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This blog and its posts are now out of date for the OCR GCSE Psychology spec - but still acts as a great start off for A-Level.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

Non-Verbal Communication - Evolutionary Theory

It is thought that non-verbal communication could aid survival, it could help

• Ward off potential enemies/threats
• Reducing conflict/threat
• Allowing co-operation

In terms of reproduction, it could help by

• Allowing flirting
• Making someone seem more attractive
• Aiding communication in a relationship

Non-Verbal Communication - SLT

OUTLINE

Social learning - How a person's behaviour with, towards,and around others develops as a result of observing and imitating others both consciously and unconsciously.

The key concepts are

1. Observation - To watch someone with the purpose of learning about behaviour
2. Imitation - Doing, saying, and behaving the same as the 'model' who was observed doing, saying, or behaving.
3. Reinforcement - A process in which a behaviour is strengthened because the consequences are positive 
4. Punishment - Negative consequences following an action 
5. Role model - An individual who other people aspire to be like

There are significant cultural variations in some kinds of body language in different countries, which supports this theory. 

All these variations are results of the key concepts

1. Observation - We see how other people interact
2. Imitation - It's easier to repeat behaviour we see frequently
3. Reinforcement - Rewarded for following cultural norms
4. Punishment - Become reluctant to repeat punished behaviours

CRITICISMS 

1 - The theory can't explain why some non-verbal communication persists despite being punished

• Someone could be attacked for using a gesture, but still continue to use it. However they should have stopped due to associating the gesture with the negative consequences

2 - Not everyone can learn new forms of non-verbal communication

• Convicts are taught positive body language, but it often doesn't work
• If it was just learning, it shouldn't be so difficult to teach them these new behaviours

3 - It doesn't explain why children bought up in the same environment have different ways of communicating non-verbally

• They may express themselves differently

4 - It ignores the effect of nature on non-verbal communication

• There are universal gestures/expressions such as smiling.

Non-Verbal Communication - Key Concepts

Non-verbal communication - Telling others what we are thinking,feeling, or planning by some recognised body movement. It can be conscious or subconscious.

This is usually in one of two ways :

1 - Body Language

• Communicating something physically through our body, such as gestures
• These can be technical ( such as a police officer diverting traffic with arm movements) or coded (such as sign language)

2 - Facial Expressions

• Communicating through the movement of muscles in the face

Facial expressions, posture and gestures form 55% of our communication, tone of voice forms 38% and words form 7%.

Cognitive Development - Applications (Educating Children)

PIAGET

- The concept of readiness 

• Children can only learn what their current cognitive stage allows them to.
• Classrooms materials, subject specifications and ways of learning in class should match the stage and cognitive level of the pupil.
• Young children have to do things to learn
• Older children have to apply abstract thinking to learn

- Discovery learning

• Doing, rather than lecturing
• The teacher should ask questions, raise issues and devise activites
• The teacher is a facilitator, as the child learns individually

- Peer support

• Allow opportunities for unstructured and collaborative learning
• This helps the child decentre

VYGOTSKY

- Teacher should intervene

• It helps children develop their understanding and knowledge
• The teacher is the main person in the pupil's ZPD

- Spiral curriculum

• Difficult ideas are presented simply at first
• These ideas are then revisited at a more advanced level later on

- Scaffolding in the classroom

• People can advance a child's thinking by providing a support framework

Cognitive Development - Piaget & Conservation of Number (1952)

PROCEDURE

It was a cross-sectional study

• Different people represented different stages

They were shown, one at a time, two identical parallel rows of counters. They then spread one of the rows of the counters whilst the child watched. They were then asked which row had more counters

RESULTS

Children in the pre-operational stage (2-7 years) often said the stretched out row had more counters, as it was longer. They cannot conserve number

Children in the concrete operation stage (7-11 years) mostly said that they had the same amount in each row. They could conserve number

CRITICISMS

1 - The double-questioning may have had an effect

• In normal situations, children are only asked a question twice if they got the answer wrong at first
• When this was repeated and the children were only asked once, a higher number of children got the answer correct

2 - It was criticised for not being child friendly

• When McGarrigle & Donaldson (1974) had a 'naughty toy' spread the counters, 60% of the children in the pre-operational stage got the answer correct

3 - Piaget used a small sample

• It may not have been representative, so cannot be generalised

Cognitive Development - Vygotsky's Theory

Vygotsky thought that cognitive development isn't innate, it takes place within their culture. It lies in social and cognitive influences rather than maturation.

