SG JUNE ALL CLASES

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Study Guide BIO JUNE

Cell Theory

1. All living organisms are composed of cells

2. Cells are the basic unit of structure in all living things (smallest unit of life)

3. New cells are formed from pre-existing cells

Evidence

From the 17th century onwards biologists examined tissues from both plants and animals using microscopes. Although there was much variation, certain features were seen repeatedly

Common mistakes and misconceptions

Not all cells are the same

Cells are the smallest living thing, but they are not the smallest thing

Testing Cell Theory

Atypical Examples

-Striated Muscle

Muscle fibers are long skinny cells with many nuclei

Challenges the idea that cells always function as autonomous units

Muscle cells fuse to form muscle fibers

-Giant ALgae

Certain species of unicellular algae may grow to very large sizes

Challenges the idea that larger organisms are always made of many microscopic cells

-Fungi

named examples

Cell Types

Eukaryotic --> Animal and Plant

Prokaryotic

Parts of the Cell: Identification and Functions

Identifying Structures from Micrographs

Functions of life in Paramecium and Chlamydomona

Paramecium

Have a macronucleus and one or more micronuclei.

The macronucleus expresses the genes needed to carry out cell activities. The micronuclei contain the genetic material that is passed on asexually to the next generation through binary fission.

Have cilia used for movement

Contractile vacuole responsible for expelling water and waste

Metabolic reactions catalysed by enzymes take place in the cytoplasm

Consume food through an oral groove into the mouth opening ending up in vacuoles. These vacuoles digest the food using enzymes, passing on the nutrients back into the cytoplasm to be used for energy.

The outside is composed of a stiff but elastic membrane called a pellicle, which controls what enters and exits the cell. Excretion of waste through diffusion

Chlamydomona

Made of a single cell

Contractile vacuoles keeps H20 within homeostasis levels

The flagella move the cell in response to environment

The cell will grow and change with time

The nucleus can divide prior to cell reproduction

Autotroph; gains nutrition by making its own food via photosynthesis

Photosynthesis' and respiration are examples of metabolism

Waste products are excreted from the cell via the cell membrane

Cell Cycle

interphase mitosis (phases) , ctyokinesis

Control of Cell Cycle

yclins

Identifying Phases in Micrographs

Stem Cells : characteristics and therapeutic uses

stargadts disease and leukemia

Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy – Is a genetic disease that develops in children that can cause blindness

The disease affects a membrane protein in the retina causing the photoreceptor cells in the retina to become degenerative

The treatment involves injecting embryonic stem cells that can develop into retina cells in to the back of the eyeball

The cells attach to the retina and begin to grow, improving an individual’s vision, with limited side effects

More human trials are needed

Leukemia (same from above) – Is caused by a mutation in the genes that control cell division, which will create an abnormal amount of white blood cells. These white blood cells are produced in the bone marrow

One of the greatest therapeutic successes for the use of stem cells has been for the treatment of leukemia or lymphomas through bone marrow transplants.

This involves using hematopoietic stem (HS) cells (blood stem cells) derived from bone marrow tissue.

These cells will divide continually to form new red and white blood cells.

Using a large needle, stem cells are removed from the bone marrow of the patient or from a donor person, such as a brother or a sister.

The patient undergoes chemotherapy and radiation therapy to kill the cancer cells in the bone marrow. However, normal dividing cells in the blood will also be killed.

After chemotherapy and radiation therapy the HS cells will be transplanted directly in to the bloodstream through a tube called a central venous catheter.

The stem cells find their way into the bone marrow, where they will begin reproducing and making healthy new blood cells.

type of cells

Embryonic stem cells – fertilize egg with sperm, fusion forms a zygote, the cell will now divide by mitosis till it is about 12-16 cells. These are all embryonic stem cells. They can differentiate into any cell type but have a higher risk of becoming tumour cells. There is also less chance that the cells have genetic damage as they are very new and don’t have time to accumulate mutations like adult stem cells.

Umbilical Cord Stem Cells – stem cells obtained from the cord, can be frozen and used later on in life. These are easily obtained and stored after birth.

