Paper 1: AS Psychology : Approaches Issues and Debates (+12 Case Studies)

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

How many Approaches are there?

4 Approaches
1) Biological Approach
2) Cognitive Approach
3) Learning Approach
4) Social Approach

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

What is the Biological Approach?

Physiological psychologists study how physical stuff like your brain, genes, and hormones control how you act and feel. They basically believe your body's biology is the main "remote control" for your behavior.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Biological Approach how many case studies?

1) Dement and Kleitman Lecture Slides
2) Hasset
3) Holzel

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Biological Approach what are the main research methods?

Labatory Expirements and Brain Scaning Techniques

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Biological Approach what are the two main assumptions?

-Your behavior, thoughts, and feelings are caused by your brain’s hardware, such as your genetics, hormones, and evolution.
-People are similar or different because of their biological factors and how those factors interact with their environment.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

What is the Cognitive Approach?

Cognitive psychologists study how our minds take in, store, and use information just like a computer. They believe the brain follows a simple pattern: you get input from the world, process it in your head, and then produce an output like a memory or a word.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Cognitive Approach how many case studies?

1) Pozzulo
2) Baron Cohen
3) Andrade

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Cognitive Approach what are the main research methods?

Laboratory Expirements

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Cognitive Approach what are the two main assumptions?

-Information flows through all humans in the same way, using a computer-like route of input, process, and output.
-People have individual differences in how they handle cognitive processes like memory and language, which explains their behavior and emotions.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

What is the Learning Approach?

Behaviourists believe that all actions are learned through experience and we should only study observable behavior instead of hidden thoughts. They focus on how we learn through rewards and punishments, linking things together, or simply copying others.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Learning Approach how many case studies?

1) Saavedra and Silverman
2) Fagen
3) Bandura

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Learning Approach what are the main research methods?

Labatory Experiments and Observations

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Learning Approach what are the two main assumptions?

-We are born as a blank slate, and our observable behavior is shaped entirely by our environment and life experiences.

-We learn through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning, which can be explained by the stimulus-response model.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

What is the Social Approach?

Social psychologists study how we interact with others and how being in a group changes the way we act. They basically look at how our culture, society, and the people around us influence things like how much we obey or fit in.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Social Approach how many case studies?

1) Pilivian
2) Perry
3) Milgram

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Social Approach what are the main research methods?

Questionaires and Interviews

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Approaches to Psychology-

In the Social Approach what are the two main assumptions?

-Your behavior, thoughts, and emotions are shaped by your social context, social environment, and the groups you belong to.
-Your behavior, thoughts, and emotions are influenced by the actual, implied, or imagined presence of other people.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Issues and Debates-

What are the 5 Issues and Debates

1. Application to Everyday Life

2. Individual and Situational Explanations

3. Nature vs Nurture

4. Use of Children in Psychological Research

5. Use of Animals in Psychological Research

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Issues and Debates-

What is the main idea of “The use of children in pychological research'“

Researchers using children must get parental permission and use simple language so the kids actually understand the study. They also have to plan for kids getting bored or tired faster than adults while ensuring the research stays ethical.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Issues and Debates-

What is the main idea of “The use of animals in pychological research'“

Researchers must follow laws to protect animals by using the minimum number needed and providing stress-free housing that fits the species' social needs. While animal studies allow for research that would be unethical on humans, it can be hard to apply the results to people because our "make-ups" are so different.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Issues and Debates-

What is the main idea of “The application of pscyhology to everday life'“

Psychological research is most valuable when its findings can be used to improve everyday life, such as finding better treatments for mental illness. However, making a study useful is hard because results from a lab might not work in the real world (ecological validity) or might only apply to one group of people.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Issues and Debates-

What is the main idea of “Individual and situational explanations'“

Psychologists debate whether our actions come from our own personality (individual/dispositional factors) or from the environment around us (situational factors). Understanding this helps explain behavior more clearly, but it is often difficult to tell the two apart or test them accurately outside of a lab.

Approaches and Issues/Debates
-Issues and Debates-

What is the main idea of “Nature versus Nurture“

The nature vs. nurture debate looks at whether we are born with certain behaviors (genetics) or if we learn them through our life experiences (environment). While understanding this helps explain why people act the way they do, it is very hard to separate the two, and focusing only on "nature" can lead to dangerous and unethical social ideas.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What is it about?

THE RELATION OF EYE MOVEMENTS DURING SLEEP TO DREAM ACTIVITY: AN OBJECTIVE METHOD FOR THE STUDY OF DREAMING

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

The psychology being investigated?

Sleep is an altered state of consciousness where we are less aware and move very little, following a daily 24-hour cycle known as a circadian rhythm. Within this daily cycle, we have more frequent 90-minute ultradian rhythms that control our different sleep stages and rest-activity patterns.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

How is the sleep measured?

EEG: Measure brain wave activity
EOG: Measures eye movment

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Aim of the Study?

