Paper 1 - social influence, memory, attachment, psychopathology

Question 1

Explanations for obedience AO1

Answer 1

Agentic state
-individuals believe they are not responsible for their behaviour as they are the agent of an authority figure.
-Allows the individual to commit acts they morally are opposed to.
-May feel discomfort as a result of their actions but are unable to resist the demands of the authority figure
-This is opposite to the autonomous state where an individual’s actions are free from control
Legitimacy of authority
-Individuals accept that people higher up in the social hierarchy should be obeyed
-These people have the right to harm or punish others such as the police force and the criminal justice system
-This is learnt in childhood through socialisation processes
-It is accepted by my most people that legitimacy of authority is required for society to function properly

Question 2

Explanations for obedience AO3

Answer 2

:) Milgram - supporting study - participants hesitant in continuing the shocks, continued when the professor clarified that he was responsible. Professor is high up in the social hierarchy due to his education, supporting the idea of the agentic state. Obedience dropped when the instructor had no uniform.
:) Bickman - supporting study - 39% of public picked up litter when asked to by investigator dressed as security guard but only 14% when dressed as milkman. Demonstrates legitimacy of authority in real world
:( Milgram - conflicting evidence - a significant minority of participants disobeyed despite awareness of the professor’s authority. Suggest other factors - innate tendencies to dis/obey
:( Agentic state used to justify war crimes eg: crimes committed by death camp Nazi, Eichmann

Question 3

Situational variables affecting obedience AO1

Answer 3

Milgram conducted study in response to holocaust.
Participants were the ‘teacher’ and introduced to confederates: ‘professor’ in a lab coat and ‘learner’.
Learner strapped to chair in another room and participant instructed to deliver shocks (15-450v) when learner answered incorrectly.
At 300v the learner refused to go on, after 315v the learner was silent indicating unconsciousness or death.
Professor encouraged the learner to continue
Results: Participants distressed but obeyed: 100% to 300v, 12.5% stopped at 300v, 65% to full 450v.
^This is milgram’s baseline study^
Proximity - learner in the same room, obedience dropped to 40%, hold hand on shock plate, 30%
Location - office block in run down area, obedience dropped to 47.5%, lack of LOA
Uniform - professor replaced with confederate in normal clothes, obedience dropped to 20%, lack of LOA

Question 4

Situational variables affecting obedience AO3

Answer 4

:( Low internal validity - participants guessed that shocks were not real and were playing along, unclear whether findings were due to obedience or participants response to demand characteristics
:) Bickman - supporting study - 39% of public picked up litter when asked to by investigator dressed as security guard but only 14% when dressed as milkman. Demonstrates that situational variables such as uniform have an effect on obedience in the real world.
:) Meeus and Raaijmakers - supporting study - ordered dutch participants to say stressful things to a confederate in a job interview, 90% obeyed. When the person giving orders wasn’t present, obedience dropped dramatically - Milgram’s findings are valid across cultures.
:( Counterpoint - only two replications of Milgram’s study found in ‘non-western’ countries. May not be appropriate to conclude that Milgram’s finding apply to people of all cultures.

Question 5

Dispositional explanations for obedience AO1

Answer 5

Authoritarian personality:

Dispositional explanation: explanation that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality.

Adorno et al. argued high obedience levels is a psychological disorder linked to personality
People with the authoritarian personality show an extreme respect for authority, had fixed stereotypes of other groups and identified with ‘strong’ people but disliked ‘weak’ people.
Adorno developed the F scale and those with a high score showed these characteristics
Adorno suggested this personality was shaped in early life by strict authoritarian parenting with harsh physical punishment.

