Giant SAQ and ERQ Study Guide for IB Psych

IB Psych - Bio, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Approach + Only Health

Biological Approach - 1

1. Explain one or more techniques used to study the brain and behavior

2. Explain localization of function

3. Explain neuroplasticity

4. Explain the formation of neural networks

5. Explain neural pruning

Draganski et al

Specific terms:

• MRI: A noninvasive technology that shows the brain shape and composition

• Localization: A concentration of specific cognitive functions in a particular part of the brain

• Neuroplasticity: Reconstruction or reorganiziation of existing neural connections

• Neurogenesis: The creation of new neural networks

• Neural pruning: The death of unused neural connections to improve efficiency

General Terms:

• Hippocampus: Part of the medial temporal lobe, responsible for converting STM to LTM and explicit (declarative) memories

• Basal Ganglia: Plays a role in motor skills and explicit memories

• Cerebellum: stores procedural memories

• Explicit memory: requires conscious retrieval

• Implicit memory: memories extracted through unconscious thought

  • Procedural memory: “muscle memory”

Aim: To see whether learning a skill (juggling) would affect brain composition.

Methods: 24 participants (21 female, 3 male) were separated into the jugglers and non-jugglers group. Non-jugglers acted as a control group. MRI scans were done prior to the experiment. Then, jugglers were taught a 3-ball cascade trick, and were told to practice it on their own time and report back after “mastery.” After reporting back, another MRI scan was conducted. Participants in the jugglers group were asked not to practice juggling for 3 months. The third and final MRI scan was then done.

Results: The MRI scans were analyzed with VBM, which looks at grey matter in the brain. This study showed that gray matter in the mid-temporal region for jugglers was significantly larger than non-jugglers after learning the skill, and this difference was later reduced after the 3 months of abstaining from learning, indicating that neuroplasticty and neural pruning was at play.

Evaluation:

• There is low ecological validity as the experiment was lab based and was conducted in an artificial environment (MRIs)

• Not applicable to other skills, as only effects of juggling on brain was study

• Cannot be easily replicated to test with other skills however, due to the extensive time period and cost of MRI technology

• Strong internal validity because there were many variables controlled for (ensuring everyone was a non-juggler prior, getting periodic MRI scans, having a control group)

• The sample size is quite small, especially for men, so cannot be as generalizable for men as it is for women

Biological Approach - 2

1. Explain one or more techniques used to study the brain and behavior

2. Explain localization of a function

3. Explain neuroplasticity

4. Explain the formation of neural networks

5. Explain neural pruning

Maguire

Specific terms:

• MRI: A noninvasive technology that shows the brain shape and composition

• Localization: A concentration of specific cognitive functions in a particular part of the brain

• Neuroplasticity: Reconstruction or reorganiziation of existing neural connections

• Neurogenesis: The creation of new neural networks

• Neural pruning: The death of unused neural connections to improve efficiency

General Terms:

• Hippocampus: Part of the medial temporal lobe, responsible for converting STM to LTM and explicit (declarative) memories

• Basal Ganglia: Plays a role in motor skills and explicit memories

• Cerebellum: stores procedural memories

• Explicit memory: requires conscious retrieval

• Implicit memory: memories extracted through unconscious thought

  • Procedural memory: “muscle memory”

Aim: To see whether the brains of London taxi drivers would differ as a result of their extensive use of spatial memory.

Methods: 16-right-handed male taxi drivers were compared with 50 right-handed male non-taxi drivers through MRI scans in a lab like experiment

Results: Taxi drivers had a significantly larger posterior hippocampi and smaller anterior hippocampi when compared to the non-taxi drivers. This is probably a result of the posterior hippocampus having a role in spatial memory.

Evaluation:

• There is low ecological validity as the experiment was lab based and was conducted in an artificial environment (MRIs)

• Strong internal validity because there were many variables controlled for (dominant hand, occupation, sex)

• The sample sizes are quite small for the taxi drivers, hindering reliability

• The replicability of this study is quite low due to the cost of MRIs

Biological Approach - 3

1. Explain localization of a function

2. Explain ethical considerations of the study of the brain and the behavior

3. Explain the use of research method on the study of the brain and behavior

Cognitive Approach

1. Explain a model of memory

2. Explain ethical considerations of the study of cognitive processes

3. Explain the use of research method in the study of cognitive processes

4. Explain the Multi-Store Model of Memory

The Case of HM

Specific Terms:

• MRI: A noninvasive technology that shows the brain shape and composition

• Localization: A concentration of specific cognitive functions in a particular part of the brain

• Ethical considerations:

  • Right to consent: participant's voluntary agreement to participate in a study or undergo treatment after being fully informed about it

  • Right to withdraw: ensuring participants can leave a study at any time without penalty or coercion

  • Anonymity: ethical guideline to ensure that the identity of a study participant should remain unknown

• Case Study: an intensive study about a person, a group of people or a unit, which is aimed to collect this information and generalize it to the general population

• Longitudinal Study: a research method that tracks the same individuals or groups over an extended period, often years or even decades, to observe changes and trends in their behavior, attitudes, or health

• Multi-Store Model of Memory:

  

  • Sensory memory: very short-lasting memory (less than a second to 2-3 seconds)

  • Short term memory: any info not processes here is forgotten

  • Must pay attention to info to move it from sensory memory to Working STM

    • Attention: the concentration of awareness on some phenomena to the exclusion of other stimuli

    • Encoding: the conversion of a sensory input into a from capable of being processed and stored in memory

  • Each sense has own memory to store

    • Vision: Iconic memory

    • Hearing: Echoic memory

  • External environmental factors can directly be coded into long-term

General Terms:

• Hippocampus: Part of the medial temporal lobe, responsible for converting STM to LTM and explicit (declarative) memories

• Basal Ganglia: Plays a role in motor skills and explicit memories

• Cerebellum: stores procedural memories

• Explicit memory: requires conscious retrieval

• Implicit memory: memories extracted through unconscious thought

  • Procedural memory: “muscle memory”

Milner → Emphasize in LTM localization

Corkin → Emphasize in technique and LTM localization

• Aim: Observe the effects of removing HM’s medial temporal lobe and parts of his hippocampus

• Methods:

  • Milner conducted a longitudinal study with HM.

  • B/c case study, did interviews with HM and his family, IQ Tests, and the reverse mirror tracing task to grasp his cognitive abilities.

