Psych for evie - exam answers from mark scheme 23 Flashcards
(19 cards)
Q1.1 Describe the sample of participants used in the study by Sherif et al. (1954/1961) (2mks)
Up to two marks for a description of the sample of participants in Sherif
et al. (1954/1961)
eg:
sampled boys who were aged 11 to 12-
years old and of a similar educational level.
The boys were
middle-class and from Protestant families who were considered
well-adjusted
Q1.2 Describe one way that Sherif et al. (1954/1961) attempted to reduce inter-group conflict.
Up to two marks for a description of one way that Sherif et al.
(1954/1961) attempted to reduce inter-group conflict.
introduced superordinate goals that
required collaboration between the two groups of boys to
encourage group cohesion, such as cooperating to make an
improvement to a water tank and pump that provided water for
both groups
Q1.3 Explain one weakness of the study by Sherif et al. (1954/1961) in terms of
reliability
One mark for identification of a weakness in terms of reliability (AO1).
One mark for justification of the weakness
a field experiment at a
summer camp which meant that they could not control all
extraneous variables that may impact on the conflict between the
Rattlers and Eagles
his reduces the reliability of the findings
about negative attitudes towards an out-group as the study
cannot be fully replicated to check the results for consistency
Q2.1 - Calculate the standard deviation for the gender prejudice score using the data in Table 1. Show your working and give your answer to two decimal places
One mark for squaring the values of the gender prejudice scores minus
the mean (7.4) for each score, (𝒙 − 𝒙̅)²
2.6^2, 0.6^2, 1.6^2, -3.4^2, -1.4^2
One mark for calculating the sum of these values = 23.2
One mark for dividing this by 4 (n-1) = 5.8
One mark for calculating the square root = 2.4083189 / 2.41 to two
decimal places
Q2.2 Calculate the range for the gender prejudice score
One mark for the range for the gender prejudice score.
For example:
* 6 (1).
Q3.1 Evaluate agency theory as an explanation of obedience.
AO1
* Milgram’s agency theory suggests that most people are likely to
obey an authority figure and give up their free will.
* The process of moral strain is the point where individuals feel such
discomfort between their judgement and an order from an authority
figure that they shift to an agentic state to relieve the strain.
* An agentic state is when individuals become agents of the authority
figure and will obey without questioning what they are told to do.
* An autonomous state is when individuals maintain free will and
responsibility so dissent against the orders of an authority figure
AO3
* Supporting evidence comes from Milgram’s (1963) study which
showed that 65% of his participants behaved agentically and
shocked the learner to 450 volts.
* Milgram’s agency theory does not consider individual differences in
personality therefore it is an incomplete explanation of what
influences a person to obey.
* Agency theory can be applied to explain the acts of genocide like the
Holocaust in which the soldiers behaved agentically and blindly
obeyed without question, killing millions of people.
* Charismatic leadership (House, 1976) suggests that the traits of the
leader are important in gaining obedience, so autonomy may be a
result of the authority figure lacking charisma rather than an
individual’s state.
Q4.1 State the fully operationalised independent variable (IV) and the fully
operationalised dependent variable (DV) for your cognitive psychology
practical investigation.
One mark for stating the fully operationalised independent variable for
their cognitive psychology practical investigation.
One mark for stating the fully operationalised dependent variable for
their cognitive psychology practical investigation.
Q4.2 Explain two strengths of your cognitive psychology practical investigation.
One mark for identification of each strength in relation to their cognitive
psychology practical investigation (AO2). One mark for justification of each strength (AO3)
Q4.3 ) Explain one improvement you could have made to your cognitive psychology
practical investigation.
One mark for identification of an improvement in relation to their
cognitive psychology practical investigation (AO2).
One mark for justification of the improvement (AO3).
Q5 Discuss, using reconstructive memory (Bartlett, 1932), including schema theory, Milo’s
and Betty’s recall of the film.
AO1
* Reconstructive memory suggests that we actively try and make
sense of new information based on what we already know.
* Memory recall may be distorted when memories are reconstructed
based on an individual’s understanding from past events.
* Schemas are the mental structures which hold prior knowledge
that are built from personal experiences.
* The concept of confabulation is where gaps in memories are filled
in using pre-existing information and expectations.
AO2
* Betty may have recalled the suitcase because this is something
she already knows about from her own travelling and staying in a
town for an extended period of time.
* Milo may have distorted his recall of the colour of the taxis as
yellow from past events in films he has watched where taxis in a
city are yellow, not black taxis.
