Advice for A-Level revision
Hi I’m currently a Year 12 student studying Biology, Chemistry and Psychology at A-Level. For anyone who’s already done A-Levels in these subjects and gotten good results, what studying methods and resources helped you to memorise all the content and apply it to paper questions?
Reply 1
Original post
by AnonymousHi I’m currently a Year 12 student studying Biology, Chemistry and Psychology at A-Level. For anyone who’s already done A-Levels in these subjects and gotten good results, what studying methods and resources helped you to memorise all the content and apply it to paper questions?
Hi there!
I did aqa biology and psychology.
For psychology i was always 'good' at it because i really enjoyed it, and study it at uni currently. i used mind maps for the key concepts, and had one large document of potential essay plans. the essay plans in this gave me the longer 8-16 markers, but the ao1 and ao2 and ao3 within it can also give you answers for the shorter 2-6 markers! basically a cheat sheet!! i also did lots of past papers, but mainly relied on this document. I'm not sure if it may help 3 years on, but I can attach the document I used if you would like. I achieved an A* in the final exam.
For biology, this was my struggle subject. I was on Ds throughout year12 and even the mock 2 months before my actual a levels i received a D in the biology mock. For biology all i can really say is to bang out past papers and learn the mark scheme. tiring and long but needed; biology (esp aqa) is notorious for really particular mark schemes. I lost marks in my mocks for including the right concept but didnt have a specific word! absolutely insane but the only way around it is to look at mark schemes, make notes/mindmaps with these in mind eg put the definition of something exactly how the mark scheme writes it, and then do past papers. I achieved a B in the final exam.
Hope this helps,
Aimee, UoN Rep.
Reply 2
Original post
by UoNstudentsHi there!
I did aqa biology and psychology.
For psychology i was always 'good' at it because i really enjoyed it, and study it at uni currently. i used mind maps for the key concepts, and had one large document of potential essay plans. the essay plans in this gave me the longer 8-16 markers, but the ao1 and ao2 and ao3 within it can also give you answers for the shorter 2-6 markers! basically a cheat sheet!! i also did lots of past papers, but mainly relied on this document. I'm not sure if it may help 3 years on, but I can attach the document I used if you would like. I achieved an A* in the final exam.
For biology, this was my struggle subject. I was on Ds throughout year12 and even the mock 2 months before my actual a levels i received a D in the biology mock. For biology all i can really say is to bang out past papers and learn the mark scheme. tiring and long but needed; biology (esp aqa) is notorious for really particular mark schemes. I lost marks in my mocks for including the right concept but didnt have a specific word! absolutely insane but the only way around it is to look at mark schemes, make notes/mindmaps with these in mind eg put the definition of something exactly how the mark scheme writes it, and then do past papers. I achieved a B in the final exam.
Hope this helps,
Aimee, UoN Rep.
I did aqa biology and psychology.
For psychology i was always 'good' at it because i really enjoyed it, and study it at uni currently. i used mind maps for the key concepts, and had one large document of potential essay plans. the essay plans in this gave me the longer 8-16 markers, but the ao1 and ao2 and ao3 within it can also give you answers for the shorter 2-6 markers! basically a cheat sheet!! i also did lots of past papers, but mainly relied on this document. I'm not sure if it may help 3 years on, but I can attach the document I used if you would like. I achieved an A* in the final exam.
For biology, this was my struggle subject. I was on Ds throughout year12 and even the mock 2 months before my actual a levels i received a D in the biology mock. For biology all i can really say is to bang out past papers and learn the mark scheme. tiring and long but needed; biology (esp aqa) is notorious for really particular mark schemes. I lost marks in my mocks for including the right concept but didnt have a specific word! absolutely insane but the only way around it is to look at mark schemes, make notes/mindmaps with these in mind eg put the definition of something exactly how the mark scheme writes it, and then do past papers. I achieved a B in the final exam.
Hope this helps,
Aimee, UoN Rep.
Please can you attatch the document as i would also find this really helpful
Reply 3
Original post
by Izzyspade28Please can you attatch the document as i would also find this really helpful
Hey, @Izzyspade28 !
I can't attach the document as its too large!! Apologies for this extremely long response, but here is it copy and pasted here- feel free to paste this into your own document/ammend it however you want. I am going to attach it in 2 parts as its about 20 pages long. Some plans are more detailed than others as I'd known these off by heart 🙂
PART 1: Psych essays!
Social influence
Describe and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity:
AO1- asch research
A03-artificial task so no ecological validity
A03- biased sample of men so no population validity (only USA which is individualist culture, conformity in collectivist culture increases 37% from 25% individualist)
Ao3- ethical issues – deception, protection from harm, informed consent
A03 – era dependant
Discuss research into conformity to social roles.
A01- Zimbardo
Ao3- high internal validity +maintained degree of control, tried to have some ecological validity i.e., surprise arresting them at their house.
Ao3- ethical issues protection from harm and deception and informed consent
Ao3- unrepresentative sample of 24 normal healthy American males so low population validity and low ecological validity as most guards claimed they were acting and lack of mundane realism due to many unpleasant prison experiences left out such as racism and unwanted homosexuality.
Ao3- altered the way US prisons are run though, e.g., juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed with adult prisoners due to risk of violence against them.
Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation of obedience
Ao1- authoritarian personality Adorno 1950
Ao3- measured by self report so social desirability bias
Ao3- cause and effect cannot be established – may be because of education. Milgram (and Meleon) found that ppts with lower levels of education tended to be more obedient than those with higher levels of education, which undermines authoritarian personality as other important aspects may contribute to obedience.
Ao3 – can’t easily account for obedience of entire social groups
Ao3- research support: Elms & Milgram interviewed a small sample of Milgram's original participants who had fully obeyed and found that when participants completed the F-Scale they scored significantly higher than those participants who had disobeyed. This supports Adorno's view that obedient people have similar authoritarian personalities
Describe and evaluate two explanations of resistance to social influence
Ao1- locus of control – Rotter and external and internal
Ao3- role of LOC might be exaggerated; rotter found in new situations LOC is important whereas familiar situations are influenced more by past experiences (if they have obeyed in the past then more likely to obey in similar situations even if they have high internal loc)
Ao3- research support – Elms and milgram set out and investigated disobedient ppts. They interviewed those involved in Milgrams experiment. He found those disobedient ppl had high internal LOC and supports idea that internal LOC leads to disobedience.
Ao1- social support
Ao3- Allen and Levine found introducing a dissenter in Asch like study reduced conformity even if he wore think glasses and claimed he had poor eyesight
Ao3- Albrecht -pregnant teens resist pressure to smoke by giving a buddy who was against it.
Describe and evaluate research into minority influence -came up in 2023 exam
Ao1- moscovici research
Ao3- lacks population validity due to unrepresentative sample of females only – females are said to conform more than males so could be a gender difference (beta bias?)
A03- lab experiment so lacks ecological validity as presented with artificial tasks
Ao3- Moscovici has also been criticised for deceiving his participants, as participants were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test. This also means that Moscovici did not gain fully informed consent. Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, Moscovici’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results. If the participants were aware of the true aim, they might have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently.
Ao3- Sampson: ppts in laboratory experiments are rarely ‘real groups’. They are collection of students who don’t know each other and will never meet again – so they are very different than minority groups in the wider society who week to change majority opinion e.g., women’s rights members operated in different settings with different constraints i.e., providing each other with social support and sometimes devoting their lives to changing the views of the majority.
Discuss role of social influence processes in social change
Ao1- social change is a shift in society’s beliefs behaviours and attitudes as a result of social change. Minorities can change their beliefs through consistency, commitment and flexibility. This produces cognitive conflict in majority. Group membership= if minority is similar to majority, they are more likely to be influential. Augmentation principle – people risk their lives for the cause. Produces snowball effect and social crypto amnesia.
A03- social change happens very slowly/gradual, so minority influence is more latent than direct
Ao3- minority being perceived as deviant limits their influence
Ao3- boomerang effect Schultz (those whose behaviour is more desirable than norm will receive msg)
Ao3- research support from Moscovici
Types of conformity / explanations of conformity
Ao1- compliance, internalisation, identification. NSI (usually compliance) + ISI (usually internalisation)
A03- individual differences (people who care more about being liked are more affected by nsi. They are nAffiliators – ppl who have a greater need for social relationships).
A03- two process model is oversimplified. It is difficult to establish if it is ISI or NSI within research studies as well as real life. E.g., in Asch’s study with the dissenter – he could have reduced the power of NSI (social support) or reduce the ISI power (alternative piece of information) so which is it? Suggests they may work together.
A03- research support e.g., Asch’s study he found ppts claimed that they gave the wrong answer even when they knew it was wrong as they felt self-conscious and didn’t want to go against the group and gain disproval (NSI). Lucas found ppts conformed more when math problems were considered difficult to when they were considered easier due to students being ambiguous about the answer and not wanting to appear wrong (ISI)
Ao3- Henley found that ppts exposed to negative information about African American’s later reported more negative beliefs about a black person. ISI should be treated with care; it can lead to internalisation given that people are accepting views on reality under ambiguous situations, particularly dangerous when looking at extremist groups. So should avoid vulnerable people accepting ideas.
Outline and evaluate variables affecting conformity.
Ao1- group size (optimum is 3-5), unanimity dropped to 25%, task difficulty (more similar length the lines were the higher conformity rate), answering privately
A03- no ecological validity due to artificial tasks
A03- lacks population validity due to biased sample of American males (individualist culture)
A03- ethical issues e.g., deceived thus no informed consent, protection from harm
A03- research support for task difficulty – Jenness jelly bean task/ Lucas math questions
Memory
Outline and evaluate research related to features of stm (coding, capacity, duration)
A01-coding: Baddaley,
A03- artificial stimuli so lacks ecological validity
A01- capacity: Jacobs+Miller,
A03- individual differences and Jacobs found recall increased with age e.g., 6 year olds remember 6.6 digits and 19 year olds remember 8.6 digits, suggests capacity is not fixed
A01- duration: Peterson&Peterson
A03- sample was of psychology students who may have encountered memory knowledge and may have demonstrated demand characteristics by changing their behaviour to assist experiments. Their memory may also have improved if they’ve studied strategies for memory improvement.
Also low ecological validity.
Describe and evaluate types of LTM
A01- explicit/declarative memories which are episodic and semantic, and implicit/non declarative memory which is procedural.
A03- clinical evidence from HM and Clive wearing – episodic memory in both men were severely impaired due to brain damage but semantic memories were unaffected i.e., they still understood the meaning of words. For example, HM couldn’t recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier but didn’t need the concept of dog explained to him. Their procedural memories were still intact i.e., Wearing was a musician who knew how to read music still.
A03- use of case studies – conducted on individual patients and isolated cases can’t be generalised beyond research and inappropriate to assume everyone’s LTM is the same based on evidence from two case studies.
A03- evidence from brain scans – episodic memory is associated with hippocampus as well as frontal lobe. Semantic memory relies on temporal lobe. Procedural memory is associated with cerebellum and motor cortex. High in validity and reliability.
A03- distinguishing between episodic and semantic memories. Studies of Alzheimer’s patients found some patients who retain the ability to form new semantic memories but not new episodic (Hodges and Patterson) – single dissociation. A second dissociation was found by Irish et al in Alzheimer’s patients who have the reverse – poor semantic memories but generally intact episodic memories.
Discuss and evaluate effects of anxiety on accuracy of EWT -came up in 2023
A01- Negative effect = Johnson and Scott/Loftus – weapon focus study. Ppts thought it was a lab study and were divided into 2 conditions: low anxiety (ppts in waiting room heard a casual conversation in next room and saw a man walk out carrying a pen with grease on his hands) or high anxiety (ppts in a waiting room heard a heated argument with breaking glass and saw a man walk past holding a bloody knife). Ppts who saw the man holding a pen identified the target 49% of times compared to those who saw the man with a knife who identified him 33% of the time. Anxiety caused by the weapon narrowed the focus of attention and took attention from the face of the man making their recall less detailed and inaccurate.
Yerkes-Dodson Law: there is an optimum level of anxiety i.e., in the middle where it is the point of maximum accuracy.
A03- opposing research? positive effect on EWT = Yuille and Cutshall study of shooting at gun shop. 13 witnesses interviewed 4-month post incident and compared to original interviews. Witnesses also asked to rate how stressed they’d felt at the time of the incident. People who reported highest levels of stress were most accurate 88%, whereas those who were less stressed were less accurate 75%.
A03- may have failed to test for anxiety they may have measured surprise rather than anxiety. The reason ppts may have focused on the weapon may be because they were surprised at what they saw rather than scared. Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet and a raw chicken as hand held items in hair dressing salon. Eye witnesses accuracy was poorer in high unusualness conditions like the chicken.
A03- doesn’t account for age. Deffenbacher conducted a metanalysis of 18 studies and found high levels of stress negatively impact accuracy for adults but not for children. This matters as it suggests the theory doesn’t apply to all portions of the same population the same way reducing population validity.
A03- breaches ethical guidelines. The ppts were deceived about nature of experiment and not protected from harm which could have caused extreme anxiety. This is an issue as ppts may have left the experiment feeling stressed especially if they or someone they knew was involved in a knife crime.
Describe and evaluate cognitive interview as a way of improving eyewitness testimony
A01- cognitive interview 4 aspects
A03- time consuming and requires specific training which many police forces don’t have resources.
a03- some elements may be more useful. Raybull found each of the four techniques used alone produced more info than standard interview. Found using a combination of report everything and reinstate context produced better recall than any of conditions individually. Confirmed police’s suspicions that some aspects of cognitive interview are more useful than others.
a03- useful when interviewing older witnesses. Wright and Holliday found that the older the witness, the less complete and accurate the recall but when cognitive interview techniques were used the witnesses recalled significantly greater detail without giving any false info. It also works well with little children, found with experiment of 4-5 year old and 9-10 year olds birthday party.
A03- Gieselman set out to investigate the effectiveness of CI. Ppts viewed a violent crime film and after 48 hours were interviewed by a policeman using either standard interview, hypnotic interview or CI. The number of accurately recalled facts and number of errors was noted. Number of correct information for CI = 41.2, hypnosis 38.0, standard = 29.4.
Extra? Meta analysis by Kohnken compared the cognitive interview to standard police interview and found that CI gave 41% more accurate info. Only 4/55 studies conducted shows no difference between the standard interview and cognitive interview. Shows its more effective.
Attachment
Describe and evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment.
A01- stages of attachment i.e., asocial, indiscriminate, discriminate, multiple. Schaffer’s Research of Glaswegian 60 babies at monthly intervals for 18 months of their life(longitudinal study). Interactions with carers were observed/diary kept by mothers and 3 measures recorded: stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and secure base behaviour. Results indicated attachments were more likely to form with those who responded accurately to babies’ signals (sensitive responsiveness) not the person they spent most time with.
A03- stages of attachment developed from a study using individualist culture. Presence of cross-cultural child rearing differences mean it is difficult to produce a theory applicable to all cultures. Ethnocentric approach may not reflect collectivist cultures who bring up children together, which for example may not apply to multiple stages of attachment as babies could form multiple attachments before they form one main one.
A03- may lack internal validity due to difficulties in how multiple attachments are assessed. Just because a baby gets distressed when person leaves the room doesn’t necessarily mean the individual is true attachment figure. Bowlby pointed out that children have playmates too as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room. This poses an issue because their observation doesn’t leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour towards secondary attachment figures and playmates.
A03- validity of asocial stage can be questioned. This is because children at this age have very poor mobility and coordination and so limited behaviour observed. This may not be enough data to draw conclusions on, or researchers may interpret the data in a way that matches their hypothesis which is also invalid.
