essay plans Flashcards
(15 cards)
Outline and evaluate research into the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of
eyewitness testimony 16m
AO1
- Johnson and Scott 1976 – negative effect of anxiety due
to weapon focus PPTs thought they were waiting for a
study in room whilst witnessed man with pen and
grease, then argument and man walking with knife–
49% accuracy in low anxiety vs 33%
- Yuille and Cutshall 1986 real gun shooting – positive
effect of anxiety due to fight or flight response. 13 ppts
agreed to partake
AO3
POSITIVES
- Anxiety in dangerous
situations may mean
recall is better.
- May follow the
Yerkes-Dodson law in
real life, to apply to
situations.
- Studies have high
ecological validity.
- Avoids and prevents
over-reliance on EWT
NEGATIVES
- Contradictory evidence
means reaching
conclusions is
unattainable.
- Y+C may have
involved PED? And
effects of ethical issues
are paramount.
- Determinism
Discuss behavioural approach to explaining phobias.
AO1
- Extreme anxiety resulting from phobic stimulus.
- Mowrer proposed the two-process model to explain how
phobias are first acquired through classical conditioning and
maintained by operant.
- Watson and Rayner 1920 demonstrated how this is the case
with Little Albert, who became scared of fluffy white objects
after learning to associate mice with a loud sound.
- Avoiding the stimulus acts as negative reinforcement
AO3
POSITIVES
- Logical as CC and OC are
established principles of
behaviour so application makes
sense.
- Treatment derived from the
theory is successful making it
valid and also useful.
- Diagallo 1996 found 20% of
those involved in car crashes
develop speed fear
NEGATIVES
- Ignored evolutionary fears
such as snakes
- Doesn’t have explanatory
power for all kinds of
phobias such as cognitions
and thinking involved
- Reductionist and
deterministic
- Ethically sensitive
Discuss research into Role of father in attachment (16 marks)
AO1
- Grossman 2002 found quality of father’s attachment was less
important for teenage attachment type, in comparison to the mothers.
– role of play
- Field 1978 filmed 4-month-old babies and found fathers can adapt to
the role of the mother when given the opportunity to
- Schaffer and Emerson 1964 found 75% infants formed immediate
secondary attachments to their fathers
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POSITIVES
- Positive implications for the
economy- fathers can be PCs
- McCallum and Golombok 2004
found no developmental differences
in single/same sex parents
households
NEGATIVES
- Doesn’t show why
fathers aren’t naturally
the primary caregiver-
biology? Hormones?
- Observer bias may be
at play with stereotypes
Describe and Evaluate Working memory model.
AO1
- Baddeley and Hitch 1974
- Aims to explain how memories enter and how STM
works- active processing.
- Includes the CE, PL, EB and VSS
- CE- supervisory function, acts as a filter, all coding,
limited capacity and one piece of info at a time
- PL- auditory information split into PS- inner ear and
AL- inner voice – used for skills like reading.
- VSS- visual and spatial information split to VC- form
and colour and IS- arrangement of objects.
- EB- backup, connecting STM and LTM with recall
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POSITIVES
- Baddley and hitch 1976
- KF case study
- Applications to
memory in real life
- No emphasis on
rehearsal
NEGATIVES
- Unclear role of central
executive
- Case study evidence is
subjective and poses
issue of causation
Describe and evaluate interference as an explanation for forgetting 16m
AO1
- When two or more memories disrupt each other and
result in forgetting of LTM
- This can be proactive where old memories disrupt new
and retroactive where new memories disrupt the old
- This is thought to occur more when memories are
similar such as telephone numbers or postcodes-
McGeoch and McDonald 1931
- Application to exams and school
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POSITIVES
- Semantic memory
more resistant as facts
- Baddley and Hitch
1977 evidence with
rugby players – shows
the theory to be true in
real life and therefore
higher in validity
NEGATIVES
- Little is told about
cognitive process.
- Artificial tasks in
research and evidence
- Doesn’t happen as
often as retrieval failure
does.
