To study the mental processes or cognitions. These include memory, perception, thinking and language. The main concern of cognitive is how information is received from our senses is processes by the brain and how this processing directs how we behave

Cognitive psychology are examples of hypothetical constructs. We cannot directly see processes such as thinking but we can INFER what a person is thinking depending on how they act or react to a situation. We are referred to as computer like systems but we are much more sophisticated than modern technology and cognitive psychology can ignore past experience and cultural influence to how we act.

INPUT

(e.g. keyboard/senses)

PROCESS

(e.g. internal processor/brain)

OUTPUT

(e.g. printout/emotions, action or behaviour)

Strengths Weaknesses

Tends to use LAB EXPERIMENTS so highly controlled. And able to do cause and effect statements

The validity has issues as we can only INFER what a person is thinking so relies on self report or observations – social desirability.

Useful contributions have appeared from this approach e.g. modern therapy

As it relies on computer analogies, it can bereductionist and mechanistic.

Reconstruction of car destruction: an example of interaction between language and memory

To investigate how information supplied after an event influences a witness’s memory for that event

Early studies show memories are not accurate records of our experiences. We try and fit past events into existing representations to make memories more coherent.

EXPERIMENT 1 five conditions and speed estimates

SmashedCollidedBumped

HitContacted

IV – question askedDV – speed estimate givenQuestion: about how fast were the cars going when they ______ each other

VERB MEAN SPEED (mph)

Smashed 40.8

Collided 39.3

Bumped 38.1

Hit 34.0

Contacted 31.8

Either distortion in memory or response bias factors (didn't know speed so guess to go with the expectations)

A QUASI/LAB EXPERIMENT (Experiment 1 – 45 participants - Experiment 2 – 150 participants)

EXPERIMENT 2watched a 1 minute clip which contained 4 sec scene of a multiple car accident and were questioned50 were asked ‘How fast were the cars travelling when they HIT each other’50 were asked ‘How fast were the cars travelling when they SMASHED into each other’ 50 were not asked about speedA week later they returned and were asked if they saw broken glass (there was no broken glass)

Response Smashed Hit Control

Yes 16 7 6

No 34 43 44

TWO kinds of information go into a persons memory of an event:• Information obtained from perceiving an event• Other information supplied after an eventOver time the 2 sources are integrated in such a way that we are unable to tell from which source specific detail is recalled

This explanation is referred to as reconstructive hypothesisE.g. in the 2nd experiment they supply external information, namely, that the cars DID smash into each other which makes a persons memory more severe than before. This means they think glass is present!

Strengths Limitations

Precise controls of variables e.g. being asked the same question etc

Not typical of real life situations. Real witnesses would have seen the incident happening so not ECOLOGICALLY VALID

/ Using students as participants as they have to remember useless information

Method:

Explanation:

Two pieces of information go into a person’s mind after a complex event. As said above ^, but it is important to recognise that other factors can influence memory e.g. alcohol etc. Other arguments is that witnesses merely follow the questioner’s suggestions leaving the real memory intact for retrieval under the right conditions

Implications:

Its is now no longer safe to convict on ONE eyewitness testimony alonePolice and Lawyers shouldn’t ask leading questions, but it is still carried out

Another advanced test of theory of mind

To investigate if high functioning adults with autism or asperger’s syndrome would be impaired on the theory of mind task; Reading the mind in the eyes

Studies show that autistic and asperger’s children struggle with the first order test, the Sally-Anne test, and as they get older, the second order tests, the strange stories task

BUT adults with autism and asperger’s can pass itMeaning, to test Autism in adults, a new test must be created.

Autism and Asperger's Triad of impairments:(i) Difficulties with social interaction

(ii) Difficulties with verbal and non verbal communication

(iii) A lack of imaginative play

A QUASAI/LAB EXPERIMENTIV – type of participant usedDV – performance on task

GROUP 1: 16 high functioning Autism or Asperger's with normal intelligence recruited through and advert. 13 men 3 womenGROUP 2: 50 age-matched controls with no psychiatric history hired from a university department. 25 men 25 womenGROUP 3: 10 participants with Tourette’s matched with groups 1+2 obtained from a referral centre in London. 8 men 2 women

TASKGender Recognition Task: looking at the same set of eyes as the other task, but noting the gender. A social judgement and no ‘mind reading’ is involved, any problems could be to do with face or social perception.Basic Emotion Recognition Task: involved judging photographs of WHOLE faces displaying basic emotion (e.g. happy sad etc). to check whether any problems be because they don’t recognise basic emotionsThe Eyes Task: photographs of the eye region of 25 male and female faces taken from a magazine and standardized (all b+w, of the same region, and same size). It was shown for 3 seconds and participants were given a forced choice question with semantic opposites.MAX SCORE 25

CONDITION MEAN SCORE ON EYE TASK

Autism/Asperger’s 16.3

‘Normal’ 20.3

Tourette’s 20.4

CONDITION MEAN SCORE ON EYE TASK

‘Normal’ Males 18.8

‘Normal’ Females 21.8

• Provide experimental evidence for a subtle theory of mind deficit in individuals with autism/asperger’s• Mirrors other difficulties that autistic/ asperger's suffer from, e.g. understanding mentalistic significance in the eyes • CRITISM that this is a non-autistic person’s view of an autistic person’s mind so many autistic/asperger’s sufferers don’t accept this work• There is a sex difference in the rate of development of theory of mind in childhood and this could cause female superiority in language and male superiority in spatial skills

STRENGTH WEAKNESSES

Control of Variables e.g. intelligence, sex, and development disorders. Researches could ensure that diff in score was to do with being autism/asperger’s

Ecological Validity People were tested in a lab so the situation may have an effected performance. Also real life stimuli are not static.

Standardized every participant was tested in the same way. By using standardized photographs etc it ensures the IV was affecting the DV.

Validity may not actually be measuring theory of mind. Researchers say that target words were mental states and they include cognitive mental states and therefore is more than just an emotion test. Scores also mirrored results on strange stories task

Collected quantitative data scores enables researchers to do statistical analysis

Results deficit on eyes task was not mirrored on the two control tasks.

Spontaneous language acquisition and communication use by pygmy chimpanzees

To study the human language capabilities in two pygmy chimpanzees (Kanzi and Mulika) compared to two common chimpanzees (Sherman and Austin)

This study investigates if Bonobo’s could spontaneously understand symbols, show on a lexigram and therefore ‘communicate’ with people. Training them to speak is impossible as they do not have the necessary vocal chords. It was shown that some pygmy chimps could understand the spoken word, whereas common cannot.

