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Principles of BLOA
-Biological correlates of behaviour
-Animal research can provide insight into human behaviour
-Human behaviour is, to some extent, genetically based
Newcomer et al. (1999)
-Biological correlates of behaviour; effect of hormones on human behaviour
-A: role of stress hormone cortisol on verbal memory.
-P: self-selected sample (through advertisement). 51 normal healthy people aged 18-30.
-M: for four days: g1 (high dose) tablets with 160mg cortisol; g2 (low dose) 40mg cortisol; g3 (control) placebo tablets. Participants listened to prose paragraph and recalled it as test of verbal memory.
-R: g1 showed worst performance on memory test compared to g2 and g3. g2 showed no memory decrease.
-C: increase in cortisol over a period has a negative effect on memory.
-E: cause and effect relationship possible. Ethical issues were observed with informed consent. Negative effect of taking high dose of cortisol was reversible; thus, no harm.
Rosenzweig and Bennet (1972)
-Animal research provides insight into human behaviour; effect of the environment on physiological processes
-A: environmental factors affect development of neurone in the cerebral cortex
-M: rats placed in either enriched (EC) or impoverished (IC) environment. EC: 12-12 rats in a cage with stimuli, maze training. IC: each rat in individual cage (no estimation + isolation). Rats spent 30-60 days in environment before killed to study changes in brain anatomy.
-R: anatomy was different for EC and IC. Brains go EC had increased thickness and higher with of the cortex. EC rats had developed more acetylcholine receptor in the cerebral cortex.
-E: lab experiment so cause-effect good. Animal used so generalisation? Assuming brain plasticity develops in same pattern in animals and humans-implications are human brain affected same way as rats. Ethical issues in use of animals in research, justified because findings were very revealing.
Bouchard et al. (1990)
-Human behaviour is genetically based; influence of genetics on behaviour
-Study used self-selected sample of MZ twins who had been reared together (MZT) and MZ twins who had been reared apart (MZA) to investigate concordance rates for a number of variables such as IQ.
-Results for IQ concordance rate was 69% for MZA and 88% for MZT
-Researcher concluded that environmental factor do play a role in development of intelligence but to large extent inherited- 70% of variation attributed to genetic variation. This does not indicate that IQ cannot be influenced by environmental factors.
-E: correlational data (no cause-effect established); concordance rates were high but far from 100%-difficult to determine relative influence of genes;calculation of concordance rates not always reliable. No control for environmental variables. Difficult to generalise finding from self-selected sample.
Case study of HM
-localization of function in the brain; use of technology in investigating cognitive processes
-HM suffered from epileptic seizures since 7 after bike accident. When 27, neurosurgeon Scoville performed experimental surfer to stop seizures: tissue removed from medial temporal lobe (including hippocampus)
-After surgery, amnesia. Not create new episodic and semantic memories but able to learn procedures. Personality unchanged and no general intellectual impairment.
-Shows importance go hippocampus in memory processing and in storage of new memories.
-No generalisation possible from case study. Arguably unethical because HM could not remember all the times he participated in research but justified because findings important.
Berridge and Kringelbach (2009)
-effects of neurotransmission on human behaviour
Dopamine.
fMRI used to study brain areas involved in subjective experience of pleasure. Researchers concluded that: dopamine and nucleus accumbens is involved in pleasure seeking. This explains addictive behaviour (nicotine addiction leads to craving). Orbitofrontal cortex and natural opiods (endorphins) are linked to subjective experience of pleasure.
Martinez and Kesner (1991)
-effects of neurotransmission on human behaviour
Acetylcholine
-A: investigate the role of ACh in memory formation
-M: experimental study using rats. Trained to run a maze: g1-injection with scopolamine (reduces ACh); g2- injection with physostigmine (increases ACh); g3- control group.
-R: g1 had problems finding their way through the maze and made more mistakes; g2 ran quickly through the maze making few mistakes and quicker than control.
-E: study shows ACh is important in memory since rats showed different memory capacity depending on its level. Controlled lab experiment, thus, cause-effect relationship was established.