Question 6

Dispositional explanations for obedience AO3

Answer 6

:) Elms and Milgram - supporting research - interviewed those who took part in first 4 Milgram studies and found those who shocked until the full 450v scored higher on the F scale compared to disobedient participants.
:( Counterpoint - analysis of obedient participants found characteristics unusual for authoritarians - didn’t experience unusual levels of punishment during childhood. Authoritarianism my not be an accurate predictor of obedience
:( Confounding variables - the link between authoritarian personalities and following orders is correlational. There may be a third factor such as lower income or poorer education that result in both factors.
:( F scale questionnaire lacks internal validity - questions are written in one direction, agreeing to all questions labels someone as authoritarian - response bias

Question 7

Explanations of resistance to social influence AO1

Answer 7

Social support -
seeing others resist social influence releases the pressure to obey or conform, increasing the individuals confidence.
Eg providing a disobedient role model (obedience) or creating a small alternate group to belong to (conformity).
Breaks the unanimity of the groups and challenges the legitimacy of authority of the authority figure.

Locus of control -
Proposed by Rotter
Factor of personality controls our lives and can be measured on a scale from high internal to low external LOC.
High internal LOC - have responsibility for their own actions which dictate the events in their lives, less concerned with social approval. Results in ability to pressure to conform or obey
Low external LOC - feel their lives are controlled by external forces e.g. fate or the government.
Most people are in the middle of the scale

Question 8

Explanations of resistance to social influence AO3

Answer 8

:) Supporting study - replication of Milgram - participants assessed for LOC - 37% of those with an internal LOC refused to continue to the highest shock level, compared to 23% of those with an external LOC.
:) Supporting study - Asch - unanimity variation demonstrating social support - conformity dropped significantly from 32% to 5.5%
:( Conflicting evidence - analysis of data from LOC studies over a 40 year period. Over this time people became more resistant to social influence but more external. Suggests LOC is not a valid explanation of resistance to social influence

Question 9

Minority influence AO1

Answer 9

Minority influence: minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours through informational social influence, leading to internalisation.
Starts as a slow process but as more of the majority is converted to minority view, process speeds up - snowball effect
Consistency - minority demonstrates confidence in it’s view by repeating the same message over time.
Commitment - members of the majority take them more seriously if they are willing to suffer for their views but still hold them
Flexibility - need to appear to consider valid counter arguments and slightly compromise to not be seen as dogmatic and unpersuasive

Question 10

Minority influence AO3

Answer 10

:) Supporting study - when shown blue slides, participant majority were more likely to report the slides as green if a confederate minority was consistent in calling them green 8.4% compared to an inconsistent group 1.25%
:) Minority groups often show commitment by suffering eg gay rights, environmental activists, suffragettes
:( Artificial tasks - tasks involved in minority influence research are often artificial. Research is therefore very different to how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life. Findings of minority influence studies therefore lack external validity.

Question 11

The multi-store model of memory AO1

Answer 11

Atkinson and Shifrin’s multi-store model - describes how information flows through the memory system
3 stores
Sensory register - receives all stimuli from the environment. Comprises several registers. Coding is modality specific - iconic memory codes for visual info, echoic memory codes for acoustic info. Duration - less than half a second. Capacity - very high.
Short-term memory - temporary active store - receives information from sensory register by paying attention or from long-term memory by retrieval. Info kept in STM by maintenance rehearsal or passed on to LTM by prolonged rehearsal. Coding - acoustic. Duration - approx 18 seconds. Capacity - 5-9 items
Long-term memory - permanent memory store. Info passed to LTM from STM by prolonged rehearsal - Coding - semantic. Duration - permanent. Capacity - unlimited

Question 12

The multi-store model of memory AO3

Answer 12

:) research support for STM and LTM - Baddeley gave 4 lists of 10 words to 4 participant groups. Acoustically similar or dissimilar or semantically similar or dissimilar. Immediate recall worst for acoustically similar. Recall after 20 mins worst for semantically similar. Suggests STM is coded acoustically and LTM is coded semantically- shows they are separate stores
:) research support for duration of LTM - Bahrick tested recall of school friends in photographs - 90% after 15 years and still 80 % for names after 45 years. Supports the idea that duration of LTM is potentially limitless.
:( conflicting evidence - KFs STM for digits was very poor when read out loud to him but much better when he read them to himself. Suggests that there could be more than one STM store - disproving the MSM.
:( conflicting evidence - found that type of rehearsal is more important than the amount. Elaborative rehearsal - linking info to existing knowledge - is needed for long term storage. Info can be transferred to LTM without prolonged rehearsal. MSM does not fully explain how long term storage is achieved.

