Psychology Over Time (Studies)

Question 1

Sherif

Answer 1

• Has not developed - social psychology was relatively new in the 1960s, so not much for Sherif to base his theory on initially. Society has now developed and we are more tolerant than during Sherif’s time - prejudice is more subtle, but the study does not allow for that and has not since been replicated (aim and sample)
  + Has developed - Tajfel worked at a similar time and developed Social Impact Theory after Sherif’s RCT, so study has been built on (procedure - competition and use to develop SIT)
  + Has developed - Adorno in the 1950s linked prejudice to personality and not situation (findings - that competitive situation leads to prejudice)
• Has not developed - what is known about the influence of the situation on prejudice over time has not changed since SIT and RCT (conclusions)

Question 2

Baddeley

Answer 2

+ MSM was the most up-to-date theory of memory of its time, and Baddeley’s investigation into encoding within STM and LTM was important for providing evidence for the separation in processes of both stores (aim and method)
+ Since Baddeley’s study, LTM has been separated into episodic, semantic, and procedural memory, and STM into phon. loop and VSS, showing how the understanding of memory has developed over time
+ Added episodic buffer in 2000 - as Baddeley did further experimentation, he added to his model of memory, showing that his experiment helped in developing psychological knowledge over time (conclusions)
- Memory is still treated as a computer processing system within cognitive psychology and the central executive is still not properly understood - Baddeley’s experiment therefore had limited impact in understanding over time (findings)

Question 3

Raine

Answer 3

+ Development in brain scanning technologies and techniques had recently developed, allowing Raine to use PET scans in order to measure differences in brain activity between people
+ Raine provided classic research which has now been built upon - as well as knowing areas of the brain responsible for aggression (amygdala, hippocampus, corpus callosum, etc.), more recent research has focussed on the role of neurotransmitters such as serotonin in the orbital frontal cortex, for example
- Raine’s was a natural experiment - it is difficult to investigate abnormalities in murderers’ brains in a way that avoids extraneous variables (environment and past experiences), and therefore knowledge of brain regions implicated in aggression are difficult to develop validly over time
+ Raine also built on brain research of the past, which has developed from post-mortem studies to CT scans, then PET scans. Now, fMRI scans have been developed, which allow for more recent research to build on that of Raine with more complex scans

Question 4

Watson and Rayner

Answer 4

• Has not developed - can’t ethically replicate W+R now, so can’t develop knowledge
  + There was a study by Olsen et al. in 2007 which used CC principles when applying them to calves (+also, technology to implement knowledge of CC and Watson and Rayner’s findings has developed - use of VR to implement systematic desensitisation)
  + Has developed - working at the same time as Pavlov - used in the modern day to develop flooding treatment
• Has not developed - CC still used and has not been further developed beyond SLT

Question 5

Rosenhan

Answer 5

+The way the DSM has changed over time reflects how psychological understanding and diagnoses have changed as a result of Rosenhan’s findings
- In 2001, seven people with SZ presented themselves to intake offices in search of treatment all of them were denied care due to a lack of resources, showing that there is still a lot of work/reform needed in psychiatry despite Rosenhan’s research
+ Some studies have shown that the objectivity of psychiatric diagnoses remains comparable to that of the rest of medical science, while acknowledging that some subjectivity is inevitable (suggests improvement since Rosenhan)
- Current research standards would not allow the conducting of Rosenhan’s study without modification as it would now be considered methodologically unsound and ethically unacceptable, so difficult to replicate to observe changes O.T.