Adult Stem Cells – obtained from some adult tissue such as bone marrow. They are difficult to obtain and have less growth potential and limited capacity to differentiate when compared to embryonic stem cells; however, they are fully compatible with adult’s tissue (no rejection) and there is less chance for a malignant tumour to occur.

Ethical Concerns

The therapeutic use of stem cells involves the creation and the death of an embryo that that has not yet differentiated in order to supply embryonic stem cell lines for stem cell research and stem cell therapies.

The biggest ethical concern involves the creation of a new human embryo. Is it ethically acceptable to create a human embryo for biomedical research even if the research and therapies developed from the research could save human lives? Different people have a views of when human life begins.

Also once a blastula is created, some people believe this might lead toreproductive cloning (the cloning of an entire human). This means that embryo would have to be implanted into a surrogate mother.

Therapeutic cloning uses human eggs, which can only be obtained from a woman. The most common source of these eggs, are eggs that are produced in excess of the clinical need during IVF treatment. This also might create the problem of woman trying to sell their eggs for stem cell research. A human egg market might develop in the poorer countries in the world.

Possible health risks involved in treating women with hormones toinduce hyperovulation to provide eggs for research.

Even though scientists argue that the embryos that are created by IVF (in vitro fertilization) wouldn’t not have existed anyways unless they create them and no human that would have otherwise lived is denied a chance of living, others argue it is unethical to create human life for the sole purpose of harvesting stem cells.

The arguments for stem cells is that it allows treatment for diseases that are currently incurable and reduces suffering in many sick and disabled people

emrbyonic and adult advantages + disadvantages

calculating magnification from a micrograph

Magnification = size of the image/actual size of the specimen

Calculate Magnification:

Measure the actual specimen or a clear part of the specimen under a microscope using a clear ruler next to the specimen, so you can see the ruler under the microscope next to the specimen. This gives the actual size of the specimen value.

​

In test questions, the actual specimen size can be given to you in order to calculate the magnification.

Then measure the same specimen or part of the specimen represented in the drawing or photograph to get the value for size of the image.

Make sure to convert the values to the same unit of measurement. For example if one value is mm and one value is µm, convert both to either µm or mm.

Use the formula above to calculate magnification

Scale bars are also used on many micrographs (photographs under a microscope), using a line to represent the actual scale or size of the image

plasma membrane structure

passive simple diffusion facilitated dissugion and osmosis

active pumps, endo and exo transport

Passive transport means there is no expenditure of energy (ATP).

Passive transport requires the substance to move from an area of high concentration to low concentration.

Osmosis is the passive movement of water molecules, across a semi-permeable membrane, from a region of lower solute concentration to a region of higher solute concentration.

Simple diffusion is the passive movement of particles from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration (follows its concentration gradient)

Simple diffusion across membranes occurs when substances other than water move across the phospholipid bilayer (between the phospholipids) or through protein channels.

Substances that move across the membrane are usually small non-chargedparticles (i.e. Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Nitrogen) or other lipids.

Facilitated Diffusion - Specific ions and other particles that cannot move through the phospholipid bilayer sometimes move across protein channels

During facilitated diffusion the membrane protein changes its shape to allow a specific substance to move across the membrane.

Each protein channel structure allows only one specific molecule to pass through the channel. For example, magnesium ions pass through a channel protein specific to magnesium ions.Active transport is movement of substances across membranes using energy from ATP.

Active transport generally moves substances against their concentration gradient (low to high concentration).

Many different protein pumps are used for active transport. Each pump only transports a particular substance; therefore cells can control what is absorbed and what is expelled.

Pumps work in a specific direction; substances enter only on one side and exit through the other side.

Substances enter the pump from the side with a lower concentration.

Energy from ATP is used to change the conformational shape of the pump.

The specific particle is released on the side with a higher concentration and the pump returns to its original shape.Good link for membrane transport

Endocytosis

Plasma membrane is pinched as a result of the membrane changing shape.

External material (i.e. Fluid droplets) are engulfed and enclosed by the membrane.

A vesicle is formed that contains the enclosed particles or fluid droplets, now moves into the cytoplasm.

The plasma membrane easily reattaches at the ends that were pinched because of the fluidity of the membrane.

