Section b Questions (areas and perspectives) Flashcards
What are the defining principles and concepts of the social area
How behaviour, thought processes and emotions can be explained/ affected by external influences such as the social environment or other people (more determined, reductionist and situational explanation) concepts: obedience to authority, simpatico cuiutre, diffusion of respo, arousal cost reward model, whistle blowing, conformity
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the social area
Strengths: research can help improve our understanding of human behaviour (and the extent to which it is affected by other people), research can be useful, research helps bring psych to wider audiences as seeks to explain real world events, research often high in ecological validity (makes use of field experiments) weaknesses: findings may not be true for all time as social situations change over timely findings may not be true for all places (situations change in cultures), can be difficult to stay within ethical guidelines as socially sensitive,
What is an application of the social area
Research can be used to change situation to control behaviour e.g used by teachers to use authors for obedience or by parents e.g. use cctv, wear formal clothing, have anonymous website
What are the defining principles and concepts of the cognitive area
It is the investigation of our internal mental processes such as memory, thinking and reasoning that start with an input and result in an output observable in our behaviour so behaviour is highly predictable based on identifiable patterns in thinking (thought patterns can be changed as a results of free will and outside factors) concepts :schemas, context dependent memory, reconstructive memory, inattentional blindness, cocktail party effect
What are applications the cognitive area
Cognitive therapies, eye witness testimonies, memory aids, teaching and learning, advertising of products (getting attention), campaigns to change attitudes towards mental health , recycling..
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive area
Strengths: Research can be useful (eyewitness testimony)l it favours the scientific method as uses lab experiments to investigate mental processes which allows researches to establish cause and effect between variables, mean brings academic credibility to psych. Controlled studies makes studies more reliable and so more scientific weaknesses: findings may lack eco validity as use lab experiments, cannot study cognitive processes directly, have to use inferences (self report, observations, mri). Using lab experiments may mean more demand characteristics
What are the defining principles and concepts of the developmental area
Change and development is an ongoing process which continues throughout our lifetime, behaviour may be learnt or may be innate, early experiences affect later development and development may happen in pre determined stages . Concepts:moral development, social learning theory, operate conditioning
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the developmental area
Strengths: Has many useful applications to child care, education, attempts to answer the nature nurture debate, uses a variety of qualitative and quant methods so will gain useful data, can study Ps over time to reduce p variables. Weaknesses: research with children may arise ethical issues (consent and protection), using children can highlight practical issues like making inferences from observed behaviour and can’t tell, research can be constrained by time or culture and samples are small and unrepresentative
What are applications of the developmental area
Can be useful for parents and teachers/ anyone who works with children, children’s healthcare..
What are the defining principles and concepts of the biological area
Looks at physiological causes for behaviour. Looks at the role of genetic inheritance, the study of brain and brain function, role of the nervous system, hormones and other chemicals affecting brain and behaviour, impact of environment on biology l concepts:brain plasticity, lateralisation of brain functions delay gratification
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the biological area
Strengths: learning how the brain works and how it impacts our behaviour which contributes to our understanding of normal and abnormal brain brain function. Favours the scientific method as often uses lab experiments which enables to see cause and effect and makes psych seen as a science, also uses objective measures like mri. More reliable . Weaknesses: Methods like mri have limitations as show us what is happening but rely of human interpretations, explanations of behaviour based on biology too simplistic, limitations with the way data vis gathered as use self report data which may not be valid
Applications of the biological area
Biological treatments for conditions, e.g. SSRIs, genetic screening , rehab from stroke understanding impact on brain from environment and biological differences between people
Defining principles and concepts of the individual differences area
Everyone is different and unique and our differences explain our behaviour
2. Looks at differences between us rather than taking a nomothetic approach/measure diffs using psycho tests
3. Not everyone is the ‘average person’
4. Believes a person’s behaviours are unique to them due to a combination of biological and experiential factors,
such as DNA, cognitions and development
Concepts: measuring diffs, theory of mind, native intellectual ability, understanding mental disorders
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the individual differences area
Strengths: enables psychologists to find out about a wider range of human behaviours all not just average are studies, can have great social benefit, improving our understanding of mental disorders and digesting treatments, help inform free will determinism debate. Weakness: lacks a set of defining beliefs about reasons for behaviour, some research is socially sensitive and can be put to harmful use, tools for measuring differences are not always developed
Applications of the individual differences area
Help with understanding disorders, diagnosing, treatments and any requirements they may need for deficiencies. E.g. helping autistic children to recognise emotions, develop psychometric tests to job roles
Principles and concepts of the behaviourist perspective
Believes that everyone is born tabula rasa (blank slate) and all behaviour is learnt. Uses classical and operant conditioning as well as social learning theory as examples of this. Takes the scientific approach and the importance of studying observable behaviour concepts:operant conditioning, social learning, classical conditioning
Strengths and weaknesses of the behaviourist perspective
Strength: highlights role of nurture, showing influence environment has on our behaviour (means variable that you can change). Very useful with clinical applications , has scientific credibility as looks at observable behaviour in controlled experiments. Weakness: ignores influence of nature on behaviour (genetics and biology), information can be difficult to apply (hard to control what children exposed to) and are open to inappropriate use. Can lack EV as use lab
