Basics of Areas Flashcards
(14 cards)
Social Area
Milgram, Bocchiaro, Piliavin, Levine
___
Understanding human behaviour in a social context
* How our behaviour is influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others
* Helps understand social issues/events
Cognitive Area
Loftus & Palmer, Grant, Moray, Simons & Chabris
___
* Investigation of our internal mental processes
* Happens in the mind, thus is difficult to measure
* Behaviour is highly predictable based on identifiable patterns in thinking;
* Schemas - mental frameworks that help individuals interpret information
* Computer Analogy; everyone has an input, processing & output
Developmental Area
Bandura, Chaney, Kohlberg, Lee
___
Change and development goes on throughout our lifetime
and never stops
* Interactionist on NAT/NUR & IND/SIT
* Early experiences can have impacts later in
life
* Development may happen in pre-determined stages
* External Influences
* Moral Development
Biological Area
Sperry, Casey, Blackemoore & Cooper, Maguire
___
What is psychological is first physiological
* Practical Applications in understaning behaviour in terms of brain diff.s & changes
* Diff.s between behaviour is genetically controlled
* role of evolutionary genetics/genetic inheritance
* Brain activity can be studued as observable, measurable diff.s
* study of brain & brain function
* role of nervous system
* hormones and other chemicals affecting brain
and behaviour
* the impact of environment on biology
Individual Differences Area
Freud, Baron-Cohen, Gould, Hancock
___
Possible principles/concepts:
* People/everyone is unique/different
* Individual personality
* Measuring differences
* Idiographic approach
* Quantifying psychological attributes
* Investigating complex behaviours
* Use of case studies
* Supports dispositional explanations of behaviour
* Holism/ Interactionist approach
Behaviourist Perspective
Bandura, Chaney
___
* Observable behaviour only
* All behaviour is learned from an individual’s environment
* We acquire behaviour through learning
* Social learning theory/Observational Learning
* Classical conditioning
* Operant Conditioning
Psychodynamic Perspective
Freud, Kohlberg, Hancock
___
* We are strongly influenced by the structure & drives of our unconscious mind
* ID, Ego, Superego (Kohlberg - development of Superego)
* Conscious, Subconscious, Unconscious
* Development is effected by early relationships
* Important parts of out unconscious can be found in how we express ourselves outwardly - e.g. language (Hancock link)
Social Area - Strengths & Weaknesses
- Practical Applications
- High experimental realism
- Can explain extreme behaviours
- Range of research methods (lab & field)
___ - Ethical issues around research (more relevant to real life studies are, they are often less ethical)
- Ignores individual differences in response
- Too deterministic
Cognitive Area - Strengths & Weaknesses
- Scientific methods - often very controlled experiments
- Practical applications in understanding people
___ - Reductionist (specifically the computer analogy)
- Difficult to objectively measure non-observable things like thought; inside the head
Developmental Area - Strengths & Weaknesses
- Practical Applications
- Allows early identification & intervention where there are developmental problems
- Understanding differences between ppl at diff. stages of development (children, adolescents, adults)
- Interactionist in the NAT/NUR debate
___ - Some theories of development too rigid/too deterministic (Kohlberg)
- Raises ethical issues in terms of reliance on children as participants
- Difficulties w/ consent, relies on children’s ability to articulate, easily influenced etc.
- Difficult to scientifically study
- Not always a good predictor of future behaviour; people may not follow expected patterns
- Longitudinal research suffers from shrinking samples
- Cross-sectional research may not be using reliable comparisons
Biological Area - Strengths & Weaknesses
- Scientific
- Practical Applications
___ - Low Ecological validity
- Very Reductionist
Individual Differences Area - Strengths & Weaknesses
Practical Applications
* Focused on understanding
individuals/understanding complex disorders
Both Qual & Quant
* Recognises the importance of subjective experience
in studying behaviours
___
* Can be unscientific
* Too complex to study people reliably
* Cannot establish causal relationships
* Unable to generalise
* Lacks objectivity
* Ethical issues/Socially sensitive research
Behaviourist perspective Strengths & Weaknesses
- Scientific Status
- Practical Applications
___ - Reductionist
- Ethical Issues (can be powerful in altering human behaviour)
Psychodynamic perspective Strengths & Weaknesses
- Can explain otherwise inexplainable things (textbook gives the example of adult baby syndrome)
- Interactionist about key debates
___ - Poor research methodology (case studies)
- The theories are vague and hard to prove