Question 13

The working memory model AO1

Answer 13

Baddeley and Hitch
Explanation of how short-term memory is organised and functions
Central executive - monitors incoming data and filters info before allocating it to different ‘slave systems’
Phonological loop - processes sound information. Coding - acoustic. Capacity - 2 seconds. Made up of: phonological store - stores the words you hear, articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal.
Visuo-spatial sketchpad - stores visual and spatial info. Coding - visual/spatial. Capacity - 4 objects. Made up of: visual cache - stores visual date, Inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects.
Episodic buffer - added by Baddeley in 2000. Intergrates info from slave systems and maintains a sense of time sequencing.

Question 14

The working memory model AO3

Answer 14

:) supporting evidence - KFs STM for digits was very poor when read out loud to him but much better when he read them to himself. Supports the existence of PL and VSS as two separate STM stores.
:) supporting evidence - when Baddeley asked participants to carry out visual and verbal tasks at the same time, they performed similarly to when they performed the tasks separately. But when tasks were both visual or both verbal, performance declined. This supports the existence of separate systems for visual and verbal ino.
:( counterpoint - it is unclear whether KF had any other cognitive impairments which may have affected his performance on memory tasks. This challenges the evidence that comes from KF as his brain injuries may have affected different systems.
:( inaccurate theories - it is impossible to directly observe the memory processes described in the model so it is necessary to make inferences on the basis of behaviour and brain scan images - these inferences could be incorrect - decreasing the validity of the model

Question 15

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony AO1

Answer 15

Fisher and Geiselman argued that EWT could be improved if police used the cognitive interview - four main techniques
Reinstate the context - mentally returning to the crime scene - triggers environmental/ emotional contextual cues
Report everything - all details, even those which seem irrelevant should be mentioned - seemingly unimportant details may be important and may trigger other important memories
Reverse the order - switches the chronology - checks accuracy and challenges any expectations the victim may have of how something occured
Change perspective - consider the situation from the perspective of a witness or perpetrator - disrupts the effect of expectations and schemas on recall

Question 16

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony AO3

Answer 16

:) research support - 16 detectives at Florida PD were put into matched pair groups. The group trained in CI gained 63% more info than the control group in interviews. Suggests the CI is an effective technique for real police officers in the real world.
:) research support - meta-analysis of 42 studies including over 2500 interviews found that the cognitive interview did result in a significant increase in the amount of correct info recalled.
:( counterpoint - CI significantly increased both the amount of correct and incorrect information recalled meaning overall accuracy rate is similar for the CI (85%) and the standard interview (82%)
:( expensive - CI takes a lot more time and training than the standard police interview. Therefore police officers may be reluctant to use the CI as many forces do not have the resources to provide the special training needed. The CI may not be a realistic method for police officers to use.

Question 17

Animal studies of attachment AO1

Answer 17

Lorenz’s research tested imprinting: Hatched half a clutch of goose eggs using an incubator where the first thing they saw was Lorenz and half hatched by the mother. Findings: goslings hatched by Lorenz followed him and goslings hatched by mother followed her, even after they were mixed. Conclusions: imprinting is when an animal will strongly attach to the first object they encounter and then follow this object. Critical period - if the gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on within the first few hours, it would not imprint at all.
Harlow’s research tested cupboard love: babies love their mothers because they feed them. Suggested instead that the basis of attachment is contact comfort and babies have an innate need for physical contact. Procedure: 16 baby monkeys placed in cages with surrogate mothers. Combinations of wire and/or cloth mothers that did or did not provide milk. Findings: Monkeys with cloth mothers always preferred its company even if the wire mother provided milk. Monkeys with cloth mothers demonstrated confidence in novel situations and returned to it when scared. Monkeys without a cloth mother showed signs of stress related illness. Follow up studies - maternal deprivation resulted in permanent social disorders - difficulty mating and raising offspring
Suggesting: infants have an innate need for physical contact, will attach to whatever provides comfort.

