Psychology Internal Assessment

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which cognitive bias is present in individuals when judging strangers solely by the western criteria of beauty, in this case, symmetrical facial features. This experiment was done in a British-based high school in which the participants were international students. The experiment was conducted using twenty four under-class men high school students, aged between 13 and 16. The independent variable was the level of physical attractiveness (symmetry of face), while the dependent variable was the rating that the participant gives the sample. The one-tailed hypothesis stated that subjects would rate highly attractive individuals (or those with highly symmetrical faces) with positive attributes, where as those with less symmetrical faces would be rated with negative attributes. The participants were asked to complete a survey consisting of several questions in the likert scale format that were in response to a selected image of either a symmetrical or unsymmetrical face. The obtained results indicate that there is a high correlation between very symmetrical faces (a western standard of beauty) and positive characteristics. This is in accordance with previous research, such as Thorndike's survey of army officers, and Soloman Asch's research on the primary effect. Introduction: The experiment is framed from the

  • Word count: 3050
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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How Psychology Could Help Reverse the Trend in Obesity

Discussion: How Psychology Could Help Reverse the upward Trend in Obesity in Western Society It would be an understatement to state that obesity has become a major problem in society due to increasingly sedentary lifestyles in many developed countries into the new millennium (The British Nutrition Foundation, 1999), quite literally about 1 in 3 people in America in 1987 were classified obese (Najjar MF, 1987) and most likely many more today (Najjar MF, 1987). Obesity is commonly classified as a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or roughly 120% of a desirable height for weight(Johanna T. Dwyer, 1994). Morbidity steadily rises above a BMI of 25 (The British Nutrition Foundation, 1999) , and aside from the enormous health risks conveyed (cardiovascular disease, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, hypertension among other debilitating conditions) (Claude Bouchard, 2000), there can also be considerable emotional distress associated with the stigma of linked to obesity (The British Nutrition Foundation, 1999, pp. 83-91). To be discussed will be obesity that has its roots in overeating primarily and the body's natural accumulation of adipose tissue and not so much patho-biologically determined sort. However, there is at least some research to suggest that psychology plays a role perhaps almost as important as physiological and genetic factors (Gary D. Foster, 1994, pp. 140-166). Physiological

  • Word count: 2969
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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Ethics In Psychology

. * Discuss ethical considerations in qualitative research. * Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the biological level of analysis. * Discuss ethical considerations in research into genetic influences on behaviour. * Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis. * Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the sociocultural level of analysis. * Discuss cultural and ethical considerations in diagnosis (for example, cultural variation, stigmatization). 2. Ethics is an area of study which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue. 3. Ethics and psychology are intimately linked, inseparable concepts. Every psychological investigation is an ethically charged situation, as research often involves subjecting both human and animal participants to pain or embarrassment. In psychological experiments on human subjects, ethics are dictated by a series of guidelines that researchers must abide by, designed to minimize or eliminate any unnecessary discomfort. There are five major ethical principles detailed by the American Psychological Association: * Subjects must give informed consent (i.e they must voluntarily agree to and be aware of the contents of the experiment they are to participate in). *

  • Word count: 2931
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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Essay outline for Topic 2 & 3

Essay outline - "Reduction of Prejudice" ?Prejudice: when we allow our stereotypes to affect our attitude. Prejudice is an attitude whereas discrimination is a behavior. The term prejudice refers to the general attitude structure and its affective component. Prejudice can in fact be either negative or positive. Specifically, prejudice is defined as a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group. When the prejudiced attitude leads to prejudiced action, this is called discrimination. The origin of prejudice and discrimination is conflict and stereotype. A stereotype is a generalization about a particular group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to all members of that group, regardless of any variation among group members. However, there are a variety of different factors that could reduce prejudice and discrimination: Co-operation over superordinate goals can reduce prejudice. A superordinate goal is a goal that neither group can achieve separately, but can achieve together since it is bigger than or more important than other lesser goals. This idea is supported by a study of Sherif, the Robber's Cave Experiment (1958). The aim of this study was not only to find out how the hostility relates to the amount of conflict, but also to see if superordinate goals reduce the conflict and prejudice. He had 20 boys of the age of 11 to 12

