Psychology Unit 1 Flashcards
What is repeated measures?
There is only one group of participants which takes part in both conditions of the experiment
What is randomisation?
Using chance to produce an order for a procedure
What are standardised procedures?
A set order of carrying out a study that is applied to all participants when necessary
What is matched pairs?
The available people are tested and matched for qualities into pairs
One member of each pair takes part in one condition of the experiment and the other member of each pair takes part in the other condition
What are the 4 sampling methods?
Random
Opportunity
Systematic
Stratified
What is random allocation?
A procedure for putting participants into conditions by chance
What are participant variables?
The differences between people taking part in a study
This affects experiments using the independent groups design mostly
What is counterbalancing?
A procedure for evening out the order in which participants complete both conditions of an experiment
What is opportunity sampling?
The most available people for the investigation are chosen
What is stratified sampling?
The different subgroups of the target population are identified
People are then randomly selected from these subgroups in proportion to their numbers in the target population
What is the order effect?
This occurs when a participant’s performance in the second condition of an experiment is affected because they have already done the first condition
What is systematic sampling?
Every “nth” member of the target population is selected for the sample
What is ecological validity?
How much the results of the investigation can be said to apply to real life situations
What is independent groups?
The available people for the experiment are divided into 2 groups
One group takes part in one condition of the experiment and the other group takes part in the remaining condition
What is random sampling?
Every member of the target population is numbered and numbers (participants) are randomly picked until the desired sample size is reached
What is a representative sample?
The sample is made up of people who have the same characteristics and abilities as the target population
What is the order of instructions in a study?
Briefing (encourage a person to participate, the right to withdraw and confidentiality is explained)
Standardised instructions (the actual instructions for what the participant actually has to do)
Debriefing (describes aim, method, how the people participate and the ethical considerations are addressed again)
What is an extraneous variable?
A variable that is not the IV but might affect the DV if it is not controlled
What is communication?
Passing information from one person to another
Evaluate the posture study
Subjects did not know they were being filmed and recorded which is an ethical issue
Has ecological validity because they thought it was a real world conversation
What is the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication?
Verbal uses words and vocal sounds
Non-verbal is conveying messages in ways that don’t require words (often unconcious)
Give a study about personal space
Willis (1966)
To see if age has an effect on personal space
Willis observed almost 800 individals in one-to-one conversations
People of the same age stood closer together than those of different age
Age difference affects how close people stand to one another
What is posture?
The positioning of the body which is often regarded as a non-verbal communication signal
Evaluate the touch study
Participants were female so the results can’t be generalises to males
Could be an ethical issue to touch the students without their consent
What is gesture?
The conveying of information through deliberate or unconcious movement of parts of the body
Evaluate the paralinguistics study
Lacks ecological validity since we don’t only listen to speech, we see the people too
The tape recording could have the speech unclear meaning that the paralinguistics might be heard differently
Evaluate the personal space study
Has ecological validity because he observed real world situations
The results are subjective so he might unconciously change the results to suit his hypothesis
What is postural echo?
Mirroring another person’s body position
Give a study about paralinguistics
Davitz & Davitz (1961)
To see the effect of paralinguistics on the assessment of emotion
Participants were asked to listen to tape recordings and assess the speakers’ emotions from the paralinguistic cues: tone of voice, intonation and emphasis
There was a very high level of accuracy in recognising these emotions: affection, amusement, disgust and fear
Paralinguistics has a great importance when judging emotion
What is the difference between what open and closed posture convey?
Open posture suggests that you are happy to hear someone’s ideas and agree with them
Closed posture suggests that you aren’t happy about what someone is saying
Give a study about the hemispheres of the brain
Sackeim (1978)
To look at the relationship between facial expressions and the brain’s hemispheres
Pictures of people’s faces showing different emotions were cut down the middle, new pictures were created with each half face and its mirror image, then each pair of new faces was shown to participants, they were asked which picture they liked better
The majority of participants said they preferred the picture of the left half face and its reflection, they said it looked warmer
The left side of the face seems to express emotion must more than the right side
What is emphasis?
Giving some words more prominence than others
What is pupil dilation?
When the pupils expand to look large
What is personal space?
The distance that we keep between ourselves and other people in everyday life
What is the difference between tone of voice and intonation?