Question 18

Animal studies of attachment AO3

Answer 18

:) later research - Lorenz and Harlow’s work influenced later researchers such as Bowlby in the development of the idea of the critical period and internal working model in humans. Studies have had a wider impact on psychology
:) real world value - findings have been applied to early childcare - helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in a child’s development. Allowing them to intervene and prevent poor outcomes.
:( generalisability to humans - geese are genetically and socially very different to humans so behaviour is likely to be different. Although monkeys are genetically similar, there are significant differences in biology and social environments. Therefore it may not be appropriate to generalise these findings to humans.
:(ethical issues - intentionally orphaning infant primates and subjecting them to high levels of stress. Led to a negative view of psychology

Question 19

Explanations of attachment: learning theory AO1

Answer 19

Dolland and Miller - cupboard love theory - children become attached to their caregiver because they learn the caregiver meets physical needs like food. Based on learning theory - can be explained by classical and operant conditioning
Classical conditioning - learning by association - food and mother are presented together resulting in pleasure, pleasure starts to be associated with the mother. Pleasure response occurs whenever the mother appears
Operant conditioning - learning by consequences - positive reinforcement - positive consequences (food) for crying behaviour, negative reinforcement - baby stops crying when parent produces food

Question 20

Explanations of attachment: learning theory AO3

Answer 20

:) Research support - learning theories are supported by a significant amount of well controlled research and have face validity - it makes sense that babies would cry more if they learnt it gained them food.
:) conditioning may be involved - it is unlikely that association with food plays a central role but conditioning may still be involved. A baby may associate warmth and comfort with the presence of a particular adult - influencing their choice of attachment figure
:( environmentally reductionist - explains complex infant-caregiver interactions and emotions as a result of simplistic processes like stimulus-response links and patterns of reinforcement.
:( conflicting evidence - Harlow’s infant monkeys did not attach to the surrogate wire mothers that provided the milk but to a cloth mother that did not provide the milk. They wanted contact comfort - this opposes the idea of cupboard love.

Question 21

Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory AO1

Answer 21

Bowlby - proposed an evolutionary explanation - babies have an innate attachment drive to survive by ensuring they stay close to their caregiver
Monotropy - babies will attach to one unique caregiver for safety. Based on Lorenz’s imprinting and Harlow’s contact comfort theories
Critical period - attachment must happen in the first few years of life. Failure results in long lasting negative social consequences.
Internal working model - attachment to mother provides a framework for future relationships. Also affects the child’s later ability to parent themselves.
Social releasers - babies instinctively use signals that adults are genetically programmed to find cute (crying,smiling,vocalising)

Question 22

Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory AO3

Answer 22

:) research support - Lorenz’s research demonstrates the importance of a critical period as well as an instinctual desire for a strong primary attachment.
:) research support for social releasers - when researchers instructed babies’ primary attachment figure to ignore their babies’ social releasers, the babies became increasingly distressed, some eventually curled up and lay motionless. Suggests social releasers are important in the development of attachment
:( monotropic theory suffers from Alpha bias - gender differences are exaggerated. Theory suggests a mother is best suited as the role of primary attachment figure. Leads to potential issues for working mothers and single gender families.
:( conflicting evidence - schaffer and emerson found a significant minority of babies formed multiple attachments at the same time. Other attachments to family members may provide the same key qualities as the primary attachment figure. Theory may be incorrect in assuming that the primary attachment figure has a unique quality and importance