A03- low population validity and issue of validity of mother documenting (social desirability bias)
Describe and evaluate the strange situation.
A01- strange situation. Assessed quality of attachments by observing 100 children’s response to 8 episodes of procedure such as mother and child in room, mother leaves room, stranger enters for 3 minutes each. She looked for key behaviours including stranger anxiety – distress shown by infant when approached by someone whose unfamiliar, reunion behaviour – reaction shown when infant reunites with caregiver upon return, separation anxiety – distress shown by infant when separated by caregiver and secure base behaviour – how much infant is willing to explore unfamiliar surroundings. Findings: 70% type B secure, 15% type A avoidant, 15% type c resistant. Ainsworth suggested the caregiver hypothesis where a child’s attachment style is dependent on the behaviour of their mother towards them - sensitive vs less sensitive.
Ao3- high internal validity due to controlled and operationalised observation. So can be replicated. Also high inter-rater validity as found by Bick.
Ao3- but low external validity. Task was artificial and lacked mundane realism as the ‘playroom’ as unfamiliar and thus did not really measure infants’ natural behaviour, and mothers could have fed into demand characteristics e.g., scooping up child that didn’t show signs of wanting intimacy to make it seem like she is attentive. Therefore, can’t apply it to the real world.
A03- ethical issues, e.g., protection of harm – infants were exposed to stressful situations which may result in trauma. In episode 6, 20% of infants were reported to be crying desperately which indicates extreme distress. However, Ainsworth said this observation was not more distressing than every day- life.
A03- good predictive validity, for example, Kokkinos found babies assessed to have secure attachment grew up to be more successful at school and greater friendships, and Hazen and Shaver found that securely attached individuals had longer and happier relationships. This is a strength as the strange situation’s’ findings can explain subsequent outcomes in adulthood and increases validity.
Extra? A03- Main and Weston found that the strange situation may measure quality of relationships rather than attachment types; as children might act differently with different parents, for example children might register as insecurely attached with father but securely attached with mother, so strange situation ignores other attachment figures. This thus may not be applicable to same-sex male parents or single fathers, as it was also only tested on women.
A03- culturally biased. SS was designed by an American according to observations of US children and criteria used to classify infants are based on US values. This is ethnocentric as it assumes attachments are the same in all cultures and suggests criteria for ‘secure’ attachment are universal to all cultures. Results may not apply to collectivist cultures where infants and caregivers are rarely separated and can create negative views on countries’ child rearing practices even though it is desirable in their country. (SS also had low population validity)
A03- Main and Solomon found that categories aren’t always applicable to a child’s behaviour. A further classification group was identified – disorganised attachment Type D, characterised by a lack of consistent type of attachment e.g., showing very strong attachment behaviour that is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearful. this suggests some infants may not fit into three categories introduced by Ainsworth and so decreases validity as some behaviours may have been placed in her categories due to researcher bias.
Describe and evaluate research into cultural variations.
Ao1- Van Ijzendoorm metanalysis summarised findings from 8 countries (US UK Sweden Japan China holland Germany Israel) they examined 32 studies. Found: secure attachment was most common type of attachment in all cultures, strongest attachment was to mother and intracultural differences were 1.5x greater than intercultural. Lowest percentage of securely attached in China and highest in UK. Highest percentage of insecure resistant in Japan and highest percentage of insecure avoidant in Germany.
A03- reliable comparison due to choosing studies that employed the same procedure. Also increases validity due to large sample of 2000+. Secondary data means minimal ethical issues as no direct participant contact which is good.
Ao3- ethnocentric – researchers interpret non-American infant behaviour and judge it against American standards. Infants labelled insecure avoidant may be desired in individualist cultures such as Germany. Imposed etic.
A03- focuses on nation rather than culture. Within cultures there are subcultures, which may have different child rearing practices. For example, in Tokyo, urban culture which was like western culture but rural culture within Tokyo had more insecure resistant kids due to traditional nature of child rearing. Cannot assume an individual sample is representative of a particular culture. Takahashi found 32% of kids in rural areas were insecure resistant as mothers in Japan are culturally discouraged to separate from their babies.
A03- biased samples. They can’t claim to be representative of each culture, such as 1 Chinese study but 18/32 were from USA so overall findings may have been distorted by this.
Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. – came up in 2023
A01- monotropy. Social releasers (primary attachment to the person who responds sensitively to these), during critical period. Continuity hypothesis – provides internal working model. Maternal deprivation hypothesis + consequences e.g., delayed social development, delayed intellectual development, delayed emotional development and affectionless psychopathy. Irreversible consequences if a child does not form an attachment with mother within critical period.
A03- research support Bowlby 44 thief’s study, and other research from Hazen+Shaver, Fox with monotropic attachments in Israeli communities despite seeing them 3 hours a day, Tronick et al African tribe everyone breastfeeds but still show primary attachment.
A03-socially sensitive as undermines role of the father. No mention of paternal role.
A03- Bowlby doesn’t distinguish whether the children he studied suffered from deprivation or privation. Rutter notes that privation can have far more serious consequences than deprivation. Because Bowlby didn’t differentiate between the two terms, we don’t know whether the thieves suffered from privation or deprivation. The lack of clarity may thus negatively affect the validity of findings.
A03- real life application. Application to childcare practice – before his research children were separated from parents when they spent time in hospital and visiting was discouraged. His research led to major social changes in the way children are cared for, e.g., now parents are allowed to stay with children in the hospital before and after their operations. Children are also assigned one key social worker whilst they’re in care. This means his research seems to be valid due to the positive social attitude shift.
Extra a03- Koluchova twins disprove his theory of critical period.
Ao3- Kagan’s temperant hypothesis
A03- Lamb argues different attachments serve different purposes and are equal rather than hierarchal. Also shown in Schaffer and Emerson’s research.
Describe and evaluate research into Romanian orphans/effects of institutionalisation.
A01- rutter’s research. 165 Romanian children who lived in institutions. 111 adopted before 2 years old, 54 adopted by 4. Compared to 52 British children adopted by 6months. Tested regularly for physical, social and cognitive development at 4,6,11,15. Findings: at adoption time, Romanian children were behind British in all 3 aspects. By 4 most of Romanian kids who had been adopted prior to 6 months had caught up with the British. Many adopted after 6months showed disinhibited attachment (children won’t discriminate between people they choose as an attachment figure) and low IQ (e.g., at eleven the IQ for kids adopted before 6 months was 102, by 2-86 and by 4-77). Concluded the longer children are institutionalised for, the more damaging this is on their development. Some effects can include making poor parents, deprivation dwarfism, disinhibited attachment and intellectual under functioning.
A03- real life application- better understanding of the effects has led to improvements as to how children are cared for, e.g., having defined number of carers instead of rotation of social workers. Also, mothers who are going to give up their babies for adoption are encouraged to give their babies up early. Research shows that adoptive mothers are just as securely attached as non-adoptive families.
A03- although it was a longitudinal study which takes lots of planning and high in internal validity which increases chances of making less assumptions, it only followed development up to 15. This makes it difficult to determine and compare long-term and short-term effects. They may show negative effects of institutionalisation at 15 however recover in their adulthood or later teens, however research does not take this potentiality into account, therefore should approach conclusions with caution.
Ao3- lack of generalisability – the Romanian orphanages were not typical of other types of institutionalised care. The children were raised in extreme conditions where they were given poor care and low levels of intellectual stimulation. The conditions impacted their health, and lack of cognitive stimulation affected development. Results cannot really be generalised or applied.
A03- extraneous variables. Children who were adopted earlier were again more likely to be sociable and potentially have less issues and so more desirable to adopt which is a confounding variable, so research is less likely to establish cause and effect between institutionalisation and developmental effects on child. Results may have assumed that children made a good recovery but children in the sample may have just been at a developmental advantage. Also shown with individual differences – might not be true that all institutionalised kids won’t recover, as some might not have been as strongly affected as others for example special treatment from the staff, suggesting a more idiographic approach is needed.
Role of the father…
A01- most infant research has ignored the role of the father. There is now an expectation in Western cultures that the father should play a greater role in raising children than was previously the case. d to form an attachment. Such psychologists point to biological evidence which suggests that the hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour in women and the lack of oestrogen in men is why they are unable to form a close attachment. Other researchers argue that fathers do not take on a caregiver role and, in fact, provide a different role, as a playmate. Finally, some researchers argue that fathers can demonstrate sensitive responsiveness and react to the needs of their children and thus can form a strong emotional tie or bond.
A03- research evidence provides support for role of father as a playmate. Research by Geiger found that fathers’ play interactions were more exciting in comparison to mothers. However, the mothers’ interactions were more affectionate and nurturing. This suggests the role of the father is as a playmate and not as a sensitive parent who responds to the needs of their children. These results also confirm the mother takes on a nurturing role.
A03- further research suggests fathers don’t provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment. Hrdy found fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress in comparison to mothers. These results appear to support the biological explanations highlighted above; lack of oestrogen in men means fathers aren’t biologically equipped to form close attachments with their children. Suggests the role of the father is to some extent, biologically determined and that a father’s role is restricted because of their biological makeup. However, Frodi showed videotapes of babies crying and found no differences in the physiological responses of men and women.
A03- some research suggests fathers can form secure attachments with their children. For example, they’re able to form secure attachments with children if they’re in a close marriage. Belsky found males who reported higher levels of marital intimacy also displayed secure father-infant attachment, whereas males with lower levels of marital intimacy displayed insecure father-infant attachments. It also may depend on the child’s temperant – Manlove found fathers were less likely to be involved with their infant if infant had a difficult temperant. Suggests whilst men may be biologically determine to form a different relationship with their children, this relationship is mediated by their environment – suggesting softer determinism is more appropriate.
Psychopathology
Describe and evaluate the use of behavioural approach to treatment of phobias.
Assumes that phobias are learned through conditioning and maintained through avoidance and operant conditioning.
Ao1- behaviourist therapies: systematic desensitisation and flooding. SD is either in vitro or in vivo, gradually introducing phobic stimuli one step at a time. counterconditioning: change negative response to positive one, as reciprocal inhibition says they can’t co-exist. Focuses on relaxation e.g., progressive muscle relaxation and breathing. Desensitisation hierarchy: individual makes a graded scale of those that scare him the least to those that scare him the most and work their way through each stage practicing relaxation techniques, so situation becomes less overwhelming.
A03- relies on clients ability to imagine the fearful situation if in vitro, some people cannot create a vivid image and thus isn’t effective.
A03- benefits of therapy may not be generalised to real life situations, for example, in real life sufferers don’t get to choose when and how they encounter the object of their fear and might not have control over a real life situation, making SD less effective.
A03- research support: Barlow found success rates of between 60-90% for specific types of phobia when individuals committed to the regime. Gilroy examined 42 arachnophobes and were tested with the same SD sessions. When they were later examined, the SD group was less fearful than a control group only taught relaxation techniques, further supports long term treatment.
A03- faster, cheaper and requires less effort on patient’s part. CBT is more expensive and requires deeper thought about people’s problems which is not true for behavioural therapies. The lack of thinking means it is useful for people that lack insight into their emotions e.g., children or disabled people as its cognitively demanding.
A03- not appropriate for all phobia types. Ohman et al suggest SD may not be as effective in treating phobias with an underlying evolutionary survival component like fear of the dark or heights. And it may not work with other phobias because the symptoms are only tackled not the cause of it. If the symptoms are removed, the cause remains and symptoms may resurface.
A01-Flooding is exposing the patient directly to phobic stimulus, so it is unavoidable and there’s no escape. At first the person is extreme state of panic but as fear is a time limited response eventually exhaustion kicks in and anxiety levels begin to go down. They have no choice but to confront their fear and when panic subsides, they realise they have sustained no harm. This creates a new association between feared object and something positive (like sense of calmness) so the fear is extinct. Also prevents reinforcement of phobia through escape or avoidance behaviours.
A03- been shown to work. Wolpe took a girl who feared cars and drove her around for 4 hours. At first she was hysterical but she calmed down when she realised she was in no danger. Afterwards, her phobia disappeared, and she learnt to enjoy car rides.
A03- individual differences: flooding isn’t for every patient as it can be a highly traumatic procedure. Patients are aware beforehand however they may quit during treatment which wastes time and money if they do not finish their therapy, as they find it too traumatic. This reduces its effectiveness.
A03- might be unethical- it could backfire and make someone more scared. Wolpe reported a girl who had to be hospitalised because flooding made her so anxious. Some psychiatrists have had lawsuits against them and in extreme cases the patient suffers extreme harm e.g., heart attack.
A03- applies to real life situations. Exposure to phobic stimulus presents sufferer with unavoidable exposure and this is what happens in real life. This therapy better prepares sufferers for occasions where they may be confronted unexpectedly with object/situation they fear.
A03- behavioural therapies might not be as effective in treating social phobias or phobias with irrational thinking. CBT has been found to be more beneficial in this case, as it tackles the root of the problem (irrational thinking) which can then be applied to the phobia itself and extinguish it, e.g., speaking in front of people.
Describe and evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression. (Ellis abc model came up in 2023)
A01- assumes abnormality is a result of faulty cognitions about others, us and the world.
Beck proposed negative triad of depression, its made up of negative views of the world, the future and oneself. He thought depression is as a result of holding negative schemas about the world, us and the future (thinking is biased towards negative interpretations of the world). Negative schemas may have been acquired through childhood and are activated when an individual encounters a new situation that resembles the conditions in which schemas were initially learnt. This pessimistic view becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and leads to cognitive bias. Depressed people tend to focus on negative aspects of life.
Ellis ABC model. Ellis thought depression was a as a result of irrational thinking which prevents us from being happy (not events that cause depression but how people think about them). Proposed the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts could lead to depression: A= activating event such as a trigger in life, B= belief, interpretation of the event either rational or irrational, C=consequences, rational belief leads to healthy emotional outcomes and irrational belief lead to unhealthy emotional outcomes. Also believed in musturbatory thinking- source of the irrational belief lies in this; where certain statements have to be fulfilled in order for one to be happy.
A03- application to therapy. Cognitive ideas have been used to develop effective treatments for depression for example, CBT and REBT. Found to be the best treatment for depression and usefulness of CBT supports the effectiveness of cognitive approach – if depression is alleviated by challenging irrational thoughts, then it suggests such thoughts had a role to begin with.
Ao3- alternate explanations. Research supports role of low levels of serotonin in depressed people and found a gene related to this is 10x more common in depressed people (Zhang et al). the success of drug therapies provides further support that neurotransmitter play an important role. Suggests cognitive approach is reductionist as it only states thinking in a negative way people will be depressed and ignores the fact that biological research indicated depression can be down to low levels of serotonin.
A03- blames the patient. Approach says disorders are simply in their mind, which could lead to situational factors being overlooked. This places a large burden of blame on the person and may delay the treatment if they are not motivated and become more depressed.
Ao3- research support Boury et al found people with depression were more likely to misinterpret information negatively as they have a cognitive bias and feel hopeless supporting different components of Beck.
A03- irrational beliefs may be realistic Alloy and Abramson found depressed people gave more accurate estimates of likelihood of disaster than normal controls, sadder but wiser effect. Depressed people more likely to see things for how they really are.
Describe and evaluate biological approach to explaining OCD
A01- genetic explanation suggests OCD is inherited with specific genes that cause OCD. COMT gene and SERT gene. Diathesis stress model. Neural explanation suggests abnormal levels of neurotransmitters are implicated in OCD. Orbitofrontal cortex-caudate nucleus loop. Reduced level of serotonin associated with obsessions and dopamine linked to compulsions. Serotonin key role in operation of OFC and caudate nucleus, whilst dopamine is main neurotransmitter of basal ganglia.