In-depth longitudinal CASE STUDY gathered over a 10 year span, but this report is after 17 monthsNote: this was NOT an experiment, but they did compare between 2 chimps so the IV could have been species and the DV it could have been their language acquisition

Bonobo Chimps:Kanzi – aged 30 to 47 months in the study periodMulika – aged 11 to 21 months in the study periodMatata – Mother and no age mentioned

Common Chimps:Sherman – No age given and part of earlier training programAustin – No age given and part of earlier training programWashoe – produced sign language for another experiment

The bonobo chimps had no formal training, unlike the common, and used the symbols spontaneously. The lexigram, in the indoor enclosure, took reading of everything they produced. Outdoors the record was made by hand and entered into the computer at the end of each day. Each utterance was classified as either, (1) correct or incorrect, (2) spontaneous or imitated or structured.

Kanzi and Mulika were tested to ensure that their performance was not due to contextual cues or inadvertent glances, like Washoe’s was discovered to be. These were done by these 4 tests:

Photograph to lexigram

Spoken English to photograph

Spoken English to lexigram

Synthesised speech to lexigram

SUBJECT RESULT (words)

Kanzi 46

Mulika 37

Spontaneous utterances consistently account for more than 80% of Kanzi's single-word and combinatorial utterances Prompted, imitated, or partially imitated utterances accounted for only 11% of Kanzi's total corpus Mulika's rate of spontaneous utterance production is slightly lower and her rate of imitated utterances somewhat higher. Kanzi and Mulika's symbol usage had been accurate the majority of the time.

When Sherman and Austin first did the formal tests, they were initially confused as once they selected something, e.g. a banana, they expected to receive it.Kanzi and Mulika did well on the formal tests, they were able to pick a lexigram symbol for any picture and human voice, however, they struggled with the synthesised voice but even the experimenters did.

FORMAL TESTING FOR KANZI:When Kanzi was 3 years old he was challenged to take a ‘blind’ visitor round the outdoor enclosure. They had to name an area of the enclosure, in spoken English, and Kanzi would direct them. He was able to do this easilyMulika was not given this test as she did not like to travel without Kanzi at the point.

Comparisons given between common and pygmy chimps:Training - Common chimps had to be trained to use the Lexigram, whereas pygmy chimps acquired their symbol use through observationSpoken English - Pygmy chimps understand spoken English, whereas common cant. No one trained them to understand it and it was an unforeseen outcomeSymbol Use - Common chimps do not specify with symbols. E.g. they may use ‘coke’ and ‘juice’ to mean a drink. Once a symbol was assigned for the pygmy no mistake was made again Requests - Sherman and Austin never formed requests, whereas Kanzi did and seemed to learn speech rules, as if he developed syntax

The longitudinal case study meant in-depth data could be collected and allows development to be studied over timeHigh in ecological validity as they can roam from place to place BUT this is not their natural environmentData was gathered under rigorous controls, e.g. formal tests, therefore less likely to be subject to bias. Also the data gathered was qualitative and quantitative so richness and analysis was doneEthical nature can be questioned as it seems to cruel to test animals in such a formal wayGeneralisation from a small populationMany researchers still doubt they were using language in the way humans do

That cognitive, emotional and behavioural development is an ongoing process and that such changes happen from an interaction of nature and nurture.Developmental psychology is interested in discovering the psychological processes of development

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Many studies are longitudinal so we are able to investigate changes and how they are influenced

No studies are done on adults, these seem to be ignored so we don’t know if adults develop any more

Investigates different areas of development e.g. cognitive and emotional

Tendency to generalise from very limited samples

Helps us to understand how children learn and deal with emotional difficulties, therefore improving their lives

Validity of measuring children’s thoughts and behaviour, we cant see why they are doing it so it is all INFERRED

Asking only one question in the conservation experiment

To challenge Piaget’s findings by altering the method used by Piaget on the conservation task

Piaget put forward a theory that a child has an actual qualitative difference in their thoughts compared to adults, he came up with 4 stages about a child’s development. The ages are approximates and every child goes through all the stages, but some go faster while others stay in the stage longer

Sensory Motor

(Birth 18months)

Pre-operational

(18months 7 years)

Concrete Operational

(7years 12years)

Formal Operational

(12years and above)

Piaget said that in the stages, conservation development takes place. He argued that a child can not understand that things remain the same despite changes in appearance

252 Boys and girls from Crediton Devon

5years 3months

Standard

1 judgement

Fixed array

6years 3months

Standard

1 judgement

Fixed array

7years 3months

Standard

1 judgement

Fixed array

8years 3months

Standard

1 judgement

Fixed array

Average age

Tradition 2 question asked by Piaget

1 question asked, the post transformation

Child saw no transformation and asked the question in 1 judgement

Mass Number Volume

Children were shown two equal clay cylinders and then one was squashed. Comparisons were made between the two shapes. Condition 3 only saw post-transformation

Children were shows 6 counters arranged in straight lines. One line became bunched up or spread out. Comparisons were made. Condition 3 only saw post transformation

Children were shown two glasses with equal amounts of liquid. One glass was poured into another glass that was either thinner and taller or short and fat. Condition 3 only saw post transformation

TASK MATERIALS

IV – Condition, Age Group, Material DV – Errors madeTest was done 4 times for every child

• Children found the one judgement task significantly easier than the standard conservation task and the fixed-array control. This was true of all three types of material. • There was a correlation with the age groups, with older groups doing better than the younger• The children made fewer errors on the number task compared with the other two tasks

By asking the same question twice, they believe they are making the child give the wrong answer, as when re-asking a question they think the experimenter wants a different answerChildren who cant conserve volume just haven't worked out a strategy for this skill or aren't applying it

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

Control – e.g. 4 attempts at each task which eliminates chance

Counted the counters so high accuracy on numbers could be due to that

/ Children would be nervous so answer could be spontaneous

Piaget focuses too much on maturational factors but it is agreed that children do think qualitatively to adults

Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models

To demonstrate that if children were passive witnesses to an aggressive model they would imitate this aggressive behaviour when given the opportunity.