Question 23

Types of attachment: Ainsworth’s strange situation AO1

Answer 23

Suggest behaviours indicate attachment strength. Infant attachment placed into three categories based on behaviours
Structured observation in a controlled lab setting, infants 12-18 months and their mothers.
Secure: use mother as safe base as they explore, moderate stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, happy reunion response then return to exploration. Mum showed sensitive responses
Insecure resistant: won’t explore, inconsistent in wanting closeness or distance from mum, high stranger and separation anxiety, reject mum when reunited. Mum inconsistent in sensitive responses
Insecure avoidant: keep distance from mum, don’t use mum as secure base but do explore, low stranger and separation anxiety, won’t get comfort from mum on reunion. Little sensitive responses from mum

Question 24

Types of attachment: Ainsworth’s strange situation AO3

Answer 24

:) inter-rater reliability - bick et al tested inter-rater reliability for the Strange Situation on a team of trained observers and found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases. High inter-rater reliability due to controlled conditions and easily observable behaviours.
:) meaningful measurement - large body of research shows babies with secure attachment tend to have better outcomes than others in later childhood and adulthood. (better scholastic performance, less involvement in bullying). Measures something real and meaningful in a baby’s development
:( culture-bias - Strange Situation developed in Britain and USA so may be culture-bound. Secure attachment is more common in Western cultures and insecure more common in other cultures. May only be a valid measurement in western cultures.
:( over-simplified - attachment type classification only takes into account a small snapshot of behaviour. Does not consider relationships with others or home behaviour.

Question 25

Cultural variations is attachment AO1

Answer 25

van Ijendoorn and Kroonenburg - meta-analysis, 2000 infants, 32 studies, 8 countries
Findings: secure attachment was the most common attachment type in all countries. Insecure resistant was generally the least common type. Insecure avoidant was most common in western cultures, insecure resistant in non-western cultures.
Germany had the most insecure avoidant attachments (35%)
Japan and Israel had the most insecure resistant attachments (27% and 29%)
China had the least secure attachments (50%)
conclusions : globally preferred attachment style is secure attachment. But there are cultural differences in parenting styles. German families value self-independence - 35% insecure avoidant. Japanese mothers spend a significant amount of time with their infants, leading to extreme reactions on separation - 27% insecure resistant

Question 26

Cultural variations in attachment AO3

Answer 26

\:) indigeneous researchers - many of the studies included were conducted by psychologists from the same cultural background as the participants. This avoids any issues that come with cross-cultural research such as misunderstandings due to language barriers and bias due to one countries’ stereotype of another - enhances validity of the data collected
\:) supports Bowlby’s theory - most common attachment style was secure attachment which supports Bowlby’s theory that there is an innate, biological drive to parent in a way the produces a secure attachment
\:( imposed etic - imposing a technique that works in one cultural context to another. EG - babies’ response to reunion, lack of affection may indicate insecure avoidant attachment in the UK, but in Germany this would be interpreted as independence. Therefore using behaviours from the Strange Situation to decipher attachment in different cultures is meaningless.
\:( confounding variables -studies conducted in different countries do not necessarily use the same methodology. Factors such as poverty and social class can confound results, as can the age of participants. Environmental variables may also differ between studies (size of room, availability of toys. These confounding variables may reduce the validity of findings.

Question 27

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation AO1

Answer 27

Maternal deprivation - not receiving suitable emotional care from a maternal figure. The monotropic relationship between an infant and mother is needed for the healthy psychological development of infants.
Critical period - if adequate attachment is not formed within 30 months of birth there will be negative intellectual and emotional consequences due to deprivation. Consequences:
Intellectual consequences: delayed intellectual development characterised by abnormal low IQ
Emotional consequences: affectionless psychopathy - unable to show caring behaviour or empathy to others
Continuity hypothesis: lack of an effective internal working model for relationships due to deprivation leads to an unsuccessful childhood, adult relationships and parenting skills.

