Outline one theory of the function of sleep.
Outline one theory of the function of sleep. There are two main theories in psychology offered to explain the function of sleep. One is called the ecological or evolutionary theory. The basis of this theory is that the reason why all animals sleep is because sleep serves some adaptive function. The notion of adaptiveness comes from the theory of evolution. The idea is that any behaviour that has continued in an animal's gene pool is because it must have been naturally selected because it, in some way, has helped promote the survival and reproduction of an animal possessing that characteristic. An important consideration, when thinking about the function of sleep, is to distinguish between different kinds of sleep: core sleep and other sleep. The two most important kinds of core sleep are slow wave sleep and REM sleep. It is possible that each serves a different adaptive purpose. One of the key criticisms made, in relation to evolutionary theories of sleep, is that many of them suggest that animals sleep in order to waste time. Whereas the restoration view is that sleep is not wasting time but offers the opportunity for key functions to take place. A second criticism is that evolutionary theories may not be suitable for explaining human sleep. Sleep may have been adaptive during the environment of evolutionary adaptation but this hasn't been true for a long time and one
Critique of "Perils of Obedience"
Gergely Nemeth Critique of "Perils of Obedience" The passage "Perils of Obedience" presents an experiment designed by Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, in which people were tested either to violate their conscience by obeying the immoral demands of an authority figure or to refuse them. At the beginning of the experiment, Yale undergraduate students were used as subjects, and about 60 percent of them were fully obedient. A colleague of Milgram assured him " When 'ordinary' people were tested, the results would be quite different " (279). They started new researches on "ordinary" people and the result was the same. According to Milgram's research we should realize that although society values such ideals as " individualism" and "freedom," it is often difficult for people to live up to their own standards in the face of group pressures. According to the author, "Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to" (276). Milgram decided to study and analyze how people would react toward a situation where they had to obey even knowing they would hurt a person whom they didn't know. I think the reason of the result of this research is that people like to please authority. People in general like the feeling they get when they are doing a good job. Even though they know what they are doing is morally wrong, the way they tried to justify
Evaluation of Freud's little Hans study.
Evaluate the little Hans study Strengths of the little Hans study are that they support the usefulness of case studies and have the ability to reveal and treat the origins of abnormal behaviour. In fact some forms of psychotherapy rely on building up a long and detailed case history as an aid to understanding and then helping the client. Case studies like that of little Hans are able to produce very in-depth qualitative data. In fact Freud argued that it was the special and intimate relationship between Hans and his father that displayed such progress of the analysis However, this case study only relates to little Hans as one individual and therefore there is a danger in generalising the findings to the population. There is no way of assessing how typical little Hans was and whether or not his situation can be generalised as the study could have been unique between Freud, Hans's father and little Hans. As well as this, Hans's father and mother were supporters of Freud's ideas thus they may have been raising little Hans in relation to Freud's theories so when it came to giving evidence of little Hans's phobia they did so in relation to Frauds' theories. Freud himself did not regularly meet little Hans as he only met him on one or two occasions, so Freud was only interpreting what Hans's father was interpreting of little Hans so it lacks a lot of objectivity. The little
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
Critically Discuss the Contribution of Different Sociological Approaches to Mental HealthMental illness is very much a common occurrence within society, with one in four people experiencing some
Critically Discuss the Contribution of Different Sociological Approaches to Mental Health Mental illness is very much a common occurrence within society, with one in four people experiencing some kind of mental health problem, and one in six will have depression at some point in their life. Mental illness is a disturbance of thought, feelings or actions that do not conform to normal behaviour within a society, these disturbances or abnormal behaviour characterize the illness. According to the Mental Health Foundation, there are over eighty-three known mental health problems ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Mental illness is not the result of personal weakness or lack of character. It can affect people of any age, race, religion or income. The first approach to mental illness is that it is a form of social control. Some of the most famous sociologists of the anti-psychiatry groups are Szasz and Scheff (1968), whose arguments were strengthened by the work of Erving Goffman (1961). These sociologists worked together and criticised mental illness as being biochemical imbalances or that it was a product of social learning and conditioning, or even a product of unconscious psycho sexual developmental problems, arguing that the phenomenon was not something that existed within an individual but rather that it was a social judgement or label imposed upon behaviour which