SLT (social learning theory) claims that children learn from other people around them. It pushes the theory of observation and imitation of role models, and that all behaviour is learned.They had 4 predictions:

Children exposed to aggressive models will reproduce aggressive

acts resembling those of the models

Children exposed to non-aggressive models will

reproduce less aggressive acts

Children will imitate the behaviour of a same-sex

model to a greater degree than a model of

the opposite sex

Boys will be more predisposed than girls

towards imitating aggression

Aggressive Condition

6 boys with same sex

model

6 boys with opposite sex

model

6 girls with same sex

model

6 girls with opposite sex

model

Non -Aggressive Condition

6 boys with same sex

model

6 boys with opposite sex

model

6 girls with same sex

model

6 girls with opposite sex

model

Bandura gathered 72 boys and girls from the Stamford University Nursery School aged between 37 to 69 months, mean age 4.4 (52 months). They took part in 3 conditions:

LAB EXPERIMENT3 ConditionsMatched Pairs on aggression rated by 2 observers in their nursery (r=0.89)

IV - Condition, Gender of model, Gender of Child DV – Aggression to doll

STAGE ONE: Child is brought to the experimental room by the experimenter. The room is set out for play with toys the children find of interest. One side the model is placed at, with the bobo doll, the child at the other. In the NON AGGRESSIVE condition, the model ignored bobo and assembled toys in a quiet gentle manner. In the AGGRESSIVE condition, the model began assembling toys but after one minute, they became aggressive to bobo in a stylised and distinctive way. After 10 minutes, they took the child to a new games room…

STAGE 2: The new room has attractive children’s toys and as soon as the child begun to play with them, they were told these were their very best toys and they had decided to reserve them for the other children. This was mild aggression arousalSTAGE 3: The child was taken to a new room where it could play with any of the toys. There was a combination of aggressive and non-aggressive toys. The non-aggressive toys included a tea set, crayons, three bears and plastic farm animals and the aggressive toys included a mallet and peg board, dart guns, and a 3 foot Bobo doll. The child was kept in this room for 20 minutes during which time their behaviour was observed by judges through a one-way mirror. Observations were made at 5-second intervals therefore giving 240 response units for each child.

1. The children in the aggressive model condition made more aggressive responses2. Boys made more aggressive responses than girls; 3. The boys in the aggressive model conditions showed more aggressive responses if the model was male4. The girls in the aggressive model conditions also showed more physical aggressive responses if the model was male but more verbal aggressive responses if the model was female

SUPPORTS SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY – helps show children imitate TV violence

Aggressive male models are more likely to be imitated – western culture men are more aggressive than women

STRENGTS LIMITATIONS

As it is an experiment CAUSE AND EFFECT statements can be made

Not ECOLOGICALLY VALID as taken place in a lab limited social situation and normal modelling is in family members

Precise CONTROL of variables Only a SNAP SHOT study, no long term effects noted

REPLICATION as experiments are more easy to replicate Behaviour towards bobo doll could have just been PLAY

Study yields QUANTITATIVE data so can be statistically analysed

UNETHICAL, could suffer long term consequences. Unlikely but we cant be sure

Analysis of a phobia of a 5 year old boy

To report the findings of treatment of a 5 year old boy for his phobia of horses

Freud’s work was the importance of the first few years of life and the subsequent development in personality.The Oedipus complex is part of a young boys unconscious mind. He believed children passed through 5 psychosexual stages within the first 5 years of life. The phallic stage is where a child sexual identification was established

Oral Stage

• Old

Anal Stage

• Aged

Phallic Stage

• Pensioners

Latency period

• Like

Genital Stage

• Gardening

The Oedipus complex is where a young boy, in the phallic stage, develops and intense sexual love for his mother and see’s his father as a threat. The father is bigger and more powerful so the child develops a fear that his father will castrate him. The young boy then ‘identifies with his aggressor’ and shows the way he is similar to his father so there will be no hostility.

CAST STUDY METHOD carried out by the Little Hans’ father, a friend and supporter of Freud. Freud met the boy once and Little Hans’ father corresponded with Freud often. The results are only interpretations of Hans’ correspondences

At the age of 3, Little Hans developed an interest of his ‘widdler’ and those of other people. When Little Hans was almost 5,Hans wrote to Freud saying ‘He is afraid a horse will bite him in the street, and this fear seems somehow connected with his having been frightened by a large penis’. They begun work to find the root of the fear. It was noted the Little Hans’ fear had developed just after he had dreams about losing his mother, and around the time he had been warned not to play with his widdler. Freud argued that Hans had focused his libido (sexual energy) on her.In the months that followed, Little Hans’ phobia got worse and he was eventually scared to leave the house.

One dream Little Hans’ has was summarised as, ‘In the night there was a big giraffe in the room and a crumpled one: and the big one called out because I took the crumpled one away from it. Then it stopped calling out: and I sat down on top of the crumpled one’. Freud and the father interpreted the dream as being a reworking of the morning exchanges in the parental bed as Little Hans’ often got into his parents bed but his father often objected. Freud said the neck was a symbol for the large adult penis, but Hans rejected this idea.When Hans was taken to see Freud, his big fear was horses with black round the mouth and eyes. This could have been a symbol for his father and therefore displacing his fear of his father onto horses. Hans was also particularly frightened about horses falling over as he had witnessed this before. To find the root of his fear, his father asked him leading questions, e.g. Father: When the horse fell down did you think of your daddy?Hans: Perhaps. Yes. It’s possibleThere were 2 dreams to signify the end of this stage, Hans had described a fantasy where he was married to his mother and was playing with his own children. In this fantasy he had promoted his father to the role of grandfather and he described how a plumber came and first removed his bottom and widdler and then gave him another one of each, but larger.

SUPPORTED THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX THEORY! Hans had displaced his fear of his father castrating him onto horses

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

Case study helps to build a long detailed profile on the patient

Relates to only 1 individual in 1 country in 1 time period -ethnocentric

In depth data producing quantitative data Hans’ interpretations only of his sons dreams

Other explanations can be found for the phobia e.g. attachment theory (anxiety rising from threats of the mother to desert the family), or a classic fear of horses

That to understand the complexity of human behaviour and experiences it necessary to study the differences between people rather than those things that we all have in common. For example the individual differences approach largely focuses on things such as personality differences, and abnormality.

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Provides useful information in improving the experiences of people with mental health problems

The reliance on dispositional explanations at the expense of situational explanations

The development and use of psychometric tests to measure the differences between individuals in qualities such as personality and intelligence

Ethical issues raised with labelling people as being different. The tendency to label people as being different, abnormal and so on can have a negative effect on individuals

On being sane in insane places

To test the hypothesis that psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and those who are insane.