Question 28

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation AO3

Answer 28

:) Real-world application - theory has led to changes in the child welfare policies of many institutions, such as visiting times for mothers in children’s hospitals. Shows that this theory has real-world value.
:) Research support - interviewed 44 children accused of theft and a control group of 44 emotionally disturbed non-thieves. Parents contacted to identify periods of maternal separation. Findings: 14/44 thieves matched the criteria for affectionless psychopathy and 0/44 control. 12/14 affectionless psychopaths experienced prolonged maternal separation compared to 2/44 control. Suggests affectionless psychopathy led to criminal behaviour and is linked to maternal deprivation.
:( Counterpoint - Bowlby himself carried out the interviews and the assessments. Biassed - he knew in advance which children were expected to show signs of affectionless psychopathy. Evidence is seriously flawed
:( Deprivation vs Privation - deprivation - lack of care after attachment has developed, privation - failure to form any attachment in first place. Severe long-term damage associated with deprivation is more likely a result of privation - children in 44 thieves may have never formed a strong attachment. Bowlby overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation.

Question 29

Romanian orphan studies, effects of institutionalisation AO1

Answer 29

Background - in 1990s Romania, women were required to have five children, many could not afford this so put their children in orphanages in very poor conditions. Many were adopted, some by British parents
Rutter et al’s research: longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans adopted into British families. Adopted under 6 months, 6-24 months or over 24 months and compared to a British adoptees control group. Assessed at 4,6,11 and 15 years
Findings: Age 6: if adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment - overly friendly behaviour to strangers. Age 11: if adopted after 6 months showed significant delayed intellectual development - average IQ 102 for those adopted before 6 months and 86 for 6-24 months and 77 for after 24 months.
conclusions : adoption within six months avoids the effects of privation

Question 30

Romanian orphan studies, effects of institutionalisation AO3

Answer 30

:) real-world application - research resulted in changed policies around adoption and care in orphanages and other institutional settings. Children in these settings now have a chance to develop normal attachments - research has has a positive impact in the real world.
:) few confounding variables - previous orphan studies involved children who had experienced trauma prior to orphanage and adoption making it difficult to distinguish between effects of trauma and institutionalisation. However, the majority of the Romanian orphans had been orphaned by loving parents who couldn’t afford to keep them. Results not confounded by other negative life experiences - high internal validity
:( social sensitivity - results show that late-adopted children have poor developmental outcomes. This could lead to adopted children being treated differently by parents or teachers and prospective adoptive parents being reluctant to adopt in fear of these poor outcomes. Research has a negative impact on participants.
:( extreme example - the quality of care in Romanian orphanages was remarkably poor with children receiving very little intellectual stimulation or comfort. The harmful effects of institutionalisation in these studies may represent poor institutions rather than institutions as a whole.

Question 31

The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships AO1

Answer 31

Internal working model - mental framework based on the attachment the individual had to their primary caregiver as an infant. Acts as template for how future relationships should work such as if people can be trusted or if relationships are loving
Childhood relationships - securely attached babies tend to form the best quality childhood relationships whereas insecurely attached babies have friendship difficulties (Kerns)
Adulthood relationships - Hazen and Shaver - conducted the ‘love quiz’ and found adult relationships are a continuation of self report of Ainsworths infant attachment types. Internal working model affects the adults ability to parent their own child.

Question 32

The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships AO3

Answer 32

:) research support - studies linking attachment and later development have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional well-being, and attachment to own children.
:) real world application - theories have been practically applied in schools for example altering internal working models to address issues such as bullying and loneliness in childhood. Even helping children achieve relationship stability later in life
:( validity of self report - self report of attachment in Hazen and Shavers study is retrospective and may therefore be unreliable as memories of early childhood are reconstructed and unlikely to be accurate. Questions validity of this study
:( confounding variables - there are other variables that can affect later development such as parenting style and genetically influenced personality. Therefore, we cannot be sure that it is only early attachment influencing future relationships and not other factors.

