A LEVEL 2024 PAPER Flashcards
(7 cards)
OUTLINE one ethical issue that has arisen in social influence research. refer to one or more social influence studies in your answer
4 marker
one ethical issue that has arisen in social influence research is protection from harm. for example this guidelines states that ppts should not be exposed to psychological harm however this guideline was broken in milgrams research where ppts went through psychological distress, sweating, seizures, trembling because of the trauma they went through by giving electric shocks.
similarily in zimbardos study ppts went through nervous breakdowns and hunger strikes during the prison study which shows they were not protected
Discuss consistency and flexibility as processes involved in minority influence 8 marker
consistency is where a minority repeatedly presents/shares the same message over and over again. this makes the minorities argument/point of view seem more credible which forces the majority to reconsider their position and to take the minorities message more serious
flexibility is where a minority adapts/negoitiates with the majority. these minorities may appear rigid and dogmatic leading to resistance. overtime commitment and flexibilty give the majority the opportunity to listen and reconsider their view and potentially adopt the minorities view as its own
research supporting consistency is moscovici et al. moscovici conducted a lab study experiment where ppts were shown 36 blue slides and had to say whether its green or blue. in this condition there was a consistent minority keep on saying/claiming the colour was green so 8% of ppts agreed/conformed to the consistent minority who were saying it was green. on the other hand there was an inconsistent minority who repeatedly/claimed that the colour was blue and green and conformity rates dropped to 1.25%; suggesting that consistency strengthens minority influence
one limitation of this research is that it used artifical tasks such as identifying slide colours. this is a limitation because it shows that these tasks cant be applied to real world scenarios / tasks where minority play a crucial role e.g. political campaigns therefore the results lack external validity making it difficult to be generalised to real world minority situations e.g. political campaigns
one final advantage is that minorities participated in the suffagretts movement. for example womens right to vote was not an option so they consistently proposed their message by being flexible and consistent till 10 years later where the women right to vote was accepted showing the power of consistency and flexibility in a minority group
outline 2 ways in which episodic memories are different from semantic memories
4 marker
one way in which episodic memory is different is that they are recall/memories of events in our life; like a diary e.g. what you watched for TV last night or a famous soccer game whereas semantic memory is shared knowledge of the world like a dictionary e.g. where the eiffel tower is located
furthermore, episodic memories are timestamped meaning they include info when they happened and where whereas semantic memories are not timestamped and exist without a specific event
briefly describe retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting. outline one limitation of this 4 marks
when info is placed in memory associated cues are also stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall then you may not actually access the memories that are there
retrieval failure suggests that forgetting occurs due to the absence of cues.
These cues can be context dependent where retrieval failure depends on an external cue e.g. being in a different classroom and state dependent forgetting cue is where retrieval failure depends on an internal cue e.g. state of mind / under effect of alcohol
one limitation is that - Context effects depend on the type of memory being tested (Recognition vs Recall)
it depends on the type of memory being tested
for example godden and baddaley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall. ppts had to say if they recognised the word instead of recalling it. it was found out there was no context dependent effect and the peformance was the same in all 4 conditions therefore its a limitation because it only applies when a person has to recall info
what is post event discussion what can i lead to
when witnesses discuss an event after it happened it can lead to memory contamination or memory conformity. memory contamination happens when witnesses mix info from others with their own. memory conformity occurs due to normative social influence. the fact that the witness admits that she may have been repeating what she heard confirms that post event discussion has taken place
one strength of post event discussion is that there is supporting evidence from Garbbart et al. in this study ppts watched different versions of the same crime and then discussed what they had seen. 71% of ppts mistakenly recall details that they had not actually witnessed in contrast to 0% where they had not discussed anything
it was a lab study (gabbert) which has high levels of control over variables which allow accurate measures and increases accuracy and makes the test more useful. however since its lab study then it lacks ecological validity and cannot be applied to real world applications so its not applicable in real world scenarios
describe the concept of a critical period and then concept of an internal working model in the context of attachment 6 marker
the critical period refers to a biologically determines window of time during attachment which must form to establish an attachment/bond. according to bowlby this is 2 years with the most sensitive period being in the first 6 months. if an attachment/critical period is not formed at this time then the child may struggle with future relationships and experience social and emotional difficulties
the internal working model is a cognitive framework that infants develop based on their early attachment experiences. bowlby suggested that this acts as a template for future relationships e.g. it can create a strong attachment with the mother if the internal working model is strong. a child with a secure attachment is likely to develop a positive IWM expecting relationships to be trusting and supportive
However if a insecure attachment is formed then the infant will face difficulties to maintain a healthy relationship
discuss romanian orphan studies 16 marker
rutter conducted a study investigating insitutulaisation. He conducted a study of 165 romanian orphanees adopted by families in the UK. rutter assessed their physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11,15. when they first arrived in the UK rutter found delayed intellectual development. The mean IQ of the children dependent on their age. for example babies who were adopted before the age of 6 months had an IQ of 102, whereas babies adopted at the age of 6months-2years had an IQ of 87 and babies after 2 years had an IQ of 77. They were compared to a control group of 52 british children . children adopted after the age of 6 months were also more likely to show signs of disinhibited attachment. disinhibited attachment is where babies dont know how to act appropriately to strangers/adults; this is characterised by clingness, attention-seeking, and inappropiate social behaviour
There were similar findings from Zeanah et al Bucharest. He conducted a study of 195 children ages 11-31 months. It was similarily found out there was signs of disinhibited attachment 65% showed disorganised attachment and 44% showed disninhibited attachment
19% came out as securely attached
