experiments: the researchers, investigations and findings

everyone say thank you chatgpt

Mary Ainsworth

Mary Ainsworth

3 methods of infant attachment:

• secure attachment

• insecure-avoidant attachment

• insecure-ambivalent/resistant attachment

Rutter

Romanian Twin Study

Vygotsky

Sociocultural Theory of Cognition

Piaget

4 Stages of Cognitive Development

Harlow

Monkey (Effects of Maternal Deprivation and Isolation)

Lorenz

Ducks (Imprinting)

Ochsher and Gross

Brain Structures and Emotion

Singer

2 Factor Theory of Emotion

Lazarus

Appraisal Theory of Emotion

Gardner

Theory of Multiple Intelligence

Bouchard; McGue

Minnesota Twin Study

Ledoux (hint: model)

Model of Emotion

Frederickson

Broaden and Built Theory of Emotion

Diener

Subjective Wellbeing

Ryff

Multi-Dimensional Model of Wellbeing

Rosenhan

DSM - Psychiatric Diagnostic Methods and Efficacy/Reliability

Csikszentmihalyi (chick-sent-me-high)

Theory of Flow

Locke

Goal-Setting Theory of Emotion

Ainsworth investigation and findings? what were the meanings of the three classifications she identified? (1971)

investigate:

• infants were placed in a room with toys, and various ‘episodes’ were introduced:

  • the caregiver leaving and returning

  • a stranger entering the room

  • the infant was left alone with the stranger and reunited with the caregiver

findings:

• assessed attachment styles in infants:

  • secure attachment - infants show distress when the caregiver leaves but are easily comforted upon return; they explore the room but use the caregiver as a “safe base”

  • insecure-avoidant attachment - infants show little distress when the caregiver leaves and avoids them upon return; they show less anxiety around the stranger

  • insecure-resistant (ambivalent) attachment: infants are very distressed when the caregiver leaves and resist comfort upon return; they are clingy and show difficulty in exploring the room independently

• research suggests that a caregiver’s responsiveness to the infant’s needs largely influences the attachment style and independence

Rutter investigation and findings?

investigated:

• children adopted from Romanian orphanages after experiencing severe neglect and deprivation

• understand how early life experiences affect emotional, cognitive, and social development

• argued quality of care = more crucial than separation alone

findings:

• children adopted up to 6 months had much better outcomes compared to those adopted later

• those who experienced longer periods of deprivation (adopted after six months):

  • higher rates of attachment disorders

  • cognitive impairments, ie lower IQ

  • social and emotional difficulties, ie disinhibited attachment (overly friendly with strangers)

• emphasised the importance of sensitive caregiving in early years to overcome adverse effects of deprivation

bonus: identify the difference between privation and deprivation with reference to rutter (unessential but can display discerning application of knowledge!)

privation pertains to the lack of any attachment figure during childhood, whereas deprivation refers to the loss of an attachment figure, such as the loss of a parent, as seen in Rutter’s Romanian twin study. Rutter investigated the adverse effects of neglect during infancy and how this impacts these children’s development and adulthood. This experiment differentiated between these two factors to demonstrate how separate experiences during infancy influenced cognitive development.

Vygotsky investigation and findings?

investigated:

• social interaction = influence on cognitive development

• developed the sociocultural theory, which emphasises that learning and development are fundamentally a social process

findings:

• there are 3 key concepts of his theory:

  • zone of proximal development - continuum of cognitive development stretching from solo performance to collaborative cooperation

  • more knowledgeable other - another individual with greater knowledge about a particular topic

  • scaffolding - providing support to a child to help them learn and master a task independently

Piaget investigation and findings? define each four stages

• emphasised that children are active learners who construct their own understanding of the world

• focused on how thinking changes as children grow, proposing four stages of cognitive development:

findings:

• sensorimotor - infants learn about the world through senses (hearing, seeing) and actions ((motor) such as grasping or pulling)

• preoperational - children continue to develop and use symbols, images, and language to represent their world

• concrete operational - children can perform basic mental problems that involve physical objects (begin to understand reversibility and conservation)

• formal operational - children are able to think logically and methodically about physical and abstract problems (can perform hypothetical problems, and can form and test hypotheses)

define egocentrism and identify which stage of piagets theory it pertains to

egocentrism is the difficulty to perceive other people’s perspectives, and is a part of the preoperational stage

define centration and identify which stage of piaget’s theory it pertains to

children can only focus on one aspect of a task at a time, ie if asked to organise blocks according to size and colour, they will organise by either or, but not both. pertains to piaget’s preoperational stage

define seriation and identify which stage of piaget’s theory it pertains to

children will have difficulty arranging objects according to one dimension, ie sticks by size. pertains to piaget’s preoperational stage

summarise the differences between vygotsky and piaget

piaget theorised that there were universal stages of cognitive development that every child goes through sequentially, and is independent of cultrual context (ie society, religion, economic state, etc). on the other hand, vygotsky places more emphasis on the impacts of culture that can influence cognitive development in a less rigid manner