  • Corkin conducted MRI scans on HM to better understand the biology of his brain (found out how much of his hippocampus had been removed [almost all] and that his cerebellum and basal ganglia were still intact)

• Results:

  • HM lost some of his previous LTM and failed to form new declarative LTM (attributed to removal of medial temporal lobe w/ hippocampus)

  • He was able to improve on the reverse mirror task overtime; this makes sense as basal ganglia and cerebellum were largely intact (areas of the brain are localized in implicit and procedural memories)

• Evaluation:

  • Ethical study in terms of not performing the lobotomy on him for the study

  • Not generalizable to general population, as this case study only pertains to HMs complications. However, the knowledge surrounding localization is.

  • HM had right to consent, but raises ethical concerns because he lacked the ability to create new LTM

  • Corkin had much control over who visited HM for decades in his life, also raising ehtical considerations

  • Unethical to purposefully replicate by causing harm

  • HMs anonymity was preserved while he was alive (by using initials HM and not his full name), in line with ethical considerations

Biological Approach - 4

1. Explain the effect of one neurotransmitter on human behavior

2. Explain the role of one antagonist

3. Explain the role of one agonist

4. Explain the role of inhibitory or excitatory synapses in one behavior

Antonova et al

• Terms:

  • fMRI: A type of MRI that displays the blood-oxygen flow in the brain to see which areas of the brain are actively being used, and is noninvasive

  • Neurotransmitter: a chemical messenger secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse, short-term when compared to hormone

  • Agonist: Similar to an excitatory neurotransmitter, it stimulates a neurons to fire

    • Acetylcholine: a neurotransmitter that activates hippocampus

  • Antagonist: Similar to an inhibitory neurotransmitter, it inhibits a neuron from firing

    • Scopolamine: reduces hippocampal activity

  • Inhibitory synapse: inhibits a neuron from firing, [ex: scopolamine, reduces hippocampal activity]

  • Excitatory synapse: stimulates a neurons to fire ex: acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that activates hippocampus

• Aim: to determine how blocking the acetylcholine receptors with scopolamine affects spatial memory.

• Methods: Repeated measures design. 20 healthy male adults used a double-blind procedure and participants were injected with either scopolamine or a placebo for 90 minutes before experiment. Participants played the “arena task” while in a fMRI to see how well participants were able to form spatial memories. The goal of the task was to reach the role in the VR game. The screen went blank after the pole was reached, and in the time it went blank, participants had to active recall where the pole was. then the participants had to start from a new location and use their spatial memory again to find it. Brain activity was measured for 6 trials. Participants returned 3-4 weeks later to get the opposite treatment and the experiment was redone (thus its a repeated measures design)

• Results: when injected with scopolamine, saw a huge decrease in activation of the hippocampus when compared to placebo, probably because there are many acetylcholine receptor sites in the hippocampus.

• Conclusion: Acetylcholine could play a role in spatial memory, and is an agonist/excitatory neurotransmitters in this aspect. Scopolamine is the antagonist/inhibitory neurotransmitter version of this.

• Evaluation:

  • The sample sizes are quite small due to the cost of MRIs; thus, the replicability of these studies are reduced dramatically.

  • The generalizability is also reduced due to the small same size; moreover, demographic wise, Antonova only consists of adult male participants. Therefore, we don’t know the effects on women nor children.

  • There is low ecological validity, as a significant portion of the study was done with participants under MRIs while they were conducting tasks. This artificial environment may hinder results by inducing more stress on participants—which will release cortisol (a neurochemical that is harmful for memory)---especially those who are claustrophobic. Moreover, the results may be inaccurate as sight movements can cause the scan's accuracy to be compromised.

Biological Approach - 5

1. Explain the role of one hormone on human behavior

2. Explain the research method in study of hormones OR pheromones

Newcomer et al

• Terms:

  • Hormones: a chemical messenger that is secreted through the pituitary gland in the endocrine system; it is slower to take effect but longer lasting than neurotransmitters

    • Cortisol: “Stress hormone” released by the pituitary gland.

      • It is harmful for the encoding/retrieval of a memory—overall it is just nonbeneficial for memory.

      • Short-term it can be beneficial because it allows the body to react in that moment, with more oxygen being sent to the brain. In the long-term, harmful effects are more apparent; it can shrink the hippocampus.

  • Double blind lab experiment: both researchers and participants did not know what the participant was receiving, to avoid researcher bias

• Aim: Investigate whether high levels of cortisol interfered with verbal declarative memory

• Methods: Double blind lab experiment. Divided dosage of cortisol given based on age and sex of participants because cortisol levels are effected by these factors. Experimental, with IV being mg of cortisol (160mg, 40mg, or placebo). DV is the amount of information participants recalled once before taking the pill, once after taking the pill, and 4 days after the previous trial to avoid long-term effects.

• Results: After rehearsing the paragraphs the first time, the three groups had no significant difference between them. The second trial also saw no significant differences. The third trial saw that after taking the 40mg pill, participants overall recalled almost half of the paragraph, whereas those who took the 160mg pill overall recalled 40% of the paragraph. Those who took the placebo pill recalled exactly half the paragraph.

• Conclusion: Study supports that cortisol impairs memory (both retreival and encoding)

• Evaluation: Generalizability is broad as 18-30 year olds were used, however, they all worked at the same medical center, thus the sample is not fully representative. Range of cortisol pills was broad, but there was only 3 levels of IV, challenging internal validity. Researchers never considered the confounding variable that participants could have rehearsed paragraph. Highly replicable, so replication can contain more levels of IV and control for participants rehearsing the paragraph.

Biological Approach - 6

• Explain the role of potential pheromones in human behavior

• Explain the research method in study of hormones OR pheromones

Zhou

• Terms:

  • Pheromones: Chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals

  • VNO (vomeronasal organ → responsible for detecting pheromones in mammals)

    • Not present in humans, but present in animals, and they use this organ to sense pheromones

    • Examples of possibilities in humans:

      • AND [human steroid present in male sweat and semen]

      • EST [female equivalent]

  • Self-reported Questionnaire: participants provide information about their own thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or experiences through a structured set of questions.

