PSYCH SEM 2 EXAM EVERYTHING!!

Social influence

the influence that occurs when an individual, group, or institution alters another’s thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviour through accidental, expressive, or rhetorical communication

3 levels of social influence (Kelman, 1958)

Compliance, identification, internalisation

Compliance

Weakest form of influence; an individual accepts influence because they want a favourable reaction or to avoid punishment/disapproval (temporary)

Identification

Occurs through the process of group identification; an individual sees themselves as similar/connected to the person or group, hence adopting their attitudes, values, or behaviours

Internalisation

Occurs because the new thoughts, feelings, and/o behaviours are rewarding and congruent with your own values (new attitude is useful/fulfils a need)

Obedience

Change in behaviour in response to an instruction from an authority figure

Milgram (1963)

Explored whether people would harm another person simply because authority told them to; subjects were teachers conducting tests on confederates, giving them increasing voltage as punishment for incorrect answers; at 150 volts the learner asks to stop, but the experimenter encourages the teacher to continue (65% delivered the full 450 volts)

Conformity

the process of changing one’s behaviour in response to group pressure (due to either informational or normative influence)

Informational influence

Taking cues from others around us to decide how to behave (e.g. difficult task, unfamiliar environment, etc.)

Normative influence

Taking cues from group norms to belong and be accepted in the group/avoid disapproval and exclusion

Line judgement task (Asch, 1951)

Determined whether people would knowingly give an incorrect answer to conform with the majority; participant is put in a room with four or six confederates and told they were doing a vision test. There were 18 trials, where the group was shown two cards (one with 3 diff lines, one with one line) and asked which comparison line was most likely the target line; all confederates gave the same wrong answer, and the participant answered last. Avg. subject conformed on 1/3 of the trials.

Factors affecting conformity (4)

Group size, unanimity, culture, deindividuation

Antisocial behaviour

intentional and harmful behaviours towards another person, property, or common good (negatively valued by society, may result in reward, includes withholding help)

Factors affecting antisocial behaviour (5)

Diffusion of responsibility, audience inhibition, social influence, cost-benefit analysis, groupthink

Diffusion of responsibility

individuals within a group feel decreasingly responsible or accountable to act as group size increases

Audience inhibition

when performance decreases when in the presence of others due to fear of evaluation (also depends on your sense of competence)

Types of social influence (4)

Social norms, direct teaching, modelling, reinforcement

Cost-benefit analysis

Social interactions are viewed as exchanges; we aim to enter exchanges which have greater rewards than costs

Groupthink

When the desire for group consensus overrides rational consideration of alternatives , because those with dissenting opinions are vilified/pressured to conform.

Bystander effect

When the presence of multiple bystanders inhibits each person’s tendency to help, largely due to comparison or social responsibility

Factors influencing the bystander effect (3)

Similarity, gender, group size and unanimity

Smoke filled room (Latane & Darley, 1968)

Tested whether the number of bystanders affected how quickly someone helped; participants sat in a room filling out a questionnaire when smoke started to fill the room (alone they reported the smoke 75% of the time, while in a room with 2 passive confederates it was reported 10% of the time)

Prosocial behaviour

When a person selflessly does something to help somebody else with little regard for their own self-interest or personal safety (valued positively by society)

Factors influencing prosocial behaviour (4)

Reciprocity, social responsibility, personal characteristics, altruism

7 steps in psychological research

Identify research issue, develop exact question/hypothesis, choose research design and method, collect data, analyse data, interpret data, report findings

Scientific methods

Involve a systematic approach to planning and conducting research

Non-scientific methods

Not systematic, can be testimonials, opinions, common sense, or intuition

Experimental methods

Determine the relationship between an IV and DV by manipulating one or more IV

Non-experimental methods

Don’t involve the manipulation of variables, instead they observe variables in the world around us and note their relationships (e.g. case study, observational study)

Directional hypothesis

population, IV and DV, direction, measurement

Evidence based conclusion (4)

Description of data, importance of results, reference to theory and evidence, hypothesis supported?

Subjective quantitative methods

Likert scales, rating scales, checklists

Subjective qualitative methods

Observational tools, interviews

Objective quantitative

Physiological measures (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure)

Placebo effect

When participant behaviour changes because of expectation of treatment

Minimising effect of extraneous/confounding variables (5)

random allocation, use of a placebo, single blind procedure, double blind procedure, standardised procedure

Validity

The extent to which a test measures what it intends to measure

Internal validity

Control over extraneous variables

External validity

How well the findings apply to real world contexts

Reliability

The extent to which a test provides consistent results across time and across individuals

Test-rest reliability

Does the test produces consistent results across time?

