component 1

Question 1

localisation of brain function (biological)

Answer 1

• human behaviour is determined by a physiological cause, being g the activity on individual parts of the brain
• 2 hemispheres and 4 lobes
• Phineas gage, metal rod penetrated through frontal lobe showed aggression

Question 2

neurotransmitters (biological)

Answer 2

• suggests that behaviour is caused by electrical and chemical communications in the brain
• e.g. raised levels of dopamine have been linked to schizophrenia, and low levels of serotonin have been linked to depression

*neurons pass neurotransmitters through the synapse and are released from presynaptic vesicles

Question 3

evolutionary influences (biological)

Answer 3

• Charles Darwins theory of natural selection
• males subconscious desire for fertility in females
• e.g ostrich may dance to attract a mate

Question 4

humans are born as a blank slate (behaviourist)

Answer 4

• idea that humans are born as “tabula rasa”, and that behaviour is environmentally determined and humans are born with hunger, pain and crying
• dies developed by Watson, he stated that he could turn a “dozen infants” into “any type of specialist”
• bandura tested with bobo doll experiment

Question 5

behaviour is learned through conditioning (behaviourist)

Answer 5

• classical conditioning suggests that behaviour is learnt through association. pavlov (1902) tested with dogs teaching them to salivate with bell and treats
• operant conditioning is behaviour learnt through reinforcement. skinner (1936) tested with rats
• Gill proves operant conditioning as effective as he claims that children who get pocket money complete 20% more household chores
• Watson and Rayners little Albert study supports

Question 6

humans and animals learn in similar ways (behaviourist)

Answer 6

• suggest that humans and animals behave in similar ways due too shared traits such as fear
• joint stimulation was used with pavlovs dogs and little Albert
• operant conditioning has been proved effective in schools and prisons

Question 7

tripartite personality (psychodynamic)

Answer 7

id ego and superego

id is primitive, requires instant gratification and is pleasure seeking principle. ego is mediator and superego is concerned Sith moral values

each part represents a part of the brain. id represents limbic system and ego represents prefrontal Cortex

Question 8

unconscious mind (psychodynamic)

Answer 8

conscious preconscious and unconscious

preconscious are things such as memories or knowledge that could be easily retrieved

anxiety acts as a signal to the ego that there is dysfunction somewhere

ego defence mechanisms such as repression help ease these feelings

Question 9

childhood experiences (psychodynamic)

Answer 9

psychosexual stages refers to a stage and age theory that all children go through at roughly the same time influenced by the location of libido

e.g. oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital

being stuck at a stage, eg oral, leads to adult fixations such as nail biting

Question 10

internal mental processes (cognitive)

Answer 10

cognitive psychologists see humans as information processors

memory, perception, attention, thinking and language

eg. to recognise a dog, you need to pay attention, perceive its features, then search through our memory store to see if anything matches and we use language to name it

Question 11

computer analogy (cognitive)

Answer 11

both humans and computers are the same in the way that they process information

mental processes used: input, processing and recall

process stage involves memory, perception and attention

multistore model of memory made by Atkinson and shiffin (1968) shows how long term and short term memory are stores as “hardware”

Question 12

schemas (cognitive)

Answer 12

pockets of information built from experience

built up via social interactions, which can potentially distort the information as humans may select and interpret environmental stimuli using irrelevant schemas

this may explain inaccuracies in EWT

e.g schema for burglar

Question 13

bowlby methodology

Answer 13

opportunity sample and matches pairs design

quasi difference experiment

iv: whether they had stolen or not, DV: whether they were an “affectionless psychopath”

31 boys, 13 girls

control experiment used of children who went to the same child guidance clinic but had not stolen.

Question 14

weaknesses of bowlbys methodology

Answer 14

unrepresentative as not all children are emotionally disturbed

violent homes could be a confounding variable

Question 15

strengths of bowlbys methodology

Answer 15

used a control group so more reliable results and higher ecological validity

Question 16

bowlbys procedure

Answer 16

• mental test given to children to test intelligence and how well they emotionally reacted to it

*preliminary psychiatric history was gathered from the social worker

• psychiatrist interviewed mother

*then bowl by examined the mother and child together

*psychotherapy for at least 6 months after

Question 17

weakness of bowlbys procedure

Answer 17

could be social desirability bias in mother’s interview

Question 18

strength of bowlbys procedure

Answer 18

strong qualitative data gained from multiple sources

Question 19

bowlbys findings

Answer 19

• 6 categories of children: affectionless, hyperthermic, normal, depressed, circular and schizoid
• majority were affectionless, 14 out of 44
• out of those 14, 12 of them had prolonged separation from mother

*40% of thieves had prolonged separation from mothers, compared to 5% of control group

Question 20

main components of systematic desensitisation

Answer 20

*phobia is learnt response

• sd uses reciprocal inhibition in order to counter condition the patient
• developed by Wolpe (1958)
• relaxation techniques and desensitisation hierarchy

