Core Studies - Background Questions

Question 1

Milgram (Structure)

Question 2

Milgram

Question 3

Bocchairo (Structure)

Question 4

Piliavin (Structure)

Question 5

Piliavin

Question 6

Levine (Structure)

Question 7

Levine

Question 8

Blakemore and Cooper (Structure)

Question 9

Blakemore and Cooper

Question 10

Maguire (Structure)

Question 11

Maguire

Question 12

Sperry (Structure)

Question 13

Sperry

Question 14

Casey (Structure)

Question 15

Loftus and Palmer (Structure)

Question 16

Loftus and Palmer

Question 17

Grant (Structure)

Question 18

Grant

Question 19

Moray (Structure)

Question 20

Moray

Answer 20

Selective attention is when people are presented with two or more simultaneous ‘messages’, and process or attend to only
one of them by tuning out the others. This is measured using dichotic listening tasks. Broadbent investigated the aviation
industry, raising awareness of the importance of air traffic controllers to be able to selectively attend to important
messages whilst rejecting others. Cherry was interested in conducting experiments on this topic. He created dichotic
listening tasks, asking participants to listen to two different messages, one in each ear, and shadow one of them, thus
setting up a block to the rejected message. Cherry found that very little could be remembered from the unattended
message. Moray was keen to replicate Cherry’s work and extend knowledge of selective attention and dichotic listening.

Question 21

Simons and Chablis (Structure)

Question 22

Simons and Chabris

Answer 22

Moray had previously research into attention, investigating into auditory attention. Simons are Chabris were interested in building on this knowledge and investigating into visual attention, particularly inattentional blindness. This is when attention is diverted, observers often fail to perceive an unexpected object. Previous research had already been conducted in this field. Mack and Rock investigated into computer based displays,
where participants were given a task to do and then presented with an unexpected object, such as a smiley
face. They found that observers failed to see it. However, this method was criticised for being
unrepresentative of how visual attention works in real life. Neisser investigated further, using video based
displays. Participants were asked to watch basketball players passing the ball and count the amount of passes,
during which a woman with an umbrella walks across the screen. Neisser found that the majority of
participants failed to see the woman. However the research was criticised for being a poor quality video. Both
of these studies provide evidence for inattentional blindness. Yet Simons and Chabris were eager to enhance
the work of both researchers making the task more representative of inattentional blindness in real life.

Question 23

Freud (Structure)

Answer 23

1. Introduce the theory and outline the structure of the mind
2. Outline the structure of the personality
3. Outline defence mechanisms
4. Outline psychosexual stages focusing on the phallic stage

Question 24

Freud

Answer 24

1. Freud’s psychodynamic theory teaches that our mind has different parts, with the most influential part of our behaviour being the unconscious mind, where our unresolved conflict and childhood traumas are stored
2. He also believes that the structure of our personality influences our behaviour. The id is driven by pleasure, the superego by morality and the ego is there to resolve any conflicts between the two
3. If we are unable to resolve these conflicts, Freud believes we may show defence mechanisms designed to protect our ego. Examples of this include displacement or humour
4. Finally Freud believes that our personality forms through psychosexual stages in which our libido is fixated on something different, for example, the phallic stage between 3-5 years old in which we are fixated on the opposite sex

Question 25

Baron-Cohen (Structure)

Answer 25

1. Briefly explain what autism is
2. Briefly explain what theory of mind is
3. Briefly outline the Sally Anne test
4. Briefly explain the Happe’s Strange Stories Test and why this inspired Baron-Cohen’s research

Question 26

Baron-Cohen

Answer 26

1. A diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder requires that a person has difficulties in communication, relationships with others and imagination.
2. Theory of mind refers to one’s ability to not only understand that they themselves have their own thoughts and feelings, but that other people have a different set of thoughts and feelings.
3. In order to test ToM deficit in children with autism, Baron Cohen used the Sally Anne task, whereby a child would witness Sally place a marble in her basket, but Anne would move the marble into her box when Sally was no longer there. The findings tell us that only 20% of autistic children answered correctly when asked where Sally would look for the marble.
4. Happe then went on to conduct a more complex task to test ToM (the strange stories task), whereby children (aged 8-9) had to listen to a series of ambiguous stories, and judge the mental state of the character, finding those with autism had difficulty doing so. Baron Cohen decided previous tests show a deficit in ToM in autistic children, but are too simple to assess ToM in adults, so designed another test to do so.

Question 27

Gould structure

Answer 27

1. State the first generation of intelligence tests and how they were distributed
2. Explain the need for group testing due to WW1 and explain Yerkes belief in intelligence and how it could be measured
3. Gould’s review of Yerkes and the problematic nature of psychometric testing
4. Link to prejudice and objectivity of intelligence testing and Gould’s desire to explore this

Question 28

Gould

Answer 28

1. The first generation of intelligence tests such as the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler tests were individual tests, given to one person at a time; whereas group tests are administered to several people at once.
2. A major push to develop group testing was America’s involvement in WW1. A quick and easy method of selecting over one million recruits was needed, and the result was the Army Alpha and Beta tests. These were developed by Yerkes who believed that intelligence was inherited and therefore could not be changed (due to nature). He also believed that intelligence could be measured objectively through use of scoring system
3. Gould aimed to use Yerkes tests to show the problematic nature of psychometric testing in general and the measurement of intelligence in particular
4. Gould also wanted to demonstrate how psychological theories on the inherited nature of intelligence and the prejudice of a society could significantly distort the objectivity of intelligence testing

Question 29

Hancock structure

Answer 29

1. Definition of psychopathic traits
2. The way in which to identify a psychopath through their language
3. Patricks (2006) findings in relation to language ability of Psychopaths, supported further by Cleckley and what was found
4. Hancock’s inspiration to explore three language indicators and what they are

Question 30

Hancock

Answer 30

1. A psychopath is defined as an individual who has reduced moral responsibility and is extremely selfish. Hare also suggests that they are deceitful and have no remorse
2. It is argued that one way to identify a psychopath is through their language which was previously believed to be eloquent and skillful
3. This was disputed by researchers such as Patrick (2006) who found that psychopaths use less coherent language compared to non-psychopaths. Additionally, Cleckley fond that psychopaths are more likely to go off on a tangent
4. Hancock therefore wanted to explore this by measuring psychopathy against 3 language indicators: predatory world view, socioeconomic needs and poverty of affect