• Aim: to investigate whether the human steroids, androstadienone (AND) and estratetraenol (EST), function as sex pheromones, particularly in relation to gender perception and attraction

• Methods: 24 heterosexual men, 24 homosexual men, 24 heterosexual women, and 24 homo/bisexual women were asked whether the PLW (set of dots that represented human motion) were more feminine or masculine presenting. These were done 3 days in a row at the same time of day, with AND, EST, or the control being mixed with cloves for the participants to smell during the PLW test.

• Results: Heterosexual women and homosexual men were more likely to identify the figure as masculine after being exposed to AND than the control group; similarly, smelling EST is highly likely for heterosexual men to identify the walker as female. This correlation was not strongly present in lesbian and bisexual women. Overall, this shows that AND and EST impact human behavior in a particular way.

  Evaluation:

  • This study can be generalizable to both hetero/homosexual people; however, it may not be generalizable to, for example, heterosexual women who are attracted to feminine men.

  • The research method was limited as mainly participants who openly identify as homosexual could be a part of this experiment; thus, possibly introduced ascertainment/sampling bias. Thus, the generalizability of these results could also be reduced.

  • Reliability isn’t strong; although there are many strong correlations shown throughout, due to this study being a self-reported questionnaire, there are many limitations and social desirability effect may be present, hindering internal validity

  • Moreover, lesbian and bisexual women were lumped into one group, which could hinder reliability.

  • Reports of AND and EST was kept anonymous and self-reported (and results do not expose anyone’s sexuality yet researchers are still able to draw a conclusion that pheromones may play a role in allowing people to perceive certain figures in a particular way)

• Conclusion:

  • A human pheromone has not yet been found as humans do not have VNO to sense pheromones like animals do.

  • Thus, this study cannot support the fact that the human pheromone may exists, but can support the fact that AND and EST effect the behavior of humans.

Biological Approach - 7

1. Explain the role of one gene in a behavior

2. Explain how genetic similarities help psychologists in the study of genes and behavior

3. Explain ethical considerations in the study of genes and behavior

4. Explain the use of research method in the study of genes and behavior

5. Explain the use of kinship studies or twin studies of inheritance of behavior

Bailey and Pillard

• Terms:

  • Homosexuality

    • A behavior in which a person of a particular sex is attracted to someone of the same sex

    • This is sexually attraction—homoromantic is same-sex romantic attraction (a person can have both behaviors)

  • Childhood Gender Nonconformity (CGM)

    • Is a phenomenon in which children before puberty do not conform to expected gender-related patterns, and/or identify with the opposite gender

  • Monozygotic

    • AKA Identical twins, develop from single fertilized egg, resulting in similar genetic makeup

  • Dizygotic

    • AKA fraternal twins, develop from two separate eggs fertilized by two different sperm, genetically making them siblings

  • Self-reported Questionnaire: participants provide information about their own thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or experiences through a structured set of questions.

  • Ethical considerations:

    • Undue stress: any situation where a participant experiences distress, discomfort, or harm that is not justified by the potential benefits of the research

    • Right to consent: participant's voluntary agreement to participate in a study or undergo treatment after being fully informed about it

• Aim: to investigate whether there was a genetic basis for male homosexual orientation

• Methods:

  • Recruited MZ, DZ, and adoptive brothers through gay publications

  • Self-reported questionnaire

  • Raised together; thus, raised in similar environments

  • 1/2 of MZ twins were both self-identified homosexuals, around 20% of DZ twins were so, and non-twin brothers had a rate of around 10%

  • CGM didn’t impact the rate of development of homosexuality, but MZ twins were more likely to have similar CGM levels

• Evaluation:

  • Sampling isn’t representative as all people in the study had a gay member of the family already (ascertainment/sampling bias)

  • Whether twins were mono/dizygotic was self reported by the twins, as well as sexuality of other brother, hindering reliability

  • CGM requires recalling memory, which may be distorted and prone to error

  • Lacks ecological validity as doesn’t consider that environment also plays a role, but does acknowledge that brother were raised in a similar environment (as they were raised together)

  • Ethical considerations:

    • May place undue stress on participants by inquiring about their sexuality, especially if they are still figuring out their identity and sexuality

    • In many cases in this study, one brother was giving much of his siblings information to the researchers, violating the other sibling chance to give his consent

Biological Approach - 8

1. Explain one evolutionary explanation of behavior

2. Explain the role of one hormone in human behavior

Ronay and von Hippel

• Terms:

  • Hormones: chemical messenger that is secreted through the pituitary gland in the endocrine system; it is slower to take effect but longer lasting than neurotransmitters

    • Example: Testosterone (a steroid hormone produced by males that enhances certain characteristics)

  • Evolutionary Psychology: A branch of psychology that examines how and why and species services and reproduces

• Aim: to investigate whether the presence of an attractive female increases physical risk-taking in young men, and if this increased risk-taking is mediated by elevated testosterone levels.

• Methods: Young Australian men did skateboard tricks, including an easy trick and a hard trick—one they could land around 50% of the time, with both being done 10 times; one group of men did the tricks in front of the male researcher while the other did in front of the male first and then an attractive 18 year old female researcher. Saliva samples were taken to measure testosterone and heart rate was also recorded.

• Results: Although, heartbeat didn’t have any correlation between the male researcher and the attractive female researcher, testosterone levels rose when the men skateboarded in front of the female, as well as the chances of them attempting more difficult tricks and not aborting them. This increase of testosterone, leading to an increase of attempting risker moves, shows how hormones, specifically testosterone, can impact human behavior.

• Evaluation

  • Has high levels of ecological validity, as it shows a relatively uncontrolled situation of human biology

  • It can be ethical as participants are free to abort a trick at anytime, but it is also unethical as it doesn’t preserve participants anonymity and it encourages them to do dangerous tricks

  • Reliable as there is a large number of participants

  • Participants may have gained more confidence during the second round as they practiced in the first, so they aborted tricks less—compromising internal validity

  • Confounding variables for participants being homosexual was controlled for, all participants sexuality was asked—however, may put undue stress on participants if they weren’t “out of the closet” yet or in-terms with their sexuality

Cognitive Approach - 1

1. Explain one model of memory

2. Explain the Multi-Store Model of Memory

Glanzer and Cunitz

• Terms:

  • Multi-Store Model of Memory:

    

    • Sensory memory: very short-lasting memory (less than a second to 2-3 seconds)

    • Short term memory: any info not processes here is forgotten

    • Must pay attention to info to move it from sensory memory to Working STM

      • Attention: the concentration of awareness on some phenomena to the exclusion of other stimuli

      • Encoding: the conversion of a sensory input into a from capable of being processed and stored in memory

    • Each sense has own memory to store

      • Vision: Iconic memory

      • Hearing: Echoic memory

    • External environmental factors can directly be coded into long-term

  • Primacy Effect: early items were acquired and retained, and later items were never acquired.