* Betty and Milo may both have similar schemas for journeys
travelling by train and arriving at train stations from their own
experiences which would have influenced their memory of the film
when they recalled the scene.
* Milo may have confabulated the character having a bag and not a
suitcase as he may expect that people visit cities for shorter
periods of time, so his pre-existing knowledge would be that
people only take a bag and not a suitcase.
Q6.1 Describe how Amelia could use a random sampling technique to gather a sample
of 30 participants for her correlational research.
Amelia could firstly approach the police for a list of violent
offenders which she could put into a computer database (1) and
then use a random number generator to select the first 30 violent
offenders for her research into drug use and aggression (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Generic answers score 0 marks.
Answers must relate to the scenario.
Q6.2 Explain one weakness of Amelia using a correlational research method for her
investigation about recreational drug use and aggression
By using a correlational research method Amelia cannot be certain
that violence is the result of recreational drug use as the data she
gathers will only tell her if there is a relationship between her
covariables of aggression and drug use (1) which means Amelia
would not be able to determine any cause and effect that drug
taking results in violent behaviour, so limiting the usefulness of
her findings (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Generic answers score 0 marks.
Q7 Explain two strengths of brain structure as an explanation of aggression
Real-life case studies indicate that damage to brain structure can
result in individuals becoming aggressive which increases the
plausibility of the explanation that brain structures affect
aggression (1). Damasio et al. (1994) studied the case of Phineas
Gage who suffered damage to his pre-frontal cortex that resulted
in a personality change that made him irresponsible and
aggressive, so brain structure can influence aggression (1).
* Considering brain structure as a factor in human aggression could
help inform the way violent offenders are perceived by the
criminal justice system by including considerations of a person’s
pre-disposition to violence (1). Wong et al. (1997) used MRI scans
with 19 violent male criminals, they found the volume of the
amygdala was smaller in the violent criminals compared to
controls, supporting brain structure as a factor involved in violent
offending (1).
+OTHER REASONABLE MARKS
Q8 - Assess whether hormones can fully explain human behaviour such as aggression.
Testosterone is a hormone found in males more than females and
is responsible for sex drive, body muscle mass and mood.
* The hormone estradiol plays a role in dominance, motivation for
power and physical aggression among females.
* Low levels of cortisol, a hormone secreted in response to stress, is
associated with persistent aggressive behaviour beginning in
childhood.
* The combination of high levels of testosterone, low levels of
cortisol and low levels of serotonin have been associated with
impulsive aggression.
AO3
* Dabbs (1995) found higher levels of testosterone in adult male
prison inmates who had committed violent crimes compared to
property crime, so hormones may explain aggressive behaviour.
* It may be that when faced with a situation that leads to
aggression, estradiol levels increase in response to the situation,
therefore hormones may not be the cause of aggression, but the
result of aggression.
* McBurnett et al. (2000) found that boys who had lower levels of
cortisol in their saliva were three times more aggressive than boys
with higher levels of cortisol, so cortisol does seem to play a role
in aggressive behaviour.
* A focus just on hormones could be considered reductionist as it
excludes the role of neurotransmitters along with genetics or brain
functioning, so hormones on their own cannot fully explain human
behaviour such as aggression.
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Q9.1 Describe how Archie may have gained informed consent to conduct his
observation.
Archie may have asked the parents of the children if they would
allow their child to be observed on a specified day during activities
at the pre-school (1). He would have told parents that he aimed to
observe play with gender stereotypical toys and explained his
observation process (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Q10 Explain one strength and one weakness of Marigold using behaviour shaping to
encourage the boy to sit on a chair at his desk.
Strength
* There is evidence that behaviour shaping is a successful way to
help young children learn appropriate behaviours through
reinforcing the boy to take the small steps of sitting on a chair
with Marigold, eventually sitting at his desk (1). Nasa et al. (2008)
found that behaviour shaping was successful in supporting a child
aged 11 years old with ADHD to concentrate on tasks, so Marigold
is likely to achieve success with the child in her class (1).
Weakness
* Shaping the behaviour of a 9-year-old child to comply with the
desired expected behaviour that Marigold determines to be
appropriate in her classroom could be considered ethically and
morally unacceptable (1) as it is only a manipulation of surface
behaviour, so Marigold is just attempting to control his actions
which could be considered a form of social control (1).
Q11 Discuss how learning theories can explain the acquisition and maintenance of Dora’s
phobia of boxes.
AO1
* Classical conditioning suggests a phobia is acquired through the
pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
* The unconditioned response becomes associated with the neutral
stimulus, resulting in a conditioned response each time the
conditioned stimulus is presented.
