Psychology IGCSE Edexel Topic 1-6

Bystander intervention - situational factors

• diffusion of responsibilities

• noticing the event

• pluralistic ignorance

• cost of helping

Latene and Darley (1968) - outline

found we take longer to notice the smoke when we are in groups than alone.

Bystander intervention - personal factors

• competence

• mood

• similarity

Jennes (1932) outline

asked participants to guess jelly beans in glass jars, participants were likely to change their first guess following the discussion within the group -> informational social influence

conformity - situational factors

• size of majority

• unanimity of the majority

• task difficulty/ambiguity

conformity - personal factors

• internal locus control

• external locus of control

Asch's line study (1950) - results

• one confederate → 3% conformity rate

• two confederate → 13% conformity rate

• three confederate → 32% conformity rate

crowd behaviour

can be prosocial or antisocial

in crowd we feel ambiguous so we tend to form a new identify, deindividuation and increase conformity and internalise views

authority members may influence others in crowd positively or negatively

milgram (1963) - aim

to see ppl would follow order of an authority figure to harm another person

milgram (1963) - results

• 65% continued to do it ( able to hear other person being shocked)

obedience - situational factors

• proximity of the victim

• proximity of authority figure

• authority figure

• legitimacy of context

• personal responsibilities

• support of others

obedience - situational factors (Milgram)

• proximity of the victim - in the same room = 40%

• proximity of authoritative figure - telephone = 20.5%

• authority figure - ordinary = 20%

• legitimacy of context - Yale uni =. - Random office block = 47.5%

• personal responsibilities - two people = 90%

• support of others

obedience - other factors

momentum of compliance

obedience - personality factors

• external locus control - more follow orders, less responsibilities

• internal locus control - more self directed less obedience

Adorno et al. (1950) said authoritarian personality..

developed F scale to test

authoritarian personality

• respect for authority figures

• strong belief in justice

• rigid beliefs and attitudes

• right-wing politics

• aggressive to those inferior to themselves

Ways to prevent blind obedience

• social support

• familiarity of the situation

• distance

• education

Holfing et al (1966) outline

demonstrated how doctors could order nurse to give an overdose drug to a patient without authorising prescription signature -> unfamiliar drugs

Rank and Jacobson (1977) outline

replicated holfing's study allowing nurse discuss the doctor's order to another nurse -> obedience dropped when found a supporting colleague -> drugs were well known

Piliavin et al. - year

1969

Piliavin et al (1969) - aim

To investigate helping behaviour in a natural environment and understand the conditions in which people are more likely to help.

Piliavin et al (1969) - participants

103 trials of 4500 men and woman at subway trains of new york

Piliavin et al (1969) - results

• 81/103 victim was helped before model planned to help

• 60% more than 1 person helped

• 90% first helpers were male

• 64% first helpers where white

• 68% first helper was white and victim also white

• 50% first helper was white and victim black

Piliavin et al (1969) - conc

• more likely to help someone ill than drunk as there is less cost of helping

• men help more than woman as woman have lower cost of not helping since they are not expected to help

• larger groups are more likely to help than smaller as cost of helping is larger - others see you not helping causing guilt

Piliavin et al (1969) - strength

field experiment - ecological validity

covert observation - no demand characterisitcs

Piliavin et al (1969) - weaknesses

ethical issues

informed consent, right to withdraw, debriefing, protection from undue stress or harm

Haney et al. year

1973

Haney et al (1973) - aim

to investigate the psychological effects of being assigned the role of either guard or prisoner and put into a simulated prison environment

Haney et al (1973) - participants

21 male college level participants

roles randomly assigned 10 prisoners 11 guards

Haney et al (1973) - results

• after a few hours guard became increasingly aggressive and controlling over prisoners

• punished with pushups and verbal assault

• second day prisoners rebelled and guards stopped them using fire distinguishers

• study stopped after 6 days because it went out of control

Haney et al (1973) - conc

• both prisoners and guards conformed to their assigned roles -> uniforms

• lost identities and adopted their assigned identities

• especially prisoners as they were stripped of even their names

Haney et al (1973) - advantages

recordings show they were immersed in the situation and not acting -> valid

can explain atrocities that occurred in prison situations

Haney et al (1973) - weaknesses

ethical concerns - prisoners were subjected to physical and psychological harm

stimulated prison - participants could've been acting, decreases ecological validity

only using male college students, limits generalisability since real prisons have more diverse populations

function of frontal lobe

decision making, problem solving skills, help concentrate and in difficult activity

contains the motor cortex -> voluntary movements

function of temporal lobe

hearing and understanding sound, creating speech and memory

function of pariental lobe

perception

contains somatosensory cortex

somatosensory cortex

sense of touch

function of occipital lobe

deals with ability to see and make sense of information we see

function of cerebellum

motor skills, takes info from our senses, spinal cord and parts of the brain and combine them to coordinate behaviour

assymetrical function

two sides of the brain have different functions and joined together by the corpus callosum

corpus callosum

bundle of nerve fibres which connects brain

Roles of left hemisphere

logic, analytic thinking, language

includes the broca's area

roles of the right hemisphere

spatial awareness, creativity, imagination, artistic, expressive tasks

gender differences in lateralisation

females better at language and some say females have thicker corpus callosm

males have better spatial skills

males show more dominance for one hemisphere

gender differences in lateralisation - strengths + weaknesses

evidence

Harasty et al (1997)

Found that women have proportionally larger Broca's and Wernicke's areas, and suggested that this relates to their greater use of language compared to men.

Rilea et al. (2005)

males were better at some spatial tasks, especially those that use a lot of activity in the right hemisphere. however they did not always do better than females on the spatial tasks

Sommer et al (2002)

no strong evidence that females used both hemispheres for language tasks. Not a good explanations why girls are better at language than boys

the Central nervous system

brain and spinal cord

peripheral nervous system

connects the CNS to the skin, muscles and organs in the body

carries out the actions required by the message from the brain

types of neurons

sensory, relay, motor

neurotransmitters

chemicals found that pass messages from one neuron to another across a synapse

dopamine

plays a role in attention - lack causes difficulties to concentrate on tasks

serotonin

mood - depressed if lack

GABA

calming - lack = stress

synapse

the gap between neurons in the nervous system

steps of synamptic transmission

An electrical impulse known as the action potential travels along the axon

The action potential triggers the release of the neurotransmitters into they synaptic gap

the neurotransmitters diffuse across the synaptic gap

The neurotransmitters bind to receptors in the post synaptic neuron that fit the shape of the neurotransmitter

the binding of neurotransmitter to receptors stimulates an action potential in the next neurone