  • Recency Effect: all items were acquired but only the most recent items were retained.

• Aim: to see if the interval of time between words on a list would increase the number of words recalled at the beginning of the list (primacy effect)

• Methods: 200+ Army enlisted men were used in an independent samples design. Around 40 of them were allocated to each of 6 conditions, that had different time-increments between words rehearsed and different number of times the words were read aloud. Given a practice round, then given recording of various lists. The lists were similar but had different time and repetition. After listening, they had to write down how many words they could recall. Bell rang to indicate the end of a list

• Results: Increased time interval → increase recall in all words in the list except those in the end at list (primacy effect but no recency). Repetition applied to recall in the 3-second rate, others saw little effect. Study supports primacy effect is due to rehearsal.

• Eval:

  • Low generalizability because only Army enlisted men were used, so not generalizable to women, men in non Army-related jobs, and children.

  • Limited confounding variables, due to the independent samples design so strong reliability; however, participant variability may be present, so internal validity is still somewhat compromised.

  • Low ecological validity because artificial task

  • Ethically valid because no undue harm/stress placed on participants while undergoing the study

Cognitive Approach - 2

1. Explain the schema theory

Anderson and Pichert

• Terms:

  • Schema Theory: suggests that we have mental frameworks called schemas that help us understand the world by organizing knowledge and experiences

  • Schema: A preconceived notion or a framework of a specific topic/idea that is based on past experiences. This can be expanded upon, though, as more knowledge is obtained.

    • Utility of schemas:

      • "Ideational scaffolding": This means that whether we learn information or not depends on whether there is a "niche" for it, based on previous learning.

  • Memory distortion: schemas that are incorrectly processed can lead to this → inaccurate or illusory recall of events, where the brain creates false or distorted memories

• Aim: The aim of the study was to determine whether the role assigned (robber or home buyer) influenced participants schemas and their ability of recollecting the story.

• Methods: Independent samples design, randomly assigned participants to two conditions (robbers/home buyers) They were then told a story, and after hearing it, given a distractor task. Then asked to recollect how much of the story as they could. Then given another distractor task. Finally, before last recollection, half of the participants had to switch their role, while other half stayed the same.

• Results: There was 7% more recall of knowledge for those who went from homebuyers to robbers, but a 3% decrease of remembrance with those who didn’t switch roles.

• Conclusion: The notions of “ideational scaffolding” and the schema theory is supported by this study. Moreover, this study also hints that schemas prime us to pay more attention to certain information and not focus on other information. As a result, that information is rehearsed more often or processed more deeply.

• Evaluation: There is some levels of ecological validity because shows how schemas can help will consolidation of knowledge; however, the task is quite artificial and simplifies the creation of schemas, hindering ecological validity overall. There is high internal validity due to control for various confounding variables, allowing for a clear cause-and-effect relationship. Easy to replicate due to simplistic nature. Sampling bias and low generalizability bc participants are all intro to psych students from a particular university.

Cognitive Approach - 3

1. Explain influence of emotion on cognitive processes

2. Explain ethical consideration in study of the reliability of cognitive process

3. Explain ethical consideration of the effect of one emotion on cognition

4. Explain the use of a research method in a study of the effect of emotion on cognition

Yuille and Cutshall

• Specific Terms:

  • Reconstructive Memories: parts of the memory are factually correct, but due to insufficient coding, other pieces of information—which are false—are used to cover up the gaps

  • Flashbulb Memories (FBM): vivid and detailed recollections of the circumstances in which someone learned about a significant, often emotionally charged, public event

  • Hormones: chemical messenger that is secreted through the pituitary gland in the endocrine system; it is slower to take effect but longer lasting than neurotransmitters

    • Adrenaline: Can be a neurotransmitter or, if longer-lasting, a hormone.

      • Secreted by adrenal glands under stress and used to raise arousal

  • Research Methods:

    • Field study approach: research approach where researchers observe, interact with, and collect data from participants in their natural environment, without manipulating it

• General Terms:

  • Memory: a recollection of specific events that happen within one’s life; a failure to recall specific pieces of memory is mainly due to lack of proper encoding or a distortion/fabrication of the memory

• Aim: The aim of the study was to see if different leading questions would affect the memory of eyewitnesses at a crime scene.

• Methods: Field study approach.

  • Researchers contacted eyewitnesses of an armed robbery crime 4 months afterward eyewitnesses.

  • 13 out of the 21 eyewitnesses gave consent to give their account of the incident (be interviewed)

  • Two leading questions.

    • Half of them were asked if they saw “a” broken headlight, and the other half were asked if they saw “the” broken headlight on the getaway car. No broken headlight in reality.

    • Half were asked if they saw “the” yellow panel, and half were asked if they saw “a” yellow panel on the car. Panel was blue in reality.

• Results:

  • The eyewitnesses were reliable, able to recount a large amount of evidence correctly, confirmed by the original police reports

  • Did not make any mistakes as a result of the leading questions.

  • 10 out of 13 said there were no broken headlights or yellow panel or had not noticed these things

  • Accuracy of the witnesses was around 80%

  • Yuille and Cutshall interviewed participants who went through a traumatic event themselves (participants reported having an adrenaline rush) which explains why the accuracy of these reports was so high

• Evaluation:

  • The study isn’t generalizable because it involved the eyewitnesses of a specific crime scene, which cannot be recreated for another experiment.