- Potentially incomplete
as only explains one
way of forgetting
Describe and evaluate types of long-term memory 16m
AO1
- Exist in two types: non-declarative and declarative.
- Non-declarative (unconscious) is known as procedural
and consists of knowing how to do things, and skills
- Declarative (conscious) memories are split into
episodic- self/events knowledge and semantic
knowledge- facts/knowledge of the world
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POSITIVES
- Research from brain
scans show different
brain regions to be
active with different
memories:
Hippocampus (E),
temporal lobe (S), and
cerebellum (P)
- HM and CW provide
evidence for distinction
between types
NEGATIVES
- Unclear research
picture for brain
regions as research has
found declarative
memories in both sides
of PFC
Discuss one of more reasons why people resist the pressure to conform 16m
AO1
- Social support. This occurs when a dissenter is present and allows the person to
act accordingly to their own decisions due to increased confidence. Research seen
in Asch – conformity decreased when unanimity dropped. 5%
- Locus of control. This is a scale that everyone sits on, ranging from external to
internal control. This means either believing in free will or determinism. People
with internal locus of control are better at resisting as they feel more responsibility
AO3
SS
- Research support from Asch
- Questions our free will… determined
by others.
- Better explanation as LOC has
contradictory evidence.
- Explains, not promotes.
- Valid
LOC
- Questions our free will as LOC
cannot be controlled? BUT belief
of free will leads to resistance.
- Twenge et al 2004 found people
are becoming increasingly resistant
but also more external.
- No cause and effect may be other
dispositional factors.
- Not necessarily valid
Outline and evaluate learning theory as an explanation of attachment 16m
AO1
- Works with classical conditioning principle, where the unconditioned
stimulus is food, the primary reinforcer, leading to the UCR of pleasure.
- So Food (UCS) + Caregiver (neutral) = Pleasure (UCR)
- Further shaped by operant conditioning. Baby cuddled when it cries (+). Baby
stops crying and smiles when cuddled (- reinforcing of caregiver) = increase
cuddles
POSITIVES
- Logical to apply established
behavioural principles to
attachment
- Nurture argument
AO3
NEGATIVES
- Would be improved if the UCS =
Contact comfort
- Reductionist
- Ignores nature role
- Harlow disproves the theory
- Schaffer and Emerson 1964 found
more primary attachment to mothers
even if they weren’t feeding most.
Discuss research into the influence of childhood on adult relationships 16m
AO1
- Hazard and Shaver 1987- 620 responses to a love quiz analysed to show childhood
attachment type and quality of current relationships. 56% secure had lasting, good.
25% IA had fear of intimacy, and IR jealousy
- Bailey et al 2007 found 99 mothers to have high consistency in matching
attachment type to their babies and own mothers
- McCarthy 1999 – 40 women analysed for childhood attachment- secure having
best relationships, IR struggled with maintenance and IA intimacy fear
AO3
POSITIVES
- Reliable as consistent
evidence (all above)
- Soft determinism as shows
link not cause
- Explained by the IWM
NEGATIVES
- No cause and effect as many variables present
- Contradictory evidence by Becker-Stoll 2003
in a longitudinal study, found no continuity in
attachment type from 1-16 years old (43 ppts)
- Retrospective studies questioned validity due
to bias
Discuss the cognitive approach to explaining depression 16m
AO1
- Beck 1967 proposed depression to be due to cognitions being at fault
◼ Faulty informational processing- black and white thinking
◼ Negative self-schema
◼ Negative triad: negative view of the world, future and self
Ellis ABC model – 1962 proposed good mental health because of rational
thinking. Irrational thoughts are those that interfere with happiness and free
from pain.
◼ Activating event, Belief and Consequence
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POSITIVES
- Hammen and Krantz found
people with depression to
perform worse at logic
tasks.
- Cohen et al 2019 tracked
473 individuals, finding
cognitive vulnerability
predicting depression in
later life
- CBT and REBT are
established and successful
treatment which comes
from the cognitive
approach
NEGATIVES
- Harmful as promotes self-blame,
and this is socially sensitive for
anyone with the disorder or
KNOWS someone with it.