Baugmartner et al. (2008)
-function of hormones on human behaviour; use of fMRI; evolutionary explanation of behaviour
-A: to investigate the role of oxytocin after breaches of trust in a trust game
-M: participants played trust game used to study social interaction. Investor receives a sum of money and must decide whether to keep it or share it with a trustee. If shared, tripled. Trustee decided if sum is shared (trust) or kept (violation of trust). fMRI on 49 participant who received either oxytocin or placebo via nasal spray. 50% of games trust was broken. Feedback was given during games.
-R: participants in placebo group were likely to show less trust after feedback on betrayal. Invested less. Participants in oxytocin group continued to invest at similar rates even after feedback on betrayal. fMRI showed decrease in responses in amygdala, involved in emotional processing.
-E: oxytocin-restore trust and forgive in long term relationships. lack of ecological validity.
Bremner et al. (2003)
-effect of environment on physiological processes; use of MRI
-A: measure volume of hippocampus based on theory that prolonged stress reduces it due to increased cortisol levels
-P: participants had MRI scans and completed memory test. They were veterans and female adults who had experienced early childhood sexual abuse (some PTSD).
-R: deficits in short term memory. Hippocampus smaller in PTSD patients. Clear correlation between number of years of abuse as measured by trauma test, memory problems and hippocampus volume. Other psychological disorders also role in observed changes.
-E: sample very small for generalisation to be possible. Correlation of study has been replicated many time, but there could be other explanations.
Davidson et al. (2004)
-interaction between cognition and physiology; use of technology in investigating cognitive processes
-A: investigating if meditation can change brain activity
-8 monks who experienced in meditation and control group of 10 student who had one week of training in meditation. Cognitive processes produce electrical activity when neurone fire. Use of EEG
-Participants ask to meditate in love and compassion. Students first focusing on one person, then find objective feeling of compassion.
-EEG of monks showed greater activation and better organisation and coordination of gamma waves. Positive correlation between hours of meditation and level of gamma waves.
-E: attention and affective processes are skills that can be trained. however, not clear whether differences in gamma waves due to individual differences before experiment.
-Follow-up Vestergaar-Poulsen et al. (2009)
Fessler et al. (2005)
-evolutionary explanation of behaviour
-A: investigate disgust sensitivity in the first trimester of pregnancy.
-P: web-based survey completed by 691 women. Mean age 28.1
-M: indication of level of nausea using 16point scale and answer to question to test their disgust sensitivity in with different areas.
-R: Disgust higher in women in first trimester. also higher towards food (explanation: food-borne diseases are particularly dangerous to women in the first trimester thus natural selection and women develop disgust)
-E: Self-reporting data may not be reliable. Findings supported by other studies (Curtiss et al. 2004).
Caspi et al. (2003)
-ethical considerations in genetic research; genetics influence behaviour
-5-HTT gene in depression after experiences of stressful events
-some participants with long allele (non-mutation) also became depressed
-some correlation between short allele and depression but no cause-effect relation possible
-much evidence needed before clear relationship between gene and behavioural trait can be established.
-E: what to do with knowledge from genetic research? Being genetically predisposed (having the mutation) does not mean they develop depression, but telling them might trigger it
Principles of CLOA
-Human beings are information processors and mental processes guide behaviour
-The mind can be studied scientifically
-Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors
Principles of SCLOA
-Human beings are social animals with a basic need to belong
-Culture influences human behaviour
-Humans have a social self which reflects their group memberships
Darley and Gross (1983)
-Schema theory: Human beings are information processors and mental processes guide behaviour
-Lab experiment- participants saw two videos of a girl. Video 1, girl playing in poor environment. Video 2, girl playing in rich environment. Then video 3, girl taking test.
-Participants to judge future of girls- all said that rich girl would do well and poor girl less well.
-Study demonstrates participants probably used pre-stored schemas of what it means to be poor and rich and interpreted ambiguous information accordingly
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
-The mind can be studied scientifically; reliability of memory
-Reconstruction of automobile destruction (the first experiment)
-A: wording in question affects speed estimate
-M: participants (university students) saw traffic clip. They were then asked to estimate the speed of the cars (verb in question changed: smash, hit, collide, bump or contact)
-R: average speed estimates varied with the verb, depending on the intensity it expressed. One explanation could be that the use of different words influenced participants' mental representation of the accident (reconstructive memory)
-E: lack of ecological validity. Only students used.
