core studies Flashcards
studies in the social approach
milgram 1963, bocchiaro 2012, pillavin 1969, levine 2001
studies in the cognitive approach
loftus and palmer 1974, grant 1998, moray 1959, simons and chabris 1999
studies in the developmental approach
bandura 1961, chaney 2004, kohlberg 1968, lee 1997
studies in the individual differences approach
freud 1909, baron-cohen 1997, gould 1982, hancock 2011
studies in the biological approach
sperry 1968, casey 2011, blakemore and cooper 1970, maguire 2000
milgram and bocchiaro
responses to people in authority; obedience, disobedience and whistleblowing
pillavin and levine
responses to people in need; subway samaritan, cross-cultural altruism
loftus and palmer and grant
memory; eyewitness testimony, context-dependent memory
moray and simons and chabris
attention; auditory attention, visual inattention
bandura and chaney
external influences on children’s behaviour; transmission of aggression, funhaler
kohlberg and lee
moral development; moral stages of development, evaluations of lying and truth-telling
freud and baron-cohen
understanding disorders; little hans, theory of mind
gould and hancock
measuring differences; bias in IQ testing, the language of psychopaths
sperry and casey
regions of the brain; split-brain study, neural correlates of delay and gratification
blakemore and cooper and maguire
brain plasticity; impact of early visual experience, taxi drivers
studies in the behaviourist perspective
bandura 1961, chaney 2004
studies in the psychodynamic perspective
freud 1909, kohlberg 1968, hancock 2011
milgram 1963
studied obedience in a lab setting. his volunteer sample of 40 men were asked to give increasing electric shocks to a stranger in a ‘lab experiment’. they were unaware that the ‘learner’ was a confederate and that the shocks were fake. 65% of participants reached the highest 450V level. anyone can be obedient to authority and that the tension witnessed was due to the conflict between the desire to obey and the desire not to hurt another.
bocchiaro 2011
looked at whistleblowing using 149 students and a comparison group of 138. they were individually greeted by a stern researcher and asked to endorse an ethically unsound study to their friends. 76% did as asked and only 9% were whistleblowers. the comparison group said that most would not comply. behaving morally against authority is hard even when it seems easy, and people are not good at predicting behaviour. individual characteristics seem to have little effect on the situation.
pillavin 1969
investigated a situational explanation of bystander behaviour. he looked at the race and state of the victim and number of bystanders. field study that took place on the new york subway and staged a fake emergency involving a drunk or ill victim who was black or white that staggered forward and collapsed. more help was given to the ill victim. failed to find diffusion of responsibility, but concluded that bystander behaviour is linked to arousal-cost-reward model.
levine 2001
looked at whether helping varies across different cultures. conducted studies in 23 cities across the world. three non-emergency situations- a dropped pen, someone with a bad leg dropping magazines and a blind man crossing the road. helping rates in each city were stable across the three measures. huge cross cultural differences- 93% in rio to 44% in new york. simpatico cultures helped more.
loftus and palmer 1974
wanted to see if words affect memory recall. two studies using video clips of car crashes on groups of 45 and 150 students. participants were asked a question with a critical verb and then the effect on estimate of speed or recall of broken glass was measured. information making up memory is received during and after an event.
grant 1998
studied context-dependent memory using recall and recognition. 40 participants wearing headphones read an article in noisy or quiet conditions. found context-dependency effects because they performed better in matching conditions. context clues are important in retrieving newly-learned, meaningful information. students who study in silence may perform better in exams.
moray 1959
moray conducted three lab experiments into dichotic listening. in the first a list of 35 words was read to one ear whilst a participants shadowed a message from their other ear. after 30 seconds they were asked to recall the list but could not. in the second experiment they were instructed in the non-attended message to change ear. some participants had their name called in the instruction- and these paid more attention. the third experiment had numbers in the messages- some participants were asked to remember the numbers and others just the content- but there was no significant difference in the numbers recalled. only subjectively important messages can penetrate the attentional block.
simons and chabris 1999
studied visual attention and perception. 228 participants in an independent measures design lab experiment. they watched one of four 75 second tapes and were asked to count how many times the basketball players passed a ball. after 45 seconds either an umbrella woman or gorilla walked across the screen- 46% failed to notice the unexpected event. shows inattentional blindness as we may fail to notice certain aspects of the environment if we are focusing on another.
bandura 1961
wanted to investigate social learning theory and the imitation of aggression. studied 72 children in four groups. they saw either an aggressive or non-aggressive model who was the same or opposite sex to them play with a bobo doll. there was a control group. children in the aggressive condition produced more imitative aggression and there was a tendency for same-sex imitation. supports social learning theory as children imitate the behaviour of role models.
chaney 2004
compared adherence to asthma medication using either a traditional spacer or a funhaler. pilot study which involved questionnaires to parents of 32 asthmatic children, one at the beginning of the study and another two weeks after using the funhaler. it had a whistle and spinning disk to reinforce correct use. parents reported more success with the funhaler- 22/30 compared to 3/30. children’s willingness to cooperate improved. novelty and reward can improve adherence, and operant conditioning can be useful.