Intonation is inflection in the voice when speaking
Tone of voice is the way words are spoken to convey emotion
Give a study about touch
Fisher et al. (1976)
To see the effect of touch on people’s attitudes
Female students in a library were handed books by the librarian who was a confederate of the experimenter, half of the students were touched on the hand when handed books, the others weren’t
When questioned later, the student who were touched liked the library and librarian more than those who weren’t, they weren’t aware that they were touched
Touch will have an unconcious and positive effect on attitudes
What is paralinguistics?
Vocal features that accompany speech
What is touch?
The conveying of information through physical contact
Evaluate the eyes study
They could have not seen any difference and guessed
Lacks ecological validity because we usually get a view of someone’s entire face instead of just their eyes
Give a study about eyes
Hess (1963)
To see the effect of pupil dilation on emotion
Participants were shown 2 nearly identical pictures of the same girl and asked which picture was more attractive, one picture had dilated pupils and one didn’t
They said the picture with the dilation was more attractive but didn’t know why
Pupil dilation has an unconcious but powerful effect on emotion
What is eye contact?
When 2 people in conversation are looking at each other’s eyes at the same time
Give a study about posture
McGinley (1975)
To see the effect of postural echo when having a conversation
A confederate approached individuals in a social settings, in half of the conversations, postural echo was used, in the other half, it wasn’t used, the experimenter asked them afterwards what they thought of the confederate
Postural echo causes people to like the confederate more than when it wasn’t used
Postural echo gives an unconcious message of friendliness
Evaluate the hemispheres of the brain study
The participants can easily see that the pictures are mirrored, this may not apply to real faces
Photos do not convey micro-expressions that could be showing emotion, we are not made to read photos
What is temperament?
The genetic component of personality
Evaluate the causes of APD study
Results might not relate to women because only men were used
The study assumes that there is no experience-related causes of APD
What are socioeconomic factors?
Social and financial issues that affect individuals
What did Kagan and Snidman do?
To see if temperament is due to biological differences
They studied the reactions of 4 month old babies to new situations, the baby was placed next to the caregiver for the first minute but for the next 3 minutes, the caregiver moved out of view and the researcher showed the baby toys
20% were distressed and called high reactive, 40% were calm and called low reactive, the rest were somewhere in between
They concluded that these are inherited differences in the way the brain responds
What is the prefrontal cortex?
The very front of brain which is controlling strong emotions
Give a study into situational causes of APD
Elander (2000)
To investigate the childhood risk factors that can be used to predict APD in childhood
Researchers investigated 225 twins who were diagnosed with childhood disorders and interviewed them 10 - 25 years later
Childhood hyperactivity, conduct disorders, low IQ and reading problems were strong predictors of APD and criminality in later life
Disruptive behaviour in childhood can be used to predict APD in adulthood
What is the amygdala?
The part of the brain involved in emotion
Evaluate the personality differences study
Answers could be based on their current moods
He didn’t consider the fact that personality is affected by experience as well as genetics
What is psychoticism?
A dimension measured by Eyesenck to describe people who are are hostile, aggressive and insensitive
What did Thomas, Chess and Birch do?
To discover whether ways of responding to an enviroment remain stable throughout life
They studied 133 studied from infancy to adulthood, their behaviour was observed and the parents were interviewed about the child’s reactions to change
The children fell into 3 categories which were “easy”, “difficult” and “slow to warm up” in their reactions to change and these traits stayed throughout their lives
Temperament must be innate
What is a longitudinal study?
A study carried out over time to show how behaviour changes over time
What is type theory?
The theory that suggests that personality types are inherited
Evaluate the situational causes of APD study
The study looked at twins so their behaviour could be based on genetics and not experience
They were asked to describe experiences from childhood which they could have remembered wrongly
What is the difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins?
Monozygotic twins have an identical genotype
Dizygotic twins are non-identical
What did Buss and Plomin do?
To test the idea that temperanent is genetic
They studied 228 pairs of monozygotic twins and 172 pairs of dizygotic twins and rated the temperaments at the age of 5, they looked at 3 dimensions
which were “emotionality” (strength of emotional response), “activity” (how energetic) and “sociability” (how much wanted to be with others)
There was a close correlation between the monozygotic twins than the dizygotic twins
Temperament has a genetic basis
What is neuroticism?
A personality type that describes people who are highly emotional and sensitive
What are personality scales?
Ways of measuring personality with yes / no questions
Evaluate the Kagan and Snidman study
It was a large sample so you can generalise the results
Lacks ecological validity because it was an experimental setting
What is personality?
The thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make an individual unique
Give a study into personality differences
Eysenck (1947)
To investigate personality differences between people
700 servicemen completed a questionaire, Eysenck analysed the results using a technique called factor analysis
He identified 2 dimensions of personality: extraversion - introversion and neuroticism - stability
Everyone can be placed on this scale, most lie in the centre of the scale
Evaluate the Buss and Plomin study
Monozygotic twins are treated in very similar ways so the similarities could come from this
Research carried out on twins can’t be generalised to everyone else
Give a study into the causes of APD
Raine (2000)
To support the theory that abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex cause APD
MRI was used to study 21 men with APD and a control group of 34 healthy men, they were all volunteers
The APD group had an 11% reduction in the prefrontal cortex compared with the control group
APD is caused by a reduction in the prefrontal cortex
What is the difference between an introvert and an extrovert?
Extroverts look to other people for entertainment
Introverts are content with their own company and have a small group of very close friends
Why are monozygotic twins useful to psychologists?
They show how differences in background can affect personality
Evaluate the Thomas, Chess and Birch study
The children lived in New York so we can’t generalise the results
The parents could give answers that show the children in the best possible way
What is reconstructive memory theory?
Memory will change over time so that the person can understand aspects of the memory better
What is retrograde amnesia?
When a portion of the long-term (cortex) is damaged meaning you lose some old memories
Give a study about reconstructive memory theory
Bartlett (1932)
To see if people, when given something unfamiliar to remember, would alter the information
They were asked to read a native American legend, later they were asked to retell the story, they did this several times in the next week
They didn’t understand parts of story with spirits so they unconciously changed the story over time so that it made sense
Memory reconstructs so that it makes sense to us and follows our beliefs
Evaluate the multi-store theory study
They could have concentrated at the beginning and got bored in the middle
This study assumes the multi-store theory is true
Give a study about interference
Underwood & Postman (1960)
To see if new information interferes with old information
Subjects divided into 2 groups, group A had to had to learn a list of word pairs and then another list of word pairs, group B only had to remember the first list of word pairs
Group B’s recall of the first list was better than group A
New information will cause people to recall previously learned information less accurately
Give a study about multi-store theory
Murdock (1962)
To provide evidence to support multi-store theory
Participants had to learn a list of words, one displayed every 2 seconds one at a time and then recall them in any order
The words at the end were recalled first because they were still in the short-term store (recency effect) and words at the start were remembered next because they had shifted into the long-term store (primacy effect)
The primacy and recency effects provide evidence for seperate short-term and long-term stores
Evaluate the context study
Underwater scenery could distract the divers when they were remembering information
Lacks ecological validity because people don’t usually memorise information underwater
What is anterograde amnesia?
Memories cannot shift into the long-term store
What is multi-store theory?
Sensory memory (few seconds)
Short-term memory (few minutes)
Long-term memory (years)
What is the difference between implications and applications?
Implications are what the theories suggest we could do
Applications are how theories are used in the real world
What is proactive interference?
Old memories interfere with new memories
What is the levels of processing theory?
Structural processing (way it looks) Phonetic processing (way it sounds) Semantic processing (understanding it) The higher the level of processing, the more likely it is that you will remember it
Evaluate the leading questions study
It was a film so it is hard to work out how fast it was going
People aren’t to measuring speeds so it could have been a guess
What happened to HM?
He had his hippocampus removed to get rid of his seizures but he got anterograde amnesia because he encode memories from short-term into long-term
Give a study about levels of processing
Craik & Lockhart (1972)
To see if the type of question asked about words will have an effect on the number of words recalled
Subjects were presented with a list of words one at a time and were asked questions about them, some required structural, phonetic and some semantic, they were then given a longer list of words and asked to identify the ones they had questions on
They identified 70% semantics, 35% phonetics and 15% structurals
The more deeply information is processed, the more likely it is to be remembered
Evaluate the levels of processing study
The semantic questions could have been more complicated so they would have think for longer
The study assumes the levels of processing theory is true
Give a study about leading questions
Loftus & Palmer (1974)
To see if leading questions affect the accuracy of recall
Shown a film of a car crash, split into 2 groups, afterwards, group A were asked “how fast was car going when it hit the other car” and group B were asked the same but with “smashed” instead of “hit”
Group A gave lower speeds than group B
Leading question will reduce the accuracy of recall and bend the memory towards what the leading question suggests
What is the recency effect?