A03- reductionist: ignores other factors for example, does not take into account cognitions and learning. Some psychologists suggest OCD may be learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning, for example, dirt is associated with anxiety and this association is then maintained through operant conditioning, where a person avoids dirt and continually washes their hands. This hand washing reduces their anxiety and negatively reinforces their compulsions. Such explanations are supported by a successful treatment of OCD called exposure and response prevention, which exposed patient to stimulus whilst also being prevented from carrying out their compulsions (Albucher- 60-90% success rate). It is also deterministic; biological explanation states if an individual has the presence of COMT or SERT gene, or a lower level of serotonin they are pre-programmed to develop OCD, which is not the case for everybody. This is a weakness because this theory of OCD ignores free-will and how an individuals free choice can also have an influence on their behaviour.
A03- neural explanation is correlational not causational. Evidence to suggest OCD patients have abnormal levels of neurotransmitters or abnormal brain structure but this doesn’t mean this is what causes OCD. Therefore, other factors like learnt behaviour or environment must play a role in the cause of OCD. The neural explanation may be a symptom of the illness not the cause of it itself.
A03- success of drug therapy. Antidepressant’s work on serotonin system, these drugs are effective in reducing symptoms of OCD. Suggests serotonin is involved with OCD.
A03- research support. Menzies et al used MRI to produce images of brain activity in OCD patients and their immediate family (also had healthy control group), OCD patients and relatives had reduced grey matter in OFC suggesting high levels of activity in OFC is because of ‘minor worries’ resulting in anxiety and obsessional thoughts. Supports neural explanations with the use of objective and empirical data which adds validity.
A03- evidence to support genetic explanation. Lewis found that patients with OCD and saw 37% of them had parents with the disorder and 21% had siblings with the disorder. Research from family studies provide support for a genetic explanation to OCD, although it doesn’t rule out other factors such as environment.
A03-evidence to support genetic explanation comes from twin studies which provided strong evidence for genetic link. Nestadt et al found 68% of identical twins and 31% of non-identical twin’s experience OCD. Also found that OCD sufferers are 5x more likely to develop OCD in comparison to the control group of people and their families.
A03- alternate explanation. The fact not all twins from Nestadt’s study share OCD tendencies despite sharing the exact same genetics suggest it cannot be genes alone that cause OCD and it is oversimplified. A diathesis-stress model may be better suited to explaining OCD as it factors in both genetics and environmental factors. It would be more appropriate explanation as it effectively explains why identical twins may not share the same disorder and offers a more holistic approach to explaining ocd.
A03- Another weakness is family members may often display different forms of OCD behaviour; while some adults become obsessive about constantly washing dishes, children may become obsessed with arranging dolls for example. If the disorder was indeed inherited it would be assumed that the behaviour would be similar between family members but this is not always the case. This is where psychological explanations may be better suited as the child may learn the obsessive behaviour from their parents modelling it. They may then demonstrate the same tendencies due to learning rather than genetics. This may actually explain the high concordance rates among family members as the behaviour may be learned from one another rather than genetic.
Describe and evaluate biological approach to treating OCD
A01- regulate imbalances of neurotransmitters in the brain. Antidepressants such as SSRI’s; SSRIs increase level of serotonin in the synapse by preventing it from being reabsorbed into the presynaptic cell. This increases levels of serotonin in the synapse and results in more serotonin being received by the post synaptic neurone. They thus improve mood and reduce anxiety. [Tricyclics work in the same way but block reabsorption of both serotonin and noradrenaline]. Anti-anxiety such as Benzodiazepines (BZs), work by enhancing the action of the neurotransmitter GABA (which slows down rate of neuron activity in brain), BZs have a sedative effect on the brain and consequently reduce anxiety.
A03- publication bias: Turner et al claim there is evidence of a publication bias towards studies that show a positive outcome of drug treatment, thus exaggerating benefits of antidepressant drugs. Authors found positive results more likely to be published which may lead doctors to make inappropriate decisions.
Ao3- drug therapies only treat symptoms, not the cause. Although SSRIs work by reducing anxiety and alleviating symptoms of OCD, it doesn’t treat the underlying cause of ocd. Furthermore, once a patient stops taking the drug, they are prone to relapse, suggesting psychological treatments may be more effective as a long-term solution. CBT has been shown to be effective In treating OCD for some patients and this treatment carries no risk of side-effects unlike drug therapies.
A03- side effects. All drugs have side effects, some are more severe than others for example SSRIs have side effects like suicidal thoughts, sleep disturbance, nausea, loss of appetite, and although not extremely severe it may cause someone to stop taking the drugs which diminishes the effectiveness of them. BZs are renowned for being highly addictive and can also cause increased aggression and long-term memory impairments. As a result, they are only prescribed for a short period of time.
Ao3- practicality. It requires little input from the user in terms of effort and time, whereas CBT requires patient to attend regular meetings and put considerable thought into tackling their problem. Therefore, they are likely to be more successful for patients who lack motivation. They’re also cheaper for health services as they require little monitoring – more economical as they allow patients to live normal lives whilst allowing individuals to manage their symptoms effectively and quickly.
A03- drugs do seem to be effective. Research from randomised drug trials which compared effectiveness of SSRIs and placebos: Soomro found SSRIs were more effective than placebos in treating OCD in 17 trials. This supports the use of biological treatments for ocd.
Approaches
Outline and evaluate social learning theory approach. Refer to behaviourist approach as part of your evaluation.
A01-SLT focuses on behaviour and mental processes (i.e., mediational processes). It believes we learn through observation and imitation of other’s behaviour who are models to us. Mediational processes are attention, retention, reproduction, motivation. Use of vicarious reinforcement – imitation is more likely if the model is positively reinforced. Imitation also more likely of we identify with the model, e.g., sharing same characteristics such as age. Bandura’s Bobo doll study.
A03-unlike the behaviourist approach, SLT focuses on cognitive processes too. Arguably this is more of a holistic way of looking at behaviour as behaviourism is reductionist in reducing behaviour to stimuli-response, so SLT is a more appropriate approach.
A03- real life application. Ansanger found identification with an example or character on advertisements may increase the likelihood audiences will imitate the behaviour presented in an anti-alcohol message. Rushton also found same sex modelling significantly increased number of female observers who agreed to donate blood and did it.
A03- does not explain gender differences. For example, in Bandura’s study, SLT fails to explain why boys imitated physical aggressive behaviour more than girls. Other factors such as biology e.g., testosterone levels might be involved. The behaviourist approach also seems to not acknowledge other factors such as biology.
A03- can be used to explain the influence of media on aggressive behaviour. Many acts of aggression such as school shootings or James Bulger murder were linked t violent television shows and video games, supporting mediational processes. However, this does not explain why people who are exposed to violenct shows/games do not imitate them.
A03- participants in Bandura’s study may be unreliable. Children who are young haven’t developed moral values yet, thus older children and adults may not have imitated the aggressive behaviour. It may also not have reflected natural behaviour, as they know the doll doesn’t feel pain and cannot retaliate, so their behaviour might be different towards another child which lowers internal validity. [also, artificial experiment so low ecological validity].
A03- issue of causality. Do people learn behaviour from models, or seek models who exhibit behaviours they already favour? Siegel argued that young people who have deviant values and attitudes are more likely to associate with similarly inclined peers because they think they are more fun to be around and so reinforcement of deviousness is a two-way process and not necessarily result of SLT.
A03- can explain cultural differences: if a behaviour can’t be displayed it cannot be imitated for example non-violent Amish.
Describe cognitive approach in psychology. Evaluate research methods used by cognitive psychologists.
A01- cognitive behaviour needs to be studied scientifically if human behaviour is to be understood (uses lab experiments and case studies). Assumes our thought processes affect the way in which we behave. These internal mental processes can’t be observed directly but we can make inferences about what a person is thinking about based on how they act (inference is going beyond immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be observed). Cognitive approach focuses on how people perceive, store and manipulate and interpret information and analogies are often made between how a computer works and how we process information e.g., input -> process -> output. Schemas are cognitive framework that helps us organise and interpret information about people, objects or situations, based on previous experiences. They help us interpret incoming information quickly, as it prevents us from being overwhelmed by vast amount of info we perceive from environment, however, could also lead to perceptual errors and biased recall.
A03- uses a very scientific method – lab experiments, which are controlled and replicable, so results are reliable. For example, Loftus and Palmer used a lab experiment to investigate effect of leading questions on memory. Experiments allow for cause and effect to be established, which strengthens practical applications and allows for high control over confounding variables. – good internal validity. Moreover, the emergence of cognitive neuroscience enables to field of biology and psychology to come together, therefore it produces credible scientific basis. Also, it can be applied to real-life as the artificial intelligence and development of thinking machines revolutionises the future.
A03- lack ecological validity though as they are lab. The artificiality of the tasks and environment may not reflect the way people process information in their daily lives, for example, memorising lists of partnered words is not used in everyday behaviour, and so lacks generalisability.
A03- relies on inference (cognitive processes that we cannot directly observe). Assuming that findings are the result of invisible processes is heavily subjective and could lead to self-fulfilling prophecy. However, has useful applications, for example, CBT. Understands causes of depression and therapy which has shown to be effective for a range of mental disorders.
A03- machine reductionism – reducing our cognitive processes to computer models when we are more complex. It does not consider other factors towards behaviour that have been shown to affect behaviour, such as emotions and motivation which influence processing of information and a memory. For example, anxiety can influence our memory negatively (or positively!). suggests a more holistic approach is needed.
Discuss contribution of biological approach to our understanding of human behaviour.
A01- believes our behaviour is strongly determined by biological factors like genetics and physiology. Biological psychology puts an emphasis on the genetic basis of behaviour, and often uses 'twin studies' to determine the likelihood that certain traits have a genetic basis. A person's genotype is their genetic makeup, whilst a person's phenotype is the way genes are expressed through behavioural and psychological features based on environmental features. The biological approach has often been linked to the explanation of evolution, suggesting that advantageous genes which increase someone's chance of survival are passed onto future generations - this is natural selection.
A03- real life application. Based on the understanding of the neurotransmitters, drugs have been developed which help treat mental disorders such as OCD and depression. this allows people with these mental disorders to live normal lives with their drug treatment. This is a strength as the success of drug treatment prove that biological factors to do with behaviour must have meant genes were there in the first place.
A03- genetic basis for behaviour is helpful. If individuals discover they have a genetic disposition to criminality or mental disorder, they can take the necessary precautions. For example, avoiding triggers in environments or changing their lifestyle. If they discover they are a carrier/predisposition to a disorder they can also choose whether they have children, or abort their baby if they are pregnant with the help of gene therapy. This is a strength as it helps people live better.
A03- deterministic. Sees behaviour as caused entirely by biological factors over which we have no control which may encourage people not to take responsibility for our actions and blame genetic makeup. This does not comply with our criminal justice system as it says people have free will over their behaviour. This is a limitation as it may give criminals or people a gateway to try justifying behaviour, and ignores other factors that contribute to behaviour (reductionist too)
A03- nomothetic approach that tends to make generalisations about people. Biological studies tend to only use a few people for research and assume everybody else is the same. Also, research consists of mainly male ppts, so the research thus results in a male biased explanation of behaviour – androcentric. This is a weakness as everybody is different, generalisations cannot be made so reduces the validity, like drug therapy not working for all people. Suggests idiographic approach may be more suitable.
Discuss the psychodynamic approach. Refer to at least two other approaches in psychology in your answer.
A01- suggests all behaviour can be explained in terms of the inner conflicts of the mind and the unconscious mind determines most of our behaviour and we’re motivated by unconscious emotional drives. Personality is a result of childhood experiences shaping adult personality. Behaviour governed by tripartite personality: ID (unconscious) which is primitive, present at birth and motivated by pleasure principle, ego which develops at 1-3 years old, motivated by reality principle. Mediates conflicts between ID and superego and when cannot be resolved they create anxiety and to reduce this we use defence mechanisms such as repression, denial and displacement. Superego (unconscious) develops from 3-5 years old and motivated by morality principle; punishing ego with guilty for doing wrong things. Many problems that occur later in life may be the result of fixation on one of the psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital. For example, Oedipus complex occurs during the phallic stage where the young boy develops castration anxiety as he believes his father knows of his erotic love for his mother, and so the boy identifies with his dad and adopts his values and the male gender role and ideal ego and superego.
A03- psychodynamic approach is psychic deterministic. Rejects the idea of free will as it believes a person’s behaviour is determined by their unconscious motives which are shaped by their biological drives and early experiences. This is a weakness as it suggests behaviour is pre-determined for example, psychosexual stages, and people don’t have free will. Humanistic psychology on the other hand believes we have free will and rejects scientific method along with determinism altogether, which is more compatible with the legal system where it believes humans have free will and are solely responsible for their own behaviour. Humanistic approach therefore seems to be a more appropriate approach.
Ao3- unfalsifiable. Assumptions cannot be scientifically measured or proved wrong, such as tripartite personality. If people behave in the way of the theory then its viewed as support, but if they do not then its argued they’re using defence mechanisms, this is a weakness as the theory is unreliable and generalisations shouldn’t be made a without a cause and effect proven. Suggestion that dreams are via regia to the unconscious which represents fulfilment of repressed wishes and desires is unfalsifiable.
A03- interactionist – takes both nature and nurture into account. Recognises the influence of social and cultural factors as ir proposes we are driven by biological instincts (ego, superego, ID) but the way they’re expressed is shaped by our social environment (childhood experiences). This is a strength as it emphasises the importance of both and offers a holistic approach in comparison to other approaches such as behaviourism. Behaviourism is completely on nurture debate. It believes we are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and our behaviour is as a result of classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning. On the other end of the debate, biological approach is completely on the nature side. It believes our behaviour is as a result of biological processes within us such as genes and neurotransmitters, expressed in our phenotype.
A03- there’s real life applications, for example to therapies such as psychoanalysis or dream analysis. Briggs found there was significant reduction of suicidal behaviour and self-harm for patients undergoing psychoanalytical therapies. There is also real-life application in other approaches for example, drug therapy (biological approach), cognitive behavioural therapy (cognitive approach) and client centred therapy in humanistic psychology. In cognitive psychology there is also applications to helping police, using cognitive interview.
Outline and compare any two approaches.
Nomothetic: behaviourism, biological, cognitive
Idiographic: humanistic, psychodynamic
Reductionist: behaviourism, biological, cognitive, psychodynamic
Holistic: humanism
Nature: biological, psychodynamic (is both), cognitive (is both)
Nurture: behaviourism, SLT, humanism
Determinist: biological, psychodynamic, behaviourism
Free will: humanism
Scientific method: biological, behaviourism, cognitive
Non-scientific: psychodynamic, humanism
Biopsychology
Discuss research into plasticity of the brain including functional recovery.came up in 2023
A01- brain plasticity is the brains’ ability to change and adapt because of experience and new learning (capacity for brain to reorganise its structure and function). Research suggests that the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones in response to changing experiences as we get older rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened – synaptic pruning and bridging. MAIN RESEARCH FOR PLASTICITY: Maguire taxi drivers- found they had a significantly higher level of grey matter in hippocampus (associated with development of spatial and navigational skills), as part of training taxi drivers would take a test of recall of the streets and routes – this alters the structure of brain and the longer they had the job the more pronounced the structure was.
A03- controlled scientific methodology including matched pairs design. PET scans are highly scientific and reliable.
Ao3- androcentric (beta bias) and only right-handed people.