Vesicles that move through the cytoplasm are broken down and dissolve into the cytoplasm

Exocytosis

After a vesicle created by the rough ER enters the Golgi apparatus, it is again modified, and another vesicle is budded from the end of the Golgi apparatus, which moves towards the cell membrane.

This vesicle migrates to the plasma membrane and fuses with the membrane, releasing the protein outside the cell through a process called exocytosis.

The fluidity of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties of the phospholipids and the fluidity of the membrane allows the phospholipids from the vesicle to combine to the plasma membrane to form a new membrane that includes the phospholipids from the vesicle.

Estimation of osmolarity interpret the graph in the book

Pasteurs experiments

Identification of molecules of carbohydrates glucose ribose

amino fatty acids saturated and insaturated

Metabolism : anabolism and catabolism

Water and its properties

Denaturation and its properties

Enzymes definition

how they work active site + substrate

factors effecting the activity

DNa replication, transcription, trasnlation genetic code

cell repiration and photosynthesis

detailedddd

wavelengths of light, absorption and action spectra

Limiting factors of photosynthesis

Meiosis and phases + identifying from micrographs

Genetic Problems : blood, sex linked conditions, pedigree charts

Karyograms

identifying males and females

chromosome mutations

PCR technique

DNA profiling

Genetic Modification risk + benefits of GM crops

DEFINITIONS

Species:

A group of organisms that can potentially interbreed to produce fertile, viable offspring

Population:

A group of organisms of the same species, living in the same area at the same time

Community:

A group of populations living together and interacting with each other within a given area

Ecosystem:

A community and its abiotic environment (i.e. habitat)

auto

hetero

consumers

detri

sapro

mesocosm

carbon cycle

a biogeochemical cycle whereby carbon is exchanged between the different spheres of the Earth

e four spheres are the atmosphere (air), lithosphere (ground), hydrosphere (water / oceans) and biosphere (living things)

Carbon is exchanged between a variety of forms, including:

Atmospheric gases – mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), but also methane (CH4)

Oceanic carbonates – including bicarbonates dissolved in the water and calcium carbonate in corals and shells

As organic materials – including the carbohydrates, lipids and proteins found in all living things

As non-living remains – such as detritus and fossil fuels

Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming : Greenhouse Effect

-absorb and emit long wave (infared) radiation,

draw and label a food chain

lengths of food chain

Methanogenesis

Definition :

the biological production of methane (CH4) from CO2 and H2

-organisms capable of producing methane have been identified only from the dominant Archaea

-require anaerobic respiration

-does not use oxygen

-found in the digestive systems of herbivores , mud , rudiments , marshes , or landfills

-Archaens convert CO2 in methane by adding H2 to CO2

-increases the concentration of the Greenhouse Gas

-increases global warming

-burned as a fossil fuel

-

Peat Formation

Page 2

Study Guide Psychology June

LOCALIZATION

Definition : the theory that specific parts of the brain are responsible for specific behaviors or cognitive processes

Milner and Scoville ( ) --> HM Case Study

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Larry Squire (1992) --- Eugene Pauly

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NEUROPLASTICITY

Definition :

the brain's ability to change its own structure following changes from within the body or from the external environment

Maguire et al (2000)

Aim: To investigate whether changes could be detected in the brains of London taxi drivers and to further investigate the functions of the hippocampus in spatial memory.

Method: Natural experiment. The participants for this study were 16 healthy, right-handed male London taxi drivers. The taxi drivers' MRI brain scans were compared with the scans of 50 healthy right-handed males who did not drive taxis. The amount of years the drivers had been driving taxis for was also recorded.

Results: The posterior regions (back parts) of the taxi drivers' hippocampi were significantly larger than those of control subjects and the anterior (front) hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers.

Also, hippocampal volume of the right hippocampus in each taxi driver correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver - positively in the right posterior and negatively in the right anterior hippocampus. (So the back part of the right hippocampus grew larger and the front part shrank). The larger posterior hippocampi made the taxi drivers more proficient at spatial memory and navigation.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the plasticity of the hippocampus in response to environmental demands, suggesting that the changes in hippocampal grey matter, at least on the right, are acquired. The environmental demands of being able to navigate a complex structure of streets led the taxi drivers to develop more pronounced posterior hippocampi than the control subjects.