Question 33

Deviations from social norms AO1

Answer 33

Social norms - unwritten behavioural expectations that vary depending on culture, time and context.
Social deviants - individuals who break the norms of their society and are seen as abnormal.
Some behaviours a highly culturally specific: tolerance to homosexuality, religious experiences amd public displays of emotion.

Question 34

Deviation from social norms AO3

Answer 34

:) respects cultural differences - doesn’t impose a set western definition of abnormality on non-westerners living in non-western countries.
:( judges people living outside their culture of origin - may be judged outside of their culture when they would not be within their culture. People of Afro-caribbean heritage are 7x more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in the UK.

Question 35

Failure to function adequately AO1

Answer 35

Inability to cope with the challenges of daily life such as personal hygiene. Show maladaptive behaviour and personal anguish, observers feel uncomfortable in their presence.

Question 36

Failure to function adequately AO3

Answer 36

:) represents a threshold for help - people tend to seek professional help for mental illness when they can no longer function adequately. This represents a sensible threshold for when people need professional help.
:( maladaptive behaviour not necessarily mental illness - not all maladaptive behaviour is an indication of mental illness - smoking,drinking,poor diet. Those who make unhealthy choices are at a risk of being labelled abnormal

Question 37

Statistical infrequency AO1

Answer 37

Abnormal behaviour is behaviour that is rare. Common behaviours can be measured statistically in comparison to the rest of the population, statistically unusual behaviours are defined as abnormal. Example : someone with a low IQ is two standard deviations below the average.

Question 38

Statistical infrequency AO3

Answer 38

:) objective - statistical infrequency uses statistical measures making it more objective and less open to bias than the other definitions of abnormality.
:( unusual traits can be positive - infrequent characteristics can be positive as well as negative. Example: high IQ would be considered abnormal but is a positive trait. Statistical infrequency is not sufficient as the sole basis of defining abnormality.

Question 39

Deviation from ideal mental health AO1

Answer 39

Humanistic definition by Jahoda. Features of ideal mental health are defined by Jahoda and deviation from these features indicate abnormality. Features are: environmental mastery, autonomy, resisting stress, self-actualisation, a positive attitude to yourself, accurate perception of reality.

Question 40

Deviation from ideal mental health AO3

Answer 40

:) holistic approach - helps individuals to identify areas for personal development
:( Cultural bias - culturally biassed towards western individualist perspective as many cultures do not value autonomy and personal success, focusing instead on performing a social role.

Question 41

The behavioural approach to explaining phobias AO1

Answer 41

Phobias are learnt by experience. Can be explained by the two-process model

Acquisition: phobias are acquired by classical conditioning - phobic object changes from a neutral stimulus with no fear response to a conditioned stimulus with a fear response by being presented with an unconditioned stimulus that causes a fear response - forming an association

Maintenance: phobias are maintained by operant conditioning - individual avoids situations linked to phobic stimulus, this has the pleasurable effect of reduced anxiety. So the phobia is maintained.

Generalisation: fear of one phobic stimulus is felt when exposed to similar objects. Such as a fear of wasps being generalised to a fear of bees and flies.

Question 42

The behavioural approach to explaining phobias AO3

Answer 42

:) supporting research - Watson and Rayner’s research on ‘Little Albert’ showed that phobias could be induced in a child by making a loud noise when presenting the child with a rat. This supports the idea of acquisition by classical conditioning.
:) real-world application - the two-process model has real-world application in exposure therapies like systematic desensitisation. It is important in explaining why people with phobias benefit from being exposed to the phobic stimulus.
:( conflicting research - when asked, only 2% of children with a fear of water could recall a traumatic experience with water. Behaviourist explanation cannot account for all phobias
:( biological explanation - phobias of guns, knives and cars are rare yet phobias of snakes, birds and dogs are common. This suggests an innate biological origin of phobias which goes against the behaviourist approach.

