Classic studies Flashcards
(20 cards)
Aim of Sheriff
To investigate whether 2 groups brought into contact and competition with each other will become hostile towards each other, and if this prejudice would be reduced if the two groups were set a superordinate goal.
Procedure of Sheriff
Opportunity sample from Oklahoma schools of 22 middle class protestant boys aged 11 (1 was 12)
Field experiment that had 3 stages: In-group formation, frictional phase and the Integration Phase. The first stage the boys were kept separate from each other and each group was involved in activities designed to encourage bonding and in-group formation, such as hiking and swimming. The frictional stage of the procedure happened over the next 4-6 days. Boys were brought into with each other during competitions as part of a camp tournament. The tournament included a series of competitive activities (e.g. tug-of-war etc.) with a trophy being awarded on the basis of accumulated team score. The integration phase of the procedure was during the last couple of days of camp where conflict resolution was used through the introduction of superordinate goals deliberately designed to ensure cooperation between the groups. Problem situations were set up that could only be resolved if both groups worked cooperatively like fixing the water tank which provided water to both groups. Starting the broken down camp bus that had got stuck in the mud.
Findings of Sheriff
Verbal insults were used between the 2 groups such as stinkers, braggers and sissies.
There was also physical violence between the rattlers and eagles.
Sherif found that in the frictional stage 93% had friends in their own group. However, by the end of the integration phrase 30% of the boys had friends between the two groups showing a reduction in prejudice
Conclusion of Sheriff
Sherif concluded that strong in-group identities were formed initially, and with the introduction of competition, negative out-group bias quickly emerged. The introduction of superordinate goals had a cumulative effect in reducing negative out-group bias because it removed competition.
Aim of Baddeley
Investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic word similarity on learning and recall in STM and LTM. Shows how info is encoded to test MSM.
Procedure of Baddeley
72 Participants from the applied psychology research subject panel.
Independent groups
Each of the groups were shown a list of 10 words either acoustically or semantically similar or dissimilar
They then did 6 distractor tasks where they were required to recall 8digit sequences
Then had to recall the order of their original list - process repeated 3 times
One 15 minute interference task before a surprise recall test at the end
Findings of Baddeley
At first participants found it harder to remember acoustically similar words than acoustically dissimilar.
By the end they found it harder to remember semantically similar words than dissimilar
Conclusion of Baddeley
STM encodes info acoustically and LTM encodes info semantically.
Supporting MSM as 2 separate stores for memory
Aim of Raine
Whether there was brain differences between violent murderers who had pleaded NGRI compared to a married control group of non murderers using PET scans. Specifically brain dysfunction in their PFC.
Procedure of Raine
41 p’pants 39 males 2 females who had pleaded NGRI but were charged with murder or manslaughter. 6 diagnosed with schizophrenia. This was exactly matched by a group of non murderers on a 1to1 basis.
Murderers and p’pants were injected with a radioactive glucose tracer and then did a ‘continuous performance task’ - a visual task that increases activity in the frontal lobes of normal p’pants for 32 mins. Afterwards took a PET scan to see activity.
Findings of Raine
Murderers had less activity in PFC
Murderers had more activity on right side of the thalamus
Murderers had less activity on less side of amygdala
Murderers had more activity on right side of amygdala.
Less=left more= right 2+2
Conclusion of Raine
Violent behaviour is controlled by certain areas of the brain. Link between abnormal brain activity and a predisposition towards violence in this specific group.
Aim of Watson and Rayner
Too see if classical conditioning could create an irrational fear and to see if that fear could be transferred over to other animals and objects
Procedure of Watson and Rayner
First assessed little albert at 9 months old to ensure no fear of white rat
White rat presented at same time as 2 metal bars banging together creating distressing Nosie
After a while the baby was distressed without the metal bars
The replaced by white items like cotton wool and fur
Findings of Watson and Rayner
After 5 trials he was scared of the rat
After 12 he was scared of any white object
Conclusion of Watson and Rayner
A conditioned emotional response can occur after a few pairings of stimuli are presented
Aim of Rosenhan
To investigate if sane people could be distinguished from insane people using the DSM2 classification system and if they can be differentiated.
Procedure of Rosenhan
8 pseudo-patients 3 female 5 male
Pseudo-patients said they could hear unfamiliar voices saying words like empty, hollow and thud
Once admitted to the hospital the pseudo patients behaved normally and reported they were fine and free of symptoms and not schizophrenic
Pseudo patients took notes on their experience covertly but later overtly
When given their medication they threw away their pills or flushed them down the toilet
Findings of Rosenhan
All but 1 pseudo patient was diagnosed as schizophrenic
35/118 patients recognised the pseudo patients as not crazy
7 were released with diagnosis of sz intermission
Stayed in hospital between 7-52 days average of 19
Conclusion of Rosenhan
Staff were unable to distinguish those who were sane from those who were insane
Rosenhan argued that the power of a label of insanity leads to the subjective interpretation of any behaviours displayed