When items at the end of the list are remembered well because they are still in the short-term
Evaluate the interference study
Lacks ecological validity because we don’t usually remember such similar lists
Simply having to remember more information could cause group A to forget everything, not just the first list
What is a cognitive interview?
An interview that uses a recreation of the context where something happened to help them remember
Evaluate the reconstruction study
They could have forgotten parts of the story and made it up
The evidence definitely shows people changing their memory of the story
What is retroactive interference?
New memories interfere with old memories
How does data shift from the short-term to the long-term memory?
Rehearsal
What is the primacy effect?
Items at the start of a list are rehearsed the most so they shift to the long-term and are more likely to be remembered
What is a leading question?
A question that suggests an answer
Give a study about context
Godden & Baddeley (1975)
To see if people who learn and are tested in the same context recall more information than those who learn and are tested in different contexts
Split into 4 groups, group A had to learn and recall underwater, group B learned underwater and recalled on the shore, group C had to learn and recall on the shore, group D learned on the shore and recalled underwater
Groups 1 and 3 remembered 40% more words than groups 2 and 4
Recall of information will be better if it happens in the context of where it was learned
How are memories stored and retrieved?
Encoding (can be stored)
Storage (stored memory)
Retrieval (decoding memory so we can understand it)
Evaluate the study about authoritarian personality
It doesn’t explain why some people are prejudiced more than others
Done in America, can’t be generalised
Give a study about helping strangers
Levine (2002)
More likely to help strangers if there are things in common
Confederate fell over in front of United fans, half with United shirt, half with Liverpool shirt
United shirt, helped to feet but Liverpool shirt, wasn’t
More likely to help in-group members than out-group people
What is discrimination?
Treating different groups of people unequally which is usually due to prejudice
Evaluate the study about prejudice in young children
They took a large sample size so results can be generalised
If children had foreign relatives, they would have more positive views to that nationality
Evaluate the out-group discrimination study
14-15 year old boys used, can’t generalise
Groups were artificially created so there is low ecological validity
What is a stereotype?
A generalised set of ideas we have about a group of people
What is authoritarian personality?
Personality type where the person is prone to holding prejudiced views
Evaluate the stereotyping study
Assumptions could be based on appearance of baby
Could be lying to make baby seem like it is acting as it should
What is prejudice?
Sets of rules we assume people from certain groups are like
Give a study about stereotyping
Rubin et al.
To find out if new parents stereotype their babies
Parents asked to describe within 24 hours of birth
Boys described alert and strong and girls described soft and delicate
Parents stereotype babies from early age even though no stereotypical behaviour is shown
Evaluate the helping strangers study
Can’t generalise to other groups of people
With football fans, strong rivalry, other situations more friendly, more likely to help
Give a study about competition and prejudice
Sherif (1961)
To find out if prejudice develops between groups competing for scarce resources
22 boys, 2 groups, groups not aware of each other, time to create group identity, 2 groups discovered, competition for silver cup
Began unpleasant name-calling and tried to attack each other
Competition is a cause of prejudice
Evaluate the study about prejudice and competition
Groups and competitions artificial, don’t necessarily reflect real life
Boys were American, can’t be generalised
Give a study about prejudice in young children
Barrett & Short (1992)
To look at the development of prejudice in young children
Researchers interviewed 216 English children aged 5 to 10 on their opinions of people from different European countries
More positive views to French and less positive to German
At a young age, children already hold prejudiced views to other nationalities
What is the F-Scale?
Questionnaire used by Adorno to measure personality characteristics
Give a study about discrimination against out-groups
Tajfel (1970)
To show how easily people discriminate against out-groups
14-15 year old boys were randomly assigned to 2 groups, each had to award points to any of the other boys, points would become prizes at end
They made the biggest difference between the groups instead of giving themselves the most points
People discriminate to people just because they are in an out-group
Give a study into authoritarian personality
Adorno (1950)
To see if there is a relationship between a person’s personality type and prejudiced beliefs
Hundreds of people were tested using the F-Scale
They found a relationship between personality type and prejudiced views
People with authoritarian personality are likely to be prejudiced towards others
What is the jigsaw method?
A technique of reducing prejudice by putting mixed race groups together and assigning each person a different job so that they had to work together
Give 3 outcomes of the jigsaw method
Participants came out with higher self-esteem, increased liking of their classmates, increased liking of other racial groups in their class
What is another word for the jigsaw method?
Expert groups
What is the difference between an in-group and an out-group?
In-groups is people you have things in common with
Out-groups is people you have nothing in common with