  • Interviews used as research method

  • Strengths of directly hearing from witnesses of event and being able to directly ask questions face-to-face

  • Limitations of witnesses being unwilling to share certain information of event or feeling pressure to say certain things or answer questions in a certain way according to interviewer

  • Applicable to the Multi-Store Model of Memory

  • Automatic processing straight from external environment to long-term memory as a result of “high adrenaline” situations

  • Ecological Validity limited to people who have been witnesses to crime scenes

  • Specific event and eyewitnesses of that event being studied

  • More research to determine reliability of memory and reactions in other situations

  • Ethical considerations of bringing up “undue stress” to participants by making them recount their witness of a crime → But the 13 people who participated consented to be interviewed

Cognitive Approach

1. Explain reconstructive memory

Loftus and Palmer (2nd variation)

Cognitive Approach - 4

1. Explain one model of thinking

2. Explain on bias in thinking and decision making

Tversky and Kahneman

• Terms:

  • Dual Processing Model: suggests that humans have two main cognitive systems for processing information

    • System 1: Heuristics, fast but can be inaccurate (calls for more unconscious decision making)

    • System 2: Slower and more accurate system (requires more conscious thought)

  • Anchoring bias: a cognitive bias where individuals rely too heavily on the first piece of information they encounter (the "anchor") when making decisions

• Aim: The aim of the study was to see the role of anchoring bias in the sum of a mathematical equation

• Methods: High school students were the participants. Independent samples design, randomly allocated to condition and placed into two groups: ascending and descending groups. Ascending groups had numbers 1-8 multiplied together, while descending groups had numbers 8-1 multiplied together. They were given 5 seconds to answer the problem.

• Results: The ascending group had guessed around 500 for the product, descending guessed around 2000 for the product, actually was around 40K. These numbers from the ascending and descending groups are medians to cut out outliers

• Conclusion:

  • Anchoring bias present in study; even tho both were off, the difference between the two greatly differed, most likely due to the “anchor”

  • Dual Processing Model: System 1 was used due to time constraint on participants, too short of a time to “switch” to System 2 to achieve accuracy, just had to guess

• Evaluation:

  • Highly ethical as no deception, etc. was used.

  • Highly artificial, low ecological validity

  • Easy to replicate the study, so you could add a precursor to the study in future to even out math proficiency in both groups, reduces confounding variables and strengthens internal validity.

Cognitive Approach - 5

1. Explain the Working Model of Memory

KF

Shallice and Warrington

• General Terms:

  • Left parietal lobe

    • plays a crucial role in processing language, mathematics, and body image

  • Occipital lobe

    • Visual perception: Receive and process signals from the eyes, allowing us to see.

    • Color recognition: Identify and interpret colors.

    • Depth and distance perception: Determine the distance and depth of objects.

    • Motion detection: Detect and interpret movement.

    • Object recognition: Identify and recognize objects, including faces.

      Memory formation: Store visual memories.

  • The Working Memory Model (WMM) was devised by Baddeley & Hitch (1974) as a response to Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1968) Multi-Store Model of Memory in terms of providing a more dynamic and flexible model of memory

  • The WMM focuses on short-term memory (STM) only, there is no provision made for the functions or types of long-term memory in the model, it only aims to explain the ‘here and now’ of memory i.e. what you need to work for you in the current moment

  • The WMM sees STM as a complex information processor rather than as a static unitary store

  • The WMM is composed of four units:

    • the central executive (CM)

    • the phonological loop (PL)

    • the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS) with the

    • episodic buffer (EP) which was added much later on in 2000

• Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between short-term memory and long-term memory when short-term memory has been impaired and investigate the impact of brain damage to the left parietal and occipital lobes on memory in order to support the WMM

• Methods:

  • Research Method: Case study

  • Participant: Patient KF had experienced brain damage after a motorcycle accident. His LTM was intact but his STM showed impairment. The MSM model said that this could not be possible because STM is supposed to be then converted to LTM

  • Researchers directly observed his behavior and administered memory recall tests during which they asked him to recall lists of words and numbers as well as learning tasks.

• Results: It was found that KF quickly forgot numbers and words when they were presented to him orally, but able to remember them when they were presented to him visually. His impairment was mainly for verbal information and not for visual information

• Conclusion: This implies that there are two separate memory stores for verbal/oral information and visual information, which supports the WMM.

• Evaluation:

  • KF's identity was kept confidential. Both he and his parents gave informed consent.

  • Case Study → Allows in depth study of KF's memory issues

    • However, results can’t be generalized to a broader population, but they can use knowledge learned in this study to better understand human cognition broadly

Sociocultural Approach - 1

1. Explain Social Identity Theory

2. Explain one cultural dimension

3. Explain the use of one research method in the study of cultural influences on behavior and cognition

4. Explain study of cultural/social groups

Chen et al. - buying habits [Singaporean vs. American]

Prompt Specific Terms:

• Social Identity Theory: A person has not just one “personal-self”, but also several selves that correspond to internalized group membership

• Cultural dimension:

  • Confucian Work Dynamism: emphasizes persistence, thrift, and a strong sense of duty, prioritizing future rewards and long-term goals over immediate gratification

• Questionaries: used to gather self-reported data from participants

General Terms:

• Salience: quality of being particularly noticeable or important.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the Confucian Work Dynamism (long-term orientation) on an individual's buying habits.

Methods:

• Online quiz

• Around 150 bi-cultural participants from a Singaporean university

• Participants were randomly allocated to a certain condition (primed to make their American or Singaporean ethnicity more salient)

  • This was done by displaying 12 pictures of famous people, well-known buildings, brand names, and flags which were relevant to either culture)

  • After looking at the collage, they were asked to write down as many of the images they could remember

• Participants were given a scenario to purchase a novel online

  • 5 days delivery

  • 1 day where they could pay extra to receive

• Participants were asked to list the first 3 politicians that came to mind.

Results: People salient w/ Western, when compared to Eastern, were more likely to opt for one day delivery, displaying the Confucian Work Dynamism playing a role. In both, participants named politicians relevant to the culture they were primed for (so salience for a culture was consistent throughout the study)

Evaluation: The study had ecological validity, as participants took the test online, a method that is widely used in the real world. However, there is questionable internal validity due to this test being online as people could have cheated and they could be in various environments (one that let’s them focus/be distracted), etc. So, many confounding variables were not addressed. Study is only generalizable to Singaporean-Americans who attend university in Singapore.

Sociocultural Approach

1. Explain one cultural dimension

2. Explain the use of one research method in the study of cultural influences on behavior and cognition

3. Explain study of cultural/social groups

Berry

• Individualistic vs collectivistic

• Aim: to investigate whether there is a difference in the degree of conformity between various cultures

• Methods: Around 120 participants in each of the three cultures (so around 360 in total)

• Results: Temne, which is the collectivistic culture, had a much higher rate of conformity when told what other Temne believed, even though it was incorrect.  The Inuits, on the other hand, had even a lower rate of conformity than the Scots.