Barlett (1932)
-Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors; schema theory; social-cultural factors affecting memory; reliability of memory; emic concepts
-A: investigate whether people's memory for a story is affected by previous knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory is reconstructive
-M: Barlett asked British participants to hear an unfamiliar Native American legend called "The War of Ghosts". They'd to reproduce it after a short time and then repeatedly over a period of months or years (serial reproduction)
-R: participants remembered main idea of the story but they changed unfamiliar elements to make sense of the story by using more familiar terms to their own cultural expectations. Barlett concluded that remembering is an active process: memories are not copies of experience but rather "reconstructions"
-E: results confirm schema theory but lab experiment (lack of ecological validity).
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
-models of memory:
-Sensory memory
-Short-term memory (STM)
-Long-term memory (LTM)
-Evidence: case study of HM. Amnesia caused by damage to hippocampus and related networks involved in storage of new memories. MRI scans show HM had severe damage to hippocampus (critical in LTM storage). HM could store new procedural memories but not explicit memories. Thus, memory system contains different systems.
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
-models of memory:
-Central executive
-Episodic buffer
-Phonological loop
-Visuo-spatial sketchpad
-Evidence: they asked participants to answer increasingly difficult questions about simple letter combinations that were shown at the same time. Reaction time increased as questions more difficult. Then asked to to articulatory suppression tasks (repeat number random or in order or "the" all the time) while answering. No difference between groups that did "the" and numbers in order. Group that had to do random numbers-worst performance (interpreted as overload for central executive)
Cole and Scribner (1974)
-socio-cultural factors affecting memory
-A: investigate free recall in two different cultures (USA and Kpelle in Liberia)
-M: each culture was given a list of words that they had to remember. Researcher presented to words to the participants and asked them to remember as many of them as possible in order. In a second experiment, same list of words but as a meaningful part of a story.
-R: In first part, non-schooled participants hardly improved their performance after the age of 9 (they remembered around 10 items of the first trial and approx two more after 15 practice trials. Liberian school children performed as school children of same age in USA using similar memory strategies. In second part, non-schooled Liberian participants recalled objects well because they grouped them according to roles they played in the story. Schooled children used categories to help them remember this shows cultural differences in cognitive processes such as categorisation and memory.
-E: not clear whether relationship established is between schooled and non-schooled children or cultural differences or both. Thus, difficult to establish cause-effect relationship because cause not clear.
Speisman et al. (1964)
-cognitive and biological factors in emotion
-A: manipulation of cognitive appraisal influences emotional experience
-M: in this lab experiment participants saw anxiety-evoking films with three different soundtracks intended to manipulate emotional reactions. "trauma group" soundtrack with emphasis on pain. "intellectualisation condition" soundtrack that gave anthropological interpretation of the initiation ceremony. "denial condition" showed adolescents as being willing and happy in the ceremony. During viewing, physiological measures were taken (heart rate,etc)
-R: participants in trauma condition showed higher physiological measures of stress. Results support appraisal theory in that the manipulation of the participants' cognitive appraisal did have a significant impact on physiological stress reactions. Participants in trauma condition reacted more emotionally.
-E: lab experiment so lack ecological validity, but research on role of appraisal in real-life emotional events tends to find the same relationship as lab research. Study also illustrates LeDoux's theory of two pathways in emotional processing.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
-emotion affecting memory
-A: investigate whether shocking events are recalled more vividly and accurately than other events
-M: questionnaires asked 80 participants to recall circumstances where they had learned of shocking events
-R: participants had vivid memories of where they were, what they did and what they felt when shocking public event. Also, flashbulb memories of shocking personal events such as sudden death of relative. Flashbulb is more likely for unexpected and personally relevant events. Suggestion of flashbulb memory happening due to physiological emotional arousal.
-E: self-reporting reliability? Research indicates that although a flashbulb memory is emotionally vivid is not necessarily accurate. Photographic model of flashbulb memory is challenged.