Inter-rater reliability

Does the test produce consistent results across people?

Role of ethics committees

To approve and monitor the conduct of psychological research

Participant rights in psychological research (5)

Right to protection from harm, informed consent, voluntary participation/withdrawal rights, confidentiality, privacy

3 Rs of animal research

replacement, reduction, refinement

Name, year 3 levels of social influence

Kelman (1958)

Name, year Shock treatment/obedience study

Milgram (1963)

Name, year Smoke filled room

Latane and Darley (1968)

Name, year Line judgement task

Asch (1951)

Nervous System

A biological system that receives information via sensory pathways, processes it via the central nervous system, and coordinates responses via motor pathways.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Consists of the brain and spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Consists of all nerves outside the CNS, including cranial and spinal nerves; it serves as communication lines between the CNS and the rest of the body.

Somatic Nervous System

Division of the PNS that transmits information from sensory receptors toward the CNS and carries motor messages to skeletal muscles to enable voluntary movement.

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

Division of the PNS that regulates involuntary functions

Sympathetic Nervous System

Branch of the ANS that prepares the body to respond to threats (fight or flight)

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Branch of the ANS that returns the body to a resting state and achieves equilibrium of arousal (rest and digest)

Hindbrain

Medulla oblongata, cerebellum

Medulla

Part of the hindbrain responsible for autonomic functions such as breathing and heartbeat (nerves of the spinal cord connect to the brain)

Cerebellum

Part of the hindbrain that coordinates movement and balance

Midbrain

Reticular formation

Forebrain

hypothalamus, thalamus, cerebral cortex

Hypothalamus

A part of the forebrain that regulates body systems and maintains homeostasis.

Thalamus

Located in the forebrain and filters sensory information

Cerebral Cortex

Outer layer of the brain which is involved with information processing (frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe)

Corpus Callosum

Connects the left and right hemispheres, allowing them to communicate

Neuron

A specialized cell that receives, processes, and transmits information within the nervous system using electrical and chemical signals.

Dendrites

Extensions of a neuron that receive incoming information or signals from other neurons.

Soma (Cell Body)

Contains the nucleus and maintains the cell's life processes.

Sensory Neurons (Afferent)

Receive information from the external environment and internal body to transmit it toward the CNS.

Motor Neurons (Efferent)

Transmit messages away from the CNS to muscles, glands, and organs to initiate a movement or response.

Interneurons

Provide rapid neural links between sensory and motor neurons (reflex arcs)

Action Potential

An electrical charge that travels along the axon, initiated when charges reach a certain threshold

Electrochemical Process

action potentials and neurotransmitters

Synapse

Allow the release of neurotransmitters which moderate neural communication

Dopamine

Pleasure neurotransmitter

Serotonin

Mood neurotransmitter

Adrenaline

Fight or flight neurotransmitter

GABA

Calming neurotransmitter

Glutamate

Memory neurotransmitter

Endorphins

Euphoria neurotransmitter

Reuptake

When excess neurotransmitters are reabsorbed in the pre-synaptic neuron

Developmental stages (6)

infancy (0-18 months), childhood (18 months-12 years), adolescence (12-20), early adulthood (20-40), middle age (40-65), old age (65+)

Cognitive development

The emergence of the ability to think, understand, and apply logic

Neural plasticity

The brains ability to respond to change and experience

Stages of developmental plasticity (5)

proliferation, migration, synaptogenesis, synaptic pruning, myelination

Proliferation

Production of new neurons from stem cells

Migration

New cells move to final destination in the body

Synaptogenesis

Creation of connections between neurons by synapse formation

Synaptic pruning

Connections that aren’t useful are removed

Myelination

Axons are insulated with myelin, speeding up transmission

Adaptive neuroplasticity

Changes in the brain that occur in response to experience (functional of structural)

Piaget’s theory

1936

Schemas

A persons collection of related concepts or situations

Assimilation

Adding new information to a pre-existing schema

Accommodation

Adjusting a pre-existing schema to account for inconsistencies between schema and new information

Equilibrium

When schemas successfully explain past experiences and predict new experiences

Disequilibrium

When there are errors in a schema that don’t account for new information

Extraneous variables (definition)

Any variable with an unwanted effect on the DV

Extraneous variables (5)

placebo effect, experimenter effects, participant variables, environment, demand characteristics

Confounding variable

Uncontrolled variables that have affected the DV