A child picks up cultural tools

• Language, writing, number systems and ideas from science
• Culture teaches us how an what to think

Everyone is born with potential, that others help us discover

- The gap between where you currently are in your development, and where you can move on to (with   help) is called the zone of proximal development (ZPD)

• This is aided by support from those around you, which is known as scaffolding

In this theory, stages aren't universal. They happen at an individual pace and are aided by the culture around them.

Cognitive Development - Piaget's Experiments

- Three Mountains (Egocentrism)

A child sits at one point (eg A) whilst an experimenter sits at the opposite part (eg C). The child is described to ask what they can see. They are then asked to describe what the experimenter can see. If they describe what they can see, then they are egocentric.


- Counters (Number)

The child is asked if there is the same amount of counters in each row, and they say yes. One of the rows are spaced apart whilst the child watches. They are asked the same question. If they say no, they cannot conserve number.



- Plasticine (Mass)

The child is asked if there is the same amount of plasticine, and they say yes. It is rolled whilst the child watches. They are asked the same question. If they say no, they cannot conserve mass.




- Liquid (Volume)

The child is asked if there is the same amount of liquid in both glasses, and they say yes. The contents of one glass is then poured into a taller glass. They are asked the same question. If they say no, they cannot conserve volume.

Cognitive Development - Piaget's Theory

OUTLINE

Piaget's theory was mostly based on observation.

He went on to put together a general stage theory of cognitive development.

This theory stated that development follows a fixed (invariant) order, and that the behaviour in question gets better by the stage. Additionally, the order is the same for everyone - it is universal.

Piaget came to the conclusion that children begin to explore the world around them from the moment they first open their eyes and. They are NOT passive observers, instead they are actively involved.

STAGES

1 - SENSORI-MOTOR STAGE (0-2 YEARS)

  

  - Thoughts and behaviour are generally the same

• They examine their surroundings and place objects into schemas in their minds
• The baby gradually learns to make sense of the information coming in through the senses

Features include

 - Body schema(s)

• The infant recognises that it exists physically, it can recognise itself in a photograph or mirror

- Motor co-ordination

• The infant learns to co-ordinate different body parts, such as moving their hand to their mouth for eating or moving their knees and hands so that they can crawl

- Object permanence

• The infant knows that an object or person still exists even if they cannot be seen
• When a newborn baby cannot see that thing or person, they assume they do not exist
• Towards the end of the first year, perhaps as early as 8 months, babies will look for hidden objects because they have developed object permanence

2 - PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE (2-7 YEARS)

Cognitive development gets better by the year. However, they are still limited.

- Animism

• They treat inanimate objects as if they are alive

- Reversibility

• They are unable to work backwards in their thinking
• For example, if you ask a child in the pre-operation stage who has a sibling if they have a sibling they will say yes. But if you ask them if that sibling has a sibling, they will say no

- Egocentrism

• They cannot see others viewpoints

3 - CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE (7-11 YEARS)

 - The child can do what they couldn't in the previous stage, and they also develop other abilities

- Linguistic humour

• They start understanding and enjoying word games and double meanings

- Seriation

• The ability to rank things

- Conservation

• They know properties of certain objects remain the same
• They can conserve volume,number and mass

4 - FORMAL OPERATION STAGE (11 YEARS +)

- Hypothetical thinking

• Thinking without physical prompts
• It allows you to 'see the big picture' and develop general principles you can apply to other situations. 