Harlow investigation and findings?

investigated/method:

• attachment and importance of caregiving in early development

• conducted using rhesus monkeys to study how maternal separation and social isolation affect behaviour

• monkeys were raised with two types of surrogate mothers:

  • wire mother: provided food but not comfort

  • cloth mother: provided no food but was soft (and thus comforting)

• aimed to identify whether attachment was driven via nourishment (or dependence) or comfort

findings:

• monkeys preferred cloth mother significantly over wire mother, even with no provision of food

• demonstrated that contact comfort (physical closeness) was more important for attachment than the provision of food

• monkeys raised with wire mothers showed signs of emotional distress (maladaptive behaviours!) and social issues, such as rocking themselves, self-harming, social withdrawal, aggression, and inability to mate (ie cannot form attachment!)

• emphasised critical role of affection and bonding in healthy emotional and social development, challenging early ideas that attachment was based solely on feeding

Bouchard and colleagues’ investigation and findings?

investigated:

• aimed to understand the relative influence of genetic (nature) v environment (nurture) on various human traits

• focused on identical (monozygotic, or MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic, or DZ) twins, many of whom were raised apart in different environments

• collected data on intelligence and several other traits, including personality, behaviour, and mental health to compare twins reared together and apart

findings:

• strong positive correlation - correlation between identical twins reared apart was nearly as high as scores for reared together, indicating significant genetic influence

• IQ correlation between fraternal twins was much lower, further supporting genetic influence over environment

• concluded that both nature and nurture interact in complex ways to shape individuals, with genetics often setting potential limits, while environment determines how those potentials are expressed

Gardner investigation and what did he propose? (provide 3 examples of his intelligences)

investigate:

• proposed Multiple Intelligences in 1983, challenging traditional view that intelligence is a single, general ability measurable by IQ tests

• argues that people posses different kinds of intelligence, each independent from others

proposed:

• eight intelligences, some of which are:

  • linguistic

  • logial-mathematical

  • spatial

Singer/Schachter investigation and what did they propose?

investigate:

• the two factor theory of emotion:

  1. physiological arousal: bodily changes occur in response to stimulus (ie heightened BPM, erratic breathing, tears)

  2. cognitive interpretation: the interpretation of physiological arousal based on context or environment and identifying emotion

proposed:

• to identify and experience an emotion, individuals need to interpret and label their physiological arousal by examining the situational context to determine the emotional experience appropriate

• emphasises the interplay between physical arousal and cognitive processes in the experience of emotions, highlighting that emotion is a result of both physiological and cognitive factors

Lazarus investigation and findings?

investigated:

• the cognitive appraisal theory: emphasises the role of thought processes in experiencing and managing emotions

• focused on how individuals evaluate or appraise a situation to determine emotional response

findings:

• primary appraisal:

  • initial evaluation of situation in regard to one’s wellbeing and if it is perceived as a threat, challenge, or harm/loss

  • determine whether situation has potential positive or negative consequences

• secondary appraisal:

  • involves evaluating resources and options available to cope with situation

  • assess one’s ability to handle stressors (cope) and possible strategies for management

• emotional response:

  • how individuals perceive and evaluate situation and ability to cope influences their emotional experience and coping strategies (ie there’s a dog? fear! i can’t run! oh its behind a fence? then its ok)

• emphasised cognitive evaluation as central to how emotions are experienced and managed

differentiate between lazarus and shachter-singer

lazarus says its thinking (cog. appraisal) before emotion, whereas schacter-singer say its emotion (physiological arousal) before thinking (labelling emotion)

Ochsher and Gross investigation and findings? define fMRI in your response

investigated:

• studied fMRI - type of brain scan that shows which part of the brain are activating during certain tasks through using strong magnets to take detailed photos of the brain - to determine if emotional responses were more present in certain areas of the brain

findings:

• the prefrontal cortex is involved in cognitive reappraisal, as is the amygdala, which has been implicated in emotional responding

• they found that the amygdala’s involvement changes depending on what the reappraisal is trying to achieve

Lorenz investigation and findings? define imprinting in your response

investigate:

• imprinting, which is a type of learning where young animals (ie ducklings) form a strong attachment to the first moving object they see after hatching

• split a group of goose eggs in two:

  1. half hatched with their mother present (group A)

  2. the other half hatched in an incubator, where Lorenz was the first moving object they saw (group B)

findings:

• group A followed the mother, as expected, where group B attached maternal dependence onto Lorenz, to the point of preferring him over other ducks

• imprinting occurs during a critical period, where after birth the attachment process is strongest

• imprinting is irreversible, meaning that once the ducklings imprinted on Lorenz (or any other object), they would not change their attachment later

• demonstrated that some animals have a built-in mechanism for attachment that happens almost instantly after birth, which highlights the importance of early experiences in development

LeDoux investigation and what did he propose? draw his model

investigate:

• brain processes fear and emotional responses, specifically in the amygdala

• studied reactions to threats, distinguishing between two pathways for emotional processing: the “short route” and the “long route”

findings:

• short route (fast, unconscious reaction)

  • environmental stimuli → thalamus → amygdala

  • initial appraisal for situation = beneficial in F-F-F response, and actives necessary physiological systems (ie nervous system) quickly

• long route (slower, conscious processing)

  • environmental stimuli → thalamus → sensory cortex → hippocampus → amygdala

  • allowing time to consider the whole situation, ie am i in danger?, instead of instantly reacting

Frederickson investigation and findings?

investigate:

• how positive emotions impact thoughts, actions, and overall wellbeing

• proposed positive emotions broaden our awareness and helps us build lasting mental and social resources

findings:

• broaden: positive emotions expand our thinking and open minds to new ideas, possibilities, and experiences, ie happy + curious = more likely to explore and try new things

• build: over time, these broadened thoughts and behaviours build personal resources like skills, relationships, and knowledge

• suggests that cultivating a positive emotion is essential for personal development and psychological resilience, which aids in coping with future challenges

Diener investigation and findings? what are the 2 key areas in his model?

investigation:

• how people evaluate their lives to determine their level of wellbeing

• subjective nature of wellbeing is that it relies on a person’s own experience, suggesting that people can evaluate lives from:

  • life domains, ie work, friends, family, etc

  • global judgement, ie general feelings about their lives/the world

  • ongoing feelings about what is happening to them (rumination)

findings:

• there are 2 key areas that focus on how happiness can be measured and thus increased:

  1. life satisfaction - global judgement and satisfaction with areas of one’s life, influenced by overall positive mood and by domains closest to you (ie relationships)

  2. affective balance - moods, emotions, and feelings an individual has over a period of time

Ryff investigation and what did she propose?

investigation:

• the concepts that contribute to well-being that lead to a fulfilling life

propose:

• 6 key components relevant to understanding well-being:

  1. autonomy

  2. feeling able to influence our environment (feeling in control)

  3. personal growth

  4. positive relations with others

  5. purpose in life (ie goals, religion)

  6. self-acceptance

Csikszentmihalyi investigation and what did he propose?

investigate:

• what makes people feel truly engaged and satisfied during activities

• proposed the concept of flow, a state of immersion and focus where people lose track of time and experience deep enjoyment/fulfillment

propose:

• 6 components that can be experienced individually or several at once, but unless experienced all 6 at the same time, you are not experiencing flow

  1. intense and focused on concentration on the present moment

  2. merging of action and awareness

  3. loss of reflective self-consciousness

  4. sense of personal control over situation/activity

  5. altered experience of time

  6. experiencing activity as rewarding

Rosenhan investigation and findings? reference year

investigate:

• conducted Being Sane in Insane Places experiment in 1973 to test the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses

• sent 8 “pseudopatients” (pseudo = fake) to various psychiatric hospitals, where they pretended to hear voices to test if they would be admitted and diagnosed with mental illness

• all hospitals were thus unable to diagnose and treat pseudopatients correctly. when his findings were released, hospitals challenged him, saying “send me more, and we’ll find them”. of 193 patients, 41 were considered imposters and a further 42 were considered suspects - in reality, Rosenhan had sent no pseudopatients, further proving the unreliability of the diagnostic system

findings:

• admission and diagnoses:

  • all pseudopatients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals and diagnosed with schizophrenia, even though they only reported hearing voices, no other symptoms

  • once inside, pseudopatients acted completely normal yet no hospital staff identified them as faking their symptoms

• treatment of stigma:

  • pseudopatients stayed in the hospitals for an average of 19 days, with one staying 52 days

  • despite normal behaviour after admission, staff continued to interpret behaviour as signs of mental illness

  • highlighted how labels like “schizophrenia” influenced how patients were perceived

• impact:

  • demonstrated the inaccuracy of psychiatric diagnoses and raised concerns about the dehumanising treatment of patients in mental health facilities

  • concluded that psychiatric labels “stick”

Locke investigation and what did he propose?

investigation:

• relationship between how difficult a task is and how people performed

proposed:

• 5 principles of goal setting:

  1. clear

  2. challenging

  3. commitment

  4. feedback

  5. task complexity