Question 43

The behaviourist approach to treating phobias AO1

Answer 43

Behavioural therapies condition a new response to the phobic stimulus - counterconditioning.

Systematic desensitisation
First teaches relaxation techniques such as deep breathing. Then progresses through an anxiety hierarchy created by the client and the therapist from least anxiety provoking to most. The client progresses through the hierarchy whilst using relaxation techniques at each step.
Gradual exposure leads to extinction of the fear association

Flooding
Immediate response and full exposure to the maximum level of phobia stimulus. Causes temporary panic in the client and may attempt to escape. Therapist keeps the client in this situation until the panic stops due to exhaustion and the client is calm in the presence of the phobic object.

Question 44

Behavioural approach to treating phobias AO3

Answer 44

:) supporting research for SD - 24 college students with a phobia of snakes were treated with 11 sessions of systematic desensitisation. All students’ fear was reduced and remained lowered six months later.
:) flooding is cost-effective - it is clinically effective and not expensive. It can work in as little as one session compared to SD which takes ten sessions to achieve the same result.
:( traumatic - flooding is a highly unpleasant experience for the patient. It is rated as significantly more stressful than SD. This raises ethical issues for psychologists as they knowingly cause stress to their clients. The dropout rates are a lot higher than for SD as a result.
:( external applicability - while both methods are effective in a clinical setting, the effect is often not generalised to the outside world.

Question 45

Biological approach to explaining OCD AO1

Answer 45

Genetic explanation - OCD is inherited.
Gene markers - individual gene markers are often present in OCD sufferers. Example: Gene 9, COMT and SERT.
OCD is polygenic - there are as many as 230 individual genes contributing to the effects of OCD

Neural explanation - Gene changes influence the function of the neural systems:
Low levels of serotonin which prevents the repetition of tasks
Abnormal communication between the basal ganglia and other structures. - basal ganglia responsible for involuntary movements, suggesting a link to compulsions
Over activity in the orbito-frontal cortex - predicts future events - links to obsessions

Question 46

Biological approach to explaining OCD AO3

Answer 46

:) twin studies - found 68% of identical twins shared OCD compared to 31% of non-identical twins. Supports the idea of genetic influence on OCD.
:) research support - antidepressants that work purely on serotonin are effective in reducing OCD symptoms. Suggests serotonin may be involved with OCD
:( flawed family studies - factors of living in a shared environment could also have an impact on OCD such as social learning processes.
:( serotonin not unique to OCD - many people with OCD also experience clinical depression. Depression most likely involves disruption to the serotonin system. We can’t be sure whether the disrupted serotonin system is due to OCD or depression.

Question 47

Biological approach to treating OCD: drug therapy AO1

Answer 47

Drug therapies: chemical treatments that influence biological functioning.
SSRIs: Drugs used to treat OCD are also used to treat depression and anxiety disorders.
SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are prescribed to OCD sufferers. Makes serotonin more effective in its inhibitory role as it is kept in the synaptic cleft
Alternatives: if SSRIs are ineffective, non-selective reuptake drugs such as tricyclics such as clomipramine or SNRIs are prescribed which influence other neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline. However, these have more intense side effects.

Question 48

Biological approach to treating OCD: drug therapy AO3

Answer 48

:) research support: meta-analysis of placebo-controlled drug trials including 1520 participants showed that all drugs were more effective than a placebo. Clomipramine being the most effective.
:) cost-effective - production of drugs is inexpensive as many can be made very quickly. Also, drug therapy is non-disruptive to people’s lives as it does not require planning in advanced or spending time in therapy
:( serious side-effects - side effects of drugs used in drug therapy can be severe such as indigestion, blurred vision and loss of sex drive. Clomipramine has very common side effects: 1 in 10 experience erectile dysfunction and weight gain, 1 in 100 become aggressive and experience heart problems.
:( publication bias - companies may not release negative results due to financial incentive to show that their drug is effective