Flashcards · 9218 · Topic 2

Paper 2 – Social Context and Behaviour flashcards

30 cards on Topic 2, subtopics 3.2.1 to 3.2.4. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

Study mode needs JavaScript. Every card is listed below, so you can still cover the answers and test yourself.

All 30 cards

For a quick read-through or printing. Cover the right-hand side to test yourself.

3.2.1 Communication

Piaget vs the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Piaget: language depends on thought. Sapir-Whorf: thinking depends on language. They are opposite claims about which comes first.
What evidence links language to how people see the world?: Variation in the recall of events and the recognition of colours between cultures with different vocabularies, e.g. in some Native American cultures, supports the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
What did Von Frisch's bee study show?: Bees perform a waggle dance that tells other bees the direction and distance of a food source: animal communication serving a survival function (food).
What can human communication do that animal communication cannot?: Animal communication is limited to survival, reproduction, territory and food. Humans can plan ahead, discuss future and past events and things not present, and create new messages.
What are the functions of eye contact?: Regulating the flow of conversation, signalling attraction and expressing emotion.
What is postural echo?: Copying the posture of the person you are with, which usually signals rapport and agreement. Open and closed posture and touch are other forms of body language.
How does personal space differ between groups?: It varies with culture (some cultures prefer closer distances), status (more distance from higher-status people) and gender.
Darwin's evolutionary theory vs Yuki's study of emoticons: Darwin: non-verbal communication is innate and adaptive (supported by its presence in neonates and the sensory deprived). Yuki: emoticon styles differed between Japanese and American people (eyes vs mouth), so some is learned.

3.2.2 Social Influences

Conformity vs obedience: Conformity: changing behaviour to match a group's norms, usually without a direct instruction. Obedience: changing behaviour in direct response to an order from an authority figure.
How do group size, task difficulty and anonymity affect conformity?: Conformity rises as the unanimous majority grows (up to a point) and when the task is more difficult. Anonymity reduces conformity, because there is less public pressure to agree.
What did Asch and Milgram find?: Asch: participants often gave the same wrong line judgement as a unanimous group of confederates. Milgram: around 65% of participants obeyed to the maximum 450 volts.
What is the agentic state?: Milgram's term for seeing oneself as an instrument of another person's wishes, which removes the feeling of personal responsibility.
Name the four elements of Milgram's Agency theory: Agency, authority, culture and proximity.
What did Latané and Darley's smoke study show?: Participants were much less likely to report smoke filling a room when sitting with passive others than when alone: the presence of others reduces bystander intervention.
What did Levine's football supporter study show?: Manchester United fans were more likely to help an injured stranger wearing a Manchester United shirt than one in a rival or plain shirt: similarity to the victim increases helping.
What social factors affect behaviour in crowds?: Social loafing (less effort in a group), deindividuation (loss of personal identity and responsibility) and culture. Dispositional factors include personality and morality.

3.2.3 Mental Health

Why has the recorded incidence of mental health problems changed over time?: Increased challenges of modern living (e.g. isolation), and greater recognition of mental health problems with less social stigma, so more people are diagnosed and seek help.
Give individual and social effects of significant mental health problems: Individual: damage to relationships, difficulty coping with daily life, harm to physical wellbeing. Social: need for more social care, possible increase in crime, costs to the economy.
What are obsessions and compulsions in OCD?: Obsessions: persistent, unwanted thoughts, images or urges that cause anxiety. Compulsions: repetitive behaviours or mental acts carried out to reduce that anxiety. The ICD sets out the diagnostic criteria.
Biological vs cognitive explanations of OCD: Biological: genetic factors and brain chemistry, such as low serotonin. Cognitive: faulty thinking, e.g. over-estimating the danger of intrusive thoughts and feeling responsible for preventing harm.
How is CBT used to treat OCD?: The patient learns to challenge the faulty beliefs behind obsessions and, through exposure, resists carrying out compulsions, so anxiety falls without them. Kearns's study is the specification's evidence on its effectiveness.
What are the main characteristics of PTSD?: After a traumatic event: re-experiencing it (flashbacks, nightmares), avoiding reminders, and a persistent sense of current threat such as hypervigilance. The ICD sets out the diagnostic criteria.
What is dual representation theory of PTSD?: A cognitive explanation (Brewin): traumatic memories are stored in two forms, sensory-based memories that are triggered involuntarily as flashbacks, and verbally accessible memories that can be recalled deliberately. In PTSD they are poorly linked.
What is prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD?: The patient repeatedly recalls the trauma in detail and gradually faces safe reminders they have been avoiding, so fear reduces. Eftekhari's study found it reduced PTSD symptoms in veterans.

3.2.4 Research Methods

Quantitative vs qualitative data: Quantitative data are numerical (scores, counts), easy to analyse and compare. Qualitative data are descriptive (words, meanings), richer but harder to analyse.
Primary vs secondary data: Primary data are collected first-hand by the researcher. Secondary data were collected by someone else, e.g. official statistics or published studies.
Mean, median, mode and range: Mean: total divided by the number of scores. Median: the middle score in order. Mode: the most frequent score. Range: highest minus lowest score.
Find the mean, median, mode and range of 4, 6, 6, 9, 10: Mean = 35 ÷ 5 = 7. Median = 6 (the middle score). Mode = 6. Range = 10 − 4 = 6.
Bar chart vs histogram: A bar chart shows separate categories (discrete data), with gaps between bars. A histogram shows continuous data in intervals, with no gaps.
What are the characteristics of a normal distribution?: A symmetrical bell-shaped curve, with the mean, median and mode at the same central point and most scores close to the middle.