Perspectives/areas Flashcards
What does the social area investigate?
How the social context, including the presence and behaviour of other people, impacts on how people behave
What does the cognitive area investigate?
how we think, perceive, pay attention, problem solve and remember
What does the developmental area investigate?
how our thinking changes as we mature and grow older, the development of personality and how we learn
What does the biological area investigate?
the relationship between biology and behaviour - both how biology, especially neurobiology, affects behaviour , but also how behaviour affects biology
What does the individual differences area investigate?
The differences between people, such as abnormality and mental disorders
What are the key themes of the social area?
Responses to people in authority
Responses to people in need
What are the key themes of the cognitive area?
Memory
attention
What are the key themes of the Developmental area?
External influences on children’s behaviour
Moral development
What are the key themes of the Biological area?
Regions of the brain
Brain plasticity
What are the key themes of the Individual differences area?
Understanding disorders
Measuring differences
What are the classic studies of the social area and what are they about?
Milgram - Obedience
Piliavin et al - Subway samaritan
What are the classic studies of the cognitive area and what are they about?
Loftus and Palmer - Eyewitness testimony
Moray - Auditory attention
What are the classic studies of the developmental area and what are they about?
Bandura et al - Transmission of aggression
Kohlberg - Stages of moral development
What are the classic studies of the Biological area and what are they about?
Sperry - split-brain study
Blakemore and Cooper - Impact of early visual experience in kittens
What are the classic studies of the individual differences area and what are they about?
Freud - little Hans (Oedipus)
Gould - A Nation of morons - Bias in IQ testing
What are the contemporary studies of the social area and what are they about?
Bocchiaro et al - Disobedience and whistle blowing
Levine et al - Cross-cultural altruism
What are the contemporary studies of the cognitive area and what are they about?
Grant et al - Context-dependent memory
Simons and Chabris - Visual inattention
What are the contemporary studies of the developmental area and what are they about?
Chaney et al - Funhaler (positive reinforcement)
Lee et al - Evaluations of lying and truth telling
What are the contemporary studies of the Biological area and what are they about?
Casey et al - Neural correlates of delay of gratification
Maguire et al - Taxi drivers
What are the contemporary studies of the Individual differences area and what are they about?
Baron-Cohen et al - Autism in adults
Hancock et al - language of psychopaths
What are four strengths of research into the social area?
It can help improve our understanding of human behaviour and the extent to which this is affected by other people
It can be very useful - practical applications for understanding group behaviour
It often helps to bring psychology to wider audiences as it often seeks to explain real world events
it is often high in ecological validity - uses field experiments
What are four weaknesses of research into the social area?
It is difficult to stay within ethical guidelines as the research is often socially sensitive
The boundaries can become blurred between the social and other areas
The findings may change across cultures
time sensitive as cultural and social context changes over time
Reductionist as discounts individual and biological explanations
What are the key concepts of the social area?
Diffusion of responsibility, bystander effect, arousal cost-reward model, cultural differences in helping (simpatia), effects of community variables (pace of life, collectivism vs. individualism, purchasing power parity) on helping
What are the key concepts of the cognitive area?
Auditory attention, attentional barrier, cocktail party effect, inattentional blindness, visual attention, reconstructive memory, context-dependent memory
What are the key principles of the social area?
We behave differently in different situations depending on the social roles we take and on the perceived or actual presence of others
Other people and the environment influence our behaviour
Our relationships with other people also influence how we behave
What are the key principles of the cognitive area?
Suggests that the mind works like a computer processor- inputting, storing and retrieving information.
Investigates the way that internal mental processes (perception, attention, language, memory, etc.) can influence our behaviour.
What are the key concepts of the developmental area?
Social learning, learned aggression, moral development, universal stages of development, operant conditioning, reinforcement, cultural differences in development
What are the key principles of the developmental area?
Suggests that behaviour may be innate (due to genetics) or may be learned from the environment (including other people).
Early experiences can affect later development so often investigates behaviour of children.
Assumes our behaviour changes throughout our lifetime (sometimes in pre-determined stages).
What are the key concepts of the biological area?
Brain plasticity, specialised functions of regions of the brain (corpus callosum, hippocampus, etc.), visual development, lateralisation of function, delay of gratification
What are the key principles of the biological area?
Behaviour can largely be explained by biological factors (genes, hormones, the brain)
Psychology should be seen as a science and therefore studied in a scientific way using equipment (MRIs, PET scans, etc.)
Focuses on how the brain structure and function impacts on the behaviour but also how it can be influenced by behaviour
What are the key principles of the individual differences area?
Looks at why people fall out of the ‘normal’ range
Focuses on why people differ and the reasons for these differences
Develop an understanding of disorders
Also concerned with how to measure differences between people
What are the key concepts of the individual differences area?
Understanding disorders (such as phobias, autism, psychopathy), measuring differences, intelligence testing
What are the key concepts of the Behaviourist perspective?
Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning theory
What are the key assumptions of the Behaviourist perspective?
We are born tabula rasa and everything we do is learned from the environment after birth by:
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning
- Social learning theory
Believes Psychology should be conducted scientifically and focus on observable Baha’i our which can be objectively measured
What are the strengths of the Behaviourist perspective?
Very useful for parenting/treatment of certain disorders - e.g through CBT
Uses lab experiments which tend to produce reliable data
Scientific in the way it is conducted
What are the weaknesses of the Behaviourist perspective?
