9-11 months old baby through classical conditioning
- Laboratory experiment, John Hopkins University , 9 month old healthy baby (Little Albert)
- Three phases: preconditioning testing, conditioning trials, post conditioning test
- Preconditioning testing:
- Little Albert’s response to several stimuli was noted (white rat, loud noise, monkey, burning paper)
- To establish any pre-existing fears, only showed fear response towards the loud noise, no averse response to other stimuli
P1: Learning Theories (AO3)
AO3 ‹+› established a baseline of Little Albert’s phobic responses before the conditioning trials (e.g.), allows for comparison between the phases, replication, increase reliability of findings into the classical conditioning of humans
AO3 ‹-› use of a baby (small sample) who they claimed was ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’, later suggested he had hydrocephalus from birth and he was selected due to his unemotional character, not representative of ‘normal’ children so results may lack generalisability, illness may reduce validity of results
P2: Learning Theories (Procedure (2), Results)
- Conditioning trials:
- Albert was presented with the white rat, every time he tried to touch it a loud noise was made
- Process was repeated many times over several weeks
- Post conditioning test:
- Shown the white rat on its own and they monitored his reaction
- After several trials, he began to lean away from the rat and started to cry
- 7 weeks later, he cried in response to several similar stimuli (a furry collar) - stimulus generalisation
- Concluded that it was possible to produce a fear response in a human using classical conditioning
AO3 ‹+› use of strict controls during the experiment (timing of hitting the metal bar when Albert was presented with the white rat), replicable, check the consistency of the findings, increase reliability
AO3 ‹-› doesn’t reflect how people acquire phobias in everyday life, fear of dogs may be due to previously being bitten by a dog, not because they heard a loud noise, results into acquisition of fears cannot be generalised to situations outside of the lab, low ecological validity
Learning Theories (Conclusion)
- Led to the development of therapies such as systematic desensitisation where a phobic object is paired with a relaxation response, effective treatment
- Violates ethical guidelines as Little Albert was removed from the experiment before they could remove the fear, left the experiment in a different emotional state compared to when he entered
Health Psychology (P1)
- Olds and Milner (1954)
- Wanted to electrically stimulate different parts of the brain (septal area, mammilloth tract and medial lemniscus) to see what behaviour rats showed in response
- 15 male rats, electrodes implanted intro different parts of their brain whilst under anaesthesia
- 4 rats = septal area
- 1 rat = medial lemniscus
- 1 rat = mammilloth tract
- Given 3 days to recover from the implantation and surgery
AO3 ‹+› more than one rat stimulated in the septal area and they showed similar percentages in lever pressing activity, able to check consistency, increase reliability
D.P = treated ethically (surgery under anaesthesia and given pain relief during recovery)
AO3 ‹-› number of rats stimulated in each area of the brain differed, some areas only observed in one rat, insufficient sample size to provide meaningful results about the areas of the brain linked to reward or punishment
Health Psychology (P2)
- Testing phase (2 days), rats were placed in the skinner box and when they pushed down on the lever, it stimulated they brain electrically
- Given food and water when required during testing and not given any other reinforcement
- Acquisition period = 3 hours (current switched on)
- Extinction period = 30 mins (current switched off)
AO3 ‹+› conducted in a controlled environment, all rats had the same experiences (no reinforcement other than the electrical stimulation), researchers can identify a cause and effect relationship between the lever pressing and reward in the rat’s brain, increased internal validity
AO3 ‹-› setting of the experiment and conditions the rats were exposed to were not natural (wires attached to their skulls, electrically stimulated), may have led to unnatural behaviour in the rats, low ecological validity
D.P = only able to observe outward behaviour, cannot be confident about why they pressed the lever
Health Psychology (P3)
- Septal area = rats spent 75%-92% of the time lever pressing, mammilloth tract (71%) - both areas likely linked to reward
- Medial lemniscus (0%) - not linked to reward
AO3 ‹+› collection of quantitative data (%), objective (does not require interpretation), can be statistically analysed to establish brain areas associated with reward and punishment
AO3 ‹-› fluctuating current, variation in electrical stimulation given to the rats, different rats experience different voltage, extraneous variable, lowers internal validity
Health Psychology (Conclusion)
- Able to explore the effects of drugs on animals despite it not being the original aim of the study, insight into why humans return to behaviour such as drug taking which they consider to be rewarding
- Fluctuating voltage meant that some of the data had to be discarded so the rats were unnecessarily harmed, they were killed at the end of the study (cost outweighed the benefit to society) = unethical
Clinical Psychology (P1)
- Rosenhan (1973)
