Psychology recap A level paper 3

What is the definition of Universality?

Where a characteristic/theory can be be applied to everyone, regardless of race, sex etc.

What two parts is gender bias split up into?

Alpha bias and Beta bias

What is the definition of Alpha bias?

A type of bias that exaggerates differences between genders - e.g Freud claiming that women are less morally developed than men

What is the definition of Beta bias?

A type of bias that underestimates differences between genders - e.g the fight or flight response has shown to impact men and women differently due to differing hormone levels

Androcentrism describes research that is centred around…

men, or when women are judged to a male standard.

What is the definition of reflexivity during research?

When the researcher continues to reflect on how they may be impacting their own research, possibly due to gender stereotypes, unconscious aims to find the “correct” result etc.

What is the definition of ethnocentrism?

When research judges other cultures by the standards of their own culture, and in some cases leads to a belief in superiority.

What is cultural relativism?

The idea that theories developed inside a culture will only make sense in the context of that culture - and so can’t be applied to others.

Which approaches does soft determinism apply to?

The cognitive approach - as they believe that our decisions are controlled by learnt experiences, but these learnt experiences can be consciously changed over time.

Which approach believes in free will?

The humanistic approach - after removing physiological barriers (e.g thirst/hunger), people are free to make decisions and work towards self-actualisation as they choose.

Which approaches believe in determinism?

The psychodynamic, biological and behaviourist approaches all believe that behaviour is determined by their respective focuses.

Why is science generally considered to be deterministic?

There is an emphasis on causal explanations, which allow for scientific testing and a clear question and answer.

What are epigenetics?

The effect that our environment has when expressing genes, which involves external factors essentially turning genes “off” (or on). These changes can then be passed on to children.

What is another name for the nature debate?

Heredity

How is the degree of nature/nurture measured?

Through concordance rates in MZ/DZ twin studies.

What is the focus of the interactionist approach?

Finding how much relative influence nature and nurture factors have on a certain behaviour.

Aside from twin studies, what type of research can be used to test whether nature or nurture has a greater effect?

Adoption studies - if adoptive children are found to be more similar (with a particular characteristic) to their adoptive parents, then nurture has a greater influence, and if they are more similar to their biological parents, then nature has a greater influence.

What type of data measurements are prioritised while taking a holistic approach to research?

Qualitative - as behaviour cannot be reduced to simple units, and must be fully explained within context.

What is the bottom level of explanation in psychology? (most reductionist)

The biological explanations - e.g an underproduction of serotonin

What is the middle level of explanation in psychology? (both holistic and reductionist)

The psychological explanations - e.g the impact of learning from past experiences

What is the top level of explanation in psychology? (most holisitc)

The social explanations - e.g the impact of results on social relationships

What is biological reductionism?

Where an already reductionist approach focuses in on individual biological factors as the cause of a behaviour - e.g too little serotonin causes OCD

What is environmental reductionism?

When an already reductionist approach focuses on specific stimulus-response experiences as the cause of a behaviour - e.g classical learned association between the provision of food and pleasure leading to attachment.

Is reductionism or holism more scientific?

Reductionism, as it attempts to break down behaviour into cause and effect, which can be scientifically studied and recreated.

What type of data does idiographic research provide?

Qualitative data, as single case studies are typically used.

What type of data does nomothetic research typically provide?

Quantitative data, as larger sample sizes are often used, and the data must be broken down to be compared and viewed as a whole.

Which approaches typically take an idiographic approach to research?

The psychodynamic and humanistic approaches

Which approaches typically take a nomothetic approach to research?

The biological, behavioural and cognitive approaches

What is a weakness of a nomothetic approach to investigation?

There is a risk of losing the understanding of the individual. For example, you may find the percentage of people who are at risk of schizophrenia, but not understand how it will personally develop and affect them - thus limiting the application to treatment.

What is social sensitivity?

When the findings of a study have implications for a particular population group represented in the sample

In the context of Piaget’s research, what is assimilation?

Where new experiences are sorted into pre-existing schemas

In the context of Piaget’s research, what is accommodation?

Where pre-existing schemas are altered in order to understand new experiences

According to Piaget, what happens when an experience cannot yet be explained?

We enter a state of disequilibrium, which is resolved after going through assimilation or accommodation

What is the definition of a schema?

A cognitive shortcut used to interpret and understand our experiences, and so hold our overall ideas about the world.

What are the four features that are absent at birth, and then develop during Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

Object permanence - understanding that objects that are not being perceived still exist

Conservation - understanding that appearance does not directly affect volume/number

Egocentrism - being unable to see experiences from someone else’s point of view

Class inclusion - understanding the some sets of objects can also fit into larger sets simultaneously (e.g dogs and pets)

What is the first stage of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

The sensorimotor stage, which is shown between 0-2 years.

What is the second stage of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

The pre-operational stage, which is shown between 2 - 7 years

What is the third stage of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

The concrete operational stage, which is shown between 7-11 years

What is the fourth stage of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

The formal operation stage, which is shown from 11+ years

What are the main features of the sensorimotor stage?

