The effect of the Level of Processing on the amount of information recalled
Title: The effect of the Level of Processing on the amount of information recalled Abstract: The investigation is based on the work of Craik and Lockhart who devised the Levels of Processing (LOP) model in 1972. According to their theory it has three levels of processing, semantic, phonological and structural. Structural processing is based purely on appearance and arrangement of the word, phonological processing is how it sounds and semantic processing is what it means. In terms of shallowness, structural is the shallowest and semantic is the deepest. They found that participants processing information semantically recalled words better than those processing them structurally. They suggested that words which require deeper processing are recalled better. The aim of the study was to see if people recall words processed by their meaning more frequently than words associated with their appearance. The research method used a laboratory experiment and the experimental design was independent measures. An opportunity sample of thirty-eight participants of year 11 students at Unity College, Northampton, were asked to carry out a simple task of answering a series of closed questions. They were then asked to recall the words under consideration of the questions being asked. The investigation found that participants recalled an average of 6.18 words using semantic processing and
Psychology Coursework - Conformity
Alistair Frame Psychology Coursework Introduction Background Research Conformity involves the changing of ones attitudes, opinions, or behaviours to match the attitudes, opinions, or behaviours of other people. This pressure to act like other people, sometimes despite our true feelings and desires, is a common everyday occurrence. This is due to implied and spoken rules of the situation. Many factors can affect a person's level of conformity. These include: * Group cohesiveness - The degree to which we are strongly attached to a group and the amount we would be prepared to do to stay within that group. The 'closer' the group the more conformity occurs * Group size - About three or four people will exert pressure to conform. It is aid that a larger group does not necessarily mean more conformity * In experiments researches have discovered that if the participants were allowed to give their answers away from the group then conformity decreased. If people were allowed to give their answers in private then it is said that they will be less likely to be swayed by other people opinions. * Again in experiments researchers like Asch have discovered that if the task is ambiguous or the problem is made harder then conformity levels are likely to increase. Under conditions where the problem is less obvious then people are likely to go with the majority of the group * It is
A study into social representations of sexuality
Contents Page Abstract Page 2 Introduction Pages 3-8 Methods Results Discussion References Page 9 Appendix 1 Page 10 Appendix 2 Page 11 Appendix 3 Page 12 Abstract The main aim of this study was to investigate social representations of sexuality through the media of FHM magazine, in terms of body exposure. The hypotheses were that there would be more partially clothed women displayed than partially clothed men, and more fully clothed men displayed than women. This was a content analysis where all people featured in the magazine that were larger than an eighth of an A4 sheet of paper were counted. The men and women were classified separately into two categories: partially clothed or fully clothed. It was found that the greater proportion of those partially clothed were women, and the majority of those fully clothed were men. The results were statistically significant. This study concluded that women are portrayed as sexual objects more than men in FHM magazine. Introduction Social representations are common sense ideas, thoughts, images and knowledge which members of a group share, that help us to interpret and understand our social world. They explain attitudes towards complex concepts such as sexuality, intelligence or education. (However, they differ from culture to culture, for example, the
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk explores the theme of masculinity through clever characterisation, exploration of conformity and anarchy and through unusual language.
Fight Club "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk explores the theme of masculinity through clever characterisation, exploration of conformity and anarchy and through unusual language. The traditional role of man was as the head of the family unit. Looking after and providing for his wife and children in the hunter-gatherer role. What if a man has no wife and children? What is his role? What if the man comes from a broken family where he had no father? How is he supposed to live a good male life if he has no good example to follow? These are some of the issues that Chuck Palahniuk confronts on the theme of masculinity in "Fight Club". In this essay I will explore the author's use of characterisation, conformity, anarchy and interesting and unusual language in support of this main theme. The characterisation of the main figure is executed particularly well. The characters of Joe and Tyler are cleverly interwoven throughout the novel until the reader's realisation that they are both actually the same person. There are a lot of hints in the novel, which suggest this up until it is actually revealed. Several times the narrator, Joe, says, "I know this because Tyler knows this." This could be taken as meaning that they are very close friends and tell each other everything or that they are both the same person. The author also refers to the idea of multiple personalities
Describe what psychologists have learned about environmental disaster and/or technological catastrophe.