  • Word count: 2892
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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The aim of this experiment is to investigate the effect of performing a concurrent task whilst observing a photo and how this results in inattentional blindness amongst the participants. Participants were to perform a simple task whilst observing the phot

Investigating Inattentional Blindness due to Perceptual Schemas Erika Pärn Candidate No: Experiment Study Psychology Higher Level Date of Submission Word Count: Table of Contents .0 Introduction 2.0 Method 2.1Design 2.2Participants 2.3Materials 2.4Procedure 3.0 Results 4.0 Discussion Bibliography 5.0 Appendix 5.1 Instructions 5.2 Debriefing 5.3 Raw data 5.4 Significance test 5.5 Photo of kitchen Abstract: The aim of this experiment is to investigate the effect of performing a concurrent task whilst observing a photo and how this results in inattentional blindness amongst the participants. Participants were to perform a simple task whilst observing the photo related to the picture. The gist of the experiment was that participants failed to notice anomalies within the photo due to the task they had to perform. For this experiment 40 participants were handed a photo of a kitchen for observation. The first 20 participants were allowed to observe for 1 minute and then asked to sketch the photo seen . The other 20 participants conducted a task in which they were supposed to count the amount of dishes visible in the photo in addition to sketching the same photo they had seen. .0 Introduction: The adaptive human seeks to comprehend its surroundings. Sensations telling the brain of the objects in our surroundings and perception telling where and what they

  • Word count: 2836
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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Human Altruism

Examine the usefulness of cross-cultural research in determining the causes of human altruism Ernest Leung The word "culture" as defined by the BBC English Dictionary, means either a collective of ideas, customs and art produced by a particular society, or a particular society or civilization in its entirety. The same dictionary defined "altruism" as the "unselfish concern for other people's happiness and welfare". For centuries altruism was thought to be an innate virtue of human beings; Chinese philosophers saw it as one of a few characteristics that distinguished men from beasts. The theme of altruistic acts is prevalent throughout religious texts and teachings of various cultures, and stories such as the parable of the "Good Samaritan" are known by many across the world. With the advent of Darwinism this view was refuted by most biologists, and indeed some radical philosophers of the last century had attempted to portray altruism as the result of religious indoctrination, and a thing that is in essence practiced against human nature, or put in simpler terms, hypocritical. Psychologists in the past few decades have however shed some new light onto this seemingly unnatural form of human behaviour, and they now suggest that, instead of being against human nature, altruism is an in fact an integral part of it. In the past few decades, human altruistic behaviour has

  • Word count: 2812
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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An experiment investigating the effect of background music on students ability to recall a list of words

An experiment investigating the effect of background music on students' ability to recall a list of words Name: Kayla Candidate No.: 0003562026 Type of Study: Experiment Subject and Level: Psychology Standard Level Date of submission: June 1, 2011 Word Count: 1, 498 words Table of Contents Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Method 6 Design 6 Participants 7 Materials 7 Procedure 8 Results 8 Discussion 10 References 12 Appendices 13 Appendix i 13 Appendix ii 14 Appendix iii 15 Appendix iv 17 Abstract This experiment aims at investigate the effect of background music has on students' ability to recall words from a list, based on St Clair's (2000) and Thompson & Tulving's (1970) research. The music selected was One Republics "Come Home" as it fits the genre of easy listening, nonpercussive in beat. The measured variable of this experiment being the number of correctly recalled words. Using opportunity sampling, all participants were aged between 14 to 18 years of age and are currently attending a Queensland Academy. Two groups of 10 participants were used in this experiment fitting the independent measures' design, one of which is the control (with no music); and the other with music being played at both recall and memorization. The participants were given one minute to study a list of 15 words before they were removed and the participants asked to recall as