Compare and contrast two of the main approaches to personality psychology
Compare and contrast two of the main approaches to personality psychology Psychology of personality is a difficult concept to define and quantify, therefore most personality theories, however different they may be in other respects, share the basic assumption, that personality is a particular pattern of behaviour and thinking, that prevails across time and situations and differentiates one person from another. Most theories attempting to explain personality represent part of the classic psychological Nature verse Nurture debate. In other words, is personality "inherited", or developed through our interactions with the environment. In addition, we shall compare and contrast two of the main approaches to personality psychology by concentrating on Psychoanalytical Theory (Freud) and Social Learning Theory (Bandura). By looking at the Psychodynamic approach, developed by Freud, we can argue that it emphasizes the interplay of unconscious psychological processes in determining human thought, feelings, and behaviours. The basis of this approach is that psychological factors play a major role in determining behaviour and shaping personality. Freud argued that personality is composed of three major systems the id, the ego, and the superego. The id (biological part of personality) is present at birth and consists of inherited instincts and all psychological energies. The id
Psychology Revision Notes - list of major experiments
Sub-sections Characteristics of STM and LTM Summary of a study on encoding in STM and LTM Baddeley- Participants were divided into four groups which were acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar and semantically dissimilar. Participants were presented with the list a total of 4 times and each time was interrupted to try to prevent rehearsing. They were then presented with a 20-minute interval task and afterwards were asked to recall their list. Semantically dissimilar words were recalled the most telling us that encoding in LTM is semantic. Summary of study on capacity of STM and LTM Summary of study on duration of STM Peterson & Peterson- Showed PPs a list of nonsense trigrams and asked them to count back from 400 in 3 second intervals for a duration ranging from 3 to 18 seconds. Found that duration of STM was 18-30 seconds maximum. Summary of study on duration of LTM Bahrick- 400 participants aged between 17 and 74 were tested using different methods including free-recall tests, photo-recognition test, name recognition tests and photo-name matching test. PPs performed less well on free recall tests (30% after 48 years) but were much better in the photo-name test (90% after 60 years). Models of memory Description of the multi-store model of memory, plus evaluation inc. research Atkinson & Shiffrin- Multi-Store Model which
Rosenhan Study
The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and those who are insane. The sample consisted of eight sane people, a psychology graduate student in his 20s, three psychologists, a paediatrician, a psychiatrist, a painter, and a 'housewife' attempting to gain admission to 12 different hospitals, in five different states in the USA. There were three women and five men. A disadvantage of using this sample is that it cannot be generalised, for the reason that there was only 2 women and five men thus not being wholly reliable to generalise results but also that this study was conducted in the United states therefore results may differ to the rest of the world. Quantitative data is data that can be expressed numerically in some way. Quantitative data was obtained from the study by Rosenhan such as the amount of times the hospital staff came on to the ward, The records the pseudo patients had made about the amount of time the nurses stayed in the ward offices was about 90 per cent of the time and the number of times medical staff came onto the ward, and the amount of time spent with psychiatrists, psychologists, registrars and so forth was, on average, under seven minutes per day.. Additionally, the amount of medication given to each patient was another quantitative measure it was estimated that
An Introduction to Learning Styles and Methods
Nicola Johnson An Introduction to Learning Styles and Methods Introduction Throughout the ages learning has always been important. From newborn to elderly learning forms an integral part of everyday life. Learning techniques have changed over the years, early man relied heavily on visual stimulation to learn and this is still the basis of learning today in early childhood. Learning is knowledge acquired through study and visual stimulation. Good teaching, role models and determination are all factors, which influence learning. Models of learning Teachers in the past thought everyone ought to learn the same way. In the Victorian era it was very stern, one sided and involved a lot of humiliation, as poorer pupils where treated as second-class citizens. There was a lot of caning, shouting and being made to stand in a corner to name a few. This went on for years and many of them went to work as servants for the rich. Many thought this was their way of life forever. Today most of this has changed, we (the students/pupils) still sit in a classroom and learn from the teacher, but the teacher can also learn from us, as we all have different experiences of life however long or short. This is all thanks to a new way of learning from psychologist who have become renowned for their work and ideas of what motivated people to learn. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was born in Russia
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
