Flashcards · 7182 · Topic 1

Introductory topics in Psychology flashcards

32 cards on Topic 1, subtopics 3.1.1 to 3.1.4. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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3.1.1 Social influence

Compliance vs internalisation: Compliance: going along with the group in public while privately disagreeing; it stops when the group is absent. Internalisation: accepting the group's view publicly and privately, so the change lasts.
Normative vs informational social influence: Normative social influence: conforming from the need to be liked; produces compliance. Informational social influence: conforming from the need to be right; produces internalisation.
How did group size, unanimity and task difficulty affect conformity in Asch's research?: Overall conformity to the wrong answer was about 36.8%. It rose with group size up to about three, fell sharply when one confederate dissented, and rose when the task was made harder (informational influence).
What situational variables affected obedience in Milgram's research?: Baseline obedience to 450 V was 65%. It fell when teacher and learner were in the same room (proximity), in a run-down office (location), and when the experimenter was replaced by an ordinary member of the public (uniform).
Agentic state vs legitimacy of authority: Agentic state: acting as an instrument of an authority figure rather than as an autonomous agent, so responsibility is shifted. Legitimacy of authority: we obey people whose position in a social hierarchy we accept as having the right to command.
What is the Authoritarian Personality, and its main weakness?: Adorno's dispositional explanation: rigid, obedient people raised strictly, measured by the F-scale. It cannot explain whole populations obeying, which suggests situational factors matter more.
How do social support and locus of control help people resist social influence?: A dissenting ally (social support) breaks unanimity and reduces conformity and obedience. People with an internal locus of control believe they control their own behaviour, so are more likely to resist.
What makes a minority influential?: Consistency (the same view over time and among members), commitment (sacrifices that show sincerity) and flexibility (being willing to compromise rather than appearing rigid).

3.1.2 Memory

Coding, capacity and duration of STM and LTM in the multi-store model: STM: mainly acoustic coding, about 7±2 items (Miller), 18–30 seconds unrehearsed. LTM: mainly semantic coding, potentially unlimited capacity, up to a lifetime.
What is the sensory register?: The first store in the multi-store model: modality-specific (e.g. iconic, echoic), very large capacity, duration under half a second. Attention passes information on to STM.
Central executive: The component of the working memory model that directs attention and coordinates the other components. It has no storage of its own.
Phonological loop vs visuo-spatial sketchpad vs episodic buffer: Phonological loop: auditory and verbal information (phonological store and articulatory process). Sketchpad: visual and spatial information. Episodic buffer: integrates the other components and links to LTM.
What strength does the working memory model have over the multi-store model?: It explains dual-task performance: two tasks that use different components can be done together, but two using the same component interfere, which a single unitary STM cannot explain.
Proactive vs retroactive interference: Proactive: older learning disrupts the recall of newer learning. Retroactive: newer learning disrupts the recall of older learning.
What is retrieval failure due to absence of cues?: Forgetting because the cues present at encoding are missing at recall (encoding specificity). Context-dependent forgetting involves external cues; state-dependent forgetting involves the person's internal state.
How did leading questions affect eyewitness testimony in Loftus and Palmer's research?: The verb in the question changed speed estimates ("smashed" gave higher estimates than "hit"), and "smashed" also produced more false memories of broken glass.
How does anxiety affect eyewitness testimony?: The weapon focus effect suggests anxiety narrows attention onto a weapon and reduces recall. But the Yerkes-Dodson inverted U suggests moderate arousal can improve recall, so the evidence is contradictory.
What are the four techniques of the cognitive interview?: Report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, and change perspective. It increases the amount of correct information recalled without a proportional rise in errors.

3.1.3 Attachment

What did Lorenz and Harlow show about attachment in animals?: Lorenz: goslings imprint on the first moving object they see in a critical period. Harlow: infant rhesus monkeys preferred a soft cloth "mother" to a wire one that gave milk, showing the importance of contact comfort.
Learning theory vs Bowlby's monotropic theory of attachment: Learning theory ("cupboard love"): attachment is learned because the carer is associated with food. Bowlby: attachment is innate and adaptive, with social releasers, a critical period and one special attachment (monotropy).
What are the critical period and the internal working model in Bowlby's theory?: The critical period (about the first 2.5 years) is when attachment must form. The internal working model is a mental template of relationships, based on the first attachment, that shapes later relationships.
Name the three attachment types identified in Ainsworth's Strange Situation: Secure (type B), insecure-avoidant (type A) and insecure-resistant (type C).
What did van IJzendoorn's research show about cultural variations in attachment?: Secure attachment was the most common type across cultures, but insecure-avoidant was relatively more common in Germany and insecure-resistant in Japan, raising the question of whether the Strange Situation is an imposed etic.
Maternal deprivation vs institutionalisation: Maternal deprivation (Bowlby, 44 thieves): long separation from the mother in the critical period harms development. Institutionalisation: effects of growing up in care, e.g. the English and Romanian Adoptees project found disinhibited attachment, with later adoption doing more harm.

3.1.4 Clinical Psychology and Mental Health

Name the four definitions in the field of mental health: Statistical infrequency, deviation from social/cultural norms, failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health. Each has limitations on its own, e.g. social norms vary between cultures and over time.
Behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias: Behavioural: avoidance, panic. Emotional: anxiety and fear. Cognitive: irrational beliefs and selective attention to the feared object.
Behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of depression: Behavioural: reduced activity, disrupted sleep and eating. Emotional: low mood, anger. Cognitive: negative schemas, absolutist thinking.
Behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of OCD: Behavioural: compulsions, avoidance. Emotional: anxiety, guilt. Cognitive: obsessions, with insight that they are irrational.
What is the two-process model of phobias?: The phobia is acquired by classical conditioning (a neutral stimulus is paired with fear) and maintained by operant conditioning, because avoiding the stimulus reduces anxiety and is negatively reinforced.
Systematic desensitisation vs flooding: Systematic desensitisation: relaxation training and a fear hierarchy, worked through gradually. Flooding: immediate, prolonged exposure to the most feared stimulus until anxiety falls. Both prevent avoidance.
Beck's negative triad vs Ellis's ABC model: Beck: depression comes from negative views of the self, the world and the future. Ellis: an Activating event leads, through irrational Beliefs, to emotional and behavioural Consequences. CBT challenges these irrational thoughts.
How does the biological approach explain and treat OCD?: Genetic explanations (candidate genes, polygenic risk) and neural explanations (e.g. low serotonin, abnormal frontal circuits). Drug therapy, typically SSRIs, increases serotonin availability.