A03- potential reductionism as ignores other factors that could have influenced the results e.g., genes.
Ao3- potential cultural bias as the sample was London taxi drivers and may be different for other taxi drivers, or Uber.
A03- neural plasticity may be related to cognitive reserve. Evidence suggests a person’s educational attainment may influence how well the brain functionally adapts after injury. Schneider et al found more time brain injury patients had spent in education, the greater their chances of disability-free recovery.
A01- The brain also appears to show evidence of functional recovery, which is following damage the brain can transfer functions usually performed by damaged areas to undamaged areas. Neuroscientists suggest this process can occur quickly after trauma then slow down. During the recovery, the brain rewires and reorganises itself by forming new synaptic connections close to the area of damage. This could include neural regeneration, known as axonal sprouting where undamaged axons grow new nerve endings to reconnect the neurons, or neural reorganisation known as recruitment of the homologous where intact hemisphere takes over damaged hemisphere or cross modal reassignment, where brain uses an area that would normally process a certain type of sensory information for a different type of sensory information. GABBY GIFFORDS CASE: shot in the head in left hemisphere, within months and some rehab she could walk and regained control of her right arm and legs.
A03- case study; not generalisable. For example, Ramachandran found 60-80% of amputees have developed phantom limb syndrome. These feelings are problematic for patient and suggests the brain may rewire itself incorrectly sometimes. The brain doesn’t respond to damage in the same way each time.
A03- real life application. Understanding processes of plasticity and functional recovery led to development of neurorehabilitation which uses motor therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain to counter the negative effects and deficits in motor and cognitive functions following accidents.
Discuss split brain research. Refer to examples of research in your answer.
A01- based on the concept of hemispheric lateralisation, which is the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain have different specialisms. Split brain research originated from Sperry and Gazzaniga. They used ppts whose corpus callosum (nerves that connect hemispheres) had been severed in order to stop epileptic fits, so the two hemispheres could not communicate with eachother. They wanted to assess capabilities of separated brain hemispheres. Ppts sat in front of a board and an image/word was projected to a patients left visual field (processed by right hemisphere) or right visual field (processed by left hemisphere). When information is presented to one hemisphere in a split-brain patient the information is not transferred to the other hemisphere. Variations included describing what they saw, describing what they felt and drawing what they saw. Results found patients could say what they saw and felt in their right visual field/right hand, but not in their left visual field. He also found in the drawing task the picture was drawn better when picture presented to left visual field. He concluded the left hemisphere is dominant in terms of speech and language and right hemisphere is dominant in terms of visual motor tasks.
A03- standardised procedure used. It was a controlled procedure of presenting visual information to one hemisphere as one eye was blindfolded. Ppts stared at a fixed point and an image was flashed up for 0.1 seconds (same for everyone), so the patient had no time to move their eyes over the image and spread information across both sides of visual field. Reliable.
A03- confounding variables in his study. Disconnection from hemispheres was greater in some patients than others. some experienced drug therapy more than others.
A03- sample size – 11 – cannot generalise as they also all had epileptic seizures – this may have caused unique changes in the brain that may have influenced the findings. The control group also had no history of epilepsy which is inappropriate, the control group should have been epileptics without corpus callosum cut.
A03- Data was artificially produced in a lab, as in real life people have two eyes rather than one eye blindfolded and the other eye working. This means they may be able to transfer information to the other visual field, whereas in the experiment there is no room for this possibility. The study of JW who had damage to left hemisphere, demonstrated that the right hemisphere may play some part in language like the left hemisphere as he developed the capacity to speak out of the right hemisphere (language may not be restricted to left hemisphere).
A03- differences may be overstated. Neuroscientists suggest that verbal and non-verbal part of the brain labels can be useful but actual distinction is much less clear cut. In a normal brain, two hemispheres are in constant communication when performing everyday tasks and many behaviours typically associated with one hemisphere can be effectively performing by the other when the situation requires it – plasticity.
Discuss research into circadian rhythms. Refer to evidence in your answer.
A01- circadian rhythms are rhythm that lasts for around 24 hours a day. One example is sleep/wake cycle: controlled by external environment (external zeitgeber) of light and the fact why we are alert during daytime and drowsy at night is because of daylight and by endogenous pacemakers (suprachiasmatic nucleus), which is the body’s internal biological clock.
Siffre investigated the effect of the removal of light (exogenous zeitgeber) on the circadian rhythm of sleep/wake cycle. He spent periods of time in a cave completely devoid of natural light and sound (2 months in Alps and 6 months in Texas). In each case, his biological rhythm settled down to a 25-hour rhythm despite removing the exogenous zeitgeber, highlighting the circadian rhythms persistence.
A03- supported by Aschoff and Wever. Studied ppts living in a bunker – had no windows and only artificial light which the ppts were free to turn on and off as they pleased. They found ppts settled into longer sleep/wake cycle of 25-29 hours. These results suggest that circadian rhythms are about 24-25 hours and operate in absence of external cues.
A03- methodology: siffre was a case study as it only affected one person, and other research only has few participants, so population validity is low and has generalisability issues. Trying to establish nomothetic laws about biological rhythms based on idiographic research is inappropriate as there is a lot of diversity and different biological issues with different people, e.g., insomnia, suggesting more research needs to be carried out. Only Siffre himself took part in the study. The sample is unrepresentative of the general population. Sleeping patterns can vary between ages and genders- women have longer cycles than men, teenagers sleep for longer than older people.
A03- breached ethical issues. The sleep deprivation Siffre experienced had a negative effect – he experienced low mood and reported long lasting psychological effects such as increased aggression months after the study had finished. Breaching the BPS ethical guidelines left him in a different psychological state to that in which he entered. Breaching the guidelines means that it is harder to gain permission to repeat the experiment, reducing the reliability of the findings. Androcentric (siffre was a male)-females are psychologically different to males as we have menstrual cycle so therefore our other cycles could be controlled in different ways.
A03- lacks ecological validity. The study was conducted underground in an environment the ppt was not used to. External factors such as the change in temperature could have negatively affected his sleep, altering how much he needed. The unrealistic environment means ecological validity of the study is decreased and cannot be generalised to wider population as people in their sleep/wake cycle do not wake up in caves in Alps or Texas.
A03- real world application – chronotherapeutic. The specific time that patients take their medication is very important as it can have a significant impact on the treatment success. It is essential that the right concentration of a drug is released in the target area of the body at the right time the drug is needed. For example, heart attacks most likely occur early morning, so these medications have been developed to be taken at 10pm but are only released at early morning like 6am-noon.
A03- temperature may be more important than light in determining biological rhythms. Buhr found that temperature controls our body clock rather than light. Although light may be the trigger, SCN transforms information about light levels into neural messages that set the body’s temperature. Body temperature fluctuates in a 24 hour circadian rhythm and small changes in body temperature can send a signal to body clocks. It causes organs to become more active or inactive.
Ao3- individual differences- Duffy found that ‘morning people ‘prefer to rise early – 6am – and go to bed early -10pm, whereas evening people prefer to wake up and go to bed later (1am-10am). This demonstrates that there may be innate individual differences in circadian rhythms.
Discuss research into infradian and/or ultradian rhythms.
A01- ultradian rhythms are rhythms that last less than 24 hours, such as sleep cycle pattern. This cycle alternates between REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid movement) and consists of five stages. The cycle starts at light sleep, progressing to deep sleep then into REM sleep, where brain waves speed up and dreaming occurs. This repeats itself about 90 minutes throughout the night and amount of stage 3 and 4 decreases each cycle and amount of REM sleep increases.
A03- there may be individual differences. Tucker found significant differences between ppts in terms of the duration of each stage – particularly 3 and 4. This demonstrates that there may be innate individual differences in ultradian rhythms which may be genetic, and it may mean focusing on these differences during investigations into sleep cycles through idiographic approaches.
A03- research is conducted in lab settings, using EEGs and ERPs to measure waves in brains. Provides scientific and objective measures that allow conclusions to be made that differences in sleep patterns are only due to biological factors not situational factors.
A03- due to the fact research is conducted in a controlled lab setting, the sleep environment can be criticised for artificial nature, i.e., it doesn’t reflect their typical nights sleep. Ppts sleep with electrodes attached to their head and/or body, which may be invasive for ppt, and are often woken up numerous times during the night in order to report dreams. They are also sleeping in a la and not their usual bedroom setting which also may affect their sleep. This makes investigating ultradian rhythms extremely difficult as their lack of ecological validity leads to false conclusions being drawn.
Ao3- research may be androcentric, e.g., Dermot used an all-male sample as does much other research. Findings of this research only tells us about the sleep stages patterns of males, females are physiologically different to males for example menstrual cycle and thus it could be the case that females sleep patterns are very different – so cannot generalise.
A01- infradian rhythms last longer than 24 hours (either weekly, monthly or annually). For example, the female menstrual cycle is about 28 days although timing can vary according to environmental factors and/or biological factors. It’s regulated by hormones that either promote ovulation or stimulate the uterus for fertilisation. Ovulation occurs roughly halfway through the cycle when oestrogen levels are at their highest.
A01 (research) – McClinton dorm effect menstrual synchrony. Studied 29 women with irregular ovulations. They obtained samples from 9 of the women at certain points in their cycles by placing cotton wool pads under their armpits; these pads then treated with alcohol and then wiped under the noses of other 20 women daily. Results were that 68% of women responded to pheromones; menstrual cycles became synchronised to that pheromone donor, so the pheromones acted as a exogenous zeitgeber and modified women’s infradian rhythms.
A03- research to suggest infradian rhythms such as menstrual cycle are also important regulators in behaviour. Penton Voak et al found women expressed preference for feminised faces at the least fertile stages of cycle, and more masculine faces at their most fertile point. These findings indicate that women’s sexual behaviour is motivated by infradian rhythms, showing importance of studying infradian rhythms in relation to human behaviour.
A03- deterministic; states biological rhythms are beyond our control and so it is possible to exempt responsibility over our behaviour. This was the situation with the case of Ms English, who after killing her married lover after an argument, was granted probation on the grounds that her actions were related to pre-menstrual syndrome (associated with lowered mood, aggression and fatigue). This suggests that what research has found relating to infradian rhythms, can be used to excuse certain behaviours on the grounds of a person’s biology which can have negative consequences.
A03- lack of control of extraneous variables. For example, McClinton was unable to control other external factors that could affect the female menstrual cycle like stress or exercise. Lack of control makes it difficult to confirm a cause-and-effect relationship between presence of pheromones and lengthening/shortening of menstrual cycle. Also, suffers from ethical issues; as it tampers with infradian rhythm of menstrual cycle it may be deemed unethical, e.g., McClinton purposefully changed length of cycles – researchers may not be fully aware of the implications of modifying menstrual cycles.
A03- Sabbagh found women who spend a lot of time together often sync their menstrual cycles; maybe due to unconscious detection of pheromones secreted at certain times during the menstrual cycle. Evolutionary psychologists claim the synchronised cycles provide evolutionary advantage as It means childcare can be shared due to synchronisation of pregnancies.
A03- menstrual cycle to some extent governed by exogenous zeitgebers. Reinburg examined a woman who spent 3 months in a cave with only a small lamp to provide light. He noted that her menstrual cycle shortened from 28 to 25.7 days, demonstrating the effect of external factors on infradian rhythms. This suggests infradian rhythms like menstrual cycle aren’t solely governed by hormones, and a more holistic approach should incorporate exogenous zeitgebers effect on exogenous pacemakers like hormones.
Discuss fight/flight response.
A01- fight or flight response is a evolutionary response to dangerous situations, which the resulting choice is either fight (face up to the danger) or flight (run away from danger). First a person must enter the dangerous situation which acts as an acute stressor. The amygdala is activated which sends a distress signal to hypothalamus, which then activates sympathomedullary pathway. This activates the sympathetic nervous system to produce physiological changes e.g., pupil dilation and increased heart rate. The SNS also stimulates adrenal medulla which secretes adrenaline and noradrenaline into blood stream, which also cause physiological changes to prepare body for fight or flight. It causes the body to focus its energy on processes necessary to survive and reduce non-essential functions like digestion. After the stressful situation is resolved, parasympathetic nervous system returns body to its resting state and reverses the changes adrenaline caused. Some physiological changes include increased breathing rate for increased oxygen intake, increased heart rate fir increased blood flow to organs and pupil dilation to increase light energy and enhance vision.
A03- may be reductionist as it is limited in explanation of choices the body makes during a stressful situation. Gray suggested the freeze response; the first response before fighting or running away was avoiding the confrontation altogether whilst examining the situation to decide what to do next (hypervigilance). The benefit is evolutionary survival tactic, like animals when they play dead.
A03- may be androcentric. There could be separate responses in females – like tend and befriend tactic. Taylor found that females were more likely to feel strongly about protecting her offspring (tending) or to form alliances with other women (befriending) rather than fighting or running away. It is therefore gender biased as it seems to only apply to men. Further demonstrated by beta bias within this area of research in psychology. Early research on this subject was conducted on males and researchers made the false assumption that it could be generalised to females as well.
A03- however, it may also apply to men. Positive rather than ‘fight/flight’ behaviours may challenge the view that men only respond with fight/flight, whilst women respond with tend/befriend. Van Dawn’s research found acute stress can lead to friendly and cooperative behaviour in both men and women, which would explain the human connection noted in much research following 9/11 terror attacks – could be due to social nature.
A03- fight/flight response is maladaptive in modern world. Compared to our ancestors when they faced actual life-threatening circumstances such as fending off cavemen or predators, the stresses that we experience today don’t need the same intense reaction. When the fight/flight is activated, it can cause negative health problems, the secretion of adrenaline causes high blood pressure which can lead to heart problems. Shows how it’s a problematic and unnecessary intense process that can cause more harm than good.
A03- there is a genetic basis to sex differences in fight/flight response. Lee and Harley have found evidence of a genetic basis for gender differences in the fight/flight response. The SRY gene, found exclusively on male Y chromosome, directs male development and results in fight/flight response to stress. SRY gene may prime males to respond to stress in this way by the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline. Absence of SRY gene in females as they have no Y, may prevent this stress response leading to tend/befriend.
Issues and debates
Evaluate the scientific emphasis on causal explanations in psychology.
A03- an advantage of using a causal explanation is that it can lead to treatment methods for mental disorders, for example, depression through the control of serotonin by using SSRIs – this target causes with genetic therapy and chemicals. However, a causal explanation on e.g., biology only overlooks other factors such as cognitive aspects such as irrational thoughts, which can be dealt with by cognitive behavioural therapy. Research does suggest that cognitive biases are evident in depressed people, and drug therapy cannot cure thoughts therefore an interactionist treatment may be more useful.
A03- a causal explanation simplifies human behaviour. whilst this may be appropriate for non-humans, human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors such as cognitive or emotional factors – so is reductionist and unrealistic we will ever find a simple determinist explanation. Most research that produces causal explanations such as Pavlov’s dogs, is conducted on animals and human behaviour is more complex than one causal explanation.
A03- another approach we may use is the free-will approach. Free will has good face validity, i.e., in everyday scenarios we appear to be making our own decisions. Thus, having the idea of free will has good face validity because we appear to have free-will in our daily lives. However as freewill is unscientific, no variables can be established to investigate, and a causal explanation cannot be determined. There is research that contradicts the freewill approach, Libet supports this view as he found the motor regions of the brain became active before conscious awareness of a decision suggesting many responses are biologically predetermined.
A03- 100% causal explanation is unlikely to be found. Like, studies that compare monozygotic twins found 80% similarity for intelligence and 40% for depression. This suggests that genes do not entirely determine behaviour and supports an interactionist approach, as other factors such as the environment are involved.