Neisser and Harsch (1992)
-emotion affecting memory; reliability of memory
-A: test theory of flashbulb memory by investigation extent to which memory for shocking eve would be accurate after a period of time
-M: 106 students- questionnaire and asked to write description of how they heard new of Challenger disaster (where, when, what doing and felt). They answered questions less than 24 hours after disaster. Two and a half years later, 44 participants answered same questions and asked to rate 1-5 accuracy of their memory and asked if they'd filled the questionnaire before. Sometime after-semi-structured interviews to test if participants could remembered what they'd written before, they then saw their original questionnaires.
-R: 11/44 remembered doing questionnaire before. Major discrepancies between original questionnaire and follow-up (2.95/7 mean score of correctness. For 11 participants score was 0, and 22 scored 2 or less) Mean level of accuracy self-reported 4.17/5. This challenges flashbulb memory theory and reliability of memory in general.
-E: high ecological validity, but nor representative sample (only psychology students). Degree of emotional arousal when witnessing a shocking public event may be different from experiencing traumatic event in personal life (importance of events differ) --> Influence on how well people remember.
Howarth (2002)
-human beings are social animals with a basic need to belong
-performed focus-group interviews with teenage girls in Brixton to study how girls evaluated themselves. They had positive view of "being from Brixton" vs. not. Example of creating positive social identity based on group belonging.
Berry (1967)
-culture influences human behaviour; etic concepts; cultural norms as a factor in conformity
-conformity related to culture using variation of Asch's experiment. Two different cultures: Temne of Sierra Leone (agriculture) and Inuits from Baffin Islands in Canada (hunting and fishing). Temne have to cooperate for successful crops to feed community so they learn compliance and conformity from early age. Inuits on their own for food so children learn independence. This explains why Inuits score low on conformity.
Tajfel et al. (1971)
-Humans have a social self which reflects their group memberships; social identity theory
-A: if boys placed in random groups based on arbitrary task would display ingroup favouritism and intergroup discrimination.
-M: 64 UK 15yrs boys. Knew each other well bef exp. In groups of 8. Boys allocated to groups randomly by over/under estimator when counting dots. They then had to allocate sums of money to other boys in the experiment only knowing their group membership.
2nd experiment: boys randomly allocated by art prefs then award money to other boys.
-R: majority gave money to ingroup than outgroup.
2nd: boys tried to maximize difference between the two groups.
-E: artificiality and demand characteristics. Boys may have interpreted the task as competitive game reacting as they did.
Simmel (1944)
-attribution theory
-experiment where showed moving geometric figures to participants and asked them to describe movements of figure: "as if geometric figures had intentions to act the way they did"
Evans-Pritchard (1976)
-attribution theory
-described Azande people of central Africa believed it was witchcraft that killed people when granary doorway collapsed. Door had been eaten through by termites but Azande believed it was fate that those were sitting there when door collapsed.
Ross et al (1977)
-Fundamental attribution error
-A: whether knowledge of allocated social roles in a quiz show would affect participants judgements of peoples expertise
-M: 18pairs of students US uni in simulated quiz game where randomly assigned to roles of either questiner or contestant. 24 observers. After quiz participants and observers asked to rate general knowledge of contestant and questioners.
-R: contestants and observers consistently rated general knowledge of questioners as superior. Example of FAE.
-E: sampling bias (only uni students) difficult to generalise. Ecological validity?
Lau snd Russel (1980)
-self-serving bias
-found that American football coaches and players were more likely to attribute success to dispositional factors and failure to situational factors.
Katz and Braley (1933)
-stereotype formation
-A:whether traditional social stereotypes had a cultural basis
-M: asked 100males from Princeton to choose 5 traits that characterized different ethnic groups from a list of 84words.
-R: they were positive towards their own group. Participants had no contact with ethnic groups they had to rate it was suggested that stereotypes are learned (media or gatekeepers)
- experiment replicates in 1951 (still ingroup bias-specially bad towards Japanese after bad press after Pearl Harbour) and in 1969.