*in vivo
*in vitro

Question 21

strengths of systematic desensitisation

Answer 21

Capafons et al (1988) found that after 12-28 weeks of SD, clients with a fear of flying showed less fear in a flight simulator

Question 22

weaknesses of systematic desensitisation

Answer 22

seligman (1970) idea of biological preparedness

Question 23

main components of drug therapy

Answer 23

antipsychotic drugs: conventional antipsychotics for positive symptoms. the drug blocks the action of dopamine by binding to the dopamine receptors

antianxiety drugs: Bz’s bind to the sites on GABA receptors and enhance the action of GABA (calming neurotransmitter)

beta blockers: reduces the activity or adrenaline, binds to receptors in the heart and reduces activity or the autonomic nervous system

Question 24

strengths of drug therapy

Answer 24

Soomro et al reviewed 17 studies of the use of SSRI’s with OCD and found them more effective than placebos in reducing the symptoms of OCD up to 3 months after treatment.

cheaper and easier to administer

Question 25

weaknessesof drug therapy

Answer 25

side effects: nausea, headaches and insomnia

Ashton (1997) found Bz’s should only be used for 4 weeks

Ferguson (2005) found people taking SSRI’s are twice as likely to commit suicide

ethical issues: deception, physical harm and valid consent

Question 26

main components of REBT

Answer 26

Ellis (1962) ABC model

logical disputing, empirical disputing (is it consistent with reality) and pragmatic disputing (are they useful)

mustabatory thinking
unconditional positive regard

Question 27

strengths of REBT

Answer 27

meta analysis by engles et al (1993) concluded that REBT is effective in treating a range of disorders

Ellis (1957) claimed a 90% success rate taking on average 27 sessions, also useful for non clinical populations for exam anxiety

Question 28

weaknesses of REBT

Answer 28

doesn’t always work, Ellis (2001) believed that they may not be putting their revised beliefs into action and may not be putting cognitive effort into their recovery

ethical issues: forceful therapy, could lead to anxiety
client and therapist may have differing beliefs over religion

Question 29

loftus and palmer methodology

Answer 29

two lab experiments
independent groups design
different participants used each time
ex #1: 45ppts
ex #2: 150ppts

Question 30

strengths of loftus and palmer methodology

Answer 30

controlled assessment so fewer confounding variables

Question 31

weakness of loftus and palmer

Answer 31

lack of ecological validity, foster et al (1994) found that if participants thought they were witnessing a real life crash, their recall would be more accurate

Question 32

loftus and palmer procedure

Answer 32

ex 1: 7 clips of traffic accidents, 5 groups, each group had a questionnaire but the verb changed (bumped, smashed, collided, contacted, hit)

ex 2: 150 ppts divided into 3 groups, car accident film shown. 50 were asked “how fast were the cars going when they hit”, 50 were asked the same question but the verb changed to “smashed” and a week later 50 were asked if they saw a broken glass one week later

Question 33

loftus and palmer findings

Answer 33

ex 1: smashed had highest speed estimate of 40.8 and contacted had the lowest of 31.8

ex2: “smashed” group was higher than hit and control

Question 34

weaknesses of loftus and palmer procedure

Answer 34

lack of valid consent, could cause psychological harm

Huff et al found that nearly 60% of 500 cases of wrongful convictions involved EWT

Question 35

watson and rayner methodology

Answer 35

sample was 1 participant, 9 month old little albert

case study

well lit dark room on mattress on table

Question 36

strengths of watson and rayners methodology

Answer 36

controlled conditions meant little/no extraneous variables

OH Mowrer (1947) found that operant conditioning could explain the maintenance of phobias made by classical conditioning- two process theory

Question 37

weaknesses of watson and rayner methodology

Answer 37

case study and sample means they cannot generalise results so it has a low population validity

conducted in a lab so lacks ecological validity

seligman (1971) predisposed to fear

fear response could be due to frustration of having his thumb removed from his mouth so lacks internal validity

Question 38

watson and rayners procedure

Answer 38

stage 1- establishing a conditioned response. showed no fear to initial white rat but joint stimulation with white rat and loud noise 6 times

stage 2- testing conditioned response. range of stimuli

stage 3- change of setting to lecture hall

stage 4- 1 month later testing effects of time with a range of stimuli

Question 39

watson and rayners findings

Answer 39

began crying in joint stimulation phase, cried and crawled away when rat was presented without the loud noise

crawled away from rabbit, turned his head to the dog, kicked cotton wool

no sudden fear reaction in lecture hall

cried at fur coat
pushed rabbit away

Question 40

weaknesses of cognitive approach

Answer 40

deterministic as schemas create stereotypes which determines the way we see situations

nature and nurture- genes are ignored and social and cultural factors are also ignored