Strengths:

Natural experiment, therefore high in ecological validity.

Control group present (non taxi drivers).

Clear variables

There were no real ethical considerations with this study.

Limitations:

Confounding variables present due to the fact design was natural experiment.

Small sample size of only 16 participants in experimental condition

Due to no manipulation of the independent variable, cause and effect cannot be established

Rosenzweig, Bennet and Diamond (1972)

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NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Definition : the process of electrochemical messages to the brain to respond to stimuli (environment or internal changes in the body)

Martinez and Kesner

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Antonova et al (2010)

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HORMONES

Definition : another class of chemicals that affect behavior

Cahill and McGaugh (1995)

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Pitman et al. (2002)

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PHEROMONES

Definition : a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal affecting the behavior or physiology of others of its own species

Zhou et al (2014)

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Doucet al (2009)

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EPIGENETICS

Definition :

Caspi et al (2003)

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-ritsch et al or ilhelm et al

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SCHEMA THEORY

Definition:

the theory of how humans process incoming information, relate it to the existing knowledge and use it

Bartlett (1932)

Aim: To investigate how memory of an unfamiliar story is affected by previous knowledge.

Method: Serial reproduction of a story: students at the University in Cambridge were told a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts. They were then asked to rewrite the story from memory several times after a period of days, weeks and in some cases even months and years.

Results: Participants changed the story in several different ways as they tried to remember it, by shortening it, and reconstructing it using more familiar words, and in a more logical order in an effort to make sense of it.

Conclusion: Memory is reconstructive in nature, as people use familiar schemas to reorganise unfamiliar material. Remembering is an active process, where information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas. This is done in order to create meaning in the incoming information.

Link:

Bartlett's study shows how schema theory is useful for understand how people categorise information, interpret stories, and make inferences.

It also contributes to understanding of cognitive distortions in memory.

Strengths:

First study to investigate schema's role in memory encoding.

Approach was able to isolate the role of cultural schemas on memory encoding.

Limitations:

No control group of Native Americans present

Results could be more a function of memory processes as a whole then the role of schema in recall in particular.

Data collection was quite informal

There were no real ethical considerations with this study

Evaluation - Lacks ecological validity

The participants are asked to read and recall a Native American Leged and this is not something you would do everyday so does not really relate to the real words meaning the findings may be unuseful.

Evaluation - Lacks internal validity

This is because of extraneous variables at play during the study e.g. The mood of the participant s and the time of the day. These variables effect the dependent variable, which alters the results making them inaccurate.

Evaluation - Lacks population validity

This is because Bartlett only used British people meaning we cannot generalise the results to other populations like Germans or Indians as they may have acted differently.

Brew and Tryens (1981)

Aim:

To see whether a stereotypical schema of an office would affect memory (recall) of an office.

Methods:

Participants were taken into a university student office and left for 35 seconds before being taken to another room.

They were asked to write down as much as they could remember from the office.

Results:

Participants recalled things of a “typical office” according to their schema.

They did not recall the wine and picnic basket that were in the office.

Conclusions:

Participants' schema of an office influenced their memory of it.

They did not recall the wine and picnic basket because it is not part of their “typical office” schema.

Evaluation:

Strengths:

Strict control over variables --> to determine cause & effect relationship

Limitation:

Lacks ecological validity

Laboratory setting artificial environment

Task does not reflect daily activity

Connection of study to question

This study provides evidence to support how our schemas can affect our cognition/cognitive processes, in particular memory.

Our schemas influence what we recall in our memory.

Strength of schema theory – there is many types of research evidence to support it.

MULTI-STORE MEMORY MODEL

Definition :

Miller's magic number 7 (1956)

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Cowan (2010)

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WORKING MEMORY MODEL

Definition :

Landry and Bartling (2011)

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Warrington and Shallice

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Thinking and Decision Making

wason

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and? ??

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RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY

Definition :

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

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Bahrick et al (1975)

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EMOTION AND MEMORY

Emotions :

rich and diverse, and they are often what makes the experience something special

plays a key role in how memory is formed

Brown and Kulik (1977)

Aim: To investigate whether dramatic and personally-significant events can create flashbulb memories.