To find out more about dreaming. Specifically to answer three question?
1)Dream Recall, 2) Dream Duration, 3) Eye Movment Patterns

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What are the three questions

• Q1 (Dream Recall): Researchers want to see if people remember more dreams when woken up during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep compared to nREM stages.

• Q2 (Dream Duration): Researchers are testing if a person's guess on dream duration (how long they think the dream lasted) matches the actual length of the REM period.

• Q3 (Eye Movement Patterns): Researchers are investigating if specific eye movement patterns (like moving eyes up and down or side to side) are directly linked to the dream content.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What is the sample?

Nine participants (7 men, 2 women), with 5 studied in detail

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Appartaus Used?

EEG

ElectroOculoGram (EOG)
Loud Bell
Tape recorder

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What is the overall Research Method and Design?

Lab Expirement

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What are the Research Method and Design for Question 1?

Q1
Dream Recall
Repeated Measure Design, Self Report
IV: Woken from REM or nREM Sleep (EEG data)
DP: Dream Recall

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What are the Research Method and Design for Question 2?

Q2
Dream Duration
Correlation, Repeated Measure Design, Self Reports

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What are the Research Method and Design for Question 3?

Q3
Rapid Eye Movement
Correlation, Self reports

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Procedure for Question 1?

Participants were woken from either REM or nREM sleep (the choice was often randomized) and asked to state if they had been dreaming.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Procedure for Question 2?

Participants were woken after either 5 or 15 minutes of REM sleep and asked to guess which duration they had been dreaming for. The number of words in their dream narrative was also counted.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Procedure for Question 3?

Participants were woken after a specific eye-movement pattern (vertical, horizontal, mixed, or little movement) lasted for more than one minute and were asked to describe their dream.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Controls & Data Collection

Controls: Apparatus, Procedures
DC: Quantitative and Qualitiative, Structured and Unstructred Observations

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Results (and Conclusion)

REM never occurred at the start of the sleep cycle, but all participants had REM periods that lasted longer later in the night.

Data shows that dreams progress in "real time," and participants only dreamed during REM phases, not during nREM sleep.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Result for Question 1 (Dream Recall)

Participants recalled dreams far more frequently when woken from REM sleep (79.6% of the time) than from nREM sleep (only 7% of the time)

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Result for Question 2 (Dream Duration)

Participants were highly accurate at estimating dream duration (88% for 5 mins, 78% for 15 mins). There was also a significant positive correlation between REM duration and the number of words in the dream narrative.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

Result for Question 3 (Eye Movement)

Eye movement patterns were related to dream content. For example, mainly vertical movements were linked to dreams about climbing, while little movement was linked to watching something in the distance.

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

What were the Issues and Debates used in the study?

Applicability to real life
Nature v Nurture

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

2 Strengths

-High Control (Relability)
-Scientific Validty

Biological Approach
-Dement and Kleitman-

2 Weakness

-low ecological validity
-small/biased sample

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What is it about?

S/x differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children;

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Psychology being investigated?

Sex differences in children and adults has been widely researched for many years. In particular, the sex differences in toy choice.

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Background: What have studies show?

Boys also tend to play with toys that are seen as being stereotypically masculine, in contrast with girls who will play with both stereotypically masculine and feminine toys.

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What are the 3 views [Main Idea]? {hint: view: what are the reasons why monkeys choose these toys}

V1: {Socialization process}

V2: {Biologically determined preferences}

V3: {Hormones are the source of difference} Girls {congenital adrenal hyperplasia} (CAH)

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Aim?

To investigate whether toy preferences in monkeys resemble those in children, in order to test whether sex differences in toy choice is biologically determined by sex. 

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Hypothesis?

“We offer the hypothesis that toy preferences reflect hormonally influenced behavioral and cognitive biases which are sculpted by social processes into the sex differences seen in monkeys and humans.”

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Sampling Technique?

Opportunity Sample

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What are two samples you need to know?

-The subjects were rhesus monkey member of a multi male, multi female social group of 135 animals
-They all lived together for more than 25 years at the the Yerkes national primate research center field station, USA

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was the actual number of potential can be studied?

61 females and 21 males as potential subjects (82)

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was the actual number left of monkeys sampled?

34 were analyzed
and excluded was 14 female and 6 males

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Research Method and Design

RM: Field Exeriment
Design: Independent Measures
-IV:gender
-DV:activites with the toys

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was the method of observations used?

Structured

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What is the correlations of the study?

-rank within social hierarchy & frequency or duration of activities with toys

-data from the monkeys & similar data relating to children from a previous study

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was Housing situation?

subjects were house in their natal groups in 25m x 25m outdoor compounds. Monkey were fed twice a day with supplements like fruits and vegetables 1 a day

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was the material in the study?

The toys used by Hassett et al were categorized by specific object properties

MASC: Wheels : wagon, dumpster truck
FEM: PLUSH : Winnie the pooh, scooby doo

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What were the procedure?

