Hello !

This blog and its posts are now out of date for the OCR GCSE Psychology spec - but still acts as a great start off for A-Level.

Though criticisms may need to be expanded to ensure you get higher grades, the following are still applicable for AQA A-Level Psychology

Whole topics are covered in Cognitive Development, named 'Cognition and Development' at A-Level, Attachment, and Memory

Humanistic psychology is seen in 'The Self' topic

SLT theory is seen in SST as an application, Phobias from 'Psychopathology' is almost completely covered in 'Phobias', Dispositional and Situational theories for obedience/social influence, and the Psychodynamic Psychosexual Theory of Development 

There are also useful key studies for Aggression , Social Influence, Milgram (SI again)

Good luck, and if any of you did different topics and know if anything else if helpful tip us off !

The Self - Counselling (Applications)

1 - Counselling for clients with depression

The therapy is client-centered

• Led more by the client, currently known as counselling
• Works on the basis that the client knows themselves the best

It involves the following elements

• The counselor avoids giving instructions, and shows that they understand the client's feelings
• The counselor genuinely thinks the client has a capacity to discover a way forward towards self-actualisation, as the client has a free will
• The counselor shows empathy for the client, and lets the client know that
• The counselor genuinely allows the client to express themselves

2 - Relationship counselling

The counselor is trained in the same way as above

• The basic aim is to make it possible for couples to meet, talk openly, and exchange ideas/feelings
• It is hoped that the couple can reconcile without being told what to think/feel/do

3 - Careers guidance

The careers adviser follows the above method

• Try to get the client to clarify in their own mind what is best to do next 

The Self - Van Houtte & Jarvis (1995)

OUTLINE

Aim - To examine the part played by pets in the psychosocial development of pre-adolescent people.

Hypothesis - Pet-owning adolescents would report higher levels of autonomy and self esteem than non-pet owners

Sample - 130 pupils aged between 8-13

• 71 boys, 59 girls
• Mainly white Americans, all from Illinois
• Participiants gave informed consent and the right to withdraw

The pupils were divided into pet owners and non pet owners, and where also matched on 3 other aspects

1. Parent's marital status
2. Parent's socio-economic status
3. Number of siblings

They asked them about pet ownership, such as the kind of pet, length of ownership, age and duties.

Data was collected from questionaires on well known scales

• Autonomy - 4 point scale response to sentences such as "My parents and I agree on everything"
• Self concept - 5 point scale response to adjectives such as "I am happy"
• Self esteem - 4 point scale response to statements such as " On the whole I am satisfied with my self"
• Attachment to animal - 7 point scale response to a series of statements such as "I consider my pet to be a friend"

The students were debriefed and thanked

Letters were sent home so that the parents could confirm pet ownership

RESULTS

1. Pet owners had higher self esteem
2. For 11 year olds, pets positively influenced their self concept
3. Pet owners had higher autonomy

It was concluded

• Pets have the greatest influence as children move in adolescence
• Pets can help with low self esteem, support others in times of stress, and enhance the elderly's feelings of responsibility
• Pets can offer unconditional postive regard for their owners

CRITICISMS

1 - There is always potentially a problem with self report in questionaires

• They may not be honest
• It may be difficult for the participants to accurately know their self-esteem

2 - The study used a lot of quantitative data 

• Difficult concepts are hard to measure on a scale
• This ignores the depth of these aspects

3 - The sample wasn't very representative

• It was age biased so cannot be generalised to older people
• It was ethnocentric, as only a small number of ethnic minority pupils were used
• It was culture biased, in other cultures, pets and animals may have a different role.

The Self - Trait Theory

This theory believes that personality has a genetic basis and has a biological explanation. Our personality is shaped by the activity of a part of the mid-brain called the reticular activating system which activates higher parts of the brain.

Our personality is shaped by the activity and arousal of parts of our nervous system network, so we cannot choose our personality.

The traits of extraversion and neuroticism are measured.
Extraversion is how outgoing a person is, and neuroticism is how emotionally stable a person is.

Eysneck studied 700+ soldiers with psychological damage from . He suggested there are four basic dimensions of personality.

• Extraversion - This refers to the degree to which someone is outgoing/socialable
• Introversion - This refers to someone who is typically quiet/reserved
• Neuroticism - This refers to being anxious/moody
• Stability - This refers to being emotionally stable

Extraversion Traits

Neuroticism Traits

'Trait' means a relatively stable and enduring tendency to behave in a particular way. This is the self or identity of the person.

The Self - Humanistic Theory

OUTLINE

Humanists place a lot of emphasis on people as individuals.

• They see us as unique and as having free will

The main humanistic ideas are

• We have the power to decide on our actions
• We should focus on the present, not past experiences
• We are all motivated to fulfil our potential (self actualisation)

Between 1 - 2 years old, our parents have an influence as our self- concept ( a persons view of their actual self) begins to form. If you are told that you have a certain trait enough times, you believe it,

When asked to describe themselves, people answer differently dependent on their age.

• Young children focus on physical terms
• Older children focus on social roles and talk about what they're good/bad at
• Teenagers/adults focus on their psychological selves and describe traits

We pass through social roles daily, such as daughter or bus passenger. These roles can contribute to a person's self concept. For example, you may think of yourself as a kind daughter or a polite passenger.

People have an ideal self, which is the person an individual would like to be.

The difference between the self-concept and the ideal self determines the person's self esteem.

• If the self-concept and ideal self are incongruent, there's a gap between them. This causes low self esteem
• If the self-concept and ideal self are similar, they're closer together. This causes high self estee,.
• Self esteem can be raised by unconditional positive regard, which is showing an individual love without expecting certain conditions to be met.

There is also a hierarchy of needs.

CRITICISMS

1 - The ideas are vague and difficult to measure objectively

• It's subjective

2 - It's not very scientific

• Ideas are difficult to test and measure if we can't observe them
• It comes from Rodger's research, which isn't very representative

3 - Humanists focus on the individual

• Nobody is predictable, so it lacks a point

4 - The theory ignores genetic evidence

• Other psychologists think between 20% and 60% of a person;s intellectual,emotional, and social development comes from genetic factors

Non-Verbal Communication - Applications (Social Skills Training)

Social skills training is used in the rehabilitation of offenders, as an attempt to help them resist peer pressure and avoid conflict.

• Modelling - The trainer demonstrates the correct behaviour, and the offender watches
• Practice - The offender imitates the behaviour, a roleplay may be used
• Feedback - The trainer comments on the offender's performance, reinforcing good social skills
• Homework - The skill is transferred to real life, and the offender reports back

It is also used to manage conflict, and employees are trained so that they can do so.

This is also used in customer service training, so that the employee can create a good impression.

Non-Verbal Communication - Yuki et al (2007)

OUTLINE

Hypothesis : Different cultures pay attention to different facial cues when meeting/talking to each over.

Participants: 118 American volunteers and 95 Japanese volunteers

Procedure : The volunteers completed a questionaire in which they rated 6 computer generated faces from 1 (very sad) to 9 (very happy). They were debriefed and thanked afterwards.

RESULTS

The Japanese volunteers gave higher ratings to happy eyes, whereas the American volunteers gave higher ratings to happy mouths.

CRITICISMS 

1 - The experiment lacks ecological validity

• 2D, fake faces, which arent seen in real life. However, similar results were seen when real faces were used
• Artifical conditions could have caused awkwardness

2 - Unrepresentative sample

• One narrow age group
• Different age groups could interpret faces differently

3 - The dependent variable was measured very simply

• It is more complex than a scale from 1 - 9 .