Method: The researchers used a retrospective questionnaire to assess the memories of 80 American participants for the circumstances in which they learned of public events. The questionnaire tested their memories of ten major events, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that had taken place 14 years earlier.

Results: Memories for such events were particularly detailed, vivid and long-lasting. People remembered where they were, what they were doing and how they heard about the event. However, black participants had a better recall of Medgar Evers' (a civil rights worker) death.

Conclusion: Flashbulb memories are qualitatively different from other memories, allowing people to remember minor details of an event that they would otherwise forget. The difference in memory between black and white participants shows the importance of relevance of the information – culture influences the perceived relevance of an event, which influences the type of memory we have of it.

Strengths:

80 participants is not a large number, but is a solid number of participants for this type of research

The nature of the survey was such that the participants would be likely to provide valid information

There were no real ethical considerations with this study

Limitations:

The researchers presume that all the events listed resulted in flashbulb memories for all the participants, when in fact the detailed recollections could instead be a result of confounding variables such as rehearsal or a cultural narrative.

The reported memories by the participants could be more a result of regurgitating a media produced or cultural narrative than recalling actual personal memory.

Researchers may have mistaken participant confidence and the supposed vividness of flashbulb memories for accuracy

Potential problems with self-report in surveys -there were no controls to account for accuracy.

Sharot et al (2007)

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BIASES IN THINKING AND DECISION MAKING

Definition :

Strack and Mussweiler (1997)

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Tversky and Kahneman (1981)

Aim: To investigate predictions on the basis of representativeness.

Method: There were three experimental conditions, each one presenting a different scenario in relation to Tom W.

The base-rate condition (N=69) was asked: Consider all first-year graduate students in America today. Please write down your best guesses about the percentage of these students who are now enrolled in each of the following nine fields of specialisation.

The similarity condition (N=65) was first given a personality sketch of the fictional Tom W, and then asked how similar Tom W is to the typical graduate in each of the nine specialisations.

The likelihood condition (N=114) was given the same personality sketch, with some additional information, and then asked to rank the likelihood that Tom W is now a graduate student in each of the nine specialisations.

The base-rate condition essentially provides the perceived popularity or probability of each graduate specialisation. According to the numbers, he is most likely to specialise in humanities and education or social science and social work. The similarity condition indicates how similar Tom W is judged to be in comparison with the typical graduate in each field. The rankings from the similarity condition suggested that Tom W was most similar to typical graduate students in computer science and engineering.

The likelihood condition is the experimental condition, as it indicates whether judgments are made according to the base-rate or according to similarity. Any intuitive judgements based on similarity would indicate the representativeness heuristic in action; judgments reflecting the base rate, presumably, indicate more rational thinking.

Results: The likelihood/prediction condition made their intuitive judgments not according to the base-rate and probabilities, but according to similarity.

Conclusion:Representativeness influenced predictions of majors for fictional students.

Strengths:

Clear evidence of how the representativeness heuristic affects intuitive judgements.

Limitations:

No explicit mention of the base-rates in the descriptions of Tom W or the instructions

Ingenious experimental design that allowed for comparisons between judgements

There are no real ethical considerations for this study

EMOTION AND DECISION MAKING

definition

The Individual and the Group

Asch (1956)

Aim: To test conformity to the majority incorrect opinion in an unambiguous situation.

Method: 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in a ‘vision test’. Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates. Eight participants were seated around a table, with the seating plan carefully constructed to prevent any suspicion on the part of the naive participant that the others were confederates.

The task was to estimate which of the three vertical lines drawn on one card matched the single vertical line on the other card. The participants answered one at a time, and on some occasions the confederates unanimously gave an obviously wrong answer. In the original 1951 experiment, there were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trials (called the critical trials).

Results: On average, about 32% of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials.

Over the 12 critical trials, around 75% of participants conformed at least once and 25% of participants never conformed. In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.

When they were interviewed after the experiment, most of them said that they did not really believe their conforming answers, but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed.

Conclusion: People conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence).

Asch repeated the experiment over the years, changing the procedure (including the independent variables) in order to investigate which factors influenced conformity. He found that the size of the group, status of the group, whether a confederate changed their mind and agreed with the naive participant, difficulty of the task, and being allowed to answer privately, all affected conformity rates.

