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Flashcards · 7182 · Topic 2
Psychology in context flashcards
26 cards on Topic 2, subtopics 3.2.1 to 3.2.3. Pick a subtopic or study them all.
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3.2.1 Approaches in Psychology
- Classical vs operant conditioning
- Classical (Pavlov): learning by association, a neutral stimulus paired with an unconditioned stimulus comes to produce a conditioned response. Operant (Skinner): learning by consequences, reinforcement and punishment.
- How does social learning theory differ from behaviourism?
- It adds cognition: learning by observing and imitating a model, with vicarious reinforcement, identification and four mediational processes (attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation). Personal reinforcement is not needed first.
- What are the main features of the cognitive approach?
- It studies internal mental processes such as memory and perception, uses schemas to explain how experience organises knowledge, and uses theoretical and computer models to make inferences about the mind.
- Genotype vs phenotype
- Genotype: a person's genetic make-up. Phenotype: how the genes are expressed in characteristics, which depends on interaction with the environment.
- Id, ego and superego
- Id: the pleasure principle, present at birth. Ego: the reality principle, mediating between id and superego. Superego: the morality principle, formed around age 5.
- Repression, denial and displacement
- Repression: pushing a distressing memory out of conscious awareness. Denial: refusing to accept reality. Displacement: redirecting an emotion onto a safer target.
- What are congruence and conditions of worth in humanistic psychology?
- Congruence (Rogers): a match between self-image and ideal self. Conditions of worth: conditional acceptance in childhood that can block congruence. Self-actualisation is the top of Maslow's hierarchy.
- Which approaches are most determinist, and which emphasises free will?
- Behaviourism, the biological and psychodynamic approaches are determinist; SLT and the cognitive approach are soft determinist; humanistic psychology emphasises free will.
3.2.2 Biopsychology
- What are the divisions of the nervous system?
- The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system, which divides into the somatic (voluntary movement, senses) and autonomic (involuntary functions) systems.
- Sensory, relay and motor neurons
- Sensory neurons carry messages from receptors to the CNS. Relay neurons connect neurons within the CNS. Motor neurons carry messages from the CNS to muscles and glands.
- How does synaptic transmission work?
- An impulse reaches the presynaptic terminal, vesicles release neurotransmitter into the synaptic gap, and it binds to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron. Excitatory neurotransmitters make the next neuron more likely to fire; inhibitory ones make it less likely.
- What happens in the fight or flight response?
- The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system, and the adrenal medulla releases adrenaline: heart rate and breathing rise, pupils dilate and digestion slows, preparing the body to fight or run.
- fMRI vs EEG vs ERP vs post-mortem
- fMRI measures blood oxygen changes linked to activity (good spatial resolution). EEG records overall electrical activity through the scalp (good temporal resolution). ERPs isolate responses to a specific stimulus from the EEG. Post-mortems examine the brain after death.
- Where are Broca's and Wernicke's areas, and what do they do?
- Broca's area (left frontal lobe) is linked to speech production. Wernicke's area (left temporal lobe) is linked to language comprehension.
- What is hemispheric lateralisation, and what did split brain research show?
- Lateralisation: the two hemispheres specialise in different functions, e.g. language mainly in the left. Split brain research (cut corpus callosum) showed information shown to one hemisphere could not be shared with the other.
- What is brain plasticity and functional recovery?
- Plasticity: the brain changes its structure and connections with experience. Functional recovery: after trauma, undamaged areas can take over lost functions, e.g. by forming new connections.
3.2.3 Research methods
- Natural vs quasi-experiment
- Natural experiment: the researcher takes advantage of an IV that varies naturally (not manipulated). Quasi-experiment: the IV is a difference between people that already exists, such as age or gender.
- Random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer sampling
- Random: equal chance for all. Systematic: every nth person. Stratified: subgroups in proportion to the population. Opportunity: whoever is available. Volunteer: people who respond to an advert.
- Event sampling vs time sampling in observations
- Event sampling: counting each time a behaviour category occurs. Time sampling: recording behaviour at fixed intervals.
- Demand characteristics vs investigator effects
- Demand characteristics: cues that lead participants to guess the aim and change their behaviour. Investigator effects: the researcher's behaviour or expectations unintentionally influencing the results.
- Face, concurrent, ecological and temporal validity
- Face: a measure looks like it measures what it should. Concurrent: results match an established measure. Ecological: findings generalise to real-life settings. Temporal: findings generalise to other times.
- What are the features of science named in the specification?
- Objectivity and the empirical method, replicability and falsifiability, theory construction and hypothesis testing, and paradigms and paradigm shifts.
- Nominal, ordinal and interval data
- Nominal: counts in categories. Ordinal: data that can be ranked but with unequal gaps. Interval: data on a scale with equal units.
- When do you use the sign test?
- For a difference between two related conditions (repeated measures or matched pairs) with nominal data, such as whether each participant improved or not.
- Type I vs Type II error
- Type I: rejecting a null hypothesis that is true (a false positive), more likely with a lenient significance level. Type II: accepting a null hypothesis that is false (a false negative), more likely with a stringent level.
- Which test for an unrelated design with ordinal data, and for a correlation with interval data?
- Unrelated design, ordinal data: Mann-Whitney. Correlation, interval data: Pearson's r (Spearman's rho if ordinal).