psychology paper 1

Social Influence

• Types of Conformivity:

  • Internalisation: Deepest level; public and private change in belief system. Permanent.

  • Compliance: Surface level; public change only to fit in, privately disagreeing. Lasts only with the group.

• Explanations:

  • Informational Social Influence ($ISI$): Desire to be correct; happens in ambiguous situations; leads to internalisation.

  • Normative Social Influence ($NSI$): Desire to be liked; leads to compliance.

• Asch ($1951$):

  • Procedure: $123$ male participants; line matching task with $7$ to $9$ confederates.

  • Findings: Participants conformed on $32\%$ of critical trials; $75\%$ conformed at least once.

  • Variables: Conformity increases with Group Size (up to three), decreases with Unanimity (presence of a dissenter), and increases with Task Difficulty.

• Obedience:

  • Milgram ($1963$): $40$ US males; $65\%$ obeyed orders to deliver lethal $450\,V$ shocks to "Mr Wallace".

  • Situational Variables: Obedience dropped with decreased Proximity (phone instructions: $21\%$), less prestigious Location (office block: $47.5\%$), and lack of Uniform ($20\%$).

  • Explanations: Agentic State (acting for an authority) vs. Autonomous State; Legitimacy of Authority.

• Resistance: Supported by Social Support (dissenters) and a high Internal Locus of Control ($LoC$).

• Minority Influence: Requires Consistency, Commitment (augmentation principle), and Flexibility. Leads to Social Cryptomnesia (snowball effect).

Memory

• Multi-Store Model ($MSM$):

  • Sensory Register: Capacity: unlimited; Duration: $500\,ms$.

  • Short-Term Memory ($STM$): Capacity: $7\pm2$ items; Duration: up to $30\,s$; Coding: Acoustic.

  • Long-Term Memory ($LTM$): Capacity/Duration: unlimited; Coding: Semantic.

• Working Memory Model ($WMM$):

  • Central Executive: Allocates data to subsystems.

  • Phonological Loop: Auditory data (Phonological Store and Articulatory Process).

  • Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad: Visual and spatial data (Visual Cache and Inner Scribe).

  • Episodic Buffer: Integrates information and links to $LTM$.

• Forgetting:

  • Interference: Proactive (old disturbs new) and Retroactive (new disturbs old).

  • Retrieval Failure: Absence of external Context cues or internal State cues.

• Eyewitness Testimony ($EWT$):

  • Leading Questions: $Loftus\,and\,Palmer$ found verbs like "smashed" increased speed estimates.

  • Anxiety: Weapon Focus Effect (lowers recall); however, Inverted U Hypothesis suggests moderate anxiety aids recall.

• Cognitive Interview ($CI$): Techniques include Context Reinstatement, Report Everything, Reverse Order, and Change Perspective.

Attachment

• Animal Studies:

  • Lorenz: Imprinting in geese occurs within a critical period of $4-25$ hours.

  • Harlow: Rhesus monkeys preferred "contact comfort" (cloth mother) over food (wire mother).

• Explanations:

  • Learning Theory: Attachment via classical (food association) and operant (crying reinforcement) conditioning.

  • Bowlby's Monotropic Theory: Attachment is innate; one primary figure (monotropy); critical period ($0-2.5$ years); Internal Working Model acts as a template.

• Strange Situation ($Ainsworth$):

  • Secure ($70\%$): Distressed when caregiver leaves, happy on reunion.

  • Insecure-Avoidant ($15\%$): Low distress on separation, avoids reunion.

  • Insecure-Resistant ($15\%$): Intense distress, seeks but resists caregiver on reunion.

• Cultural Variations: $van\,Ijzendoorn$ meta-analysis found Secure is most common; intra-cultural variation is greater than inter-cultural.

• Maternal Deprivation: Permanent disruption leads to low $IQ$ and Affectionless Psychopathy ($44\,Juvenile\,Thieves$ study).

• Institutionalisation: $Rutter's$ study of $165$ Romanian orphans found Disinhibited Attachment and developmental delays, reversible if adopted before $6$ months.

Clinical Psychology and Mental Health

• Definitions of Abnormality:

  • Statistical Infrequency: Numerically rare traits.

  • Deviation from Social Norms: Violating societal rules.

  • Failure to Function Adequately ($FFA$): Inability to cope with daily life.

  • Deviation from Ideal Mental Health: Failing to meet $Jahoda's$ criteria (e.g., Autonomy, Accurate perception of reality).

• Phobias:

  • Explanation: Two-Process Model (acquired by Classical Conditioning, maintained by Operant Conditioning/Avoidance).

  • Treatment: Systematic Desensitisation (anxiety hierarchy, relaxation) and Flooding (immediate exposure).

• Depression:

  • Explanation: Beck's Negative Triad (Self, World, Future) and Ellis's ABC Model (irrational beliefs).

  • Treatment: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy ($CBT$); challenging irrational thoughts.

• OCD:

  • Genetic: Polygenic; genes like $SERT$ and $COMT$ implicated.

  • Neural: Overactive Prefrontal Cortex ($PFC$) and Orbitofrontal Cortex ($OFC$); low serotonin.

  • Treatment: Drug Therapy ($SSRIs$) to increase serotonin availability.

Questions & Discussion

• Conformity: How to define and distinguish between Internalisation (3 marks) and Compliance (3 marks).

• Asch: Discussing limitations like ecological validity and temporal validity (8 marks).

• Milgram: Discussing the ethics of deception and psychological harm vs. the benefit of standardized results (4 marks).

• Attachment: The distinction between deprivation and privation ($Rutter$).

• EWT: Evaluation of whether the Cognitive Interview increases incorrect info ($Kohnken\,et\,al.,\,1999$).