Core Studdies And Areas

Question 1

Key Themes for Social Area

Answer 1

Responses to people in authority and responses to people in need

Question 2

Key Themes for Cognitive Area

Answer 2

Memory and attention

Question 3

Key Themes in Devlopmental

Answer 3

External Influences on children’s behaviour and moral development

Question 4

Key Themes in Biological

Answer 4

Regions of the brain and brain plasticity

Question 5

Key Themes in Individual differences

Answer 5

Understanding disorders and measuring differences

Question 6

Responses to People in Authority Studdies

Answer 6

Classic: Milgram (1963) Obedience
Contemporary: Bocchiaro et (2012) disobedience and whistle-blowing

Question 7

Responses to People in Need Studdies

Answer 7

Classic: Piliavin et al. (1969) Subway Samaritan
Contemporary: Levine et al. (2001) Cross Cultural Alturism

Question 8

Memory Studdies

Answer 8

Classic: Loftus and Palmer (1974) Eyewitness Testimony
Contemporary: Grant et al. (1998) Context Dependent Memory

Question 9

Attention Studdies

Answer 9

Classic: Moray (1959) Auditory Attention
Contemporary: Simons and Chablis (1999) Visual Innatention

Question 10

External Influences on Children’s Behaviour Studdies

Answer 10

Classic: Bandura et al. (1961) transmission of aggression
Contemporary: Chaney et al. (2004) Funhaler Study

Question 11

Moral Development Studdies

Answer 11

Classic: Kohlberg (1968) Stages of Moral Development

Contemporary (1997) Evaluations of Lying and Truth-Telling

Question 12

Regions of the Brain Studdies

Answer 12

Classic: Sperry (1968) Split Brain Study
Contemporary: Casey et al. (2011) Neural Correlates of Delay of Gratification

Question 13

Brain Plasticity Studies

Answer 13

Classic: Blakemore and Cooper (1970) Impact of Early Visual Experience
Contemporary: Maguire (2000) Taxi-Drivers

Question 14

Understanding Disorders Studies

Answer 14

Classic: Freud (1909) Little Hans
Contemporary: Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) Autism in Adults

Question 15

Measuring Differences Studies

Answer 15

Classic: Gould (1982) A nation of morons - bias in IQ testing
Contemporary: Hancock et al. (2011) Language of Psychopaths

Question 16

Definition of Social Psychology

Answer 16

The scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.

Question 17

Social Cognition

Answer 17

The process through which people store and apply information about other people and social situations

Question 18

Assumption of Social Psychology

Answer 18

Other people and the surrounding environment are major influences on an individual’s behaviour, thought processes and emotions.

Question 19

Implication of Social Psychology

Answer 19

If we want an individual to behave in a certain way, we should ensure that person is placed in an environment where the can witness other people demonstrating the same behvaiour

Question 20

Research Method of Milgram

Answer 20

This tidy is usually considered a controlled observation. Although Milgram refers to the study as an experiment, and the study contains many experimental elements, there was in fact no independent variable. It has also been considered a pre-test/pre-experiment.

Question 21

How data was gathered in Milgram’s study

Answer 21

Data was gathered through observations made by both the experimenter who was in the same room as the participant and there’s who observed the process through one way mirrors. Most sessions were recorded on magnetic tap, occasional photographs were taken through the one way mirrors and notes were made on unusual behaviours.

Question 22

What occurred prior to Milgram’s study?

Answer 22

Psychology students and professional colleagues estimates the percentage of participants who would administer the highest shocks. Estimates ranged from 1-3 % (mean 1.2%)

Question 23

Sample for Milgram’s Study

Answer 23

40 male participants aged between 20 and 50 years, from the New Haven area, were obtained by a newspaper advertisement and direct mail solicitation which asked for volunteers to participate in a study of memory and learning at Yale University. There was a wide range of occupations in the sample. Participants were pain $4.50 for simply presenting themselves at the laboratory.

Question 24

Set up in Milgram’s Study

Answer 24

Participants were always given the role of learner, through a fixed lottery, and saw the learner, a confederate, strapped to a chair with, non-active, electrodes attached to his arms. Participants were given a trial shock of 45 volts to simulation genuineness.

Question 25

What did the ‘teacher’ have to do in Milgram’s study?

Answer 25

Sat in front of an electric shock generator in adjacent room. He had to conduct a paired work test on the learner and give him an electric shock of increasing intensity for every wrong answer. The machine had 30 switches ranging from 15 to 450 volts, in 15 volt increments. In reality, no actual electrical shocks were administered to the learner.

Question 26

What did the ‘learner’ have to do in Milgram’s study?

Answer 26

Produced a set of predetermined responses, giving approximately 3 wrong answers to every correct one. At 300 volts he pounded on the wall and thereafter made no further replies.

Question 27

The role of the experimenter in Milgram’s study

Answer 27

If the ‘teacher’ turned to the experimenter for advice on whether to go on, the experimenter responded with a series of four standard prods, for example “It is imperative that you continue” and “Please continue”

Question 28

What happened at the end of Milgram’s study?

Answer 28

The study finished when the teacher refused to continue (was disobedient) or reached 450 volts (was obedient). The participant was then fully debriefed and introduced to the learner so he could see that no harm had been inflicted.

Question 29

Key Findings in Milgram’s study

Answer 29

All participants continued to 300 volts.
65% (26/40) continued to the full 450 volts
26 were obedient, 14 were disobedient
Many showed signs of extreme stress for instance sweating, trembling, stuttering, laughing nervously and 3 experienced uncontrollable seizures.