kohlberg 1968
looked at moral reasoning by studying 75 boys from chicago over 12 years. he also studied boys in britain, canada, taiwan, mexico and turkey. they were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas. he found three levels and six stages of moral reasoning- preconventional, conventional and post-conventional. not everyone achieves all stages.
lee 1997
wanted to compare how lying and truth telling are regarded in pro and anti-social situations across cultures. chinese and canadian children aged seven, nine and eleven were given four stories. two stories had intentional good deeds and two had intentional bad deeds where characters told the truth or lied when questioned. children were then asked to evaluate the deeds. chinese children rated lying more positively in pro-social situations- suggesting emphasis on modesty can override lying. both sets of children rated truth telling positively and lying negatively in anti-social situations. there is a close relationship between sociocultural practice and moral judgement.
freud 1909
studied a phobia of white horses in a five-year-old boy called little hans. he received letters from hans’ father and replied with his interpretations. He concluded that hans’ phobia was caused by the oedipus complex- a strong unconscious sexual desire for his mother. once hans identified with his father and took on his morals- he resolved the oedipus complex and his phobia disappeared. freud said this was evidence for his theory of psychosexual development.
baron-cohen 1997
investigated theory of mind and autism. three groups- autistic, ‘normal’ and tourettes completed the eyes task in a lab experiment where they had to judge emotion from black and white photographs of eyes. they also completed other tasks to measure their ability to recognise emotion and establish concurrent validity. the study found that those in the autistic group lacked theory of mind skills.
gould 1982
reviewed and challenged the validity of the yerkes IQ tests, which were used to test army recruits during WWI and affected immigration law. three types of tests- army alpha for literate recruits, army beta for illiterate recruits and an individual exam for those who failed both. results found that white americans adults had an average mental age of 13, russian immigrants 11.34 and black americans 10.34. inherent cultural biases in the tests and there were logistical difficulties giving them. systematic bias lowered the scores of black people and immigrants, therefore IQ is political, rather than biological.
hancock 2011
statistically analysed the way psychopaths speak about their crimes. used two text analysis tools to look at narratives from 14 psychopathic and 38 non-psychopathic murderers. psychopaths included more rational cause and effect descriptors and focused on material needs rather than social needs. their speech had more disfluencies which suggests difficulty in describing powerful emotional events. they used more past tense than present tense verbs- suggesting detachment from the incident- and used less emotional language.
what is the social approach?
behaviour is caused by interactions with individuals and groups. different types of social interaction influence daily behaviour- prejudice, attraction, conformity, obedience, minority/majority influence.
what is the cognitive approach?
behaviour is the result of mental processes, which are similar to a computer process- input, conversion, output.
soft deterministic approach, as behaviour is caused by mental process, but there is a limited choice in the information they had before the behaviour.
what is the developmental approach?
behaviour changes over time because cognitive, social, and physiological abilities change. changes fastest during childhood, which has a long term effect on behaviour.
more holistic because it focuses on multiple developmental causes of behaviour.
what is the individual differences approach?
looks at differences between individuals, not what we have in common. focus on difference in personality, normality, and abnormality. categorise and measure differences, e.g., introvert-extrovert, IQ tests.
what is the biological approach?
behaviour is dispositional not situational- internal factors, not external. brain and genetics are key factors, and brain abnormalities can cause deviant behaviour. human body is a complex machine and hormones- serotonin, genes, and CNS all interact to cause behaviour.
what is the psychodynamic perspective?
unconscious processes have important influences on behaviour. psychodynamic conflict- different parts of the mind are in constant dynamic struggle with each other, and consequences of this help us understand behaviour.
behaviour motivated by sex and aggression. personality is particularly shaped during childhood.
what is the behaviourist perspective?
all behaviour is learned, we are born a blank slate. learning occurs through life experiences- classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning. learning through association, learning through consequence, and learning through imitation.
sperry 1968
investigating the function of independent hemispheres in patients who had their corpus callosum severed to treat severe epilepsy. devised a test to isolate the visual field and hand controlled by each hemisphere. left hemisphere has language capabilities whereas the right hemisphere can understand language, but not communicate with words. concluded that patients had ‘two minds in one body’.
casey 2011
delayed gratification using 60 individuals in their mid-forties that completed the marshmallow test as a child- and either resisted, or gave in. completed a hot and cold go/no-go task using faces. children with low self control showed this as adults, and vice versa. 26 participants did a go/no-go task in a brain scanner. low delayers had lower activity in the right, inferior frontal gyrus (delays responses) in no-go trials. ventral striatum (immediate reward) showed more activity in happy no-go trials for low delayers. neurological basis for differences in people’s ability to show self-control and delay gratification.