Bandura el at. (1961)
-social learning theory
-A: if children would imitate aggression of adult model and whether they would imitate same-sex models more than opposite sex models
-P: 36 boys and 36 girls US nursery school (4.4yrs) divided into three groups by initial levels of aggressiveness. G1- adult model aggressive towards bobo doll. G2- model assemble toys. G3- control. Then, division so that some saw samesex and oppsex models. After this children brought into room where told not to play with toys to frustrate. Then taken to diff room with toys and bobo doll where observed for 20min through one-way mirror
-R: children w/aggressive model were more aggressive towards bobo doll-imitated model but also showed other forms of aggression. Children more likely to imitate samesex models. Boys more aggressive than girls.
-E: low ecological validity. Serious ethical concerns
Charlton et al. (2002)
-social identity theory
-A: whether children in St. Helena would exhibit more aggressive behaviour after introduction of TV in 1995.
-P: natural experiment. Children (3-8) observed before and after introduction of TV through cameras set up in playgrounds in 2 schools. Level of aggression in TV matched what UK children were exposed to. Also, interviews with teachers, parentsand older children.
-R: no increase in aggressive or antisocial behaviour even after 5yrs.
-E: high ecological validity. Results confirm that motivation is key for Social Learning Theory to happen
Regan (1971)
-compliance techniques
-A: whether participants who had received a favour from another would be more likely to help this person than if they had not received a favour.
-M: one participate and a confederate of the experimenter were asked to rate paintings. In the experimental condition the confederate left the experiment and returned after a few minutes with two bottles of coke. In control condition, only coke for himself. Confederate then told participant he was selling raffle tickets and even small amount would help. Participants also asked to rate "liking of confederate"
-R: participants in experimental condition bought twice as manu tickets than control, who had not received a favor first.
In control condition, more like, more tickets In experimental, liking did not affect the number of tickets bought -this shows powerful influence of the rule of reciprocity.
-E: lab experiment, high degree of control: cause-effect between receiving and returning favor, which supports reciprocity. Issues with artificiality and sample bias (generalization limited). Findings supported by observations in real life.
Dickerson et al. (1992)
-compliance techniques
-field experiment where uni students were asked to conserve water in dormitory showers.
-First ask group of students to sign a poster supporting shorter showers. Then asked to do a survey.
-Shower time was monitored and students who did poster and survey spent 3.5min less in shower compared to rest of students.
Asch (1951)
-conformity and situational factors in conformity
-A: whether perceived group pressure by a majority can influence a minority in an experimental setup that is not ambiguous.
-M: 7 male college students were placed around two white cards. One card had three lines (A,B,C), the other just one. They had to say out loud which of the three lines had same length as the other one. There was real participant in the experimental setup and six were confederates who were introduced to give unanimous wrong answers. This was dome during 12/18 trials. Control group of 37 participants made the estimates for comparison.
-R: in control group 35 participants did not make a single error (0.7% erros were made).
Experimental group: group size with two participants errors rose 13.6% (compared to one confederate only). W/ three confederates- 31.8%. Further increase, no change. Group unanimity: presence of supporter reduced errors from 35% to 5.5%.
-E: lack of ecological validity, ethical issues raised by embarrasing participants, results have been replicated so reliable, only males and US so generalization is difficult
Wei et al. (2001)
-collectivism vs individualism: cultural dimensions on behaviour
-A: dimension of individualism vs collectivism influenced conflict resolution styles.
-M: 600 managers in Singapore randomly selected. Participants were divided in 4 groups: Japanese, Americans, Chinese, Singaporean working in multinationals amd Chinese and Singaporean working in local companies. Questionnaires and correlational analysis were used to find relationships between scores on cultural dimension and conflict resolution style.
-R: higher score in individualist dimension-more likely manager adopts dominating conflict resolution style(American managers).
-E: study relies on self-reports so issue of reliability of data but overall results are reliable
Basset (2004)
-long vs short-term orientation: cultural dimensions of behavior
-A: differences in Chinese and Australian students perception of conflict resolution in relation to collectivistic vs individualistic dimension and long vs short term orientation.
-M: qualitative cross-cultural study. Bacherlor students of bussiness ans management. Asked "discuss how this conflict might be resolved in China/Australia" (conflict between Japanese supervisor and Canadian visiting assistant teacher).
-R: chinese importance of long vs short-term orientation dimension