• Seven 25 min trials (in large indoor/outdoor enclosure social group)

• {Group members were requested indoors while one wheeled and one plush toy separated by 10m were placed in outdoor living area, which then after every round they switch the toy [counterbalanced]}

• Each toy and any animal interacting with it was videotaped using separate cameras for each toy

• Videotapes by two observers

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What the counterbalanced procedure?

Group members were requested indoors while one wheeled and one plush toy separated by 10m were placed in outdoor living area, which then after every round they switch the toy [counterbalanced]

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was coded behavior from the video taped trials?

[Sit on] seated on the toy or part the toy
[Drag] moving the toy along the ground behind the animal

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was coded behavior from the video taped trials? PART 2

[Sniff] coming very close to the toy with the nose
[Throw] project into air with hands

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Procedure (Data Analysis) : How were the behavior recorded?

• frequencies of occurrence

• duration of those behaviors

-Subjects with fewer than 5 total behavior were excluded, There 34 were analyzed

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What were the results of the study?

The results show, that boy male monkey had a stronger preference for boy toys. For female monkey more variable preferences (no particular preference)

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was the conclusion?

Hasset et al. argue that their finding support a biological explanation for toy preferences. Specifically, concluded that these preferences develop in the absence of socialization

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What was the magnitude of preference score difference between male and female?

-For males, total frequency wheeled - total frequency plush;
-For females, total frequency plush - total frequency wheeled:

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Identify two variables, other than sex, which Hassett investigated.

• Social Rank

• Age

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Outline one assumption of the biological approach and explain how the Hassett et al study demonstrates it.

Similarities and differences between people can be understood in terms of biological factors and their interaction with other factors.

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Name the primary sex hormone for men and women and give a brief explanation as to what they do.

Men = Testosterone: responsible for developing and maintaining male characteristics, like muscle and bone mass.

Female = Estrogen: vital for the female reproductive system and influencing functions like menstruation and bone density

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

What is a difference between the investigation for children & monkeys?

It was between frequency for the monkeys & duration for the children, rather than duration for both.

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

Outline what is meant by stereotypical toys.

items marketed for a specific gender

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

2 Strengths?

High Control Validity (standardization procedure)
Objective datad (record exact quantitative data)

Biological Approach
-Hasset-

2 Weakness?

Low generalizabililty
Observer Bias

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What is it about?

Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Psychology Being Studied
What is the psychology being studied?

Localization of Function: different areas of the brain are responsible for different activities

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Psychology Being Studied
What area of the brain were scanned?

-Hippocampus: memory navigation
-Insula: visceral awareness

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Psychology Being Studied
What is the grey and white matter?

Grey Matter: Cell bodies of neutrons
White Matter: The axons of neutrons

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Psychology Being Studied
What is Mindfulness? What can Mindfulness Technique be used to help?

-Mindfulness is defined as the practice of purpose bringing one attention to the present
-Mindfulness technique can be used to help reduce stress and anxiety

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Background
What is MBSR? And how does it help?

Mindfulness Stress Based Result, and it can help a broad range of individuals to cope with their clinical and nonclinical programs

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Background
What did the studies find out about grey matter?

The studies found differences in grey matter in various brain areas that appear to be associated with meditation

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What is the aim of the study?

Is to investigate long term effects of a MBSR program on grey matter density

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What was hypothesized?

Es hypothesized that MBSR will increase grey matter density

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Sample
What was the sample?

-MBSR participants were recruited among individuals already enrolled in four MBSR course.
-Included a physician and self referred individual from across new England who are seeking stress reduction

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Sample
What are the amount of participants?

There were originally 18, but due to two participants feeling discomfort in the MRI scan, the participants didn’t come back

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Sample
What was an incentive?

Each student who completed the study was given a discounted MBSR course fee

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What was the technique used?

Could be volunteer opportunity

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Sample
Individual were included in the study if they?

self reported as physically and psychologically healthy and not taking any medication

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Research method and design
What was the research method?

-self report
-brain scan
-correlation

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Research method and design
What was it it

Experiment - Lab
IV - 8 week mindfulness based intervention (MBSR Course)
DV - Change in brain matter (grey) usin

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Research method and design
What is the longitudinal design?

8 week MBSR course

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What is Apparatus?

MRI scans

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

For FFMQ Questions?
What are the 2 out the 5 factors of mindfulness?

1) observing: ability to attend to / notice external / internal stimuli like emotions or smells
2) Describing: mentally labeling those observation with words

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Procedure FFMQ

5 Point likert scale

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What was the procedure for MBSR Program?

-body scan
-mindful yoga
-sitting mediation

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

MBSR Program HW?

-45 minute guided mindfulness excersises

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

What was the conclusion?

There was left hippocampus with increased longitudal in grey matter

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

Holzelt et al concluded that:

the adult nervous system has the capacity for plasticity, and the structure of the brain can change in response in training

Biological Approach
-Holzel-

2 Strengths?

-High Objectivity
-Highly Ethical