The commonly accepted approach to understanding and classifying abnormal behaviour is known as the medical model. In the 1960s a number of psychiatrists and psychotherapists started to fiercely criticise the medical approach to abnormality.

FIELD EXPERIMENTIV – symptoms of pseudo patients DV – admission and diagnostic label of the pseudo patientThe study involved participant observation the pseudo-patients kept written records of how the ward as a whole operated, as well as how they were treated

PART ONEResearchers – 8 sane people (a psychology graduate student in his 20s, three psychologists, a paediatrician, a psychiatrist, a painter, and a 'housewife') attempting to gain admission to 12 different hospitals, in 5 different states in the USA. There were 3 women and 5 men.They went under a false name and job, and got an interview with the psychiatrist complaining that they had been hearing voices. They said the voice was unfamiliar and the same sex as themselves, and was often unclear but it said 'empty', 'hollow', 'thud'.Once admitted, they stopped showing symptoms and had to get out of their own accord. Often they asked when they were getting out. This was done by doing a further study to see the responses compared to asking university staff.

All but 1 were admitted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, all dislike the experience and wished to be discharged. None were detected, thought some of the actual patients had their suspicions about them (35/118). Average stay in hospital 19days (between 7 52 days). Their ‘normal’ behaviour was a supposed part of their illness, and for 3 of the patients their writing was seen as pathological behaviour. When discharged, it was schizophrenia in remission.

Four of the patients took the pseudo patients carried out an observation of behaviour of staff towards patients that illustrate the experience of being hospitalised on a psychiatric ward.

Response Percentage making contact with patientsPsychiatrists Nurses

Moves on with head averted

71 88

Makes eye contact 23 10Pauses and chats 2 4Stops and Talks 4 0.5

The experience was one of depersonalisation and powerlessness (e.g. freedom of movement and privacy). The patients were given 2,100 tablets, only 2 were swallowed. Most patients tablets were disposed in the toilet, as long as they were co-operative, then their behaviour went unnoticed.Time nurses stayed in the ward offices: 90%Time spent with psychiatrists, psychologists, registrars and so forth: 7 minutes per day

PART TWOA hospital was misinformed that a pseudo patient was to be coming to their hospitalNumber of patients judged 193 /Number of patients CONFIDENTLY judged as a pseudo patient by at least 1 staff member

41 21%

Number of patients SUSPECTED by 1 psychiatrists

23 12%

Number of patients SUSPECTED by 1 psychiatrist and 1 other staff member

19 10%

The main experiment illustrated a failure to detect sanity and the secondary study demonstrated a failure to detect insanity. Psychiatric labels stick in a way that medical labels do not. Everything a patient does is interpreted with the label once it has applied; instead of labelling a person as insane we should focus on the individual’s specific problems and behaviours.

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Pseudo patients could experience the ward from the patients’ perspective

Ethics deceived but did NOT reveal hospital names

Field experiment ecologically valid and controls many variables

Experiences of pseudo-patients could have differed from real patients

Range of hospitals helps results to be generalisedBeing too harsh? More likely to make a type 2 error to play it safe

A case of multiple personality

To provide an account of the psychotherapeutic treatment of a 25-year-old woman who was referred to Thigpen and Cleckley due to 'severe and blinding headaches'

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is defined in DSM-III as a dissociative disorder in which two or more distinct personalities coexist within one and the same individual. It is an example of a neurotic disorder. Multiple Personality is not a form of schizophrenia and is nowadays referred to as dissociate identity disorder.

CASE STUDY method. This consisted of interviews with the patient and her family, hypnosis, observation, EEG tests and a number of psychometric and projective tests including, memory tests, ink blot tests and intelligence tests.

Eve White was referred to therapy to one of the authors because of ‘severe and blinding headaches’. At the first interview she also complained of ‘blackouts’ following her headaches, but there was nothing to suggest she ever lost consciousness. They became puzzled when Eve White had no memory of a recent trip. A few days later a letter arrived Eve White remembered starting the letter, but never sending it. Eve White became distressed and asked whether hearing an occasional imaginary voice made her insane.One session, she held her hands up to her head, as though in pain, looked at the therapist and said: ‘Hi there, Doc’! Eve White had changed, she seemed to have a very different manners, gestures, and eye movements. When asked her name she replied that she was Eve Black. Over 14 months, during a series of interviews totalling about 100 hours, material was obtained about the behaviour and experience of Eve White and Eve Black.At first hypnosis was used to call out Eve Black, but eventually she was able to ‘come out’ by her own means. The therapists believed that Eve Black had enjoyed life since Eve’s early childhood and when she was ‘out’ Eve White was not aware of what was happening but when Eve Black was not out she was aware of what was happening. Eve Black told the therapists about a number of incidents in childhood where she behaved badly, which Eve White was unaware of and was punished for. Eve Black denied marriage to Eve White’s Husband, who she despised, and denied any relationship to Eve White’s daughter except that of an bystander. During Eve Black’s longer periods ‘out’ she avoided her family and close friends, and sought the company of strangers. She was able to remain unrecognised when it suited her by imitating Eve White.

It became clear that Eve Black had little compassion for Eve White, and could not be persuaded to help with the therapy. As Eve White became aware of Eve Black’s existence, she became able to prevent her ‘getting out’ on occasions, and so negotiation was necessary for Eve Black to get time ‘out’.Eve White begun to make progress. Her ‘blackouts’ had ceased, she was working at her job and was fixing her marriage. Suddenly, the ‘blackouts’ begun again and Eve Black denied all responsibility. After more hypnosis, another personality emerged, known as Jane. Jane was more responsible than Eve Black and more confident and interesting than Eve White.After Jane appeared the three personalities were given EEG tests. It was possible to make a clear distinction between the readings of Eve Black and the other two personalities but it was not clear between Eve White and Jane. If Jane could take control, Eve would regain full health. Jane had awareness of both Eves’ thoughts and behaviour but did not have complete access to their memories. She now recalls having over 22 different personalities

PERSONALITIY TESTS:• IQ test results: Eve White obtained an IQ of 110 and Eve Black 104. • Memory Test results: Eve White had a superior memory function than Eve Black • Rorschach test (ink blot test) and drawings of human figures results: The profile of Eve Black was far healthier than Eve White. Eve Black though was regressive whilst Eve White was repressive showing obsessive-compulsive traits, rigidity and an inability to deal with her hostility