A03- scientific emphasis on causal explanations is important so that predictions can be made. This means we can explain phenomenon in terms of what causes it to happen, for example in Loftus and Palmer’s research they told us memory is affected by leading questions. The leading questions caused memory for an event to eb changed and this causal explanation allows us to make predictions about the behaviour of eyewitnesses and we can adjust questions in order to help eyewitnesses.
A03- establishing a causal emphasis maintains psychology’s status as a science.
A02- embracing diverse perspectives might refer to the different types of causes of behaviour, such as biological determinism (genes), environmental determinism (stimulus-response) or psychic determinism (past experiences and unconscious drives). Exploring depths of human behaviour could refer to conducting experiments to establish a cause for human behaviour and identifying variables that can be tested and isolated.
A03- using causal explanations means it can be replicated. If research, e.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation, can be replicated due to its’ operationalisation and standardisation, and other repeated experiment produced similar results this increases reliability of the causal explanation and has higher levels of internal validity.
Discuss gender bias in psychological research. Refer to examples of alpha and beta bias.
A01- gender bias is the tendency to treat one group (usually females) in a different way to another. There may be two types of ways in which theories can be biased. Alpha bias is when difference between men and women are exaggerated; theories devalue one gender in comparison to another. An example is Freud’s psychodynamic approach where he viewed femininity as an expression of failed masculinity and women must be morally weaker. Beta bias is when differences between men and women are minimised/ignored. An example is in stress research – fight or flight response. Usually conducted with make animals as female variations in hormone levels would make research difficult. It was assumed the fight or flight response was universal until Taylor challenged it – she provided evidence females produced a ‘tend and befriend’ response at stressful times which is adaptive as it ensures survival of their offspring.
A03- gender bias promotes sexism in the research process. Women remained underrepresented in uni departments, especially in science. Lecturers in psychology departments are more likely to be male (Murphy). Means research is more likely to be conducted by males and may disadvantage female ppts, as they may produce gender biased findings.
A03-issues of gender bias continue unchallenged in theories. In Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy and males are the ones who compete to be chosen (as eggs are high cost). This view has been recently challenged as being rooted in Victorian ideas about gender roles. It has been recognised that women are as equally competitive and aggressive when the need arises. DNA evidence supports it’s a good adaptive strategy for females to mate with more than one man, which puts females in competition. This highlights the importance of reducing gender bias to ensure that a valid picture of women is portrayed in contemporary studies.
A03- there may be bias in the research methods themselves. Rosenthal found that male experiments are more pleasant, friendly and encouraging to female ppts than to male ppts, which resulted in male ppts appearing to perform less well on tasks assigned. Feminists argue lab experiments disadvantage women because findings created in the controlled world of the lab experiments tell us very little about experiences of women outside these settings. Suggests there are serious issues with the way data is collected which creates a false picture of male and female differences and may reduce validity of the experiment.
A03- negative implications which may result from findings. For example, it may provide scientific justification to deny women various opportunities creating negative stereotypes and assumptions and failing to challenge discrimination. This can have damaging consequences for women such as being less likely to be offered job roles, therefore gender bias threatens welfare of women and progress within society.
A03- research challenging gender biases may not be published. Formanowiez analysed more than 1000 articles relating to gender bias over 8 years and found research on gender bias is funded less often and published by less prestigious journals which means fewer scholars are aware and apply it to their own work. Suggests gender bias is not taken as seriously as other forms of bias, which once again may reinforce negative stereotypes about the underrepresented gender.
Discuss cultural bias in psychology.
A01- tendency to ignore cultural differences and judge all people in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions. Cultural bias can take two forms – alpha bias and beta bias. Alpha bias occurs when a theory assumes there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. Beta bias is when a theory ignores or minimises cultural differences, assuming all people are the same resulting in universal research designs and conclusions that assume all cultures as the same. Another way to address cultural bias is through distinction between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism refers to the use of our own ethic or cultural group as a basis for judgements about other groups, which can then lead to alpha/beta bias. Cultural relativism is understood as behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in context of culture in which it originates, e.g., hearing voices in African cultures.
A03- one way to deal with cultural bias is to recognise when it occurs. Smith and Bond found in European textbooks on social psychology, 66% of studies were American, 32% European and 2% rest of the world. This suggests much psychological research is under representative and can be improved by selecting different cultural groups to study.
A03- culturally biased research can have negative consequences. Damage that can be created by cultural bias can be seen in US army IQ tests before WW1. The tests showed European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IW and African Americans were at the lowest mental age at the bottom of the scale. Data from these tests had a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, and negative beliefs developing. People may be misled with the assumption groups are less intelligent. Could lead to pre-existing discrimination being reinforced and create false hierarchy in society.
A03- researchers travel much more now than they did 50 years ago and so have increased understanding of other cultures at a personal and professional level. Academics hold conferences where researchers from many different cultures regularly meet to discuss and exchange ideas. Means there is much greater exchange of ideas which should reduce ethnocentrism, enable understanding of ethnocentrism and real differences can be valued.
A03- methodological issues of operationalising variables. For example, the behaviour expression for behaviours such as aggression may be different within cultures, so this is a limitation when conducting research in different cultures as the variable investigated may not be experienced the same by all participants. Another issue with conducting cross cultural research is that it is impossible to replicate the research exactly within each culture, so validity comes into question.
A03- no longer issue of individualism and collectivism. For example, Takano and Osaka found from 14 out of 15 studies which compared USA and Japan there was no evidence of distinction between cultures. This is a limitation as psychologists refer to culture in terms of individualistic vs collectivist cultures. Critics have argued this distinction no longer remains due to improvements to technology like internet. This could suggest cultural bias isn’t much of an issue now.
Discuss free will and determinism debate. Refer to two topics you’ve studied.
A01- free will is the idea that we all have a choice in our behaviour without being determined by internal/external forces beyond our control (humanistic approach advocates this), whilst determinism is the idea that things are predetermined, and everything has a cause (behaviour determined by forces outside of a person’s control). Hard determinism believes free will is an illusion and every action has a cause, whilst soft determinism allows for some element of free will and suggests people do have a choice, but the choice is constrained by external factors. There are many forms of determinism. Biological determinism claims our biological systems govern our behaviour, like genes, e.g., first degree relatives of schizophrenics have a more likely chance of developing the disorder too. Environmental determinism claims behaviour caused by some sort of outside influence like learning through classical and operant conditioning, e.g., phobias. Psychic determinism believes childhood experiences and innate drives determine behaviour, like Freud’s model of psychosexual development suggests gender differences acquired through phallic stage.
A03- a strength of determinism is that it is consistent with the aims of science; allows cause and effect to be established. Approaches that take on a deterministic standpoint like behavioural and biological use lab experiments in their studies which establishes causality for the independent variable. This gives psychology a scientific status and adds to the is psychology a science Debate. A deterministic point of view has led to treatment methods for mental disorders such as depression through control of serotonin by using SSRIs, targeting causes with genetic therapy and chemicals.
A03- a limitation of determinism is that it may be used for people to try and justify behaviours if they have committed a crime. This would be undesirable as it excuses their behaviour, for example Stephen Mobley said he was ‘born to kill’ as his family had a disposition to violence. A hard deterministic stance is not in line with the principles of juridical system, which sees people as taking responsibility.
A03- freewill has also attracted some criticism. Skinner said freewill is an illusion and behaviour is environmentally determined, and Libet supports this view as he found the motor regions of the brain became active before conscious awareness of a decision suggesting many responses are biologically predetermined.
A03- determinism simplifies human behaviour. This may be appropriate for non-humans (which coincidentally is that most research is done on animals), however human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors i.e., cognitive factors which can override biological factors. 100% genetic determinism is unlikely to be found for any behaviour, e.g. MZ twins are 80% similarity for intelligence; suggests genes don’t entirely determine behaviour and supports interactionist approach. Freewill has good face validity. As in everyday situations we appear to be making our own conscious decisions.
Discuss holism-reductionism debate. Refer to one topic you’ve studied. (levels of explanation came up in 2023)
A01- holism is a higher-level explanation and many aspects interact to create a complete picture of behaviour, e.g., humanistic approach. Gestalt psychologists pioneered this, “whole is greater than its parts”. Reductionism is explaining a behaviour by breaking it down into its simplest component parts. Based off the law of parsimony which suggests the simplest explanation is preferred explanation. Types- biological, environmental, cognitive, psychodynamic. Can be combined to form interactionist model like diathesis stress model of sz.
A03- holism doesn’t establish causation because they don’t examine behaviour in terms of operationalised variables that can be manipulated – unscientific. This makes it speculative as they become complex. It has practical dilemmas if we accept that there are many factors that contribute to say, depression, it becomes difficult to establish which is most influential and which one to use for a basis of therapy. Lower explanations may be more better.
A03- holism has Real life application to therapy. Holistic approach looks at person as a whole e.g., Jahoda’s criteria of ideal mental health takes a holistic view of what people should possess to be mentally well and this improve lives.
A03- reductionism; low level explanations result in overlooking some aspects that may contribute to behaviour, and lead to errors in understanding as its too simplistic. For example, treating ADHD conditions with drugs in belief that condition consist of nothing more than neurochemical imbalances is to mistake the symptoms of phenomenon for its cause. Drug therapy success rates are highly variable so purely biological understanding seems inadequate.
A03- environmental reductionism – approach was developed on research conducted on non-human animals, e.g., Harlow’s research on monkeys. Such explanations may be appropriate for animals, but human behaviour is more complicated and replies on different factors.
A03- reductionism oversimplifies complex phenomena. For example, explanations that operate on the level of the gene don’t include social context within which behaviour occurs. It tells us very little about why we act a certain way e.g., physiological response of pointing a finger will always be the same regardless of context – but analysis may be aggressive, in class, to address something.
A03- reductionist approach led to development of effective treatment, e.g., SSRIs are more effective than placebos at treating symptoms for up to 3 months (Soomro) and helped reduce anxiety made possible by biological reductionism.
A03- reductionism is useful in allowing scientific study to be carried out. Scientific study requires isolation of variables to make it possible to identify causes of behaviour. Breaking complicated behaviours down into small parts means they can be scientifically tested, like research into genetic basis of mental disorders has enabled researchers to identify specific genes believed to be responsible for sz.
Discuss idiographic and nomothetic debate. Refer to two topics you have studied.
A01- nomothetic approach is a method used to look for generalisations across groups of people by studying large groups of people. It looks for general laws and physiologists who adopt this view are mainly concerned with studying what we share with others. nomothetic approach tends to highly value the scientific method e.g., experiments in which the independent variable is manipulated and where dependant variable is measured. For example, behavioural laws of learning.
An idiographic approach describes the study of individuals and focuses on differences. Uses qualitative methods e.g, unstructured interviews, case studies by investigating in detail. It does not formulate laws or generalise findings, because of chance, freewill and uniqueness of individual. For example, humanistic approach.
A03- idiographic approach has real life application like client centred therapy – considers person on personal basis. Produces qualitative data – in depth Datta of experiences provides more details which may be used to support or challenge existing theories or lead to theories being developed.
A03- nomothetic approach is more scientific than idiographic. With experimental (quantitative) methods, controlled measurements and ability to predict behaviour. They allow for replication and a causal relationship. Drug therapies are developed on the basis of nomothetic research and work by redressing a biological imbalance. Idiographic approach lacks scientific evidence, since fewer people are studied no general law / predictions can be made so less reliable. However as most nomothetic approach research is studied using lab experiments, they lack mundane realism, e.g., Milgram’s shock experiment and so lose ecological validity.
A03- idiographic research is time consuming and takes a lot of time and money to study individuals in depth, suggesting nomothetic research is a better alternative if research is to keep up to be temporally valid. However, a nomothetic approach makes people lose their individuality as it overlooks richness of individual human experiences, and if general laws are made they probably will not apply to everybody as there are individual differences.
Discuss ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.
A01- social sensitive research involves studies that have potential consequences or implications for the participants or the group of the individuals the research represents. The British Psychological Society ensures practice is ethical through guidelines that include the consideration of: Protection from harm, Confidentiality, Deception and Informed Consent. These guidelines are designed to protect the individual participants however psychologists should consider the implications of a wider context. Seiber and Stanley also share this view and have outlined 4 main ethical concerns that the researcher also needs to be mindful of during research and they include: 1. Research Question; 2.The appropriate use of their research by institutions e.g. Gov.; 3. Research methodology i.e. confidentiality of P's or procedure or validity (fake results?); 4.The interpretations and applications of the research. Current ethical guidelines for research only focus on the implications on the participants involved and do not address the indirect implications for people in society; e.g. how their research can shape public, social policy.
An example of a study that changed public policy was Burt's twin studies that showed a concordance rate in intelligence, supporting the claim that intelligence was genetic. His theory/views influenced the development of 11+ exams where children were separated based on their 'natural' intelligence. This is an ethical implication of Burt's study as it caused segregation in education between rich and poor students. As it were the rich who performed better as they could pay for private tutoring to pass the exam and enter better, grammar schools. This tells us that ethical guidelines need to be improved i.e. ensure researchers consider the implications and the applications of research findings and hopefully this consideration can help to reduce negative implications on society. a03- Another issue is that socially sensitive research can lead to/justify discrimination. For example, Robert Yerkes conducted an IQ test in the US Army and published findings that were; blacks scored lower on the IQ test than whites. The study lacked validity because it was proven to have ethnocentric bias; it also had social implications e.g. the findings being used to justify racial discrimination and prejudice, such as limiting black access to universities. Yerkes study could also be used to justify the involuntary sterilization of 2000 black women in the US between 1907 and 1963. This highlights a serious issue with socially sensitive research and supports the argument that due to the flawed application of results ad negative impact for participants, socially sensitive research should not be conducted. --However many disagree with this as without this research we would have only trivial research to investigate. What might be a better solution is to engage more actively with policy makers after publishing to ensure their data isn't misused and that it is used in socially sensitive ways. a03-It is important to recognise that not all socially sensitive research is controversial, and some can be beneficial to society. For example, research on EWT has found that children can be reliable witnesses if they are questioned appropriately. This has helped legal profession to improve accuracy of EWT and reduce wrongful conviction rates. This is a strength of social sensitive research as it shows it has practical applications.
A03- Milgram argued environmental pressures caused obedience. Used to explain certain atrocities such as Nazi behaviour in WW2. Potential to cause harm to families of those victims as such abhorrent behaviour has been excused. It causes harm to individuals which goes against ethical guidelines.
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by Izzyspade28Please can you attatch the document as i would also find this really helpful
Here is the second part @Izzyspade28 . i hope this helps! - Aimee, UoN Rep
Schizophrenia
Discuss reliability and validity in diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia.
A01- reliability refers to the level of agreement on the diagnosis by different psychiatrists across time and culture. Validity refers to the extent to which schizophrenia is a unique syndrome with its own characteristics, signs and symptoms. Some issues include comorbidity, symptom overlap and cultural and gender bias.
A03- the classification of schizophrenia involves using either the DSM 5 or ICD 10. Both classification systems vary in their criteria, such as DSM proposing only 1 positive symptom needs to be present for a month whilst ICD 10 suggests 2 negative symptoms must be present for a month; already this could lead to different diagnoses between clinicians depending on which classification system they use. The DSM 5 is also American-based, suggesting there may be a cultural bias and imposed etic as American classification of abnormality is used upon people of different cultures, and what one symptom of schizophrenia is in one country may not be a symptom in another.