  • Word count: 2738
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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An experiment to investigate the effect of categorical organisation on the recall of words on a page

An experiment to investigate the effect of categorical organisation on the recall of words on a page Candidate Name: Dachinii Lee-Hewitt Candidate Number: The HENLEY College Centre Number : Psychology Higher Level Date of submission: / / There have been two main types of memory found so far, long term memory (LTM) and short term memory (STM). In short term memory a process called 'Chunking', where new information is related and integrated to our LTM, has been proven to increase STM capacity. Chunking is basically when we give new information a new structure to make it easier to remember. (Cited in Organisation of memory booklet - Baddeley, 1990) It has been found that memory is highly organised, so much so that the more organised it is the better it is remembered, Categorical Clustering is the term for this phenomenon (Cited in Organisation of memory booklet - Bousfield, 1953). Bousfield gave the subjects of his experiment 60 words, of four categories, in an unorganised structure. It was discovered that when they were asked to free-recall the words, most had organised them into categorical clusters. Experiments with more mundane reality also supported this theory, such as Ruben and Olson (1980), cited in Organisation of memory booklet. They asked students to recall as many names of staff as they could remember and many of them recalled the names by the

  • Word count: 2710
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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Understanding Childrens Behaviour. The purpose of this writing is to explore the theoretical perspectives of Operant Conditioning Theory developed by B.F. Skinner, Classical Conditiong Theory of I.Pavlov and Social Learning Theory developed by A.

Understanding Children's Behaviour .1 Theories of I.Pavlov, BF. Skinner and A. Bandura Three prominent researchers, I.Pavlov, B.F. Skinner and A.Bandura, have developed theories which provide differing perspectives and explanations regarding the learning behaviour of individuals. The purpose of this writing is to explore the theoretical perspectives of Operant Conditioning Theory developed by B.F. Skinner, Classical Conditiong Theory of I.Pavlov and Social Learning Theory developed by A.Bandura. An overview of theories is presented, followed by a discussion of their similarities and differences. I.Pavlov (1849-1936) Key Point- I.Pavlov was the first experimenter to research classical conditioning. In what started as a simple, physiological experiment with a dog, turned out to be the discovery of what came to be known as conditioning, more specifically, classical conditioning. He was performing some experiments on a dog, and found that he could "condition" the dog to salivate on the sound of a bell. After repeatedly ringing the bell, and introducing food. Eventually, the bell alone was sufficient to make the poor pup drip. Compare and Contrast - Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. He did not necessarily agree with behaviourism or

  • Word count: 2682
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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The effect and role of organization on memory and recall

PSYCHOLOGY PRACTICAL REPORT: THE ROLE AND EFFECT OF ORGANIZATION IN MEMORY AND RECALL Candidate Name : Tenzin Zomkey Subject : IB 2 Psychology HL Date of Submission : 5th Feb. 2009 CONTENTS Sr. No Title Page Contents 2 2 Abstract 3 3 Introduction 4 4 Method 5 5 Results 7 6 Discussion 9 7 References 0 9 Appendices 1 ABSTRACT This experiment was carried out in an attempt to test the role or effect of organization in memory and recall. Based on research done by Bower, Clark, Winzenz and Lesgold (1969), (which found that subjects showed better recall if presented with words in an organized format rather than just random), a less extensive reproduction of their work has been conducted in this report. Two different groups of participants were presented with identical sets of twenty two words to learn. For each group, the words were organized differently. One group had words that were organized in the form of an associative hierarchy, whereby one initial word is given at the top, followed by three words that had a strong association to the first and so forth, continuing this trend until a five level hierarchy comprising in total of twenty two words is achieved. Upon asking the participants to recall and write as many words as they could remember; the results showed that there indeed was, as Bower et al.'s research revealed, a better recall

  • Word count: 2551
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Psychology
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