Outline and evaluate research into obedience (12)
Outline and evaluate research into obedience (12) In Milgram's original obedience to authority study, his aims were to set up a situation in which single individuals were ordered to act against a stranger in an inhumane way and to see at what point they would refuse to obey the order. Milgram advertised for male volunteers by placing an advert in a local paper, which offered $4.50 as payment for taking part in a study of 'punishment and learning'. 40 respondents from a range of backgrounds were selected and were told to attend the laboratory in Yale University. They were greeted by the experimenter, and were introduced to a 'supposedly' participant, Mr Wallace, but actually he was a confederate. They were both experienced to a role-assignment but it was rigged so that the real participant was the teacher. The experimenter explained to the teacher that it was his job to teach the learner a series of word pairs and then test their recall. If an error was made in the answer, an electric shock was made, starting from 15V working upwards each time. As the shocks became higher, the learner screamed and became more dramatic, and complained of a weak heart at around 180V. The participants showed signs of extreme tension, even showing nervous laughing fits, but they were still told to 'please go on' even though they didn't want to continue. Along side that, when the teacher refused
Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression
Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression. (24 marks) Bandura believed that the potential for aggression may be biological, but the expression of aggression is learned. The social-learning theory (SLT) states that learning occurs through observation of a model. Imitation of an observed behaviour is more likely if the model is someone we aspire to or identify with or if they are rewarded. This is vicarious reinforcement. A child forms a mental representation of an event, including the possible rewards or punishments of the behaviour. When a child imitates an aggressive behaviour, they gain direct experience, and the outcome of the behaviour influences the value of aggression for the child. If they are rewarded they are more likely to repeat the behaviour. Children develop self-efficacy, which is confidence in their ability to successful carry out a behaviour. If aggressive behaviour is unsuccessful for a child, they will have a lower sense of self-efficacy so are less likely to behave this way in future. There is strong empirical evidence to support the SLT. For example, Bandura's Bobo doll studies found that children who observed a model behaving aggressively to the Bobo doll behaved more aggressively than those who observed a non-aggressive model and also imitated specific aggressive acts. This supports the theories claims that behaviour can be
Outline and evaluate the theory of deindividuation
Outline and Evaluate the Theory of Deindividuation Aggression is the intent to harm someone through verbal or physical actions. The Deindividuation theory is used to explain how anonymity can lead to individuals behaving in an antisocial manner, even though they would not act in this way in any normal circumstances. Deindividuation happens when you have an individual who feels anonymous, they act in ways that they would not normally due to social norms, but the fact that they are deindividuated makes them feel fine about not complying to the social norms, for example breaking the law and being aggressive. There are situations that increase Deindividuation, such as being in a group, or wearing a mask. In large groups an individual may act violent due to the responsibility not being completely on them. A strength of the Deindividuation theory is that there are many studies that support it. Zimbardo's prison experiment is a prime example that Deindividuation results in violent/aggressive behaviours. Within the experiment students were randomly allocated to prisoners and guards, the prisoners wore uniforms with sunglasses and treated the prisoners harsh, so harsh that the experiment had to be called off after just 5 days. This experiment is a clear example of how Deindividuation works, due to the guards wearing the uniform and sunglasses they were not acting themselves and
a)How might the view of the majority influence a jury when reaching a verdict?
Psychology Revision – Reaching A Verdict Q1)a)How might the view of the majority influence a jury when reaching a verdict? (10) Juries consist of twelve people, and often their verdicts of guilt or innocence aren’t unanimous. In this case, the view of the majority can greatly influence the minority in reaching a verdict. In a study conducted by Asch – though not originally a forensic study – he aimed to show how the views of the minority can be altered by the majority, even when presented with an unambiguous task. The task consisted of line X and comparison lines A, B and C and the five participants (all confederates except one) had to identify which of the lines A, B or C was the same length as line X. The confederates were told to deliberately and consistently choose the wrong line. The confederates collectively made the single participant conform on 32% of the tasks. This data drops to just 5% if the majority is not consistent in their beliefs that the wrong line is the right line. This data shows how, if a majority is confident and persistent in their beliefs, they can influence the decisions of the minority. Even though it was not originally a forensic study, Asch’s study on majority influence showed how some members of the jury may sway towards the opinions of the majority in order to avoid alienation from the social majority; they would rather conform
Is Psychology a Science?