Reductionist - ignores the role of innate/biological factors
Because it uses experiments, studies may lack ecological validity
Deterministic as behaviour is shaped by the environment - Socially sensitive as suggests no free will
What are the strengths of the cognitive area?
- tends to be conducted ethically
- tends to be reliable as uses highly controlled lab experiments
- More scientific as replicable and uses quantitative data
Can have practical applications as it focuses on internal mental processes
What are the weaknesses of the Cognitive area?
Could lack validity as a highly controlled lab experiment
Use of self-report - lacks ecological validity
Can’t measure cognitive processes directly - need to rely in inference
What are the strengths of the developmental area?
-Useful applications for childcare and education
-Helps to investigate nature/nurture debate
-Uses longitudinal methods - fewer participant variables
What are the weaknesses of the Developmental area?
Ethical issues with using children - also reliability and validity issues
Samples often small and therefore unrepresentative (because children and longitudinal)
What are the strengths of the biological area?
-We can develop a greater understanding of how biology impacts on our behaviour
-It favours a scientific approach, which in turn increases the credibility of Psychology as a subject
-lab experiments can be used to establish cause and effect - high reliability
What are the weaknesses of the Biological area?
Research often reductionist as in order to establish cause and effect, it is often simplistic
If we’re unable to observe the Biological mechanisms, we have to rely on self-report which may lower the validity due to demand characteristics and social desirability bias
Sometimes we have to rely on interpretation
What are the strengths of the individual differences area?
Allows psychologists to understand a wide range of behaviours not just common ones
Has great social benefit e.g. improves our understanding of mental disorders
Can help inform our understanding of the free-will aspect of the debate as it offers an insight into how individuals can control their behaviour
What are the weaknesses of the individual differences area?
Much of the research can be seen as socially sensitive as could be put to harmful use
The tools used and research methods used may not always be valid - case studies, self report etc
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic perspective?
-Lots of rich, detailed data can be collected through case studies
-Led to psychoanalysis as a treatment for disorders
-Takes account of individual differences between people
What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective?
-Issues with the way data is collected - down to interpretation and could be affected by researcher bias - lacks validity
-unscientific as the theories are not falsifiable
-no role for free will in behaviour (socially sensitive)
What are the key concepts of the Psychodynamic perspective?
Oedipus complex, defence mechanisms (projection, regression, denial, displacement etc), Id, Ego, Superego, levels of consciousness, psychosexual stages of development, ego anxiety, basic drives)
What are the key assumptions of the psychodynamic perspective?
-The unconscious mind drives a great deal of human behaviour and since we have little insight or control over our unconscious this means we do not have free-will
-Childhood experiences are an important influence on adult personality
-The Id, Ego and superego interact to affect our behaviour - ID forms the unconscious desires that had to be satisfied. If they are not, it can lead to conflict
What are the key points for comparison for the Psychodynamic perspective in terms of links to debates?
-Unscientific - data collected is interpreted subjectively and theories cannot be falsified
-reductionist explanations of behaviour but case study method is more holistic
-deterministic - says we have no control over these unconscious drives
- Individual - behaviour the result of past experiences which are unique
What are the key points for comparison for the Individual differences area in terms of links to debates?
Socially sensitive research - especially important if we are making judgements about certain groups e.g. ethnicity, types of mental illness
Individual - focuses on what makes people unique
What are the key points for comparison for the Biological area in terms of links to debates?
- Psychology as a science - focus of the area
-it is believed that our behaviour is determined by our biology
-often supports the nature side of the debate
-reductionist by focusing only on the biological explanations
What are the key points for comparison for the Social area in terms of links to debates?
-Situational - affect of other people
-Reductionist - doesn’t consider individual factors
-Ethical issues as participants are often not aware they’re being investigated
What are the key points for comparison for the Developmental area in terms of links to debates?
-Ethical issues - children
-tends to consider both nature and nurture
What are the key points for comparison for the Cognitive area in terms of links to debates?
-Both individual (past experiences) and situational factors can influence thought processes
-Tends to be conducted ethically
-more of a role for free-will as it says we make decisions about how we behave
What are the key points for comparison for the Cognitive area in terms of the way the research is carried out?
-often uses highly controlled lab experiments (so tends to be reliable but may lack ecological validity)
-uses self-report to collect data
-Tends to collect quantative data
What are the key points for comparison for the Developmental area in terms of the way the research is carried out?
-tends to study children
-often uses experiments
-often uses longitudinal methods
-can collect both qualitative and quantitative data
What are the key points for comparison for the Social area in terms of the way the research is carried out?
-often uses (controlled) observation or field experiments
-often collects both quantitive and qualitative data
What are the key points for comparison for the Biological area in terms of the way the research is carried out?
-Often in highly controlled lab experiments
-Can use highly technical equipment
What are the key points for comparison for the Individual differences area in terms of the way the research is carried out?
As looking at unique behaviours, case studies may have to be used as there is only a limited sample
What are the key points for comparison for the Psychodynamic perspective in terms of the way the research is carried out?
Uses case study methods which allow a lot of qualitative data to be collected
Relies on self-report methods to collect information, which may mean it is less valid
What are the key points for comparison for the Behaviourist perspective in terms of the way the research is carried out?
Tends to use experimental methods to investigate behaviour and collects quantitative data. This makes the findings more reliable
