Psychology B542

Biological
1. Criminal Behaviour
  1. Key concepts
    1. Problems defining crime: what counts as a crime depends on factors like time and culture
    2. Problems measuring crime: statistics count the number of criminals and not crimes & people may not be aware that they have been a victim of a crime
    3. Criminal personality: lacks feelings of guilt, impulsiveness, pleasure seeking, over optimistic, and self - importance
  2. Core theory
    1. 1. Heritability: behaviour that is due to genetic factors
      1. 2. Brain dysfunction: in temporal lobe, limbic system, pre-frontal cortex, and corpus callosum
        3. Facial features: sloping forehead, glinting or glassy eyes, high cheekbones, fleshy lips, strong jaw
    2. 1. There cannot be one criminal gene that accounts for all criminal behaviour
      1. 2. Brain dysfunction is only evident in some criminals
        3. Criminal features are not well supported
        4. Ignores evidence from social environment
  3. Core study
    1. Mednick 1984
      1. Procedure: Adoption study in Denmark
        4000 male criminal records between 1924-1947
        Compared these records with criminal records of their biological parents and adoptive parents
      2. Findings: If the bio parents had been convicted of a crime the child was twice as likely to be convicted of a crime
      3. 1. Sample was biased as they were all males - data difficult to generalise
        2. Relied on convictions from criminal records and they are un-reliable
        3. Most children spend time with bio parents before adoption, so could have been an influence
  4. Alternative Theory
    1. Social Learning Theory
      1. Criminal behaviour could be learned from observation and imitation
        Individuals imitate their role models
        Vicarious reinforcement: when someone's behaviour is reinforced because their observe how another person is rewarded for the same behaviour
  5. Applications
    1. Crime prevention
      1. Early intervention: through youth services or social services. To stop children learning behaviour and reinforce co-operation
        Punishments: fines and prison and deterrants that stop people committing crimes
        Rehabilitation: teach criminals apropriate behaviour
Developmental
1. Key Concepts
  1. Cognitive development: age related changes
    1. Invarient stages: the same stages in a fixed over that a child's ability to think goes through
      1. Universal stages: development is same for for all children everwhere
  2. Sensory-motor: 0-2 object permanence
    1. Pre-operational: 2-7 animism, reversibility and egocentrism
      1. Concrete operational: 7-11 conservation, seriation and decentring
        Formal operational: 11+ hypothetical thinking
2. Core Theory
  1. Piaget's Theory
    1. 1. Object permanence: things exist even though you can't see them
      1. 2. Egocentrism: from only your point of view
        3. De-centring: a child sees things from more than one point of view
    2. 1. Stages are not fixed as Piaget suggested
      1. 2. No guarantee that people go through all stages
        3. Piaget ignored different kinds of thinking
        4. Thinking does not develop the same for every child
3. Core Study
  1. Piaget
    1. Procedure: conservation study, cross-sectional study, 2 different age groups of children, parallel rows of counters, then stretches one row
      1. Findings: pre-operational children tended to say the rearranged rows had more counters (didn't conserve)
        1. Piaget was criticised for the way he asked the children
        2. The nature of the task was contrived and had no meaning
        3. Small sample, so not representative
4. Alternative Theory
  1. Vygotsky
    1. Children are born with the ability but the culture is the main part in cognitive development
      1. Social influences are the part of the theory and these help us reach our potential
        Zone of proximal development: the gap between where we currently are in our development and where we can move to with help from others
5. Applications
  1. Education
    1. 1. Readiness: child can only learn what is relevant in it's stage
      1. 2. Discovery learning: child can learn best from doing, and education should be child centred
        3. Peer support: need unstructured learning with peers
    2. 1. Role of teacher: key role in developing child
      1. 2. Spiral curriculum: difficult ideas are presented first quite simply, then revisited
        3. Scaffolding: others provide a scaffold to assist cognitive development
Social
1. Key Concepts
  1. Non Verbal Communication: telling others what you are thinking or planning by some recognised movement
  2. Body language: communicating with our bodies
  3. Facial expression: changing face to communicate
2. Core Theory
  1. 1. Observation 2. Imitation 3. Reinforcement 4. Punishment 5. Role Models
    1. 1. Some non verbal communication is universal, which suggests it's innate, not learnt
      1. 2. It cannot explain why some behaviours persist even after being punished
        3. If we are brought up in the same way, why do siblings have different non verbal communication?
3. Core Study
  1. Yuki 2007
    1. Procedure: cross cultural study of American & Japanese students
      1. Questionnaire of 6 emoticons
        DV: To measure if they looked at eyes or mouth for non verbal communication
        Americans: mouth
        Japanese: eyes
        Non verbal communication is socially learned
        1. Lacked ecological validity - 2D faces
        2. Sample not representative - not generalisable
        3: DV too simplified
4. Alternative Theory
  1. Instinct for animals to live long enough to pass on their genes that help them survive and reproduce
    1. Universal