blakemore and cooper 1970
kept kittens in the dark from birth- and at the age of two weeks were put in a special apparatus looking at either vertical or horizontal stripes for five hours a day. at five months old they were tested and unable to see the orientation that they had not experiences. by studying the neurons from two cats that experienced different orientations it revealed an abnormal distribution of the preferred orientation. visual experience had modified their brains, with profound perceptual consequences.
maguire 2000
studied navigational ability in london cabbies. a sample of 16 healthy right-handed male taxi drivers were given brain scans, which were compared with 50 scans from the MRI database of similar men that were not taxi drivers. the posterior hippocampus had greater volume in the taxi drivers and the anterior hippocampus had greater grey matter volume in non-taxi drivers. positive correlation between the time a taxi driver had been qualified and the grey matter volume. suggests the idea of brain plasticity which can be altered by experience.
strengths of milgram’s study
qualitative and quantitative data provides comparison and depth; can be compared/highly replicable; male age range represents soldiers so is generalisable to the aim of the study; high levels of face validity
weaknesses of milgram’s study
low ecological validity as lab experiment creates an unrealistic environment; extremely unethical through harm to participants; self-selected means higher chance for demand characteristics which is unrepresentative
strengths of bocchiaro’s study
comparison group improved its reliability; demand characteristics removed to increase validity; qualitative and quantitative provides comparison and explanation; large sample allows consistent findings
weaknesses of bocchiaro’s study
undergraduates and women may be more likely to obey which reduces validity; lack of consequence reduces validity; self-selected sample may feel more obligated to the research and be more obedient, so unrepresentative
strengths of loftus and palmer’s study
isolation of key variables increases validity; reliability and random allocation improve validity by reducing participant variables; quantitative can be easily summarised;, ethical concealment reduces demand characteristics
weaknesses of loftus and palmer’s study
lacks ecological validity through lack of real life emotions; unrepresentative sample has low generalisability; quantitative gives no depth; leading question may affect memory
strengths of grant’s study
reduced situational variables; random allocation; quantitative can be easily summarised and compared; high validity and reliability as a controlled lab experiment; ecological validity through learning material in classroom
weaknesses of grant’s study
ungeneralisable sample; lab experiment lacks ecological validity; quantitative gives no depth; individual measures design increases participant variables; unrepresentative of exams by learning only minutes prior; opportunity sample creates bias which limits generalisability
strengths of bandura’s study
inter-rater reliability; qualitative enhances understanding of children’s behaviour; controlled extraneous variables such as putting toys in same order ensures validity
weaknesses of bandura’s study
no informed consent; bobo doll would only be used in an aggressive context; lacked ecological validity through unnatural environment; limited representativeness
strengths of chaney’s study
informed consent from self report; repeated measures controls participant variables; quantitative allows easy comparisons and analysis; high ecological validity; reliability through standardised questionnaire
weaknesses of chaney’s study
difficult to operationalise due to semantics; parents could have demand characteristics; repeated measures was undermined by lack of counterbalancing; social desirability bias; extraneous variables reduces research validity
strengths of freud’s study
qualitative data provides research and comparison
weaknesses of freud’s study
his only case study of a child; social desirability bias; demand characteristics; leading questions
strengths of baron-cohen’s study
two control groups ensures validity; quantitative allows comparison; participants matched for mean age/intelligence increases validity; concurrent validity from happes strange stories; control for order effects;
weaknesses of baron-cohen’s study
lacks ecological validity through static images; extraneous variables through lack of standardised location; unclear ethics regarding debrief and harm
strengths of sperry’s study
controlled conditions ensures validity; qualitative allows description of function/difficulty; not ethnocentric through biological explanation
weaknesses of sperry’s study
lack of quantitative makes it hard to scientifically analyse; extremely small sample lacks generalisability; low ecological validity
strengths of casey’s study
strict control on extraneous variables allows high validity; longitudinal study allows for a stable conclusion; quantitative data allows comparison/summary/statistical analysis/replicability;
weaknesses of casey’s study
MRI and go/no-go task lack ecological validity, lacks reliability through longitudinal study not being time or cost effective to replicate; reduced sample size over time loses generalisability
strengths of piliavin’s study
quantitative and qualitative allows comparison and explanation; well controlled for a field experiment such as standardised timing, place and appearance of collapsing; ecological validity; reliability from 103 trials; sample of 4,450 establishes reliability
weaknesses of piliavin’s study
unethical through deception, lack of consent, harm; extraneous variables such as the typical carriage being full could affect responses to the emergency; time of study could make sample unrepresentative; ethnocentric from only showing american people’s response
strengths of levine’s study
quantitative data allows comparison; highly standardised procedures ensures reliability; three different measures adds to the reliability of findings; large number of trials ensures consistent data findings; cross-cultural study
weaknesses of levine’s study
correlational study does not allow them to establish cause and effect; lack of qualitative does not explain motives behind behaviour; lack of consent/deception; lack of validity due to chance for demand characteristics; large sample makes it difficult to assess standardisation; ethnocentric from imbalance of continents
