Core Studies Section B And C Flashcards
What is the nature/nurture debate?
Extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of either inherited or acquired influences.
Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors.
Nurture is down to external factors that influence behaviours e.g life experiences.
What is the free will/determinism debate?
The free will vs determinism debate revolves around the extent to which our behaviour is the result of forces over which we have no control or whether people are able to decide for themselves whether to act or behave in a certain way.
What is the reductionism/holism debate?
Reductionism likes to divide explanations of behaviour into separate components, whilst holism likes to look at the picture as a whole.
What is the individual/ situational explanation?
Individual-Look to the person as the cause of behaviour, specifically their personalities and dispositions.
Situational- Draw on circumstances around individuals; for example their group membership of the environmental context.
What does usefulness research mean?
Research that adds to our knowledge and can be applied to real world situations
What are some areas that are considered when looking at ethics?
respect, informed consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality, competence, debrief, deception etc.
What are the 3 main areas of socially sensitive research that are looked at?
stigma, political consequences and harm
What are some areas that are considered when looking at psych as a science?
Cause and effect, falsification, replicability, objectivity, induction, hypothesis testing, standardisation, control of variables etc.
How to Baron-Cohen link to the nature area?
Looks at findings of people with autism which is a biological disorder which indicate the role of nature
How does Chaney link to the nurture side of the debate?
Suggests that in practical terms, the effects of reinforcement can influence children’s health behaviours, and illustration of nurture.
How could Casey link to both sides of the freewill/determinism debate?
Determinism- since early behaviour seems to predict adults ability to resist temptation
Freewill-The idea that everyone has a choice to resist temptation
What other study could link to both sides of the freewill/determinism debate?
Milgram
How does Maguire and Sperry link to the reductionism/holism perspective?
Reductionist: They both provide evidence for underlying causes. Showing that brain structures have direct consequences on cognition and behaviour. Such studies can lead to an understanding of what is going wrong when people suffer from brain damage or disorders and show how problems might be avoided through rehabilitation. This reduces behaviour down to brain disorders rather than the whole picture of environment etc.
How does Lee link to the holistic side of the debate?
He considers the diversity of influences on children’s behaviour worldwide, showing that in terms of practical generalisations, e.g. school disciplines, a single definition or approach is not sufficient.
How does Milgram link to the situational debate?
Situational factors of the role of the authority figure
What studies look at the individual debate?
Baron-cohen and Hancock
What is the key theme for Milgram and Bocchiaro?
Responses to people in authority
What is the key theme for Piliavin and Levine?
Responses to people in need
What is the key theme for Loftus and Palmer and Grant
Memory
What is the key them for Moray and Simon and Chabris
Attention
What is the key theme for Bandura and Chaney
External influences on children’s behaviour
What is the key theme for Kohlberg and Lee
Moral development
What is the key theme for Sperry and Casey
Regions of the brain
What is the key theme for Blakemore and Cooper and Maguire?
Brain Plasticity
What is the key them for Freud and Baron-cohen?
Understanding disorder
What is the key them for Gould and Hancock
Measuring differences
What are the main assumptions of the social area?
All human behaviour occurs in a social context and is influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.
Other people and the environment influence our behaviour and thought processes.
What are the main assumptions of the cognitive approach?
Internal mental processes are important in understanding behaviour.
Humans are like information processors; input, process, output. The output or behaviour is due to the mental processing which occurs.
Mental processing can be tested scientifically.
What are the main assumptions of the developmental area?
- People change and develop with age and experience: this development may be social, cognitive or biological
- Many of the biggest changes occur in childhood.
- Human development is an interaction of the influences of nature and nurture as both are important in shaping behaviour.
What are the main assumptions of the biological area?
- Behaviour can be largely explained in terms of biology – genes, the brain, hormones and nervous system have a direct influence on behaviour
- Psychology should be seen as a science, to be studied in a scientific manner (usually in a lab) measuring variables objectively, eg MRI scans.
- The biological approach focuses on how nature rather than nurture influences us.
What are the main assumptions of the individual differences area?
Individuals differ in their behaviour & personal qualities so no-one is average
Everyone is genetically unique and this uniqueness is displayed through their behaviour. So everyone behaves differently.
All behaviour can be measured.
What are the main assumptions of the psycho dynamic perspective?
Behaviour is influenced by the interaction (dynamism) of drives and forces within the personality (psyche).
Behaviour comes from the unconscious personality.
Personality is shaped by relationships, experience and conflict over time, particularly during childhood.
The mind is like an iceberg. It has conscious, subconscious and unconscious thought, all of which can influence our behaviour
What are the main assumptions of the behaviourist perspective?
Psychology is a science and the only way to be objective is to observe / measure behaviour (i.e. not infer anything about mental processes).