The theory is that MPD is usually a response to child abuse - a way for the individual to protect him or herself

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Case studies help to understand the client in more detail Case studies relate to one individual so we cant generalise

Provides a lot of data (both quantitative and qualitative) Study is retrospective may not be accurate

/ Bias from the close relationship

/ Ethical issues e.g. Eve White being treated like a subject etc

It is possible that the therapists could have been conned by a successful actress. It was recognised, but asserted that the performance could not have continued for so long and so consistently. Furthermore an argument gaining popularity is that psychiatrists are actually creating multiple personality by leading their patients into believing that they have the condition

A case of multiple personality

To investigate cognitive bias involved in gambling behaviour

This study was to investigate the differences between regular gamblers and non-regular gamblers, especially if they think differently. Griffiths noted that, when playing fruit machines, we use a number heuristics, mainly illusion of control, flexibleattributions, representativeness, availability bias, illusory correlations and fixation on absolute frequency.

QUASI EXPERIMENTAL. Non-regular: 30 Participants – 15 males 15 females mean age of 25.5 recruited through a advertisement Regular: 30 Participants – 29 males 1 female mean age 21.6 recruited through snowball sampling by a regular gambler the Griffiths knewTook place in arcades up and down the UK and all were asked to gamble on a machine called ‘Fruit Skill’ which cost 10p a go. Each participant was given £3 to gamble with which gave them 30 free gambles. There challenge was to stay on for a minimum of 60 plays. If they managed to go over 60 plays, there were allowed to walk away with their winnings.

HYPOTHESIS 1There would be no significant difference between regular and non-regular fruit machine gamblers on objective measure of skillIV – Regular gamblers or non-regular gamblersDV – objective measure of skill on the fruit machineThe experimenter stood nearby recording the total time in minutes each participant was on the fruit machine, the total number of gambles, the amount of winnings and the result of every gamble.It was found that there was NO difference in objective measure of skill between regular and non regular gamblers. There was NO significant difference in winnings, however regular gamblers stayed on longer showing there is some kill aspects of it.

HYPOTHESIS 2Regular gamblers would produce more irrational verbalisations than non-regular gamblersIV – Regular gamblers or non regular gamblersDV – The content analysis of utterances from the ‘thinking aloud’ methodGriffiths devised a thinking aloud technique. The regular and non-regular fruit machine gamblers were random assigned to either the thinking aloud condition or the non-thinking aloud condition. The thinking aloud were given a set of instructions whereby they had to verbalise every though they had, without censoring anything. Regular gamblers made more irrational utterances (14%). Regular gamblers personified the machine and made references to the number system. Non-regular made more references to not understanding

HYPOTHESIS 3Regular gamblers would be more skilled orientated than non-regular gamblers on subjective measures on self reportIV – Regular gamblers or non regular gamblersDV – Subjective measures of skill perception from a semi-structured post interviewA post semi-structured interview was carried out to measure the participants subjective opinions of their skill levels. A number of questions relating were skill were askedRegular gamblers thought more skill was used in gaining the jackpot and thought they were more skilled compared to non-regular gamblers

Cognitive biases were used by the regular gamblers more, so this could be helped to use to rehabilitate gamblers e.g. modifying their thought patterns

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Amount of data collected and its type Issue with the inter-rater reliability of the coding scheme

Useful way of assessing the private thought process Demand characteristics – answering in the way expected

Carried out in an amusement arcade ecological validity Social desirability – some gamblers are dishonest, may lie

Doesn’t generalise the findings Unrepresentative sample – volunteer sample

/ Regular gamblers played on their chosen fruit machine

That behaviour and experiences can be explained by physiological changes. This approach investigates the brain, the nervous system and other biological factors, e.g. hormones

Physiological psychology focuses on the relationship between our biological makeup and our behaviour and our experiences.

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Can be very convincing – uses chemicals and hormones to explain our behaviour, which we know, already, that it does

Can take a REDUCTIONIST point of view on an argument

Great discoveries have been made e.g. drugs affecting our mood and brain

Only takes into context the BRAIN – we are more complex and other variables need to be considered

Uses sophisticated MACHINERY and LAB EXPERIMETS – high amounts of control with accurate equipment

Lacks ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY – as done in lab experiments, it is not true to real life

Offers PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS – much of the research is useful in practical application e.g. therapy or illnesses

Studies are COSTLY and TIME CONSUMING – due to the fact the use expensive and modern equipment

/ Often have SMALL SAMPLES due to cost and time

Navigation-related structural changes in the hippocampus of taxi drivers

To investigate whether changes in could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory

The hippocampus is a brain structure that humans and other mammals have. There are 2 parts to it, a left and right. There is evidence to suggest that the hippocampus plays a role in short term memory and spatial navigation e.g. increased hippocampal volume relative to brain and body size has been reported in small mammals that store food; a part of spatial awareness.

QUASI EXPERIMENT! All participants were healthy, right-handed males with healthy general medical, neurological and psychiatric profiles.

16 London Taxi Drivers

Mean Age: 44

Range of ages: 32 – 62

All been taxi drivers for over 1 and a ½ years.

50 Control Participants

Mean Age: 44

Range of ages: 32 – 62

Kept similar ages to the taxi drivers

Collected of an MRI database

They collected the from MRI machines, which collect data about the structure and the anatomy of the brain. Once they had these images, they used VBM and pixel counting.VBM – studies the DENSITY of grey matter, which contains neural cell bodiesPixel Counting – is an area measurement and was counted for the hippocampus

The person who did the pixel counting was blind to if they were a taxi driver or not!

The posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects.The anterior hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers. Hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver (positively in the right

posterior and negatively in the right anterior hippocampus).

Maguire argue that this study demonstrates the plasticity of the hippocampus in response to environmental demands. For example, as the posterior is claimed to be where spatial navigation takes place, it can be expanded as shown in the London taxi drivers. The authors believe that this study suggest that the changes in hippocampal gray matter—at least on the right—are acquired. They now theory that the posterior hippocampus is involved when recalling previously learnt spatial information, whereas the anterior is used for learning new environmental layoutsThey also suggest that the left and right sides of hippocampus have different functions. They speculate that the right holds mental maps whereas the left hippocampus complements its partner by storing memories of people and events. This could lead to, in the future, people who have had suffered brain injury or disease being re-taught all the need to know due to the brains plasticity.