- Fairly reductionist way of
explaining as doesn’t incorporate
biological factors when research
shows involvement of
neurotransmitters.
- Also, deterministic.
- Both examples are not accurate at
explaining endogenous
depression, only reactive
Discuss the behavioural approach to treating phobias 16m
AO1
- Flooding: exposure to extreme phobic stimulus for a
long period resulting in extinguished learned response
- Systematic desensitisation: clients work their way
through an anxiety hierarchy and taught to relax at each
stage before moving on to exposure. This reverses the
classical conditioning in reciprocal inhibition, as
anxiety cannot occur at the same time as relaxation
AO3
POSITIVES
- SD is effective, seen in
research support from
Gilray et al 2003 and
Wechsler et al 2019
- Flooding is a quicker
and cheaper treatment
than other forms of
therapy such as CBT
and SD
- Suitable for children
NEGATIVES
- Relies on imagination
for SD, meaning
demand characteristics
- Huge distress is
involved in flooding
meaning consent is
vital – when to get out?
- May be more suited to
specific phobias
- Cognitive symptoms
not treated
Discuss the cognitive approach to treating depression 16m
AO1
- Type of CBT called REBT- Rational emotive behavioural therapy.
- ABC model extended to ABCDEF- Disputing thoughts, Effect, Feelings- logical
and empirical disputing.
- Given homework between sessions- test against reality, encouraged to be active.
- Unconditional positive regard to clients
AO3
POSITIVES
- 90% success claimed by Ellis
- No side effects, Cost effective
- Not lifelong, unlike drug therapy
- March et al found that after 36 weeks, there
was an improvement of 81% with CBT,
81% with antidepressants and 87% with
both, suggesting a combination is optimum
NEGATIVES
- Self-report methods may
make claims invalid
- Requires dedication and
concentration which may be
made difficult by symptoms
of depression – limiting
effectiveness of the the
Discuss the biological approach to treating OCD 16m
AO1
- OCD is an anxiety disorder of two components.
- SSRIs are given to sufferers as OCD is characterised by low levels of
serotonin. They work by preventing re uptake into the pre-synaptic neurone,
allowing serotonin to remain in the synaptic cleft.
- Another drug type are Tricyclics, such as clomipramine which work the same
as SSRIs but also function with noradrenaline – used in those unresponsive to
SSRIs
AO3
POSITIVES
- Soomro et al 2008 found
drug therapies to be more
effective than placebos
after 3-month trial
- Quick forms of treatment
and require less effort,
also cheaper
NEGATIVES
- Not many studies explore long term
effectiveness.
- Reductionist
- Bad press of symptoms and therefor negative
opinions
- Side effects present which aren’t in therapies
eg. CBT also LIFELONG
- Other therapies may work better such as
exposure response prevention
Discuss at least two explanations for the defiance of authority 16m
AO1
- Social support. This occurs when a dissenter is present and allows the person to
act accordingly to their own decisions due to increased confidence. Research seen
in Asch – conformity decreased when unanimity dropped. 5%
- Locus of control. This is a scale that everyone sits on, ranging from external to
internal control. This means either believing in free will or determinism. People
with internal locus of control are better at resisting as they feel more responsibility.
AO3
SS
Research support from Asch
- Questions our free will… determined
by others.
- Better explanation as LOC has
contradictory evidence.
- Explains, not promotes.
- Valid
LOC
- Questions our free will as LOC
cannot be controlled? BUT belief
of free will leads to resistance.
- Twenge et al 2004 found people
are becoming increasingly resistant
but also more external.
- No cause and effect may be other
dispositional factors.
- Not necessarily valid
Positives
Holland 1967 shows
LOC explanation to be
valid
NEGATIVES
- Twenge et al 2004 shows
contradictory evidence.
- LOC is limited as
Rotter 1982 proposed
the influence mainly
occurs in new
situations. This means
LOC validity is
challenged.