Essay on environmental disaster and catastrophe a) Describe what psychologists have learned about environmental disaster and/or technological catastrophe An environmental disaster is a natural disaster that few people will experience in their lifetime. These are relatively infrequent natural events that are the product of natural physical forces governing the earth and atmosphere. A technological catastrophe is a human made disaster, the result of some human error or miscalculation. These events are usually called disasters when there is a substantial degree of destruction and disruption and the events are uncontrollable either because they are natural disasters or because they represent the occasional loss of control over something which humans normally control very well. Psychologists have studied disasters and catastrophes in an attempt to ascertain what characterises a disaster and what the psychological effects of disaster and catastrophe. It has been found that the characteristics of a disaster effect how people react. One important characteristic is the amount of warning available. Fritz & Marks (1954) found that a lack of warning about a disaster can make the consequences worse, however Drabek & Stephenson (1971) found that the effectiveness of repeated warnings of flash floods was undermined by factors such as families being separated at the time of warnings
Compare and Contrast two theories of Bystander Behaviour
Compare and Contrast two theories of Bystander Behaviour "A man approached the gates of heaven and asked to be admitted. 'Tell me one good thing you have ever done in your life', said St Peter. 'Well', said the man. 'I saw a group of skinheads harassing an elderly lady and so I went over and kicked the leader in the shin'. Impressed, St Peter asked when this act of bravery had occurred. 'About 40 seconds ago,' came the response." (Cardwell, Clark & Meldrum 2001) Bystander apathy (effect) can be defined as a tendency for people to more likely act in an emergency or come to the aid of other when they are alone, or conversely, the lesser likelihood of an observer to help people in trouble if other people are present. (Corsini 1999). There have been many theories surrounding bystander behaviour; two prominent examples are Latané and Darley's (1970) Cognitive model and Piliavin et al.'s (1981) Bystander-calculus model. These theories have been widely discussed and have many similar and contrasting ideas. Latané and Darley's cognitive model of bystander behaviour is considered a classic theory in psychology; it uses a five stage model to show that bystander intervention depends on the outcomes of a series of decisions. These stages progress from whether the bystander notices the incident to determining whether their intervention would put them in danger. The model argues that
Critically evaluate whether Milgrams research on obedience was ethical
Psychology Methods & Ethics Assignment A.C. 1.1, 2.1 Critically evaluate whether Milgram's research on obedience was ethical. In 1961, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the first of the frequently discussed obedience experiment, sometimes referred to as the "shock" studies. The purpose of the experiment was to discover the willingness of the participants to obey an authority figure, who instructed them to inflict shocks on the 'learners.' The shocks varied from a mild 15 volts up to an eventual, extremely dangerous 450 volts. The studies were inspired by Milgram's interest in the Nazi's behaviour and the Holocaust, in particular how ordinary German citizens assisted Hitler with a massive killing program. The results of Milgram's experiment were that 80% of participants were obedient, with 65% of those being fully obedient and continuing to the end of the experiment (Moxon, et al., 2003). Milgram concluded that obedience to authority is not a German culture but a seemingly universal feature of human behaviour, based on situational factors, not individual characteristics. Ethics can be complicated with no plain rules and there is very rarely a clear right answer, however there are guidelines in place covering the main principles of consent, deception, distress caused, right to withdraw, debriefing and protection of participants to name a few. Also known
Describe and evaluate psychological research into conformity and obedience in humans, and consider ways in which this research can be applied to real life.
Joleen Moret 25th November 2002 Access to H.E. Psychology Coursework Describe and evaluate psychological research into conformity and obedience in humans, and consider ways in which this research can be applied to real life. Conformity is a change in behaviour or beliefs as a result of real or imagined group pressure; the feeling that others are putting pressure on us to change our beliefs or behaviour. Asch (1956) compiled a study to see how many subjects would conform and give an incorrect answer to a simple unambiguous task. Apart from one naïve participant, all other members of the group were confederates of the experimenter. The group were sat around a table and asked what line (with a choice of three) matches the single line in a box. The lines were easy to distinguish and if tested on their own, observers made few if any errors. The confederates were instructed to give the same wrong unanimous answer to see if the naïve participant would conform. Thirty-two percent conformed to the group's answer, and seventy-four percent conformed once; thus denying the evidence of their own eyes, giving the wrong answer when it was their turn. During post-experimental interviews with his participants, Asch found that conformity occurred at three levels. Few conforming participants experienced distortion of perception, most conforming participants experienced a distortion
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
Outline and evaluate biological explanations of aggression
Outline and evaluate biological explanations of aggression The biological explanation of aggression suggests that aggression is caused by genetics, brain structure or bio-chemical influences - hormones such as testosterone and neurotransmitters such as serotonin. It includes only biological factors ignoring environmental, psychological and social factors which are better explained by of the social-psychological explanation. The first theory linking genetics to aggression was Court-Brown's research study. Sandberg was the first to identify the 47 XYY karyotype. Normally every human has 46 chromosomes - 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. When a male, has an extra Y chromosome the 47th chromosome it makes them XYY and this would be a genetic disorder. Court-Brown conducted a longitudinal study on 314 males with XYY chromosome and suggested that males with this chromosome would be better hospitalised 'due to an increased likelihood of aggressive behaviour'. Many institutions took on this idea without further research and as a result many males where hospitalised. This would support the biological view that genetics can cause a person to become aggressive as Court-Brown provided evidence for this, however after further research he further retracted his comments as much of it was based on assumption. Further research into the XYY karyotype found that the only thing that