Sociocultural Approach

1. Explain Social Identity Theory

Tajfel et al

• Aim: To see if in-group favoritism occurred among paritcipants (even in arbitrary groups)

• Social Identity Theory: A person has not just one “personal-self”, but also several selves that correspond to internalized group membership

Sociocultural Approach - 2

1. Explain one ethical consideration in study of individual and group

2. Explain the use of one research method in the study of the individual and the group

Festinger (1956) - UFO Cult

• Terms:

  • General

    • Cognitive Dissonance: The central concept, referring to the psychological discomfort experienced when an individual's cognitions (beliefs, attitudes, behaviors) are inconsistent.

    • Self-justification: The process of finding rationalizations or explanations to make one's actions or beliefs align with their overall sense of self.

    • Self-perception: the way individuals are affected by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others

    • Foot in the Door Paradigm: a persuasion tactic that starts with a modest request, then follows up later with a larger request, in order to increase the chances of succeeding with the larger request

  • Ethical Considerations

    • Deception: the deliberate misrepresentation or misleading of research participants about the true purpose or nature of a study—however, light deception is acceptable to some extent

    • Debriefing: Providing participants in a research study with a fuller explanation of the study's purpose and methods than was initially revealed. Any deception used in the study is also mentioned here.

    • Aim: There was no blatant aim of the study, it was just to see how members of the Seekers cult would cope when they realized that an apocalyptic event (a flood) did not happen.

    • Methods: This was a covert participant naturalistic observation (members of the cult were unaware that the researchers were studying them and researchers became members of the group and interacted with them). Gaining entry into the cult was a challenge, they made up a story to appear as though they were true believers; this got them an invitation to a Seekers’ meeting. There were eight observers (two of each gender in each house–the cult had two homes in two separate locations). The goal was to see how much each member believed in the flood. They documented actions that had been taken by members up to this point and what further actions they would take as the date of the supposed flood arrived; thus they were measuring the foot in the door paradigm - that is, the level of commitment exhibited by the members. The theory was, the more they were committed, the less likely they were to change their behavior, even in the face of disappointment. The observations were difficult as this was not controlled at all. Female observers lived in the houses with the leaders in it. 

    • Findings: After the shock of the ship not arriving on Earth, the cult leader and the cult found ways to write it off and cope with the unwanted outcome, stating that the little group’s “light” managed to change God’s say and avoided the destruction of the world.

    • Evaluation: The participants were completely unaware that they were being observed and were actively involved in an experiment, thus there was absolutely no right to consent—let alone withdraw—from this experiment. Briefing/debriefing was also not conducted, resulting in a highly unreasonable and harmful amount of deception used. A book was also written by Festinger on this study, and it did a poor job to protect the anonymity of Keech, erasing her right to it.

Sociocultural Approach - 3

1. Explain Social Cognitive Theory

2. Explain one ethical consideration in study of individual and group

3. Explain the use of one research method in the study of the individual and the group

Bandura (1971) - Bobo Doll experiment

• Terms:

  • SCT

    • Social Cognitive Theory: Behavior that can be learned from the environment through modeling and reinforcement

    • Vicarious Reinforcement: learning through observing the consequences of another person's actions, leading to a greater likelihood of imitating behaviors that result in positive outcomes, and a reduced likelihood of imitating behaviors that result in negative outcomes

    • Self-efficacy: an individual's belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance outcomes, essentially their confidence in their ability to succeed

    • Modeling: Observing of other people’s behavior

    • Models: Allow people to engage in the act of modeling

  • Ethical considerations:

    • Undue harm

    • Debriefing

  • Research Methods:

    • Matched Samples Design—a type of Independent Samples Design: involves using different groups of participants for each condition of the experiment based on certain characteristics, with each participant only exposed to one condition, and there is no relationship between the participants in different groups.

• Aim: The aim of this study was to see whether or not children could learn or be influenced by watching aggressive behaviors in adults.

• Methods: Matched Samples Design. Around boys and girls around the age of 3 to 5 were divided into 8 groups based on sex and pre-study aggression levels. Aggression levels were judged by 3 adult observers, 2 females and 1 male. During the study, children were tested individually, with Stage 1 having them be taken to an experimental room, which had objects of interest for children to play with in one corner. The adult model was escorted to another corner with various objects and an inflatable doll (“Bobo Doll”) In the non-aggressive condition, adults quietly played with the blocks and ignored Bobo. In the aggressive condition, adults started playing with the blocks, but soon used physical and verbal aggression with Bobo. In stage 2, children were taken to a room with attractive toys and were allowed to play with them for a few minutes; however, the experimenter claimed that these toys were for other children (using this as a “mild aggression arousal”). The child was then taken in the room itself in stage 3 of the study, with the experimenter present as well. In this room, there were a variety of toys, split into two categories (aggressive, which included Bobo and nonaggressive). The child was in this room to observe their behavior for 20 minutes.

• Results: The children who saw the aggressive model were more likely to display aggression, on average, than the children who saw the non-aggressive model. Boys were more aggressive than girls. Boys in the aggressive conditions showed more aggression if the model they saw was male, and girls in the aggressive conditions also showed more physical aggression if the model was male, but more verbal aggression if the model was female. The exception to this general pattern was the observations of how they punched Bobo, and the effects of gender were reversed here.

• Evaluation: The study lacked ecological validity, as very rarely are children left along with strangers and exposed to violence in these rather artificial means. This may also raise ethical concerns by causing undue psychological harm to children by exposing them to violence. Moreover, the lack of debriefing at the end of the experiment most likely confused children and may have led them to think that violent behavior is acceptable. In addition, the sample size was too small and was strictly composed of children of Stanford staff, hindering generalizability. Internal validity was not lacking as the r-value for the levels of aggression assigned was 0.89 between these two variables. This is largely due to the two observers working closely together to assess over half of the children’s aggression levels.