STRENGTH LIMITATIONS

Correlational analysis helped to prove that there was a strong positive link

Normally difficult to make conclusions from Quasi experiments

MRI scans provided vast amounts of quantitative data Not ecologically valid (MRI Scan)

Not be possible for the participants to respond to demand characteristics

MRI scanning a costly technique

Ethical – everybody gave consentAll male sample - may be difference with females and left handed people

Many controls /

The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity

To investigate the relationship between eye movements and dreaming.

It is possible to see a person’s eyes moving while they are sleeping, this is called REM. These periods of rapid eye movementare supposedly linked with dreaming. Level 1 and 2 are light sleep shown by irregular EEG patterns. Level 3 and 4 are deeper levels and are shown by regular wave patterns. Stage 4 is called slow wave sleep or deep sleep. After stage 4 the sleeper goes back up to stage 2 and there is a period of REM sleep. There were 3 hypotheses:

1. There will be a significant association between REM sleep and dreaming

2. There will be a significant positive correlation between the estimate of the

duration of dreams and the length of eye-movement

3. There will be a significant association between the pattern of eye movement

and the context of the dream

LAB EXPERIMENT - 7 adults males and 2 adults females. 5 were studied intensively, and the other 4 were used to back up the information found. They went to the lab for their usual bedtime and were asked to ABSTAIN from coffee and alcohol. An EEG (electroencephalograph) as used to amplify and record the signals of electrodes which were attached to the participants face , scalp and eyes.TESTING HYPOTHESIS 1At various times in the night, both during REM sleep and non-REM sleep, the participants were woken by a loud ringing bell. They had to state into a tape recorder whether or not they had been dreaming and report the content of the dream. Different participants were woken according to different schedules. Two were woken at random. One was woken three times in REM followed by three times in N-REM and so on. One was woken randomly but was told that he would only be woken during REM. Another was woken at the experimenter’s whim.TESTING HYPOTHESIS 2The participants were also woken up either five minutes or fifteen minutes into a REM period, and asked to say whether they thought they had been dreaming for five or fifteen minutes.

TESTING HYPOTHESIS 3

The participants were woken up as soon as one of four patterns of eye movement had lasted for at least one minute. On waking, the participant was asked to describe in detail the content of their dream. The four patterns that prompted an awakening were: (a) mainly vertical eye movements; (b) mainly horizontal eye movements; (c) both vertical and horizontal eye movements; (d) very little or no eye movement

HYPOTHESIS 1 HYPOTHESIS 2

REM sleep is associated with dreamingDone see if the participants could accurately estimate the length of their dreams, revealed that all the participants were able to choose the correct dream duration fairly accurately, except for one participantHYPOTHESIS 3

There did appear to be some relationship between the dream content and the type of eye movements. E.g. vertical eye movement was linked with two people throwing tomatoes at each other and mixture of eye movement was talking with a group of people or looking for something

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Tightly controlledLack of ecological validity – where they slept was unusual and abstaining from coffee and alcohol

/ Sample size – only 9 participants

/Other studies have not supported the findings that there is a relationship between eye movements and what the person is dreaming about.

The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity

to investigate the effects of hemisphere deconnection and to show that each hemisphere has different functions

Even though the two halves of the brain look the same, they have very different functions. People who suffer from a ‘grand mal’, a very severe epileptic seizure, often have their commissural fibres cut to keep the damage to only 1 area. This is a last resort

QUASI EXPERIMENT – 11 ‘split brain’ patients and with CASE STUDY METHOD usedIV - whether a person had hemisphere disconnection DV - participants performance on the tasksTASKS:Responding to visual information by blindfolding one of the participant’s eyes and then asking them to fixate with the seeing eye on a point in the middle of a screen. The researchers would then project a stimulus on either the left or right hand side of the fixation point for less than 1/10 of a second. The presentation time is so small to ensure that the participant does not have time for eye movement as this would ‘spread’ the information across both sides of the visual field and therefore across both sides of the brain. As language is processed in the left hemisphere, when a stimulus is presented to the left visual field of a split-brain patient they should not be able to name the stimulus. Responding to tactile information. This involved presenting a stimulus to one of the hands of a split-brain patient so the participant could not see the stimulus and then asking the participant to name it. If the stimulus is presented to the participant’s left hand the participant should not be able to name it. It is also possible to present Auditory (sound) and olfactory (smell) stimuli to one side of the brain using various methods of blocking the unused ear or nostril.

• If participants were presented with an image in one half of their visual field and then presented with the same image in the other half of the visual field they responded as if they had never seen the image before.• Participants were not able to give a description of an image that was presented to the left hand side of the visual field. The image was either not noticed or just appeared as a flash. They could respond non-verbally by pointing with their left hand to a matching picture etc. This of course only works with right-handed participants. • If two symbols were presented simultaneously, one on either side of the visual field (e.g. a dollar sign on the left and a question mark on the right) and the participant was required to draw with their left-hand (shielded from their own view) what they had seen, they would draw the left visual field symbol (a dollar sign). If they were required to say what they had just drawn, the participant would say by name, the right visual field symbol (a question mark). • Objects put in the participants hand for identification by touch could be described or named in speech or writing if they were in the right hand but if placed in the left hand, the participant could either only make wild guesses or even appeared to be unaware that anything was present. However, if the object was taken from the left hand and was scrambled among other test items, the participant was able to search out and retrieve it with their left hand.

That each side of the brain has different functions so they specialise differently in tasks

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Uses a mixture of quasi-experiments and case studies Small sample

Can combine qualitative data and quantitative data Some patients had suffered more deconnection that others

Fairly ReliableA valid control group would have been epileptic people who had not had their hemispheres deconnected

Ecological Validity – a person with the brains severed would have sight in both eyes

That our behaviour is influenced by the actual, imagined or the perceived presence of others

Social psychology focuses studying individuals in a social context e.g. family, friends, institutions or a wider society. Social behaviour may involve activity within a group or between groups.

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

An attempt to use real life social situations –uses field experiments

Low levels of control as confounding variables may come into play

Generally high in ecological validity and mayavoid demand characteristics – participant may be unaware they are being studied

Ethics – difficult to study patients without affecting them e.g. stress

Use it in the practical world as it offers solutions to social problems

Generalising the findings from limited samples/self selected samples

Re-thinking the psychology of tyranny

To attempt to create an institution to investigate the behaviour of groups that were unequal in terms of power, status, and resources.