Question 41

strengths of cognitive approach

Answer 41

Piaget (1970) children’s thinking is nit the same as adults, EWT research shown how witnesses are distorted by past event information which influenced police interviewing techniques

scientific approach, PET scans used to locate areas of the brain for short and long term memory

Question 42

weaknesses of dream analysis

Answer 42

conducted in sleep labs which means low ecological validity. secretion of sleep hormones and neurotransmitters can cause confounding variables

false memory syndrome- toon et al (1994)

subjective interpretation

Question 43

strengths of dream analysis

Answer 43

Solms (2000) used PET scans to highlight regions of the brain that are active during dreaming. Results showed that the rational part of the brain is inactive during REM

Question 44

weaknesses of psychodynamic approach

Answer 44

reductionist- simplifies it down to mechanics of the mind and ignores biochem

deterministic- follows the idea that we have no free will in how we behave and cannot change behaviour

cannot be proved wrong- Karl Popper (1934)

Question 45

Raine methodology

Answer 45

quasi difference experiment

IV: pleaded NGRI
DV: glucose metabolism in regions of the brain

NGRI group: 39 men, 2 women, mean age of 34.3 years old with a history of brain injury

control group: not criminals, mean age of 31.3

matched pairs design

Question 46

Raine procedure

Answer 46

CPT 10 minutes before allocated start time to illicit brain activity in areas associated with impulse and response control

FDG tracer 30 seconds after they started the CPT

CPT for 32 minutes then was transferred to the pet scanning room

PET did 10 scans using cortical peel and box techniques

Question 47

Raine findings

Answer 47

parietal lobe, prefrontal cortex and corpus callosum had lower glucose levels than the control group

temporal lobe was found to have no differences

occipital lobe had higher glucose metabolic rates than control group

23 NGRI’s with a history of head injuries had no significant difference beyond slightly lower corpus callous activity. 14 NGRI were non white and showed no significant difference

Question 48

Raine conclusions

Answer 48

statistically significant differences in brain glucose metabolism between NGRI and controls

findings are not conclusive and may be one of many predispositions to violence, and further research needs to be conducted

generalisations cannot be made to other murderers or other types of crimes

Question 49

strengths of Raine methodology

Answer 49

PET scans and a FDG tracer are objective standards of measure, so we can more strongly establish a casual relationship between the IV and DV

laboratory experiment means high internal validity because the researchers were able to control any confounding or extraneous variables that may arise

repeatability with the use of PET scans

Question 50

weakness of Raine methodology

Answer 50

CPT may not be internally valid because the difference between completing a CPT and killing someone is astronomically large and may activate other regions of the brain that a CPT would not.

Question 51

ethical issues of Raines research

Answer 51

lack of informed consent, the participants were off medication two weeks prior to the experiment so they were not In the right state of mind to give any consent

they may have not understood their right to withdraw at any time

Question 52

describe the positive assumption “focus on the good life”

Answer 52

Seligman (2003) argues that the way to happiness, and the way to experience the best life you can is to develop our strengths and virtues. By bettering ourselves, and strengthening our natural “signature” qualities, such as kindness, courageousness and bravery, we can live “a good life”.

Seligman argues that we should start by achieving a pleasant life, then a good life, then finally, the optimum which is a meaningful life. Essentially, the three can be broken down as follows:
1. The Pleasant Life: positive emotions and daily satisfaction
2. The Good Life: discovering our strengths and enhancing our lives
3. The Meaningful Life: using our strengths for a greater purpose
Seligman argues that the way to live a good life is to develop positive connections with others, t

Question 53

describe the positive assumption “acknowledgement of free will”

Answer 53

the positive approach focuses on free will and according to Seligman, happiness is not a result of either genes or good luck, it is a result of recognising and developing key strengths. The free will assumption is supported by research of Diener, who carried out research into the reasons why people are happy. Research by Diener and Seligman (2002) looked at the ties that students had with friends and family, measured in terms of the amount of time invested in these relationships. They found that the students who have the strongest ties were happier and there was also a negative correlation between level of happiness and depression. This emphasises the fact that we are in control of our happiness.

Question 54

describe the positive assumption “authenticity of goodness and excellence”

Answer 54

The assumption states that feelings of happiness and goodness are as natural as anxiety and stress and therefore, Psychologists need to assign as much attention to positive states as we do to negative ones. Traditional Psychology such as the Biological, Behaviourist, and Psychodynamic approach follow the ’disease model’. According to Seligman (2002), the belief that traits such as virtue and happiness are less authentic than traits such as depression and anxiety. Seligman felt that traditional psychology focused too much on mental illness, and not enough on how humans can flourish and succeed. For example, from 1972-2006, the ratio of depression research publications to wellbeing publications was 5:1. Seligman and others felt that psychology had be distorted; it had moved away from a science that helps people reach their potential, and had become all about curing the sick.