Sociocultural Approach - 5

1. Explain Social Cognitive Theory

Joy, Kimball, and Zabrack - descriptive methods, studied role of TV in children’s gender roles development

Terms:

• SCT: Behavior that can be learned from the environment through modeling and reinforcement

• Gender roles: the socially constructed expectations and behaviors associated with being male or female, which influence how individuals perceive themselves and interact with others

• Modeling: Observing of other people’s behavior

• Vicarious reinforcement: a form of social learning where individuals increase or decrease the likelihood of performing a behavior by observing the consequences of another person's actions

• Self-efficacy: an individual's belief in their capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance outcomes, essentially their confidence in their ability to succeed

Aim: Study the impact of television on children's aggressive behavior by carrying out a longitudinal natural experiment

Methods: 120 children conducted in 3 small towns in British Columbia and Canada, studied before and after a town (Notel) didn't have TV and again in 1975 when the town received a channel, 2 other towns with TV but got new channels were also observed

Results: Aggressive behavior of children in Notel increased significantly from '73 to '75, aggressive behavior of children in the other two towns didn't change significantly, peer and teacher ratings supported findings, males more physically aggressive than females, children's favorite shows showed no difference between aggressive and less aggressive children, heightened arousal (from TV) and sudden exposure to a wide array of models on TV resulted in greater likelihood of aggression, seen through modeling and vicarious reinforcement

Evaluation: The study has ecological validity: participants were not limited and were most probably unaware that they were being observed, avoiding the Hawthorne Effect. However, internal validity was lacking, as there were several uncontrolled variables within this study. Reliability was somewhat strong, a large sample was used and level of aggression were measured by researchers working in teams and using a checklist; moreover, these findings were backed up with interviews by teacher and other students. This study is difficult to replicate, as it is fully naturalistic and a unique case, challenging generalizability, replicability, and reliability.

Sociocultural Approach - 6

1. Explain a theory of the formation of stereotyping on behavior

2. Explain the effects of stereotyping on behavior

3. Explain study of cultural/social groups

Rogers and Frantz (1961) - immigrants to Zimbabwe and the adoption of stereotypes

• Terms:

  • Stereotypes: A fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people

• Would defining these terms help?

  • Out-Group: a group that an individual doesn't identify with or belong to, often leading to negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discrimination compared to their "in-group"

  • Out-group homogeneity: Tendency to assume that the members of other groups are very similar to each other

  • In-group: a social group with which an individual identifies and feels a sense of belonging

  • In-group favoritism: the tendency to favor one's own group over others, leading to preferential treatment and potentially negative attitudes towards out-group.

• Aim: The aim of this study was to observe if attitudes of European settlers in South Rhodesia (current day Zimbabwe) would be inversely correlated to the amount of time that they lived in the country (so more time they lived there, they would become more “conservative.”)

• Methods: 500 White Europeans ages 20+ living in Rhodesia for less than 5 years to over 40 years. Stratified sample (sex, country of birth, age, length of residence was factored). There were 8 other variables considered in the demographics, like income and occupation. Shown survey of laws and customs where White Europeans and Africans are treated differently and participants were asked to rank their opinions on a variation of the Likert scale, which forced participants to take a clear side than “neutral.”

• Results: Mean score amongst all: 2.45 (Europeans favored current laws). 70% fell below mean score of 3.00. Age, sex, district of residence, and income not relevant; birth, occupation, level of schooling, religious affiliation, political party preference, and length of residence in Southern Rhodesia did have significant statistical correlation. Europeans living less than 5 years were less accepting of norms, but more than 5-9 years were 27% more conservative about maintaining segregated facilities.

• Evaluation: The ecological validity is very strong in this study, as various factors were considered in a White European’s background living in Southern Rhodesia, avoiding assumptions and a one dimensional view. Generalizability is lacking as it cannot be applied to White European’s views in other countries, or even Northern Rhodesia. Study can be replicated to bolster generalizability and reliability, but may be time consuming to do so.

Sociocultural Approach - 7

1. Explain a theory of the formation of stereotyping on behavior

2. Explain the effects of stereotyping on behavior

3. Explain study of cultural/social groups

Steele and Aronson - stereotype threat, SAT scores white vs. African Americans

• Terms:

  • Stereotype threat: Psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one’s group applies

  • Stereotype: a fixed, over generalized view on a particular group of individuals that is usually negative, but can be neutral or positive

  • Standardized testing: a type of assessment administered and scored uniformly for all test takers, ensuring consistent questions and grading, allowing for comparisons of performance across individuals or groups.

• Aim: The aim of the study was to see how stereotype threat affects test performance in African Americans.

• Methods: 76 black and white, male and female undergraduates from Stanford University. Independent variables: race of participants and standardized test scores. Then told: test diagnosed intellectual ability, or test saw your abilities in problem-solving. Participants were randomly assigned to one condition—with an even split.

• Results: No significant differences in gender; in race saw black participants perform significantly worse than white in the first condition, but equally as well in the second condition

• Evaluation: Considerable amount of generalizability (males, females, black, and white), but lacking b/c only from Stanford University, so not representative and difficult to generalize. Ecological validity is sufficient, but internal validity is severely lacking (African Americans only test once and scores were adjusted based on how White participants did); thus, results are invalid and nullify the stereotype threat that Steele and Aronson tried to access. Boost validity, have repeated trials as study is highly replicable. Can also be done with many universities, while allowing African Americans and White Americans the opportunity to take the test twice.

Sociocultural Approach - 8

1. Explain effects of stereotyping on behavior

2. Explain enculturation

• Martin and Halverson - gender schema theory/enculturation

• Terms:

  • Schema: Mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system to organize and perceive new info

  • Gender Schema Theory: explains how individuals learn and internalize gender roles through schemas that organize gender-related information, influencing their perceptions and behaviors

  • Enculturation: the gradual adoption of the behaviors and beliefs that are the norm for our culture;

  • Stereotype: a fixed, over generalized view on a particular group of individuals that is usually negative, but can be neutral or positive

• Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate the role of gender schemas on a child’s ability to recall information that was not consistent with their gender schema.

• Methods: The sample consisted of around 50 children, ½ male and ½ female, enrolled in local kindergartens. Children were given the SERLI test to assess their level of gender stereotypes prior to the experiment. Then, showed 16 pictures of male and females in activities that were either in line with gender role schemas or inconsistent, one at a time. The children were asked to identify the sex of the person in the picture and were not told to remember the picture. A week later, they were asked asked to recall the pictures as the researchers carried out a probed recall procedure. They were asked about 24 pictures—16 they had seen and 8 that they had not seen. The 8 “unseen” pictures were for response bias. They were asked if they remember being shown pictures and who was in it (they were able to say that they didn’t remember). They were also asked to rate their confidence.