This study was an attempt to recreate Zimbardo’s Stamford Prison Experiment (SPE)Reicher and Haslam were critical of ‘role acceptance’ whereby putting a man into a guard costume will make him take the role of guard etc.Social identity theory states that:• it is a person’s belief about their opportunity to move from one group to another• it is a person’s belief about the legitimacy of group inequalities• the cognitive alternatives available to group members when a lower status group become aware of ways in which social relations could be restructured

5 Aims in an EXPERIMENTAL CASE STUDY.

Equ

alit

y To provide evidence of the unfolding interactions between groups of unequal power D

om

inan

ce

To investigate if dominant group members will identify with their group from the start and impose their power

Gro

up

s To investigate if group members will identify collectively and challenge intergroup inequalities when relations are seen as impermeable and insecure

Effe

cts To measure the

social, organisational and clinical effects of the study on the participants Fr

amew

ork To develop a

practical and ethical framework for examining social psychological issues in large-scale studies

332 applicants recruited through advertisements in the national press and leaflets. Applicants went through 3 phases of screening. Phase 1 was psychometric tests that measured social and clinical variables, phase 2 was a weekend assessment by clinical psychologists and phase 3 was medical, character and police reference checks.Only 15 people that were well adjusted pro-social and male were chosen. This was done so they could compare with the SPE. There was a range of social class, age and ethnic background

15 Males

3 participant

2 prisoners

1 guard

3 participant

2 prisoners

1 guard

3 participant

2 prisoners

1 guard

3 participant

2 prisoners

1 guard

3 participant

2 prisoners

1 guard

Each group was done with MATCHED PAIRS and INDEPENDENT MEASURES DESIGNThe study was designed to create a hierarchy in which people would live in for 10 days. Prisoners were allocated a lockable 3 person cell together with showers and a central atrium. This was separated with a lockable steel mesh fence from the guards quarters

Participants were always video and audio recorded wherever they were and took part in daily psychometric testing. These were (a) social variables (b) organisational variables (c) clinical variables (d) daily swabs of saliva

DAY EVENTS

Pre experiment

Guards – told of their role - told the prison was to run as smoothly but not told how to run - physical violence would not be tolerated - told they had been picked for their trustworthiness - this was a liePrisoners - arrived one at a time - heads were shaved, everyday clothes were taken away, given a uniform (t-shirt printed with a 3-digit number, loose trousers and flimsy sandals) - put into their cells

1 and 2

Guards - did not identify with their group - did not behave collectively - felt the role was undeserved -conscious of how they appeared to other people - even gave away food resources to the prisoners - did not form a plan of action as they didn't work as a groupPrisoners - they did lack group identity as they had the prospect of promotion - unhappy with their conditions so strived to be a guard - prisoners could see the weakness of the guards they were not united to take the guards - lacked a group identity so were easily managed

3 and 4

IMPORTANT!Guards – chose the person to become a new guardPrisoners - took on the guards as a group. Almost instantly they began to act together. They began by teasing the guards, humiliating them and challenging their authorityThe legitimacy intervention was cancelled

DAY EVENTS

5

TRADE UNIONIST WAS ADDEDThe prisoners stole the keys off the guard - guard were prepared to negotiate to get the keys back - big confrontation between the trade unionist and 1 prisoner - trade unionist won and the idea was put forward that the prisoners and guards would meet daily to discuss grievances - guard were eager to accept.

6

Commune worked well to begin with (all participants did their cleaning duties quite happily, whereas before they were unhappy) - 3 were still unhappy with its workings and begun making trouble.TRADE UNIONIST WAS REMOVED for ‘health’ reasonsThe 3 prisoners wanted to re-instate the guard and prisoner regime - but with them as the new guards -They broke out and took over the guards quarters

7 and 8

Crisis was exploited by opponents of the commune - four developed a plan to create a new hierarchy -this would take the form of violence - the other participants were passive to this idea - they were less opposed to it than previously - wanted someone else to assume responsibility for making it work.The study was halted on day 8 because the researchers believed that new guards would have had the force to impose their regime in the face of weakening resistance but that such force would break ethical guidelines. They stayed in an extra day to undergo interviews and debriefings.

They argue that the findings were because reactions to inequality cannot be explained through a general or ‘natural’ tendency to assume roles and assert power. Where groups fail, they argue that people will be more inclined to accept the imposition of a social order by others, even where that violates their values and norms. Therefore, in contrast to those who explain tyranny and other extreme social phenomena in terms of the psychological dysfunctionality of groups, Reicher and Haslam interpret them in terms of the dysfunctionality of group failure.

4 potential critiques:• Behaviour of the participants could be due to the fact they knew they were being filmed. This could render of the study so artificial it has little or no general value. • The effects they observed could have been a product of participants’ personalities rather than group processes. • Participants did not engage with a meaningful situation in which there were real inequalities of resources and power• The variables upon which the researchers’ predictions focused (the planned interventions) were not responsible for the effects obtained.

Behavioural study of obedience.

To investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person..

It is known that in all of history, we make more crimes in the name of obedience, than in the name of rebellion, for example the Holocaust. This is described as the ‘the Germans are different’ hypothesis this states that German’s have a character deficit which means they have a readiness to obey people in authority regardless of the act they are being asked to carryout. The Germans are different hypothesis is an example of a dispositional attribution.

Study is often described as an experiment, but with no manipulation of the IV it is more of a CONTROLLED OBSERVATION.

40 males

Range of ages: 20 – 50

Recruited in the New Haven area

Responded to an advert in the newspaper or direct mail advertisement

Had a wide range of jobs

Took place in a smart lab at Yale University

Paid them $4.50/4.00 for just turning up

The shock generator could give out a 45 volt shock, making it seem genuine. It was marked with a variety of names to describe the shocks. The role of experimenter was played by a 31-year-old biology teacher, who introduced himself as Jack Williams. He wore a technician’s coat and appeared stern and emotionless throughout the experiment. The victim was played by Mr Wallace, a 47-year-old accountant, trained for the role, whom most observers found mild-mannered and likeable. Mr Wallace would always play the role of the learner. This was determined by two cards, both which would say teacher, but Mr Wallace would say he was the learner. They took him to another room and strapped him up to a chair

‘Electrode paste’ was put on him, and the teacher was told ‘although the shocks can be extremely painful, they cause no permanent tissue damage’. The learner had to learn a series of pairs, one right answer to every three one wrong answers. In the first experiment, nothing was heard up until the 300 volt mark, then pounding and shouting was heard from the room, this was again was heard at 315 volts, then no answer appeared. If they turned to the experimenter, they were given a series of ‘standardized prods’. They were all used in sequence and the experiment was terminated if they didn't obey Prod 4

• Prod 1: ‘Please continue’ or ‘Please go on’;• Special Prod (only used if they asked about the health of Mr Wallace): ‘although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on’ • Special Prod (only used if they said Mr Wallace did not want to continue): ‘whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on until he has learned all the word pairs correctly, so please go on’• Prod 2: ‘The experiment requires that you continue’;• Prod 3: ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’; •Prod 4: ‘You have no other choice, you must go on’.