CRITICISMS

1 - The cognitive stages are not as fixed or rigid as Piaget proposed

• Sine children flick into different stages depending on circumstances, sometimes thining egocentrically, and at other times having grand ideas of right and wrong

2 - There is no guarantee that people develop through all the stages

• Some researchers argue that only about 50% of adults make it to the formal operational stage

3 - Development is not an automatic biological process

• Piaget may have underestimated the role that parents and other people play in a child's intellectual development. 
• Some psychologists believe that we can 'hothouse; children so they develop at a quicker rate

4 - Piaget ignored different types of thinking

• Not all thinking is an exercise in logic or problem solving

5 -  Thinking does not develop in the same way for children everywhere

• Aboriginal children develop concrete operational thinking earlier than European children as it is useful for physical survival

6 - Piaget only describes the kind of thinking a child can/cannot do, he does not explain how the changes in thinking occurs

• Some critics would say that this does not make it a proper theory as theories should offer reasons for why things happen

Cognitive Development - Key Concepts

Cognitive development is age related changes such as how children think and behave differently as they get older.
This is built on processes or schemas.
Whereas some are present from birth (eg- sucking) others are not. They follow a pattern of assimilation and accommodation, which is learning new information and fitting it in with what is already known.

Schemas or though processes are what every child uses as they interact with the world around them. All ideas, memories and information about a particular object/situation etc that a child comes into contact with are sorted into patterns. These are like mental blueprints which link things and behaviours.

Perception - Advertising (Applications)

- Subliminal Advertising

• A subliminal message is a brief sound or image that is directed at us with a less than 50% chance of us spotting it
• This has been banned in Britain
• Supermarkets may put on French music to increase sales of French wine

- Advertising For The Brain

• What goes through the left eye goes to the right hemisphere of the brain and vice versa
• Emotional content should be on the left side of the screen
• Messages/words should be on the right side of the screen

- Context in Advertising

• Perception of an object can be affected by the context it is presented in. 
• For example, food will look better on a smaller plate as it makes the food appear bigger

Perception - Haber & Levin (2001)

OUTLINE

9 male college students (who had been tested for good eyesight) were driven out to large grassy field in the USA, which was surrounded by trees on three sides. It was separated into 4 sections, and the participants viewed from the middle.

This was a repeated measures study. The students were taken in a line to the centre of the field through the empty section,a n asked to face a certain field in groups of three. They guessed how far away the objects were. The groups turned around to each field until they were done.

RESULTS

Standard sized real world objects has good guesses for both near and far objects.Guesses for the other fields were not as accurate.

CRITICISMS

1 - The results cannot be generalised

• The sample was too small
• It is gender-biased

2 - It is an artificial task

• The task is not seen in real life
• The participants lived in cities

3 - Questionaire is still subjective

• People may not perceive an object in the same way
• The group could've grown tired of the task and not much as much effort into each field

Perception - Nativist Theory

This theory states that perception is a natural and instinctive process which believes that instinct and biology play an important role in perception.

 This supports bottom-up processing which is when perception is dominated by what enters through the eyes rather than what we expect to see. This means that perception is immediate,direct and data driven.

 It starts with independent information from the environment and works its way upwards to an interpretation of that information.

In this theory, the role of the brain is only to analyse and interpret the information coming through our eyes. This explains why we all have a similar view of the world, as we all evolved the same way.

Perception - Constructivist Theory

OUTLINE

This theory states that we construct our perception of the world not only based on what we see in front of us but also based on past experience. This supports top down processing and perceptual set

Top down processing - When perception is dominated by what we expect to see
Perceptual set - A tendency to perceive something in line with what you expect based n past experience

Numerous factors demonstrate the role of perceptual set in processing.

 - Expectations

• If you are looking for a friend in a crowd, you will easily see them as you expect to

- Motivation

• If you are hungry/thirsty, pictures of food/drink are likely to look brighter

CRITICISMS

1 - It ignores how people may perceive the world in a similar way despite individual differences

• This suggests that most information comes from our environment rather than our minds.

2 - It can't explain how a newborn baby perceives, as they don't have experience

• Studies have shown that newborns have some perceptual abilities early on
• At 2 months, some can recognize faces and complex patterns
• At 6 months, they will not crawl over an imaginary cliff despite limited environmental experience 

3 - Illusions disprove this theory

• If perception is about experience, then we should learn not to be fooled the second time

4 - It tends to ignore the fact that we are born to see and make sense of distance, movement,colour, and shape