Is Psychology a Science? Psychology is commonly defined as 'scientific' study of human behaviour and cognitive processes. Broadly speaking the discussion focuses on the different branches of psychology, and if they are indeed scientific. However, it is integral in this to debate to understand exactly the major features of a science, in order to judge if psychology is in fact one. There must be a definable subject matter - this changed from conscious human thought to human and non-human behaviour, then to cognitive processes within psychology's first eighty years as a separate discipline. Also, a theory construction is important. This represents an attempt to explain observed phenomena, such as Watson's attempt to account for human and non-human behaviour in terms of classical conditioning, and Skinner's subsequent attempt to do the same with operant conditioning. Any science must have hypotheses, and indeed test them. This involves making specific predictions about behaviour under certain specified conditions, for example, predicting that by combining the sight of a rat with the sound of an iron bar banging behind his head, a small child will learn to fear the rat, as is the case of Little Albert (1923). Also, empirical methods are used in scientific fields to collect data, relevant to the hypothesis being tested, as is the case in many psychological experiments, such as the
Reductionism In Psychology
Describe and evaluate reductionist explanations in 2 areas of psychology (30) Reductionism is the belief that the subject matter of psychology can be best explained by breaking it down into simple elements. This is sometimes referred to as Occam's razor, which outlines that unnecessary constructs and levels of explanation can be cut away in order to reveal the simple explanation. This idea is further supported by Morgan's Law Of Parsimony. This law states that we have no need to explain behaviour in terms of complex psychological processes, when it can be done in much simpler ideas. The reductionist line of thinking suggests that whatever it is we are trying to explain, we should look for something basic. The reductionist approach allows for psychology to be seen more scientifically but whether this is the best approach for the investigation of human behaviour is debateable. Rose suggested different levels of explanation for most things. Each level has a valid contribution to offer overall, but a particular topic may be best explained at a particular level. The hierarchical levels Rose suggested were molecular being the most reductionist and the behaviour of groups (sociology) being the least reductionist. Reductionism in psychology lies within the other 3 levels in the hierarchy. The main principle is that complex behaviour can be broken down into their constituent parts
Outline what is meant by 'culture bias' and describe culture bias in two or more psychological studies
Outline what is meant by 'culture bias' and describe culture bias in two or more psychological studies Culture bias is a term which covers several types of bias in psychology. It can be used to refer to judgements and prejudices about certain cultures, or methodological biases which lead to such biased conclusions. For example, although a method of research may be developed and found to be reliable in one culture, the same may not be true in another. Culture bias in methodology prevents us from being able to identify innate behaviour in cross-cultural research. One type of culture bias is ethnocentrism, which is the tendency to use one's own culture as a basis for judgements about others. Eurocentrism, ethnocentrism from the perspective of Western cultures, is particularly widespread in modern Psychology, as it is commonplace for findings based solely on, for example, American participants to be generalised to people across the globe. The relevance of psychological research carried out in Western countries to the wider world is questionnable. A large amount of this issue is a result of methodology. Because mundane realism and ecological validities have so much effect on the generalisation of findings, in order for findings to be relevant across cultures, the methodology must hold these characteristics no matter which culture it is carried out in. Failure to do so may lead to
Outline the strengths and weaknesses of the social approach .
Outline the strengths and weaknesses of the social approach (12 marks) The first strength of the social approach is it utilises experimental methods. Experimental methods manipulate one variable to see the effect it has on another variable. This allows for cause and effect to be established. The social approach can therefore be seen as being scientific. An example of a social study that uses a field experiment method is the Piliavin et al subway study on bystander behaviour in emergency situations. This study manipulated a number of variables including race of the victim. It then recorded if passengers on the tram helped the victim and how long it took for them to help. Whilst using experimental methods makes the approach scientific, on the other hand this strength can be seen as a small weakness as it is very reductionist. Reductionist methods only try to identify one cause for a behaviour occurring. This is a weakness as the social approach's theories may be based on incomplete evidence as the studies may have missed some causes of behaviour e.g. affect of physiology in obedience. The second strength of the social approach is social studies have important applications to everyday life. Social psychology studies prejudice conformity and obedience; these are real factors that influence how people in everyday social situations. An anecdotal example from life is the affect
Asch - Conformity
Psychologists have long been interested in conformity as a powerful influence on our behaviour, making us behave in ways that can often conflict with our attitudes and moral and ethical principles. Asch was interested in how strong the urge was to social conformity. He believed that people are manipulated by suggestion, where a person's judgment of a situation can be changed without their knowledge of it being changed first. When confronted by majority opinion, a person appears to lose their confidence and capacity to go against group pressure, and will instead conform. Sherif demonstrated that people will look to others for guidance and answer in line with the majority. Participants were tested on their estimation of how far a stationary light had moved in a dark room, and there was considerable doubt about the appropriate response, therefore Asch wanted to test in a situation where the correct answer was clearly obvious. Social Psychology offers the insight that conformity is characterized by public compliance rather than attitude change. Asch aimed to demonstrate that a significant minority of people would be willing to say that a line was the same length as another line of blatantly different length. Conformity involved many concepts such as values, beliefs, morals and ethics, but Asch was particularly interested in perceptual conformity. In a controlled laboratory
Describe and Evaluate Studies on Conformity. (Key study Solomon Asch)
Name: Odesanya Atilola Class: AS Psychology group1 Key Skills Assignment Topic: Describe and Evaluate Studies on Conformity. (Key study Solomon Asch) Lecturer: Kim Weeks Conformity is defined as a change in a person's opinion or behaviour as a result of real or imagined pressure from a group of people. This pressure to act like other people sometimes, despite our true feelings and desires, is common in our everyday lives. This is due to implied and spoken rules of the situation. People conform due to two different reasons. People conform either by informational influence or normative influence. Deutsch and Gerard (1955) gave a definition on informational and normative social influence: Informational social influence is a situation whereby the individual has a desire to be right in the knowledge and judgement of others, shown in Sherif's study. People change their opinion because of a number of different reasons including status and roles and familiarity. Informational influence leads usually to internalisation, where what a person believes actually changes. While Normative social influence is basically a situation whereby an individual has the urge or the want to be liked and accepted by others, as shown by Asch's experiment. Normative does not change private opinion; it affects public opinion because of compliance, where people, even though they don't believe in it,