Children are very egocentric, and only begin to develop object permanence halfway through. They lack general symbolic function (GSF), and can only communicate simply.

What are the main features of the pre-operational stage?

Children are still egocentric, but have developed object permanence and start to obtain general symbolic function. Conservation and class inclusion skills are still weak.

What are the main features of the concrete operational stage?

Significant improvement in egocentrism and class inclusion, and can reason with/understand objects well - but lack the ability to logically think through imaginary scenarios.

What are the main features of the formal operational stage stage?

Can fully focus on reasoning in illogical scenarios without getting distracted by the context. All other features are fully developed.

How does the swiss mountain study support Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

Children were shown three model mountains with different objects on top, and asked to describe what a doll (positioned at another angle) could see. Those who still showed egocentrism would only describe their own perspective.

What is evaluation for the swiss mountain study? (supporting Piaget’s stages of intellectual development)

The original study lacks mundane realism - and when it was recreated with the police officers behind walls, children were able to decentre at an earlier age than previously suggested.

Where does Piaget’s stage theory stand on the I&D?

It is interactionist (innate schemas + learnt experiences ), nomothetic (studies large groups of participants), and deterministic.

According to Vygotsky, what are the “______ tools” through which everybody learns?

The “cultural tools” are methods in which people (mainly children) understand how the world works and learn how to live effectively. One example is the internet.

What are Vygotsky’s inTER and inTRA personal levels?

The inter (like interspecies is between multiple) personal level is cognitive development on the social level, shown through interaction. The intra personal level is cognitive development on an individual level.

What is Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is “the distance between current and potential ability” - e.g a difficult task that sits between what is understood and what is not understood.

How are children guided through Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?

They are guided by more knowledgeable others (MKOs), who are anybody that has greater knowledge than the learner on a particular topic.

What is scaffolding in the context of Vygotsky’s research?

A method of helping people with less knowledge learn, by slowly guiding them through the problem, making use of small clues and hints. This can also use tactics such as demonstrations, ensuring the task is a correct difficulty, etc.

What is research done by Freund (1990) that supports Vygotsky’s ZPD?

A group of five-year-olds were tasked with “helping” a puppet to design a dolls house. One group had their mothers helping, while one group were alone - which lead to the effect of those with gentle guidance making better decisions. However, this does lack mundane realism, as well as being an unserious task.

What I&D can be applied to Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?

Vygotsky takes a nurture sided approach, uses cause and effect to show determinism, and measures groups of participants in order to create general laws through a nomothetic approach to investigation.

What is the name of Baillargeon’s theory that proposes the idea that humans are born with a small number of innate systems?

The core knowledge theory

What is the main system of core knowledge in Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities?

The physical reasoning system

What is the physical reasoning system in Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities?

It details that infants are born knowing how to understand the boundaries and persistence of objects (similar to permanence), and so understand when one object can block, support, contain or collide with another.

How did Hespos and Marle support Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities?

They did a study which involved dropping a key ring in front of differently aged infants - and found that they expected it to fall to the floor at any age, demonstrating a clear example of object persistence.

What is the Violation of expectation technique (VOE)?

A research method created by Baillargeon, which shows an infant two events - one which is expected, and one which is unexpected (e.g a tall rabbit’s ears not appearing through a window while passing behind a wall)

Which researchers carried out the study into the VOE that demonstrated object persistence by passing a rabbit behind a wall, which then did not appear in a large window?

Baillargeon and Graber

In the context of Baillargeon’s violation of expectations technique, what is anticipatory looking?

The assumption that infants will look for longer at things they have not previously experienced or do not understand.

How does Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities fit into the different I&D?

Her research is nomothetic, focuses on the nature side of the debate, and shows biological determinism.

What is the definition of social cognition?

“The mental processes by which individuals understand information relating to themselves and others, and so conduct behaviour accordingly.”

What is Selman’s first stage of perspective-taking?

The undifferentiated level, at 3-6 years.

What is Selman’s second stage of perspective taking?

The social informational level, at 6-8 years

What is Selman’s third stage of perspective taking?

The self-reflective level, at 8-10 years

What is Selman’s fourth stage of perspective taking?

The mutual level, at 10-12 years

What is Selman’s fifth stage of perspective taking?

The societal level, at 12+ years

What are the features of Selman’s undifferentiated level of perspective taking?

Children can identify basic emotions, but cannot differentiate between their own emotions and others.

What are the features of Selman’s social informational level of perspective taking?

Children can tell the difference between their own emotions and others, but can only focus on one point of view at a time.

What are the features of Selman’s self reflective level of perspective taking?

Children can put themselves in someone else’s position, and compare it to their own feelings.

What are the features of Selman’s mutual level of perspective taking?

Children can view multiple point of views simultaneously, as well as understanding that other people can take their perspective.

What are the features of Selman’s societal level of perspective taking?

Children begin to understand that taking other people’s viewpoints is not always sufficient to resolve conflict, and so accepts that rules are necessary.