All behaviour is learned through Social Learning or classical / operant conditioning.
What are some strengths of the social area?
Helps us understand how behaviour can be influenced by other people and the situation you are in.
Supports the nurture side of the debate.
What are some weaknesses of the social area?
Reductionist-underestimates the power of individual differences.
Unethical- due to issues raised of deception or lack of withdrawal e.g. Milgram
What are some strengths of the cognitive area?
Offers lots of practical applications e.g Grant
It can overlook other behavioural factors
What are some strengths of the developmental area?
Uses longitudinal studies-scientific and shows development overtime.
Adds evidence to the nature/nurture debate
What are some weaknesses of the developmental area?
Rigid stages of development
Ps are often children
Deterministic
What are some strengths of the biological area?
Very scientific- experiments used are measurable, objective and can be repeated.
Deterministic- Increases the likelihood of being able to treat people with abnormal behaviors.
What are some weaknesses of the biological area?
Focuses too much on the ‘nature’ side of the debate.
It develops theories about disorders and generalises them to apply to everyone.
What are some strengths of the individual differences area?
Some methods used by this approach are objective and quantifiable
Useful applications to the real world e.g. Rosenhan
What are some weaknesses of the individual differences area?
Often sample is of very few numbers, so data can’t be generalised
Case studies= unethical due to issues with confidentiality, as ps may be easily recognised from the case
What are some strengths of the psychodynamic perspective?
Explores the innate drive that motivates our behaviour
Emphasises the influence of childhood relationships and experiences on later development.
What are some weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective?
Deterministic,
Unscientific and un-falsifiable.
What are some strengths of the behaviourist perspective?
Scientific=cause and effect
Real-life application: operant conditioning=prisons etc
Classical conditioning=treating phobias.
What are some weaknesses of the behaviorist perspective?
Environmental determinism- behaviour is determined by past experiences that have been conditioned
Mechanist view of behaviour- Seen as passive and machine- like responders with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour.
In section C what are some psychological ways to deal with the topics mentioned in the article?
Modelling
Rewarding (positive reinforcement)
Punishment (negative reinforcement)
Educational films
Changing cognitions that will then change behvaiour
Classical conditioning, social leanirng theory
In section C what are some ways to evaluate your suggestions of ways to deal with issues in the article?
Individual differences,
Reductionist,
Ethics,
Lack of resources
What are some psychological issues that a psychologist can be used in section C?
This is anything that a psychologist may be intrested in studying… look at the key themes the studies are paired in or the aims of the study to get an idea such as:
Obediance
Authority
Influence of culture
effect of reward
effect of punishment etc.
What are all the debates you can use?
nature/nurture
Freewill/determinism
Reductionism/holism
Individual/situational
Uselfulness of research
Ethical considerations
Conducting socially sensitive nreseacrh
Psychology as a science
What is biological reductionism?
Refers to bio psychologists trying to reduce complex behaviours to a physical explanation in terms of genes, neurotransmitters, hormones, brain structure, etc.
What is meant by environmental reductionism?
Focuses on stimulus-response relationships and that complex behaviours are the results of a series of S-R chains.
What is meant by experimental reductionism?
Where a complex behaviour is reduced to a single (isolated) variable for the purpose of testing.
How does Casey link to the reductionism side of the debate?
Reduces cognitive control/ability to delay gratification down to just activity in our right inferior gyrus
How does Chaney link to the reductionist side of the debate?
Only focuses on operant conditioning to explain medical compliance in children.
How was Piliavin’s study holistic?
Considers a range of different factors in the cost-benefit model of helping behaviour e.g. race of victim, ill vs drunk, effect of modelling, bystanders.
How was Freud’s study holistic?
The way in which the research was conducted, namely an in-depth case study collecting data over a period of approx 2 years in an unstructured way, was relatively holistic.
What is meant by soft determinism?
Humans can make choices but these are often limited by and therefore determined by certain factors out of their control.
What is meant by hard determinism?
Argues that humans have no free will and pre-determining factors beyond the individual cause us to behave the way we do.
What is meant by environmental determinism ?
Behaviour is a consequence of factors within our environment which we can’t control.
What is meant by biological determinism?
It sees that our behaviour is a consequence of factors within our biology which we can’t control.
.What does free will state?
That humans have the unique intellectual capacity to age independent decisions about how they behave in any situation. Thus humans are a) morally responsible for their own behaviour and b) self-determining.
How Casey link to the bio determinism side of the debate?
This is because her study suggests that people are born with brain differences that mean some people can resist temptation and other cannot.
How does Bandura link to the free will side of the debate?
There is evidence that the children selectively chose who they wanted to imitate. Such as boys imitate ale (25.4) when displaying aggressive behaviour then when they saw a female model (12.8)
What is the nature/nurture debate concerned with?
The extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of either inherited (i.e. genetic) or acquired (i.e.learned) characteristics.
How does Casey link to the nature area?
Ability to delay or not is predetermined, hence nature. resisting temptation (or not) is a relatively stable characteristic which suggests nature. the assumption is that ability to delay is a consequence of predetermined activity in the IFG and VS.
How does Sperry link to the nature side of the debate?
argued that different functions are lactated within certain areas of the brain and that these cause behaviour. He suggests that the performance of tasks is due to the activation in different brain structures that we are born with.
How does Bandura link to the nurture debate?
The children witnessed the behaviour f the role model and imitated it, showing how their experience, and this nurture, shaped their aggressive behaviour.
How does Milgram link to the nurture debate?
The ps conflict often seen within this study is a result of two opposing, deeply ingrained rules that have been “nurtured” within our culture E.G obeying authority figures.
How does Freud link to the individual debate?
This study supports the individual view because Freud identifies individual factors to explain Hans’ behaviour. little Hans’ early childhood experiences, drives, fantasies, dreams combine to explain his unique development of a horse phobia.
How does Baron-Cohen link to the individual debate?
Identifies the specific individual factor that explains why HFA with autism perform badly on an adult TOM test
How does Bandura link to the situational debate?
Looks at how the behaviour of the role models around us have a situational effect on behaviour.
How does Casey link to the Individual and Situational debate?
I= Resisting temptation is a stable characteristic influence by lower activity in the inferior frontal gyrus.
S= Being able to teach those who couldn’t delay “cooling strategies” and/or cultural difference (e.g. children in Cameroon found it far easier to delay than children from Germany) demonstrate the possibility of situational influences.
What is the cost-benefit analysis in terms of ethics?
The idea that does the potential costs to the ps involved in the research outweigh the benefits to scientific understanding and wider society.
What studies could be seen as unethical?
Milgram, Bandura and Bocchiaro
What studies can be seen as ethical?
Grant, Casey and Bocchiaro
What is meant by the term socially sensitive research?
use to refer to psychological research/theories studies that has wider (usually negative) implications that affect people or groups in wider society-e.g. researchers and their institutions, families or people close to them, other groups in society. It may also refer to the sensitive nature of some of the cocnlsuions drawn by the research.
How is Baron-Cohen’s research Socially sensitive?
The findings can potentially have negative impact on the pop represented in this study and increase stigma. the discovery of this specific deficit in people with autism/AS might lead to even greater STIGMA in the form of exclusion of those with ASD from job, education, relationships etc.
How can Milgra’s research be seen as SS?
His explanation of obedience can be seen as environmentally deterministic. this potentially removes blame for destructive obedience (e.g. holocaust) and can cause HARM since the conclusions from this study are seen as controversial.
How is Gould/Yerkes study SS?
Gould highlights how Yerkes administered a number i of culturally biased tests to ensure the intelligence of 1.75 million army recruits which resulted in political consequences e.g. these “facts” were used to justify the immigration Restriction Act of 1924 which prevented up to 6 million Europeans from immigrating to the USA during WW2. These people will have ended up suffering at the hands of the Nazis as a cocquence
What are 2 studies that aren’t socially sensitive?
Grant and Chaney
When can psychology be considered a science?
-relies on well controlled lab experiments which enables cause and effect to be established.
-Uses standardised procedures that allow for replication. This means results can be verified.
When is psychology not considered scientific?
-Relies on methodological procedures that reduce the objectivity of data collection e.g. self-reports, subject to experimenter bias, not all extraneous variables are controlled, use of case studies etc.
-if theories of human behaviour are devised that can’t be falsified i.e proved to be wrong.
What research can be classed as scientific?
Loftus & palmer, Casey, Bandura
What research can be classed as not scientific?
Freud, Chaney, Bandura.
How does the nature/nurture link to the free will/determinism debate?
The deterministic stance can be linked to nature due to the clear focus on establishing cause and effect, particularly when investigating genetics. Nurture also tends to be deterministic as behaviourist research believed that factors in the environment can be isolated and understood to be directly causing behaviour. Therefore if our thinking and behaviour are entirely determined by our environment where is the role for free will?
How does the Nature/nurture debate link to the reductionism/holistic debate?
Nature see genetic and other bio factors as the explanation for thinking and behaviour, which adopts reductionist view (which attempts to break down behaviour into constituent parts and using single factors to account for given actions)
How does the nature/nurture debate link to the individual/situational debate?
Individual explanations of behaviour often assume that behaviour is innate and that the nurture side of the debate is true; By using a situational explanation researchers assume that the environment determines behaviour and therefore the nurture side of the debate is favoured.