A03- positive symptoms such as hallucinations or hearing voices may be more acceptable in African cultures because of the cultural beliefs, for example communication with ancestors and therefore people are more ready to acknowledge such experiences. When reported to a psychiatrist from a different culture, these experiences might be seen as bizarre and irrational as the psychiatrists are culturally biased to what is deemed normal in their own culture and therefore ethnocentric unknowingly. Escobar has pointed out that white psychologists may tend to over-interpret symptoms of black people during diagnosis, such factors include cultural differences in mannerisms and language and highlights the issue of validity of diagnosis between cultures.
A03- Copeland gave a description of a patient to 134 USA and 194 British psychiatrists. 69% of US diagnosed schizophrenia but only 2% of British gave the diagnosis, may suggest symptoms are misinterpreted. Calls into question reliability of diagnosis as it suggests patients can display same symptoms but receive different diagnosis because of their ethnic background.
A03- research suggests there is an issue of reliability between diagnosis. Cheniaux highlighted the lack of interrater reliability of diagnosis. One psychologist diagnosed 26% of patients with schizophrenia using DSM, and 44% using ICD. The other diagnosed 13% using dsm and 24 using ICD. This supports the classification and diagnosis of the disorder is lacking in reliability. Rosenhan’s “being sane in insane places” study also shows the issues of reliability and validity. Confederate acted as pseudo-patients and displayed only 1 symptom telling professionals they were having a hallucination and staff never detected their sanity and diagnosed them with schizophrenia even after behaving normally in the ward and being detected by real schizophrenic people. Suggests doctors had no valid method of defecting the disorder and any diagnostic material that makes such errors cannot be reliable nor valid.
A03- comorbidity refers to the presence of two disorders at the same time. Buckley found that 50% of sz patients also had a diagnosis of depression, 29% had PTSD and 23% had OCD. This supports the view that there are problems with validity in classification and diagnosis, as the two disorders could be one and lead to the delay of correct treatment.
A03- an ethical issue is that the use of diagnoses people can be labelled, and this label might not be accurate or valid. The label could then lead to them becoming stigmatised and affect their life e.g., employment or lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. However a benefit of being labelled is that it can lead to appropriate treatment, which can help the sufferer and labels can make their condition known to work places who can implement measures that can assist the person which makes the workplace feel safer for sufferer and other staff whilst increasing productivity in the work place so contribute to taxes and earn their salary.
A03- there is an issue of gender bias in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Loring and Powell found that after selecting male and female psychiatrists to diagnose sz in either males or females, 56% of males were given a diagnosis whilst 20% of females were given a diagnosis. This gender bias did not seem to be evident amongst female psychiatrists suggesting diagnosis is influenced not only by gender of patient but gender of psychiatrist as well. This affects validity.
Discuss psychological explanations for schizophrenia.
A01-A psychological explanation for schizophrenia is family dysfunction. This refers to any form of abnormal processes and high interpersonal conflict within a family which act as risk factors for the development of schizophrenia and maintenance of it. One type of family dysfunction is Fromm-Reichmann’s schizophrogenic mother. This suggests that a mother that is cold, uncaring, controlling and rejecting creates tension and leads to an environment if distrust and development of paranoid thoughts which become delusions. Another type of family dysfunction is Bateson’s double bind theory. This suggests children who receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop sz – the child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship and the child is unable to decide what good behaviour is and this can lead to the child developing a false concept of reality which explains delusions and hallucinations. The final explanation is more for the maintenance of schizophrenia; expressed emotion that is negative. Family communication style that involves criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement. High levels of this may influence relapse rates or the onset of sz in a vulnerable person. Negative emotional climate in families arouses the patient and leads to stress beyond their already impaired coping mechanisms, triggering a schizophrenic episode.
A03- there is a problem of cause and effect. Is the family dysfunction the cause of schizophrenia, or is a family member with schizophrenia the cause of family dysfunction? Mischler found significant differences in the way mothers spoke to their daughters with sz and their healthy daughters which suggests dysfunction communication may be. Result of living with the schizophrenic rather than the cause of the disorder.
A03- ethical issues: there are serious ethical concerns with blaming the family, particularly as there’s little evidence upon which to base this. The family are doing what they can – providing resources and money and time into the treatment for the sufferer and getting the blame may cause even more stress and anxiety leading to higher interpersonal conflict. Also gender bias seems to be prevalent, as the mother tends to get blamed the most, and there is no mention of the fathers’ influence. In the modern world we tend to reject this out-dated view and research into this may be socially sensitive.
A03- might be incomplete explanation. It ignores individual differences as expressed emotion is associated with relapse but not all patients who live in high EE family’s relapse and not all patients in low EE families avoid relapse. Suggests the explanation is reductionist.
A03- might be culturally biased. Jenkins found expressed emotion is less common in families outside the West. This may be because non-western cultures are less individualistic, so family members are less likely to blame someone with sz for their actions and have interpersonal conflict.
A03- empirical evidence for double bind. Berger found that sz reported higher recall of double bind statements by their mothers than non sz. However, evidence may or be reliable as patients recall might be affected by their sz, this suggests that retrospective recall cannot be relied from as their recall might be distorted or biased and therefore inaccurate.
A03- research support for EE. Broun et al explored idea of expressed emotion in their 9 month follow up of previous sz sufferers and found that in families with high expressed emotion there was a 58% relapse rate compared with 10% relapse rate with low expressed emotion – suggesting a clear link between them.
A03- practical applications from EE. Hogarty produced a type of therapy session which reduced social conflicts between parents and their children which reduced EE and thus reduced relapse rates. This suggests gaining an insight into family relationships allows psychiatric professionals to help improve the quality of patients lives.
Discuss cognitive explanation for schizophrenia.
A01-The cognitive explanation for schizophrenia focuses on the role of dysfunctional thought processing contributing to schizophrenia symptoms. Frith et al identified two main kinds of dysfunctional thought processing. Metarepresentation and central control. Metarepresentation refers to the ability to reflect on and have insight into our own intentions and actions of others. dysfunction in this area could mean that the individual is unable to recognise that their own thoughts are theirs, leading to hallucinations of voices and delusions of thought insertion. Central control is the ability to suppress automatic responses in response to stimuli. Dysfunction in this area could mean the individual cannot suppress automatic thoughts that get triggered by other thoughts. This could explain disorganised thoughts and disorganised speech. (in non sz brains it is able to filter incoming stimuli and process them however this is defective in sz brains)
A03- issue of cause and effect. Abnormal cognitions may be one of the effects of schizophrenia rather than causing the development of it in the first place. It also does not explain the causes of the cognitive deficits and where they come from. This suggests that the cognitive explanation is limited and incomplete.
A03- reductionist explanation. The theory does not consider other factors such as genes. It could be that the problems caused by low neurotransmitter levels creates cognitive deficits. Suggests the approach is oversimplified when considering the explanation of schizophrenia. Perhaps a diathesis-stress model is more appropriate, where a genetic vulnerability to sz gets triggered by an environmental stimuli which thus results in these cognitive deficits.
A03- evidence contradicting the explanation. Studies of brain damaged patients have shown that they often experience similar cognitive deficits to schizophrenics, such as attention problems. However, despite this they do not develop schizophrenic symptom. This means that the cognitive explanation alone is unlikely to be valid as if it was these brain damaged patients would develop schizophrenic symptoms.
A03- The cognitive approach as a practical application. As Cognitive Behaviour Therapy has been found to have a significant effect in reducing both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia through brief intervention programmes (Turkington et al 2000). Therefore, the cognitive approach is likely to be valid, as treatments based on cognitive assumptions are effective in improving symptoms of schizophrenia.
A03- practical applications. Yellowless developed a machine that produced virtual hallucinations such as hearing the TV telling you to kill yourself. The intention is to show schizophrenics that their hallucinations are not real. This suggests that understanding effects of cognitive deficits allows psychologists to create new initiatives for schizophrenics and improve the quality of their lives.
A03- research support from Stirling. Found ppts with sz took 2x much longer than ppts without sz to complete a range of cognitive tasks including the Stroop test. This supports that sz sufferers have cognitive difficulties and difficulties with central control.
A03- cognitive approach provides explanations for positive symptoms however does not offer much explanation for negative symptoms such as flat effect or avolition. This suggests the explanation is limited and a more complete explanation is needed.
Discuss drug therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia.
A01- antipsychotic drugs are used to reduce the intensity of symptoms, interfering with neurotransmitter action. Typical antipsychotics are first generation drugs like chlorpromazine and are dopamine antagonists. They’re used to reduce intensity of positive symptoms by blocking D2 dopamine receptors in post synapses of the brain and thus reducing action of dopamine. Atypical antipsychotics are second generation drugs like clozapine, to find drugs with fewer side effects than typical drugs. Atypical drugs target dopamine and serotonin alongside other neurotransmitters ag acetylcholine and address positive and negative symptoms.
A03- like with all drugs there are side effects. For typical drugs the side effects are neurological, such as dry mouth and tardive dyskinesia, whilst for atypical drugs they are metabolic such as weight gain and diabetes. Whilst they may be effective, the severity of side effects mean costs outweigh the benefits and therefore are not an appropriate treatment. Side effects are less severe when patients take a smaller dose, but this can reduce effectiveness of drug too. The severity of side effects may cause patients to be reluctant to take the drug or may even die as a result of the effect.
A03- however the drugs are effective. They are relatively cheap to produce, easy to administer and have a positive effect on many sufferers. Thornley et al carried out a metanalysis comparing effects of chlorpromazine to placebo conditions and found chlorpromazine to be associated with better functioning.
A03- real life applications. Offering drugs can lead to enhanced quality of life as patients are given independence and has a positive impact on the economy as patients can return to work and no longer be provided with institutionalised care.
A03- does not cure schizophrenia, only dampens symptoms. pills might not be helpful with other symptoms, especially emotional ones therefore suggesting other therapies are needed e.g., CBT. Also, not everybody responds well to drugs.
A03- ethical issues; antipsychotics have been used in hospitals to calm patients and make them easier for staff to work with rather than for the patients benefit – can lead to abuse of human rights. Also, if someone is having a severe schizophrenic episode, they won’t be able to give consent to antipsychotic treatment.
Discuss token economies as a treatment for schizophrenia.
A01- token economies are a psychological treatment for schizophrenia but are used more to manage than treat schizophrenia, based on Skinnerian operant conditioning. They are a system to encourage positive behaviour that’s socially desirable, based on operant conditioning, with the aim being to encourage self-care. Tokens are secondary reinforcers, which are exchanged for rewards (primary reinforcers) such as food and TV time. This manages schizophrenia as it maintains desirable behaviour and no longer reinforces undesirable behaviour. Technique alleviates negative symptoms such as avolition.
A03- raises ethical issues. Patients with the most severe symptoms are unable to access the tokens are they’re unable to perform desirable behaviours – effectively discriminated against as they are denied rewards for being severely ill. Also, patients are treated as lab rats; dehumanising by subjecting patient to regime which takes away their right to make choices. In the 60s nurses rewarded patients with cigarettes, due to the dopamine role in schizophrenia this led to a culture of heavy smoking and nicotine addiction in psych Wards.
A03- only likely to work in a clinical setting; where patients can be constantly monitored and the system of rewards so closely controlled. This limits the usefulness of token economies in treating schizophrenia; they wont benefit long term as they might struggle with housework and become messy as they’re not getting immediate rewards.
A03- safer environment for patients and staff because aggression could cease within institution due to lack of reinforcement and punishment, creating a better environment overall.
A03-evidence to support effectiveness of token economies. Dickerson reviewed studies which used the method and found majority had reported beneficial effects, however there have been few trials done to support this evidence so there’s unanswered questions as to whether it works.
In 2023 exam q came up with STEM asking for one or more explanations of schiz (eg psychological, biological, cognitive)
Relationships
Discuss the relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour. (Evolutionary explanation)
A01- animals are motivated to select a mate with the best possible genes who will best be able to ensure the offspring’s future health and survival. sexual selection is the evolutionary explanation for partner preference, suggesting attributes which are beneficial to survival increase reproductive success and are passed on through genes (selecting a mate). Anisogamy is the difference between male and female sex cells, and the type of sexual selection they go through is based on this difference. Intrasexual selection – men – individuals of one sex evolve traits that enable them to compete with other individuals of same sex and winner of this competition mates and reproduces and passes on their genes that contributed to success (leads to dimorphism – differences between males and females). Intersexual selection – females – individuals of one sex have features that are preferred by members of the opposite sex aka men make themselves more attractive to females. As there is a greater investment of time energy and resources in raising a child, so they need to be careful when choosing a partner. Males end up competing to be selected by a female and female choose from available mates according to attractiveness.
A03- theory may be reductionist. It narrows mate choice to an evolutionary adaptation, ignoring other factors such as environmental and cultural factors. For instance, men across cultures have different definitions and perception of attractiveness. Anderson found that cultures where food supplies were stable, men prefer slim women as opposed to countries where food supplies were scarce men prefer women with heavier bodies. This also brings into question whether these behaviours and traits are universal and challenges the evolutionary basis for sexual selection.
A03- theory may be deterministic as it suggests that sexual selection and reproductive behaviour are heavily down to what we inherit from our ancestors. However reproductive behaviour has changed in the last century. Western societies have experienced significant changes in terms of gender equality and women’s independence. These changes mean that women may no longer be looking for a man that provides them with resources and other qualities become more important. The widespread use of contraception and the fact less couples are choosing to have children portrays humans as having more freewill than evolutionary theory has implied. It also does not account for homosexual relationships where children cannot be biologically produced.
A03- retrospective approach that is largely based on speculations about what may or may not have been evolutionary adaptive for our ancestors and there is no reliable way to check if it is valid.
A03- research support from Clark and Hatfield; demonstrated that female’s choosiness is a factor in heterosexual relationships. Confederates approach both male and female students and asked 3 questions, the most persistent being will you go to bed with me? They found 75% of males were willing to have sex with a stranger but no females agreed. This supports evolutionary theory as shows females were more selective when choosing a sexual partner.
A03- may be more complicated. Penton-Voak et al suggests that females mate preferences change across the menstrual cycle. Females preferred a partner with strongly masculine features during fertile period but showed more preference for partner with more feminine features like kindness long term. This could be because masculine appearance is suggesting healthier immune system so is advantageous for the offspring but someone who is kind and nurturing longtermly.
Discuss one or more factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships.
A01-One factor affecting attraction in relationships is self-disclosure. This suggests the relationship formation is built on trust with another person, demonstrated by gradually revealing personal information as the relationship develops. These disclosures about one’s deepest thoughts and feelings can strengthen a romantic bond and increases attraction. Altman and Taylor proposed the social penetration theory, which suggests that by gradually revealing experiences and listening to their reciprocal exchange of information people gain a greater understanding of each other. There is a breadth/depth trade off: at first people share a lot about themselves (depth) but consider some topics off limits e.g., trauma (breadth) as they build trust breadth increases. Reis and Shaver said for the relationship to develop there needs to be reciprocal element to continue as there needs to be balance of self-disclosure between both partners in a successful relationship.
A03- a strength of this is there is research support. Has and Hartford found 57% of gay couples considered open self-disclosure as a main way to form a close relationship. Sprecher studied heterosexual couples and found strong correlation between levels of satisfaction and self-disclosure; men and women who used self-disclosure with partners who reciprocated were more satisfied and committed to their relationship.
A03- however the research is correlational, rather than causational. Whilst there is a link between self-disclosure and relationship satisfaction, cause and effect cannot be established which reduces validity.