      1. Some signals are innate
        Help us survive - warding off potential threats
        Allowing people to co-operate
        Helping to communicate within a relationship
5. Applications
  1. Social Skills Training
    1. Works on assumption that non verbal communication can be learnt
      1. It's the application of our knowledge of non verbal communication to situation to help people cope
        To help people stand up for themselves
        All round skills: conversation maintenance
        Modeling, instruction, role play, rehearsal
        For offenders: social skills training - may avoid getting into conflict
Individual Differences
1. Key Concepts
  1. Individuals are unique: you are self-aware, have self control and self discipline
    1. Free will: to make your own choices and fulfil your own destiny
      1. Self-concept: mental image of yourself, both physically and psychologically
2. Core Theory
  1. Humanistic Theory
    1. Self concept: mental image of oneself
      1. Ideal self: what we would like to be
        Self esteem: to be happy with ourself
        Unconditional Positive Regard: being positive no matter what
    2. 1. Concepts are too vague and difficult to measure
      1. 2. Focuses too much on the individual, if we are all unique why can we predict behaviour?
        3. Ignores genetic evidence, and 20% of our behaviour could be genetically inherited
3. Core Study
  1. Van Houtte & Jarvis 1995
    1. Procedure: questionnaire, 8-11 year olds, matched pairs of two groups - pet owners or not
      1. Matched on economic status of family
        Measured autonomy and self esteem in children
        Found: greater self esteem by pet owners and reported having more autonomy.
        Pets improve kids self-concept
    2. 1. Kids could lie about how they feel
      1. 2. Small sample - only one child so cannot generalise
        3. Quantitative data may not be appropriate to measure emotions - they used closed questions
4. Alternative Theory
  1. Trait Theory
    1. Personality is genetically determined - we are either extravert (outgoing) or introvert (quiet)
      1. Neurotic: Anxious and moody
        Stability: a stable personality
5. Applications
  1. Counselling
    1. Counselling for depression: 'client centered' therapy where the therapist shows empathy towards the client.
      1. They show unconditional positive regard
        The client talks to work out their own issues as the therapist does not tell them what to do
        Can be used in relationship counselling and careers guidance
Perception
1. Key Concepts
  1. Sensation: sensing the environment around us - touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound
    1. Perception: Making sense and using the information we have stored via our senses
      1. Linear Perspective, Texture Gradient, Superimposition, Height In Plane, Relative Size
2. Core Theory
  1. Constuctivist Theory
    1. Top Down Processing: your past experiences, thoughts and expectations affect your perception
      1. This could affect you consciously and unconsciously
        You expect to come across various patterns and focus your attention on finding that pattern, so you don't process information automatically
        A perceptual set refers to a readiness or predisposition to perceive things in a specific way
        1. If perception is based on individual experiences, why do we tend to perceive things in a similar way?
        2. If perception requires experience, then how do we explain a new born baby's ability to perceive the world?
        3. If we think about it logically, we should not fall for the same illusion again
3. Core Study
  1. Haber & Levin 2001
    1. Aim: To investigate the theories of perception being top down and bottom up processing
      1. Procedure: 9 male college students, driven to an empty field split into 4 sections
        Section 1: empty
        Section 2: 15 real size objects
        Section 3: Objects not of known size
        4: Cardboard cut outs
        Repeated measures
        All ptp had to stand in the middle and estimate how far away all the objects are
        Findings: best estimates were for real world objects of known size
        Ptp were relying on previous knowledge of size of objects to measure distance
        Supports the constructivist approach as it relied on experience
        1. It is difficult to draw conclusions from a sample that is not very representative. It was a small sample so it cannot be generalised
        2. It was biased because they were all male college students
        3. The task and setting were artificial and unfamiliar. Judging the distance of randomly placed items does not really relate to real life.
4. Alternative Theory
  1. The Nativist Theory predicts we are born with many perceptual capabilities. We use them when we need them even if we have to wait until adulthood
    1. Perception is encoded in our genetic make up
      1. When information arrives from our senses it starts a pattern recognition process into motion. The combination of these simple data allows us to then perceive more complex patterns
        Perception is solely influenced by our sensory input and nothing else
5. Applications
  1. Subliminal Advertising
    1. Different parts of the brain are responsible for different processing. Information in the left eye is processed by the right side of the brain
      1. It is believed that the emotional part of a TV advert should be on the left side. Right side should be for language
        Jeans may look better when modeled by glamorous models
        A brief sound or message without is being aware of it

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Psychology B542

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