• Results: For pictures with female actors, activities consistent with gender stereotypes were more often remembered than inconsistent activities, whereas for pictures with male actors, those activities inconsistent with the stereotype were remembered better; this suggests that male stereotyping was heavily constrained in this society. Children often distorted memories of pictures that were not consistent with gender stereotypes; they were more confident and demonstrated less distortion of memory when the stories were constituent with gender schemas.

• Evaluation: Due to this study being highly standardized, it can be easily replicated to determine its level of reliability. Lack eco. validity b/c very artificial and highly controlled; also may not accurately reflect how children develop gender stereotypes. Low generalizability as only young kids from a particular kindergarten were tested, instead of kids from various schools.

Sociocultural Approach - 9

1. Explain enculturation

Fagot

• Terms:

  • Enculturation: the gradual adoption of the behaviors and beliefs that are the norm for our culture

  • One behavior → Acquisition of Gender Roles: the process through which individuals learn and internalize the behaviors, attitudes, and characteristics deemed appropriate for their assigned gender within a specific culture.

  • Gender: Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects, and it can differ from one’s sex—however, it is often lumped together with sex

  • Gender-Appropriate Behavior: societal expectations and norms about how individuals, particularly children, should behave based on their assigned gender, often leading to stereotypes and limited opportunities.

• Aim: to observe parental reactions to behavior that wasn't deemed appropriate for the child's gender

• Methods: carried out a series of naturalistic observations of parent/child interactions. Toddlers and their parents were observed in their homes using an observation checklist. The researchers wanted to examine the parental reaction when the behavior of the child was not "gender appropriate."

• Results: Observational study. It was found that parents reacted significantly more favorably to the child when the child was engaged in gender appropriate behavior and were more likely to give negative responses to "gender inappropriate" behaviors. Fagot and her team followed up by interviewing the parents. The parents' perceptions of their interactions with their children did not correlate with what was observed by the researchers, indicating that this is not a conscious behaviour.

• Evaluation:

  • Social desirability effect could influence reliability/internal validity as well as Hawthorne Effect as families knew they were being watched

  • High ecological validity because observational

  • There is not gender bias in this study, as both boys and girls were observed; thus, larger generalizability

  • Sampling bias, all participants were white and connected to universities

Sociocultural Approach - 10

1. Explain acculturation

2. Explain one ethical consideration in the study of cultural origins and cognition

3. Explain one example of potential influence of culture on behavior or cognition

4. Explain assimilation

Lueck and Wilson - interviews of Asian immigrants & Asian Americans, looked at predicting acculturative stress

• Prompt Specific Terms:

  • Acculturation: assimilation to a different culture, typically the dominant one; when cultures collide and exchange

  • Ethical Considerations

    • Informed Consent

    • Deception

  • Assimilation: the process where individuals or groups adopt the dominant culture's traits, beliefs, and values, often leading to a reduction in their own cultural differences

• General Terms:

  • Acculturative stress: the psychological and physical strain experienced by individuals when adapting to a new culture or society

• Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a nationally representative sample of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans.

• Methods:

  • 2095 Asian Americans—1271 of the participants were first-generation immigrants who were 18 years and older when they came to the US.

  • The rest of the sample was born in the US to first-generation immigrant parents. The sample consisted of several different Asian cultures, including Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese.

  • The researchers carried out semi-structured interviews.

  • The interviewers had cultural and linguistic backgrounds similar to those of the sample population. Interviews were conducted either over the Internet or face-to-face.

  • A randomly selected sample of participants was contacted to validate the data taken from their interviews.

  • The interviews measured the participants’ level of acculturative stress. They also measured the impact of language proficiency, language preference, discrimination, social networks, family cohesion, and socioeconomic status on acculturative stress.

• Results:

  • In 1433 of the 2095 interviews, participants were found to have acculturative stress according to their acculturative stress score – that is, 70% of the sample.

  • Bilingual preference was linked with lower acculturative stress scores

  • The preference for speaking only English is a predictor of high acculturative stress

  • Negative treatment (xenophobia, prejudice, harassment, threats) contributes to higher acculturative stress

  • Sharing similar values and beliefs as a family significantly contributes to lower acculturative stress

• Evaluation:

  • The study was ethical because there was informed consent, the participants were not deceived, they were debriefed, their identities remained confidential, they could withdraw, and they were protected from mental and physical harm

  • Diverse and large sample, thus it was representative

  • The researchers carried out semi-structured interviews. The strength is that these are more personal than a questionnaire.

  • The limitation is that carrying out large numbers of interviews is time-consuming and costly.

  • Finally, interviews are also open to interviewer effects - where characteristics of the interviewer may lead the interviewee to disclose less (or more) information → hinders internal validity

Sociocultural Approach - 11

1. Explain acculturation

2. Explain one ethical consideration in the study of cultural origins and cognition

3. Explain one example of potential influence of culture on behavior or cognition

4. Explain assimilation

Miranda and Matheny

• Prompt Specific Terms:

  • Acculturation: assimilation to a different culture, typically the dominant one

  • Ethical Considerations:

    • Informed Consent

    • Deception

• General Terms:

  • Acculturative stress: the psychological and physical strain experienced by individuals when adapting to a new culture or society

• Aim: The aim of the study was to observe which factors in the lives of Latino immigrants to the United States would decrease the level of acculturative stress.

• Methods: A random sample of 197 members of two social services agencies completed a questionnaire as well as standardized tests to assess family cohesion, level of acculturation, acculturative stress, and coping strategies for stress.

• Results: With effective coping strategies, good proficiency in English, and a strong family structure were less likely to experience acculturative stress. In addition, immigrants who had spent a longer time in the US were less likely to demonstrate this stress and show a higher level of acculturation.

• Evaluation:

  • "Ecological fallacy" (or lacking ecological validity) as assumptions were made about Latinos: for example, assumptions that the cultures are collectivistic without actually measuring each individual's level of collectivism.

  • the study does not exhibit gender bias as both men and women participated in the study, widening the generalizability and the scope of applications

  • Social desirability --> false responses
    - low reliability (internal validity)
    - no cause and effect relationship

  • the study was ethical because there was informed consent, the participants were not deceived, they were debriefed, their identities remained confidential, they could withdraw, and they were protected from mental and physical harm

Health Psychology

Lowe et al