Question 30

Possible explanations for the behaviour in Milgram’s study

Answer 30

The study was carried out at the prestigious university of Yale which influenced participants as to the worthiness of the study, the participants were told the shocks were not harmful, the situation was new to the participants so they had no experience to guide his behaviour.

Question 31

Conclusions from Milgram’s Study

Answer 31

People will obey others who they consider legitimate authority figures, even if what they are asked to do goes against their moral beliefs.
Individual differences, such as personality, influence the extent to which people will be obedient.

Question 32

Disobedience

Answer 32

When an individual refuses to comply wit set rules or someone in authority.

Question 33

Whistle-Blowing

Answer 33

When a person exposes any form of activity that is deemed illegal, unethical or not acceptable within either a private or public organisation.

Question 34

Research Method for Bocchiaro et al.’s study

Answer 34

Bocchiaro et al consider that study to be a laboratory experiment. However, like Milgram, there was in fact no independent variable, so the study may be at best viewed as a controlled laboratory study or a ‘senario study’.

Question 35

Sample for Bocchiaro et al’s study

Answer 35

140 undergraduate students (96 women, 53 men, mean age 20.8) who took part in the research in exchange for either €7 or course credit. They were recruited by flyers posted in the university cafeteria.

Question 36

The process for gathering data in Bocchiaro et al.’s study

Answer 36

Data was gathered on the number of participants who obeyed by writing a statement in support of the sensory deprivation study, those who disobeyed by refusing to write the requested statement an those who became whistle blowers by reporting the researchers questionable conduct to the research committee. Two personality inventories were also taken.

Question 37

The two personality inventories used in Bocchiaro et al’s study

Answer 37

The Dutch Version of the HEXACO - PI - R, which measured the six major dimensions of personality, and a nine item Decomposed Games measure, which measured Social Value Orientation (SVO)

Question 38

Procedure for the Comparison Group in. Bocchiaro et al’s study

Answer 38

138 students from the VU University were provided with a detailed description of the scenario setting and were then asked “what would you do?” “What would the average Student at your university do?”

Question 39

Number of pilot tests for Bocciaro et Al’s study

Answer 39

8 pilot tests were conducted to ensure the procedure was standardised, credible and morally acceptable.

Question 40

Use of Informed Consent in Bocchiaro et Al’s study

Answer 40

Participants were informed about their task, the potential benefits/risks of participation, and their right to withdraw at any time with no penalty. They were also assured of the confidentiality of the information collected and asked to complete a consent form.

Question 41

How were participants introduced to Bocchiaro et Al’s study?

Answer 41

Each participant was greeted in the laboratory by a Male Dutch Researcher who was formally dressed and had a stern demeanour. The researcher proceeded with a request for each participant to provide a few names of fellow students and then presented the cover stor.

Question 42

What was the cover story in Bocchiaro et Al’s study?

Answer 42

A recently conducted experiment on 6 participants in Rome who spent some time completely isolated, unable to see or hear anything, had disastrous consequences - all panicked, their congestive abilities were temporarily impaired, some experienced visual or auditory hallucinations, two participants asked to stop because of their strong symptoms but were not allowed to do so because invalid data would have been collected. The majority said it had been a frightening experience.

Question 43

What did the researcher tell the participant he wanted to do in Bocchiaro et al.’s study?

Answer 43

The researcher wanted to replicate the study in the cover story at VU University using a sample of college students as there was currently no data on young people, but some scientists though that their brains might be more sensitive to the negative effects of isolation. Although it was difficult to predict what might happen, the researcher wanted to proceed weigh the experiment. A university research committee was evaluating whether to approve the study and was collecting feedback from students who knew its details to help them make their decision.

Question 44

In Bocchiaro et al.’s study, what did the researcher do after presenting the cover story?

Answer 44

The researcher left the room for three minutes so the participants could reflect on the action based decision they were about to make.

Question 45

What happened when the participants in Bocchiaro et al.’s study were taken to the second room?

Answer 45

There was a computer for them to use to write the statement to convince the students they had recommended to participate in the study. They were told to be as convincing as possible with their statements ad had to use two adjectives among ‘exciting’, ‘incredible’, ‘great’ and ‘superb’. A mailbox, and the research committee forms were also in the room. If a participant believed that the proposed research on sensory deprivation violated ethical norms, they could challenge it by putting a form in the mailbox.

Question 46

What did the researcher in Bocchiaro et al.’s study do after taking the participant to the second room.

Answer 46

The researcher told participants to begin and left the room for 7 minutes. He then returned and asked the participant to follow him back to the first room where they completed two personality inventories, were probed for suspicion, fully debriefed and asked to sign a consent form, this time fully informed. The entire session lasted approximately 40 minutes.

Question 47

Key findings for the comparison group in Bocchiaro’s study

Answer 47

3.6% indicated they would obey the researcher. Most believed they would either be disobedient (31.9%) or whistle-blowers (64.5%).
When asked to predict the typical behaviour of other typical students at their university, 18.8% thought they would obey, 43.9% thought they would disobey and 37.3% thought they would blow the whistle.

Question 48

Key findings in Bocchiaro et al.’s study

Answer 48

76.5% obeyed, 14.1% disobeyed and 9.4% blew the whistle
6.0% were anonymous whistle blowers
3.4% open whistle blowers
No significant differences in regard to gender, religious affiliation or religious involvement.
A significant difference found with regard to faith.

Question 49

Conclusions from Bocchiaro et al.’s study

Answer 49

Individuals tend to obey authority figures even if the authority is unjust.
Whistle-Blowers have more faith than either obedient or disobedient individuals.