* Negative reinforcement maintains a phobia when a behaviour or
action results in the removal of an undesired consequence.
* When a desired consequence is received for a behaviour or action,
the behaviour is reinforced positively, so the phobic response is
maintained.
AO2
* The clown toy in the box was an unconditioned stimulus that
resulted in an unconditioned fear and startle response, the action
of opening a box would have been a neutral stimulus for Dora.
* When Dora’s UCR of fear and startle was paired with the NS of
opening the box an association developed between opening the
box and fear, creating a conditioned response of fear to boxes.
* By opening all the boxes for her, Dora’s family are negatively
reinforcing the fear by removing her undesired consequence of
having to open boxes when they are delivered so Dora’s phobia of
boxes is maintained.
* By consoling Dora and bringing her cups of tea, her family are
providing positive reinforcement for her behaviour of showing fear
of boxes, which is desired by Dora so she will continue the phobic
response of being afraid of boxes.
Look for other reasonable marking points.
12 Assess the ethical issues involved when using animals for research in learning
theories.
AO1
* Animal research is governed by the Scientific Procedures Act
(1986) to make sure it is conducted with consideration for the
animals safety and welfare.
* Animals should be given appropriate conditions to live in to ensure
they are well looked after and cared for, before, during and after
experimental testing.
* Pavlov (1927) studied salivation in dogs to theorise that people
and animals could be conditioned to behave in certain ways.
* The three R’s include replacement where animal use only takes
place when necessary; refinement of procedures to minimise
harm; and reduction of the number of animals used.
AO3
* The Bateson Cube is used to determine a cost-benefit analysis of
research using animals, which helps determine whether the
potential benefits to humankind outweigh any harm that may be
caused to animals during the research to ensure ethical issues are
considered carefully in research.
* Small animals such as rodents can be housed in small laboratory
spaces, which allows researchers to maintain ethical
considerations of suitable conditions whilst having sufficient
animals to undertake testing with, so ethical issues can be met.
* Pavlov (1927) inserted a tube into the dogs to collect the saliva to
be measured, which may have caused unnecessary pain to the
dogs as conditioning could be tested in other ways, so not all
research with animals is fully ethical.
* Skinner studied pigeons and attempted to train them to carry
missiles during WWII, this is unethical as the animals would have
been sent to their deaths, however during the time of war it was
considered acceptable to attempt to use animals so it was
necessary to use pigeons in this way.
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Q13 Evaluate how well knowledge from cognitive psychology could explain Marco’s
situation.
AO1
* The multi-store model of memory assumes that processing is a
structural feature of human cognition which includes rehearsal and
encoding as part of memory processing.
* The central executive is said to be the control centre responsible
for focussing attention and inhibiting distraction from multiple
information inputs into our short-term memory.
* Research into memory processes in cognitive psychology has
included the use of brain scanning techniques to try and find the
locations of memory functions like the central executive.
* Episodic memory is time and spatially referenced information
about life events that an individual has experienced.
AO2
* Marco may not have rehearsed the events of the fight with the
other man and so cannot fully remember what took place as he
had not transferred this to his long-term memory store.
* Marco demonstrates cognitive confusion which could indicate he
has abnormal executive functioning, explaining why he lacks an
ability to process what is taking place around him and becomes
frustrated and aggressive.
* The referral for a brain scan could provide empirical evidence for
Marco’s memory processing to help him understand why he was
found by police at 3am unable to get home.
* Marco recalled the fact that the man was lying but had an inability
to recall exactly what happened during the fight, which may show
an issue with his memory of life experiences and an episodic
dysfunction in his long-term memory store.
AO3
* Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that when STM rehearsal was
prevented using an interference task, participants could not recall
the trigrams after 18 to 30 seconds, so rehearsal appears to be
required for transfer of information to LTM.
* Marco’s frustration and aggression may not be the result abnormal
executive processing, as Raine et al. (1997) found that brain
functions, such as reduced glucose metabolism in bilateral
prefrontal cortex, could be linked to aggression.
* Schwindt and Black (2009) conducted a meta-analysis of fMRI
studies of Alzheimer’s disease which showed that Alzheimer’s
disease patients show decreased activation in the MTL, so the
brain scan could help find out if Marco has this type of disorder.
* Ostergaard (1987) studied a 10-year-old boy with brain damage
to his episodic but not semantic memory as he could make
academic progress, which suggests that Marco could have damage
to one feature of his long-term memory