What are the three points of Selman’s theory that were only expanded on after his research was first published?

The interpersonal understanding - understanding of different roles helps to solve social conflicts

Interpersonal negotiation strategies - specific skills also have to be developed to solve social conflicts

Awareness of current personal relationships - past behaviour must be reflected on in order to make appropriate decisions for the current context

What feature do both Piaget and Selman focus on, increasing credibility for their stage theories?

The concept of “egocentrism”

What I&D apply to Selman’s levels of perspective taking?

He takes a nomothetic approach, and is deterministic.

How does Selman use research to support his levels of perspective taking?

The “interpersonal dilemma” - where different ages of children are asked whether “holly” should save a kitten from a tree, despite being specifically told by her father not to climb them.

What is Theory of Mind?

The ability to understand others thoughts and emotions - A theory about their mind.

Which disorder is characterised by a lack of Theory of Mind?

Autism spectrum disorder

How did Meltzoff study Theory of Mind?

He got one group of children to watch adults successfully place beads in a jar, and got one group to watch adults attempt to place the beads, but drop them. He then asked the children to recreate the task - and found that they were able to in both groups, as they could understand what the adults were trying to do originally.

What research did Baron-Cohen complete to test for autism using the concept of Theory of Mind?

The “Sally-Anne” task. Children were asked to predict where sally would look for her marble after Anne moved it from its original placement. Children without autism could take Sally’s perspective, while those with autism were unable, and simply answered with their own knowledge.

What further research did Baron-Cohen do after the Sally-Anne task?

The “eye task” - where adults were asked to identify emotions by looking at a set of 25 pictures of eyes.

Why might the Sally-Anne study struggle to support Theory of Mind?

The study may simply have showed that children were able to logically deduce Sally’s understanding, rather than actually take her perspective and grasp her full beliefs. (However, the eyes test overcomes this…)

Where is Theory of Mind on the nature/nature debate?

It is unclear which side the theory is on. Some psychologists propose that it is due to innate cognitive abilities, while some argue that it is built up through interactions with others.

Mirror neurons allow for people to _____ and _______ with others.

imitate, emphasise

How do deficits in the mirror neuron system provide an explanation for ASD?

People with ASD are typically unable to understand the behaviour of others - possibly due to the fact that their mirror neurons do not fire properly when viewing many actions.

What are the four main symptoms of schizophrenia?

Hallucinations, Delusions, Avolition and Speech poverty

What happens during the classification of schizophrenia?

Symptoms are sorted into categories based on their typical groupings - e.g positive and negative symptoms.

Why does the diagnosis/classification of schizophrenia have good reliability?

Diagnoses of schizophrenia between psychiatrists have high levels of inter-rate and test-retest reliability, as they find the same result over 90% of the time.

Why does the diagnosis/classification of schizophrenia have low validity?

Validity concerns whether we are testing what we intend to test - and since different methods of diagnosing people with schizophrenia often give different results, validity must be low.

What is co-morbidity?

When someone has two conditions simultaneously, which often goes undetected as one masks the other.

What is symptom overlap?

When two conditions share a common symptom. In some cases, this may even suggest that the two conditions are just one disorder that has a variation.

Why is schizophrenia gender biased?

Men are much more commonly seen to receive diagnoses of schizophrenia, which may be due to women’s improved support networks, or perhaps genetic factors that make them less vulnerable. This means that women may not receive appropriate treatment/diagnoses.

Why is schizophrenia culturally biased?

People from certain cultures are much more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, most notably when they are living in/receiving a diagnosis from a UK or American doctor

What are the two biological explanations for schizophrenia?

The genetic and neural explanations (including the dopamine hypothesis)

What research is used to support the idea of candidate genes in the genetic explanation of schizophrenia?

Ripke et al analysed the genetic makeup of almost 40,000 people with schizophrenia, and compared them to a control group. He found that there were 108 different candidate genes

What is the concordance rate for schizophrenia between monozygotic (identical) twins?

48% - which is a strength for the genetic explanation as it is only 17% in non identical twins. However, 48 is not 100%, meaning that genetics do not purely control the development of schizophrenia.

Where does the dopamine hypothesis for schizophrenia suggest that levels of dopamine are too high?

In the subcortical areas of the brain - which is anywhere inside of the cortex (essentially the center).

How did Tienari et al support the genetic explanation for schizophrenia?

He studied children who had been adopted, some of which had the genetic vulnerability for schizophrenia, and some of which who did not. He found that how stressful the environment they were adopted into did play an important part in whether they developed the disorder - but only if they first had the genetic vulnerability.

What is a weakness of the dopamine hypothesis?

It suffers from the treatment causation fallacy, as the hypothesis was originally developed after discovering that dopamine blocking drugs reduced schizophrenic symptoms. Although less dopamine may reduce the symptoms, this does not necessarily mean that schizophrenia is directly caused by an excess of dopamine.

What are the psychological explanations for schizophrenia?

Family Dysfunction and Dysfunctional thought processing.