A participant who broke off before the 450 volts was called a DEFIANT participant, while the rest who carried on were called OBEDIENT participants. These sessions were also filmed. After the experiment, the participants were thoroughly debriefed using open-ended questions and to test that the participants were not harmed a number of psychometric measures (projective tests and attitude scales) were used. They were reunited with Mr Wallace to show he had not been harmed.

All 40 of the participants obeyed up to 300 volts at which point 5 refused to continue. Four more gave one further shock before refusing; two broke off at the 330 volts level and one each at 345, 360 and 375 volts. Overall, 65% of the participants gave shocks up to 450 volts (obeyed) and 35% stopped sometime before 450 volts.

The researchers give us a few ideas:Experiment took place at the prestigious Yale University credibility and respect, Belief that the experiment was for a worthy purpose, The participant believed the victim had volunteered to be in the study, The participant felt himself to be similarly obligated to take part , Being paid, Roles of learner and teacher had been allocated fairly, by drawing lots, Little idea about the rights and expectations of experimenter and participant, The participants had been assured that the shocks were ‘painful but not dangerous’, The victim responded to all of the questions until the 300 volt level was reached.

STRENGTH LIMITATIONS

Amount of control usedEthics – participants were deceived etc

Collected both qualitative and quantitative data

Did not take adequate measures to protect his participants from the stress and emotional conflict

/ Unrepresentative sample

Apparently, it is the situation that people find themselves in rather than their dispositions that best explain their actions. This argument gains support from many studies in social psychology. This argument can be seen as too deterministic

Good Samaritans: An underground phenomenon?

To investigate factors affecting helping behaviour, e.g. the type of victim (drunk or ill), the race of the victim (black or white)

Social psychologists became particularly interested in the behaviour of bystanders following the case of the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964. The murder attracted interest from psychologists because according to the press not one person out of the 40 people, who witnessed the attack lasting over half an hour, tried to help or contacted the police.

(i) The type of victim (drunk or ill) (ii) The race of the victim (black or white) (iii) The speed of helping(iv) The frequency of helping (v) The race of the helper. Importantly the field experiment also investigated the impact of the presence of a model (someone who offers help first), as well as the relationship between the size of the group and frequency of helping.

FIELD EXPERIMENT using participant observation Participants were 4450 men and women travelling on a particular stretch of the New York underground between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays during the period of April 15th to June 26th, 1968 on the route through Harlem to Bronx which lasts 7.5 minutes. The average race composition 45% black 55% white and the average number of people on the train was 43. In the critical area, on average, there were 8.5 people. A team of four students, (two males and two females), boarded the train using different doors - collected data for 103 trials. The victim always stood next to a pole in the centre of the critical area. As the train passed the first station the victim staggered forward and collapsed. He remained motionless on the floor, looking at the ceiling. If he received no help by the time the train slowed to a stop, the model helped him to his feet

The four victims were males, aged between 26 and 35, three white, one black. On 38 trials the victims smelled of alcohol and carried a bottle of alcohol wrapped in a brown bag (drunk condition), while on the remaining 65 trials they appeared sober and carried a black cane (cane condition). In all other aspects, victims behaved identically in the two conditions

Helping behaviour was very high and much higher than earlier laboratory studies. It was not possible to investigate the effects of the model’s helping because on the majority of the trials the victims were helped before the model acted. Cane victim received help on 62 out of the 65 trials and Drunk victim received help on 19 out of 38 trialsOn 60% of the 81 trials where spontaneous help was given, more than one person offered help. It was found that 90% of helpers were male. Although there were more men present, this percentage was statistically significant. It was also found that 64% of the helpers were white; this was what would be expected based on the racial distribution of the carriage. Diffusion of responsibility was not evident. People even left the outer area to give help in the critical area especially when they were drunk, on 21 of 103 trials.

Piliavin developed the COST:ANALYSIS - Reward model. They argue that firstly, observation of an emergency situation creates an emotional arousal in bystanders. This arousal may be perceived as fear, disgust or sympathy, depending on aspects of the situation. It can be increased by empathy with the victim (i.e. whether you can perceive yourself in the victims situation); being close to the emergency; the length of time the emergency continues for. It can be reduced by helping; seeking help from another source; leaving the scene; deciding the person doesn’t need or deserve help. Therefore according to this model we are motivated to help people not acting in the interest of others but as a way of reducing unpleasant feelings of arousal.

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

High levels of ecological validity

Ethics – people were deceived etc

Sample size was large so we can generalise to all NEW YORKERS.

Field experiments are hard to control

The model takes a very negative view on people. It denies that people act altruistically and assumes that behaviour is always measured in some form of cost or benefit.

That our behaviour is learned and shaped by the environment (i.e. role models)

The behaviourist perspective argues that in order for psychology to be scientific it should focus on the behaviour that is observable, and not inferred like it is in cognitive psychology.

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Development of useful practical applications (i.e. advertisement)

If we are able to control behaviour who is to decide what behaviour is controlled

It emphasises on the objective and scientific way of studying behaviour

Generalisation comparing experiments in a lab by animals to humans

In more modern studies the cognitive side has been taken into account (i.e. Bandura)

Gives only a partial explanation of human experiences as a lot has to be inferred

• Bandura et al.• Pavlov’s Dogs (Classical Conditioning)• Skinner Boxes (Operant Conditioning)

That our behaviour can be explained in terms of inner conflicts in the mind

The psychodynamic perspective put emphasis on the unconscious mind, the structure of personality and the influence that childhood experiences have on later life

STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS

Used to explain a wide variety of phenomenon Subjective and hard to test scientifically

Freud’s way of treating mental disorders stems from the approach

Allowed to do ‘free association’ which could lead to false interpretation

/ Makes no generalisations

• Freud• Thigpen and Cleckley