A03- there is real life application though. Self-disclosure concept has strong everyday life applications as it could help improve partners communication skills in intimate relationships. By deliberately and skilfully increasing self-disclosure couples can achieve higher intimacy and relationship satisfaction – showing that social penetration theory can be used to enhance romantic relationships.
A03- it is reductionist though. Self-disclosure is limited by taking a nomothetic approach, by reducing relationship satisfaction to a single factor, it ignores many other factors of romantic attraction like physical attractiveness and similarity of attitudes. This suggests research into relationships could benefit from an idiographic approach.
A03- might be culturally biased. Tang et al found men and women in USA tend to disclose more sexual thought and feelings than romantic partners in China, however level of satisfaction in relationships was high in both cultures. This shows that self-disclosure is not a requirement for successful relationships in all cultures, making it ethnocentric.
A01- another factor affecting attraction is physical attractiveness. It is an evolutionary advantage to be physically attractive as it symbolises good health and fertility to potential mates, for example symmetry and good hip/waist ratio. The halo effect is a cognitive bias which occurs when a person assumes a person has other positive traits in terms of attractiveness because they’re attractive physically. The matching hypothesis proposes a person’s choice of partner is a balance between desire to have the most physically attractive partner possible and their wish to avoid being rejected by someone who’s out of their league; as a result, people choose a partner who has roughly the same attractiveness as them however in order for the two partners to be matched a realistic judgement has to be placed on one’s own attractiveness. People use their common-sense t estimate whether a prospective partner will find them attractive or not and if matching hypothesis brings two partners of equal attractiveness together, both parties will feel more secure in a relationship with less fear of cheating with someone more attractive.
A03- support for halo effect: Landy and Aronson found when victims of the crime were more attractive defendants in court cases were more likely to be given longer sentences by a jury, whereas when defendants were unattractive, they were more likely to be sentenced. Shows we generalise attractiveness to be an indicator of other traits e.g., trust.
A03- attractiveness may only apply to short term relationships. When choosing a partner for long-term relationships, people tend to focus more on similarity of values, rather than physical attractiveness. This questions validity of matching hypothesis as it will only describe a limited number of relationships. Furthermore, matching hypothesis ignores the fact that people may compensate for lack of physical attractiveness with other qualities such as intellect or sociability. This compensation explains repeatedly occurring examples of older, less attractive men being married to attractive younger women; something the matching hypothesis can’t account for.
A03- might be suffering from beta bias, as it assumes that men and women are very similar when it comes to the importance of physical attractiveness even though they might not be. For example, Meltzer found that men rate their long term relationships more satisfying if their partner is physically attractive, whilst for women their partners attractiveness didn’t matter.
A03- doesn’t consider individual differences. Towhey et al gave ppts photos of strangers and some biography and they were asked to rate how much they liked the people on the photos. He found physical attractiveness was more important for ppts who displayed sexist attitudes (measured by a questionnaire). This suggests that, depending on individual differences, physical appearance may or may not be a significant factor in attractiveness, whilst the matching hypothesis suggests it is always the main one.
A03- seems to be important factor in forming relationships across cultures. Cunningham found white, Asian and Hispanic males rated females with prominent cheekbones, small noses and large eyes as highly attractive. The universality suggests that using attractiveness as a deciding factor in choosing a partner might be genetically reproduced mechanism. Gives support to nature in the nature vs nurture debate.
A03- has low credibility. Taylor et al investigated activity log on a dating website and found website users were more likely to try and arrange a meeting with potential partner who was more physically attractive than them. These findings contradict the MH as according to its prediction’s website users should seek more dates with a person who’s similar in terms of attractiveness as it provides them with a better chance of being accepted by a potential partner.
A01- one factor affecting attraction in relationships is proposed by Kerkhoff and Davis; filter theory. This is the process by which we choose romantic partners by using a series of filters which narrow down a suitable partner. Different filters are used at different stages in selection. The first filter is social demography (used in short term relationships below 18 months). This refers to a partner being similar age, location, education religion etc, and these factors are important as we built a relationship with someone who we can meet frequently and have common experiences with. The second filter is similarity of attitudes (also for short term relationships), for example sharing similar values, career and beliefs. The final filter is complementarity (used for long term relationships past 18 months), this refers to each of the partners having some traits that the other person lacks and helping each other fulfil needs – makes relationships work as two partners see themselves as ‘fitting together’ well.
A03- there is research support. Gruber-baldini carried out a longitudinal study across 7 years with 169 couples. Found that those who were in similar educational level and age at the start of the relationship were more likely to stay together and have a successful relationship.
A03- might be reductionist. It does not explain why people stay in long term relationships that are abusive respite lack of complementarity as theorised, needs a holistic approach and perhaps idiographic. Also might have cultural bias as most research uses ppts from individualist cultures who value free will with regard to relationship choice. In collectivist cultures is common to have arranged marriage where they cannot freely apply filters.
A03- filter theory might lack temporal validity. May be less relevant today than when it was first proposed in the 60s. sociodemographic factors may not play as big of a role in relationship as development in technology e.g., dating apps, affect modern relationships. People are more likely to develop relationships with someone who is not in their geographical proximity/same culture.
A03- does not establish a cause. Anderson found that people who spend lots of time together become more similar in beliefs and attitudes over time. This suggests that being in a relationship may cause similarity between people, rather than being the cause for it in the first place.
A03- Levinger suggests that research has not supported the original predictions of filter theory. Just because a couple has been together for longer than 18 months does not mean that they have a greater depth of relationship. May not be applicable to all couples.
Discuss equity theory.
A01- concerned about fairness for each partner. One partner’s level of benefits minus costs should equal another partner’s benefits minus their costs. When there is a lack of equity, whether one partner is over benefitting or underbenefittiing, the longer this feeling of unfairness goes on the more likely a couple is to break up. A person who gets more benefits out of a relationship than they put in feels guilty and shame whilst a person wh thinks they put a lot in but get very little back will feel angry and resentful. The perception of equity changes over time and partners way of dealing with inequity also changes over time.
A03- supporting research from Utne. Survey of 118 recently married couples (been together for more than 2 years before marriage) measuring equity with 2 self report scales. Found couples who considered their relationship equitable were more satisfied than those who saw them-selves as over or under benefiting. Confirms equity theory prediction which increases reliability.
A03- might not be applicable to all relationships. Clark and mills argue that we should differentiate between the role of equity in romantic relationships and other types of relationships such as business or casual, friendly relationships. Found a meta-analysis that there is more evidence that equity is a deciding factor in non-romantic relationships, the evidence being more mixed in romantic relationships, so thus low reliability.
A03- gender differences. Sprecher found that women tend to feel more guilty when over benefiting and dissatisfied when under-benefitting suggesting gender difference exist. May be more appropriate conducting research into males and females separately to avoid gender bias.
A03- individual differences. Huseman suggests that some people are less sensitive to equity than others, some partners are benevolents who are prepared to contribute more to the relationship than they get out of it whilst others are entitleds who believe they deserve to be overbenefittted and contribute less without feeling guilty. This makes this explanation not universal and lacks ecological validity.
A03-cultural differences. Aumer-Ryan show the concept of equity is more important in Western cultures than non-western cultures. Both men and women from collectivist cultures claimed to be more satisfied with their relationships when they were over benefiting from it not when the relationships were fair. These results highlight a cultural bias in this area of research and suggest equity theory does not explain the development of romantic relationships in all cultures.
Discuss Duck’s phase of relationship breakdown.came up in 2023
A01- Duck explains what stages we go through when experiencing the end of a romantic relationship. The first stage is intrapsychic stage where an individual recognises that they are dissatisfied with their relationship and focuses on negative emotions and internal thought processes before confronting partner. Second phase is dyadic phase where individual confronts their partner and voices their dissatisfaction. Third stage is social phase where individual makes their breakdown public, and friends and family become aware of relationship problem and offer advice and takes sides. Last stage is grave dressing phase where individuals construct their version of why the relationship broke down (usually minimising their faults and maximising their partners) and they show themselves in a positive image in order to not ruin their reputation for a new partner.
A03- culturally biased as not the same process in collectivist cultures. In non western cultures its common for marriage to be arranged, and there is a stigma behind breaking up so therefore this process cannot be applied to all relationships and so is limited in explanation.
A03- ethical issues, such as privacy. Particularly problematic if research involves victims of domestic abuse. Also issues of protection from harm as ppts may experience distress in process of research e.g., memories of relationship make them upset. This makes the topic particularly difficult to investigate as researchers mat find it tricky to conduct a study where benefits outweigh costs of ppts.
A03- too rigid of stages and doesn’t account for all relationships. Not everybody goes through each stage in the order the model suggests for example someone may enjoy being in a relationship then suddenly breaks down due to infidelity. In this case the individual would not go through the first three stages and just go straight to breaking up, thus Duck’s model might not be effective.
A03- useful real life applications to couples counselling. When therapists can identify the phase of a breakdown a couple is in they can identify strategies which target issues at that particular time. Duck recommends couples in intrapsychic phase should be encouraged to think about positive rather than negative aspects of their partner.
A03- might be another phase? Duck and Rollie added the resurrection phase later a people move on beyond the pain and distress and experience personal growth. Tashiro and Frazier’s study reported participants experiencing personal growth as a result of break up.
A03- social phase is subjective as people experience it differently. Dickson found that whilst the friends and family of younger couples did not try and get them back together, family and friends encouraged older couples to get back together. This finding suggests that the social stage is not the same for everybody so cannot generalise.
Parasocial relationship 8 marker also came up.
Forensics
Discuss the top-down approach to offender profiling. (came up as short answer)
A01- the top-down approach is the American version of offender profiling (used by FBI) developed in 1970s. Data from interviews was gathered from 36 sexually motivated serial killers and thus generated a database of common characteristics based off details about their behaviours, crimes and crime scenes. FBI use this database to analyse patterns in behaviour and to create ‘templates’ of offenders, then used to guide police investigations (templates suggest criminal has a particular way of working). There are two templates: disorganised and organised offender, which are already in the mind of the profiler. Evidence from the crime scene and other details of the crime are then used to fit into either of these pre-existing categories and determine the offender as one type or the other. An organised offender typically shows evidence of advanced planning, and their crimes will be premeditated, they don’t leave much evidence and bring weapons and restraints to the scene- this offender thus typically has higher than average IQ in skilled professional occupations, displays normal social and sexual behaviour and is married/cohabiting. A disorganised offender typically commits crime in a moment of passion (random victim) and leaves much evidence left behind such as not disposing a body- who are typically lower than average IQ, sexually and socially incompetent and unemployed/low skilled job. Constructing an FBI profile involves: data assimilation, crime scene classification, crime reconstruction and profile generation.
A03- a limitation is that the top-down approach may work best for types of crime, such as murder, rape or assault as it reveals important details about the offender. It works much less for crimes such as burglary, as the crime scene reveals little about the offender thus making this approach is limited. Also, the original typology was based on sexually motivated killers, therefore their data won’t be generalisable to crimes that don’t involve such type of motive.
A03- Alison et al argue this approach is based on outdated theories of personality being stable. External, situational factors can be a major influence on offending, and they are constantly changing, which reduces validity.
A03- some profilers have found it useful, Copson (1995) conducted a questionnaire on 184 US police officers. 82% said that the technique was useful and 90% said that they would use it again, showing it is useful in offender profiling.
A03- this approach is not scientific, as opposed to the bottom-up approach. Top-down approach relies on intuition about what an offender is like which is like horoscopes. Criminal profiling has more serious consequences than horoscopes though and may result in a wrong conviction due to a profiler’s assumption about an individual who fits the description.
A03- Canter questioned the organised or disorganised distinction. Researchers used information from 100 murders by 100 serial killers in USA. Each case assessed for presence of 39 characteristics identified in literature as typical of organised/disorganised offenders. Subset of organised characteristics was found to be typical of most killers, disorganised characteristics were much rarer and didn’t occur often enough to be a type – no clear distinction.
A03- Jackson and Bekerian suggest that smart offenders can read about how profiles are constructed and deliberately mislead profilers by providing misleading clues, which is not helpful in FBI’s case. It also can be reductionist as the classification system is too simple. It may be that offenders are both organised and disorganised as they display both features in their crimes. An offender may start off being disorganised and become more organised as they develop their modus operandi. It also can’t explain why a spontaneous kill was done by an educated person – suggests another approach may be more useful such as bottom-up.
Discuss bottom-up approach to offender profiling.
A01- the British offender profiling proposed by David Canter amongst others. the aim is to generate a profile of the offender by looking at available evidence (no fixed typologies beforehand). The bottom-up approach consists of investigative psychology and geographical profiling (proposed by Rossmo). Investigative psychology attempts to use statistical procedures and psychological theory to analyse the crime scene evidence – called smallest space analysis. Specific details of an offence are matched to this to create details about the offender (aims to establish patterns of behaviour likely to occur across crime scenes). Concepts include interpersonal consistency, which refers to how an offender acts during the crime is likely to relate to their actions in non-criminal circumstances, and spatial consistency which refers to the offender likely to commit the crime somewhere they are comfortable with. Forensic awareness could also be added, as certain behaviours may reveal an awareness of police techniques and past experiences. Geographical profiling involves looking at the location of crimes which seem to have been committed by the same offender (crime mapping). Its used to make predictions about what the offender is thinking, how they like to operate, where they live/basing themselves (centre of gravity) and where they are next likely to commit a crime (jeopardy surface). The jeopardy surface is a 3D surface showing likelihood of offender residence. Patterns of offending usually form circles around an offender’s residence, and this can give insights into whether offences were planned, modes of transport involved etc. canter proposed the circle theory which said most offenders commit their crimes within a circle around their centre of gravity, called marauders, but commuters travel a distance away from their residence to commit crimes.
A03- there is evidence the bottom-up approach works. It was used to great effect in the case of railway rapist-John Duffy. Between 1982-86 a total of 24 sexual assaults and 3 murders occurred in North London area. Canter’s profile let to the arrest of John Duffy and key features of the profile matched Duffy’s life, for example he worked as a carpenter on railways so knew the area well and was violent to his ex-wife and had fantasies of bondage and rough sex – as suggested in the profile.
A03- however, it has led to some wrongful convictions. In the case of Rachel Nickell’s murder, Colin Stagg was targeted as a likely suspect ass he matched the profile. However, updated forensic evidence emerged leading to Robert Napper being convicted after he was originally ruled out. Shows that just because someone fits a profile, it does not necessarily mean they are the offender.
A03- the bottom-up approach seems to be more scientific than top-down. Due to the use of objective statistical techniques and computer analysis, making it more internally valid.
A03- there have been mixed results though. Copson surveyed 48 police forces and found that advice provided by a profiler was useful in 83% of cases but only in 3% did it lead to identification. Kocsis and Irwin found only 50% of burglars lived in the circle defined by offences. Kocsis also found chemistry students produced more accurate offender profiles on solved murder cases than senior detectives.
A03- there is research support for geographical profiling. Lundrigan and Canter found that in 120 murder cases involving serial killers, they disposed of bodies in various locations, which formed ‘centres of gravity’, and their base/residence was always located in the middle of this – supports the use of geographical profiling.
A03- can be used for a wider range of crimes, techniques such as smallest space analysis and principle of spatial consistency can be used to investigate burglary, theft, murder and rape. Better technique than top-down.
Discuss differential association as a psychological explanation for committing crime.
A01- Sutherland proposed that through interaction with others, like friends, family and neighbourhood, individuals learn values, attitudes, techniques and motivation for criminal behaviour, because they are being exposed to other people who commit crimes or people who have pro-crime attitude more than they are to people who are punished for crimes or express negative views about crime. Differential associations (number of contacts with criminals over non-criminals) may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity. The way in which a person becomes an offender is through learned attitudes and imitation of criminal acts. Some of his critical factors include being regularly exposed to criminal behaviour, learning criminal behaviour and motivated to choose the wrong side of the law.
