Previous exam questions - Cog, Learning, Bio, Social

Question 1

Describe sample used by Sherif et al

Answer 1

• Boys aged 11-12 years old
• Similar educational level
• Middle class
• protestant families
• considered well adjusted

Question 2

Describe 1 way Sherif Et al tried to reduce inter-group conflict

Answer 2

• introduced superordinate goals that
  required collaboration between the two groups of boys to encourage group cohesion
• such as cooperating to make an
  improvement to a water tank and pump that provided water for both groups

Question 3

Explain 1 weakness of Sherif et al in terms of reliability

Answer 3

• field experiment at a
  summer camp which meant that they could not control all extraneous variables that may impact on the conflict between the Rattlers and Eagles
• This reduces the reliability of the findings
  about negative attitudes towards an out-group as the study cannot be fully replicated to check the results for consistency

Question 4

Agency theory AO1

Answer 4

• most people are likely to
  obey an authority figure and give up their free will.
• The process of moral strain is the point where individuals feel such
  discomfort between their judgement and an order from an authority
  figure that they shift to an agentic state to relieve the strain.
• An agentic state is when individuals become agents of the authority
  figure and will obey without questioning what they are told to do.
• An autonomous state is when individuals maintain free will and responsibility so dissent against the orders of an authority figure.

Question 5

Agency theory AO3

Answer 5

• Supporting evidence comes from Milgram’s (1963) study which
  showed that 65% of his participants behaved agentically and
  shocked the learner to 450 volts.
• does not consider individual differences in personality therefore it is an incomplete explanation of what influences a person to obey.
• Agency theory can be applied to explain the acts of genocide like the Holocaust in which the soldiers behaved agentically and blindly obeyed without question, killing millions of people.
• Charismatic leadership (House, 1976) suggests that the traits of the leader are important in gaining obedience, so autonomy may be a result of the authority figure lacking charisma rather than an
  individual’s state.

Question 6

Cognitive - fully operationalised dependent variable for practical

Answer 6

• number of words from the word list correctly recalled /10

Question 7

Cognitive - fully operationalised independent variable for practical

Answer 7

• whether there was an interference task of 30 seconds or no interference task

Question 8

1 weakness of cognitive practical -

Answer 8

• One improvement we could make would be to gather a more representative sample of participants aged from 18 to 60 years
  old to represent memory recall across different ages
• This would increase the generalisability of our findings about the duration of STM and the effects of interference tasks to a wider target population

Question 9

Reconstructive memory - AO1

Answer 9

• Reconstructive memory suggests that we actively try and make
  sense of new information based on what we already know.
• Memory recall may be distorted when memories are reconstructed
  based on an individual’s understanding from past events.
• Schemas are the mental structures which hold prior knowledge that are built from personal experiences.
• confabulation is where gaps in memories are filled in using pre-existing information and expectations.

Question 10

how could we use random sampling to gather 30 participants for correlational research

Answer 10

• random number generator to select first 30 participants

Question 11

give 1 weakness of correlational research

Answer 11

• we can’t be certain of what causes what
• findings will only tell us if there is a relationship between covariables
• can’t determine cause and effect
• limiting usefulness

Question 12

explain strengths of brain structure as an explanation for aggression

Answer 12

• Real-life case studies indicate that damage to brain structure can
  result in individuals becoming aggressive which increases the plausibility of the explanation that brain structures affect aggression = the case of Phineas
  Gage who suffered damage to his pre-frontal cortex that resulted in a personality change that made him irresponsible and
  aggressive, so brain structure can influence aggression
• Considering brain structure as a factor in human aggression could help inform the way violent offenders are perceived by the
  criminal justice system by including considerations of a person’s pre-disposition to violence = Wong et al. (1997) used MRI scans with 19 violent male criminals, they found the volume of the
  amygdala was smaller in the violent criminals compared to controls, supporting brain structure as a factor involved in violent offending

Question 13

Hormones AO1 -

Answer 13

• Testosterone is a hormone found in males more than females and
  is responsible for sex drive, body muscle mass and mood.
• The hormone estradiol plays a role in dominance, motivation for
  power and physical aggression among females.
• Low levels of cortisol, a hormone secreted in response to stress, is associated with persistent aggressive behaviour beginning in childhood.
• The combination of high levels of testosterone, low levels of
  cortisol and low levels of serotonin have been associated with
  impulsive aggression

Question 14

Hormones - AO3

Answer 14

• Dabbs (1995) found higher levels of testosterone in adult male
  prison inmates who had committed violent crimes compared to property crime, so hormones may explain aggressive behaviour.
• It may be that when faced with a situation that leads to aggression, estradiol levels increase in response to the situation,
  therefore hormones may not be the cause of aggression, but the
  result of aggression.
• McBurnett et al. (2000) found that boys who had lower levels of cortisol in their saliva were three times more aggressive than boys with higher levels of cortisol, so cortisol does seem to play a role
  in aggressive behaviour.
• A focus just on hormones could be considered reductionist as it
  excludes the role of neurotransmitters along with genetics or brain
  functioning, so hormones on their own cannot fully explain human
  behaviour such as aggression.

Question 15

Strength of shaping

Answer 15

• There is evidence that behaviour shaping is a successful way to help young children learn appropriate behaviours
  -found that behaviour shaping was successful in supporting a child
  aged 11 years old with ADHD to concentrate on tasks

Question 16

Weakness of shaping

Answer 16

• Shaping the behaviour of having a child to comply with the desired expected behaviour could be considered ethically and morally unacceptable
• as it is only a manipulation of surface
  behaviour, attempting to control his actions which could be considered a form of social control

Question 17

Learning theories - AO1

Answer 17

• Classical conditioning suggests a phobia is acquired through the
  pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
• The unconditioned response becomes associated with the neutral
  stimulus, resulting in a conditioned response each time the
  conditioned stimulus is presented.
• Negative reinforcement maintains a phobia when a behaviour or
  action results in the removal of an undesired consequence.
• When a desired consequence is received for a behaviour or action,
  the behaviour is reinforced positively, so the phobic response is
  maintained

Question 18

Define superordinate goals

Answer 18

goals that can only be achieved by
competing groups acting cooperatively

Question 19

2 strengths of realistic conflict theory

Answer 19

• used to help reduce prejudice in the real world by introducing cooperation between rival groups by forcing the two rival groups who are competing over a scarce resource to work together on a task to minimise conflict between them
• Sherif et al supports the theory as the
  hostility between the boys increased when they competed which was shown as the out-group friends was 7% after competing at games such as tug of war and baseball so the theory has credibility

Question 20

why may personality lead to discrimination

Answer 20

• authoritarian personality as she discriminates people due to their unusual traits
• this can also be seen in her prejudicial attitude as they believe people are inferior to them

Question 21

give a situational factor for discrimination

Answer 21

• people may see someone different from themselves because of unique qualities and deem them to be part of the ‘outgroup’
• so they discriminate against them to boost their group status

Question 22

explain strengths of social impact theory

Answer 22

• Milgram’s variation experiment 7 showed that when immediacy is reduced the obedience level of the individual decreases so the theory has credibility
• because the participants who went to the
  450V shock decreased from 65% when the experimenter was in the room to 22.5% when they gave the instructions over the
  telephone

Question 23

explain weakness of social impact theory

Answer 23

• Alternative theories can equally explain obedience of individuals,e.g French and Raven (1959) so the theory is not a complete explanation of obedience
• reward power could explain
  why someone would follow a command from an authority figure to
  receive incentives and perhaps not due to status, immediacy or
  number of social sources