A03- this theory can explain why different types of crime are common amongst different groups of people. For example, theft amongst the working class, as attitudes towards crime and how its learnt are shared amongst the group. However, this could be socially sensitive as it can lead to stereotyping of individuals who come from criminal background as likely to commit crimes themselves, and based on this idea opportunities could be denied to them. It proposes individuals who are in poverty (etc) will inevitably go on to become criminals. This could also lead to self-fulfilling prophecy, with people having to turn to crime because they are rejected by society for the groups they belong to.
A03- theory may be determinist. Significant anomalies that this theory fails to explain, for example there are people who commit crimes who have not been exposed to pro-crime behaviour and there are people who commit crimes in isolation without approval of peers. There are people who grow up in pro-crime areas who don’t end up with a criminal lifestyle. These individual differences cannot be accounted for by the differential association theory which suggests it is limited in explanation. The theory also doesn’t explain why crime decreases with age. Newburn found that people under 21 commit 40% of crimes and offenders stop when they get older. The theory can’t explain this because they should continue to become criminals if they still have the same group of peers etc.
A03- the theory also might be environmentally reductionist. It assumes all offender behaviour is the result of environmental influences of peers. It ignores other levels of explanation that can explain offender behaviour such as impaired brain function or mental difficulties. This may suggest it is better to take an interactionist approach to explaining criminal behaviour.
A03- a strength is that it could lead to positive implications for reducing crime. If criminal behaviour is learnt through exposure to pro-crime attitudes, then it is possible to reduce or prevent people learning crime by increasing the frequency and amount of anti-crime attitudes that people are exposed to, such as in the media or at school. Offers realistic ways in which crime can be combatted so has useful practical applications. though, it is hard to be scientific. The amount of pro-criminal attitudes a person has been exposed to in their lives is hard to test and therefore the theory could be argued to lack scientific rigour.
A03- research support. Farrington investigated antisocial behaviour in 411 men in London and found approx. 45% went on to commit crime. Of those that committed crime, Farrington identified that poverty, crime in the family and poor educational background were all common traits. So, this study suggests that exposure to criminal attitudes and behaviours does influence people to commit crime themselves.
Discuss Eysenck’s theory as a psychological explanation for offending.
A01- Eysenck suggests personality is innate and personality traits include dimensions of extraversion and psychoticism and neuroticism (that can be measured using a personality questionnaire called Eysenck’s personality inventory); we inherit a type of nervous system that predisposes us to offending. Interaction with the environment is key to trigger these dimensions and the typical criminal type is neurotic-extravert (as well as having high psychoticism). Neuroticism leads to unstable, unpredictable behaviour and extraversion is due to chronically under aroused nervous system which leads to sensation seeking. Psychoticism is the lack of guilt and empathy a criminal possesses – together making the PEN personality of criminality.
A03- theory might be reductionist. It needs to consider wider influences such as society in the influence of criminal behaviour, which differential association theory tackles. It doesn’t tell us why criminals are extravert and neurotic, so it is more of a description, which limits its explanatory power.
A03- there might also be hard determinism. Theory presumes criminal personalities are biological in origin and people are predetermined to live a life of crime or not. Suggests people do not have free will and thus promotes the view that offenders cannot be held responsible for their actions, this conflicts with the criminal justice system that suggests we all are responsible for our own actions.
A03- methodology issues. Research, i.e., Eysenck’s personality inventory, relies on self-report techniques as it’s a questionnaire. This is subject to social desirability bias and has closed questions which gives limited answers, so has issues with internal validity. It also may be a mere correlation that someone who ranks high for neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism is a criminal, so doesn’t show cause and effect. Although it can lead to further investigation into criminals to find out their causes for behaviour, as they have been identified by the PEN personality.
A03- a limitation is that personality may not be consistent. Any theory based on personality assumes that it is consistent – notion of criminal personality is flawed as people simply don’t have one personality, for example someone might be neurotic at work but calm at home. Mischel argued personality could be context dependant.
A03- a strength is it considers both nature and nurture. Theory strongly argues that biological predispositions towards certain personality traits combined with conditioning and socialisation during childhood in order to create our personality – interactionist approach may thus be more valid than either a biological or environmental theory alone.
A03- a strength is that it can have positive implications. It can contribute to the development of parental schemes, school strategies or programmes that help to decrease levels of neuroticism and psychoticism, thus reducing likelihood that children may develop ‘PEN’ personality type.
A03- there is research support for Eysenck’s theory. Eysenck compared 2070 male prisoners scores on EPI with 2400 male controls (divided accordingly to age). Across all age groups, prisoners scored higher for E, P and N than controls. McGurk and McDougall found some evidence to support the criminal personality too – sent a questionnaire to delinquents and non-delinquents and found high neurotic-extravert scores in delinquent population. opposing research – Farringdon reported offenders tended to score highly on psychoticism, but not on extraversion or neuroticism. Biological measures used to measure differences in cortisol arousal found no difference. Lack of consistency within research suggests reliability and validity is questionable.
Discuss custodial sentencing as a way of dealing with offender behaviour, with reference to recidivism.
A01- custodial sentencing involves criminals being convicted and spending time in a prison or other institution as a punishment for their crime. Its aims are deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation. Deterrence – being in a prison should be an unpleasant experience so should put off an offender from committing crimes in the future. Incapacitation – taking criminal out of society as they are a danger. Retribution – making the offender suffer in some way (taking away their freedom) so they are seen as paying for their crime (public taking revenge). Rehabilitation – reform offenders character so that they do not re-offend through education and training, so they leave a changed person. Recidivism refers to a person re-offending after receiving some sort of punishment for previous offences; UK and USA have the highest rates of recidivism whilst Norway has lowest.
A03- Bartol suggested that prison can be brutal and demeaning and suicide rates over the last 20 years have been 15x higher than general populations. Prison reform trust also found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported signs of psychosis, supporting that custodial sentencing causes stress and depression and might not be suitable for psychologically vulnerable individuals, limiting its success to certain healthy individuals.
A03- effectiveness of punishment is questionable. High rates of recidivism suggest that for at least 50% of prison population punishment does not work. According to behaviourist principles, punishment is most effective when it occurs immediately which doesn’t happen in the case of custodial sentence. An offender might see the sentence as punishment for being caught rather than for the offending – thus what is learnt is to avoid being caught.
A03- cuts due to prison budgets mean that education, training and therapy aren’t always available or effectively delivered, which reduces effectiveness of custodial sentencing.
A03- custodial sentencing might be socially sensitive. This is because treatment of prisoners is a controversial topic. One of the aims is to get revenge and take away freedom from the criminal. Some would argue the criminal should suffer, others focus on rehabilitation. This sparks great deal of emotion, especially with the victims and their families who suffered.
A03- there is an issue with prisons being a training ground for crime. Being in a prison may increase likelihood of reoffending rather than decrease it (differential association). Prisons increase association with people who have pro-criminal attitudes which affects their attitude towards crime and provides opportunities for learning how to be more successful at committing crimes. Latess and Lowenkamp concluded that placing low risk offenders with high-risk offenders makes it more likely that the low-risk individuals will reoffend.
A03- there may be individual differences. Custodial sentencing may be more effective with some offenders than others, for example, Walker et al found the length of the sentence made little difference to habitual offenders who were just as likely to reoffend no matter what their sentence was. Rates of recidivism vary with age and crime. Younger people are more likely to reoffend, and thieves are more likely to reoffend than rapists or drug related criminals.
A03- issue of free will and determinism with crime. How much choice does someone have about becoming a criminal? Fatchamps found during a crisis of poverty in Madagascar, there was a rise in crop theft, but organised crime remained the same. This would imply the situation forced those with little money to steal food in order to survive. Custodial sentencing therefore doesn’t seem like a fitting punishment for all offenders.
Discuss psychological effects of custodial sentencing.
A01- being in a prison can have some negative consequences on an individual, as Bartol suggested, prison is brutal and demeaning. Some psychological effects include deindividuation, brutalisation/prisonisation, institutionalisation, labelling and depression. Deindividuation involves the loss of identity which is also associated with increased aggression. Brutalisation refers to the same behaviours that are unacceptable in the outside world are encouraged and rewarded inside the prison as ‘inmate code’. Institutionalisation refers to prisoners becoming accustomed to the prison way of life and some prisoners even finding it impossible to cope in the real world on their release. Some may commit crimes with the intention of being arrested and returned to the comfort of what they know – prison. Labelling occurs after, which leads to loss of social contacts and reduced employability, which can make someone depressed.
A03- there is evidence that custodial sentencing does result in negative psychological effects. Prison reform trust found that 25% of women and 15% of men reported signs of psychosis, supporting that custodial sentencing causes stress and depression and might not be suitable for psychologically vulnerable individuals. Bartol also found that suicide rates in prison are 15x higher than general population.
A03- however, different individuals are going to prison in different psychological states and each prison itself is different, therefore how an individual reacts to prison life is often unpredictable. There are mitigating factors to a person’s mental state such as sentence length, reason for sentence and previous sentencing experience. Deciding whether a custodial sentencing is effective is therefore very difficult.
A03- cause and effect problems. It is difficult to establish the psychological effects of custodial sentencing on offenders as some offenders may already have psychiatric conditions before they are institutionalised. Therefore, it is difficult to understand whether prison is the cause of an individual’s poor mental health.
A03- alternative punishments could be given to low-risk offenders, such as community service, which does not affect their social contacts or employability. Also, the use of rehabilitation in custodial sentencing can help individuals reform their character and have better success with people/jobs upon their release as they can learn new skills through education. Prisons keep the potentially dangerous individual out of the public, so the benefits seem to outweigh the cons of potential psychological effects. Arguably, this is the offender’s punishment, and they should suffer.
Discuss behaviour modification as a way of dealing with offender behaviour.
A01- behaviour modification refers to therapies based on principles of operant conditioning to bring about changes in behaviour. It involves rewarding appropriate behaviour and withholding rewards for inappropriate behaviour in prisons. The main behaviour modification is token economies. Its aims are to identify desirable behaviours and use positive reinforcements and punishments to coach someone towards internalising desirable behaviours and diminish undesirable behaviours. ‘tokens’ act as secondary reinforcers to be exchanged for primary reinforcers for example games or privileges in prisons.
A03- there is research support for their effectiveness in producing desirable behaviour. Hobbs and Holt found that token economies improved behaviour of young offenders in prison when compared to control groups who had not participated in token economies. Milan and McKee investigated American male prisoners and how they responded to token economy. Some of the prisoners took part in typical prison programmes without tokens and others took part in a full token economy. They found that the behaviours of offenders showed the most improvement when tokens were used as part of the programme suggesting they’re a good addition to prison methods for dealing with offender behaviour.
A03- however, only token learning may take place and has little rehabilitative value. Whilst tokens are exchanged for valued rewards inside a prison, this will not continue once the offender is released from prison, and therefore the likelihood is that the undesirable behaviour will restart. Kirigin found rates of criminality in young offenders reded in prison but returned to the same rate as a control group after they left prison and were no longer participating in token economies. Therefore, not likely it will lead to long term change, which reduces its validity.
A03- a strength is token economies are easy to implement and do not require specialist training, meaning it can be implemented by untrained staff. This improves the prison environment for staff and prisoners.
A03- however it may not really change behaviour. People may mimic or fake behaviour that is desirable in order to get tokens. On release prisoners revert to previous criminal behaviours.
A03- suffers from severe ethical issues. It isn’t ethical to withhold privileges such as watching TV because a severely disordered person doesn’t want to do what a person thinks is desirable. Human rights are threatened when staff can control their access to food and their freedom of movement. For token economies it seems basic needs are conditional on good behaviour such as food, which is problematic as some prisoners can’t earn tokens because they cannot control their behaviour, and thus they are denied such privileges or even necessities.
Discuss anger management as a way of dealing with offender behaviour.
A01- anger management is used to reduce likelihood of recidivism, offered as a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. The aim is to change the way offenders respond to situations that lead to anger, in order to avoid outbursts. Novaco developed this and aimed to identify the signs which trigger anger and learn techniques to calm down and deal with a situation more positively by identifying emotional, cognitive and behavioural patterns. The three stages are cognitive preparation – where offender talks with therapist and reflects on past experience and identifies what triggers their anger and challenges whether the responses are rational, skill acquisition – offenders taught a range of techniques to help them deal with anger and to approach anger-triggering situations differently for example relaxation techniques, and application practice – offenders practice their skills through techniques such as role play by rein acting previously anger-triggering situations in order to use more rational responses and the progress is reflected on.
A03-research support that it works. Ireland found a 92% improvement in the behaviour of offenders after they’d engaged with anger management in comparison to those who did not. However, Howells et al found that this was not always the case. They found Australian offenders who participated in anger management did not self-report a significant effect on their anger.
A03- might not be suited for all types of offenders. There are offenders who don’t commit violent crimes, and plenty of aggressive crimes that don’t include violent actions e.g. someone who robs a bank and pretends to have a weapon is aggressive but the behaviour is not rooted in desire to physically assault but rather financial gain, suggests another way of dealing with offending Behaviour might be needed such as restorative justice.
A03- has positive consequences for economy. Cost of recidivism in UK is 9.5 billion pounds and anger management could help offenders to control their anger and reduce recidivism and could help the cost of recidivism if offenders become functional members of society through anger management they contribute through taxes.
A03- more likely to lead to permanent change in behaviour than behaviour modification programmes as it focuses on changing the way offenders both think and behaves. It’s an eclectic approach which focuses on behavioural, cognitive and social stages. Recognises that offender behaviour is a complex interaction between social and psychological factors.
A03- however need highly skilled therapists and people who are willing to learn.
Discuss restorative justice as a way of dealing with offender behaviour.
A01- restorative justice focuses on acceptance of responsibility and is an active process, which wants to achieve positive outcomes for both parties. It’s a method in which an offender reconciles with the victim of their crime so they can see the impact of their crime. Involves the offender coming face to face with their victim or the family, mediated by a trained professional. Provides the opportunity to express their feelings about their experiences and understand consequences of their actions. Sometimes the offender may compensation through money and its conducted in a non-courtroom setting where offender voluntarily meets with the victim(s).
A03- might not be suitable for all types of offenders, for example in domestic abuse cases, the offender coming face to face with the victim is considered to some to be another opportunity to assert their power and dominance and thus is not effective. Public opinion might be against RJ as it might be seen as getting off lightly and women’s aid have called a Ban on RJ in cases of domestic abuse. Offenders might use RJ to avoid punishment, play down faults or take pride in their relationship with survivor.
A03- RJ only works when there is an obvious victim as they must feel genuine remorse, so might not work for offenders who face charges such as terrorism or heist/robbery.
A03- research support. Sherman and Strang reviewed 20 studies involving 142 men convicted of violent and property offences who had taken part in rj, only 11% reoffended compared to 37% control. Shapland also conducted a longitudinal study for 7 years and 85% of survivors were satisfied, 78% recommended RJ and 60% feel better. UK restorative justice council reported 85% satisfaction from victims who had taken part in face-to-face restorative justice.
A03- RJ is most effective with young, first-time offenders. It provides a short, sharp shock and forces them to face up to consequences.
A03- although victims are asked beforehand if they’d like to participate, the process could still bring them psychological harm which is against ethical guidelines. Also, victims may attempt to shame the offender which is not the aim of RJ, and multiple victims could gang up on the offender which may cause the offender harm especially if they are a child.
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