Strengths:

Clearly illustrated normative conformity.

Easily reproducible.

The simplicity and obviousness of the task starkly illustrated the ease and willingness of people to conform.

Limitations:

The study was conducted with only university-aged men, therefore not generalisable to a broader population

The simple design is also a limitation, as participants may not have seen any negative aspect of conforming. The study lacks ecological validity.

The study is old. This is a major limitation as American culture has changed a great deal since then and it is now established that culture can have a major impact on behaviour

The participants were deceived and may have felt mild emotional discomfort as an 'outsider', however this is not a major ethical concern

The study's results neglected to be replicated at such a high level in other cultures, therefore further illustrating its limitations relative to generalisability

methodoligy in sociocultural

fetsinger

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

Cialdini et al (1975)

Aim: To investigate the rate of compliance to a reduced request after refusal of initial large request.

Method: There were three conditions.

Rejection-moderation condition. Participant was asked and refused first request (which was to volunteer at a detention centre for juvenile delinquents for two hours per week for two years), and was then asked a smaller favour.

Smaller request-only control. Participant was asked only the smaller request.

Exposure control. Participant was described the big request and then asked for the smaller favour.

Results:

Large request then small request - 50% compliance

Both requests at once - 25% compliance

Small request only - 16.7% compliance

Conclusion: A smaller request after a bigger request does improve compliance. Just telling participants about the big request isn't sufficient to build compliance. Reciprocity has to be induced by an initial refusal (the door-in-the-face), and subsequent modification of the first request.

Strengths:

Illustrates beautifully the 'door-in-the-face' compliance technique.

Results have implications for other areas of research such as economics and marketing.

Single blind procedure - minimises demand characteristics.

Reciprocity was effectively isolated by the use of a second researcher to make the second request - compliance was much lower in this variation

Limitations:

Emic study that lacks generalisability to other cultures.

Arguably, compliance changed for reasons other than door-in-the-face, though it's not clear what these might be.

Limited generalisability because door-in-the-face was only tested for face-to-face prosocial requests from a same-sex requester

There were no real ethical considerations with this study

Ecologically valid as the experiment simulated a real-world situation

Tajfel et al ( 1970 )

Aim: To investigate the minimal conditions under which discrimination between social groups could be brought about.

Method: 48 schoolboys all aged around 14 -15 years old were randomly allocated to either a 'Klee group' or to a 'Kandinsky group' . This took place after they had been involved in an exercise where they were successively shown a series of slides of six pairs of unlabelled and unsigned abstract paintings. They were told they were by the artists Klee and Kandinsky and were asked to express their preferences for one or the other as the slides were displayed. After they had said which paintings they preferred, the boys were told, (on a purely random basis), that they were in the 'Klee' group or the 'Kandinsky' group.

The boys were then asked to allocate points (worth 1/10 of a penny each). Such allocation was anonymous, and the boys were asked to work separately on this in individual cubicles. A matrix was used that allowed them to vary how the points were allocated.

Results: When the boys had the choice between maximising the profit for all and maximising the profit for their own group, they chose the latter. They were found to be more concerned with creating as large a difference as possible between the amounts allocated to each group (in favour of their own group), than in gaining a greater amount for everybody, across the two groups.

Conclusion: This is evidence of blatant discrimination associated with the categorisation of the boys into apparently meaningless social groups. It forms the basis of Tajfel's minimal group paradigm.

Strengths:

The study effectively established the bare minimum for group membership.

Clearly illustrated in group bias in the context of resource competition

Starkly illustrated the occurrence of in-group bias as a result of very insignificant distinctions and minimal emotional involvement

Limitations:

The study was conducted on 14 -15 year old boys and therefore the results cannot be extrapolated or generalised to a broader population

The research was conducted on participants under the age of 18 and therefore their parents would have had to give their consent for their children's participation.

Deception was used to hide the true aim from participants.

The study was conducted in a lab, therefore it had high levels of control over variables. This means it lacked both ecological validity and mundane realism

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

Definition :

argues that learning is most likely to occur if the observer has high self-efficacy - (one's belief to succeed accomplishing a task)

Bandura et al (1961)

Aim: To investigate whether aggression can be learned through observation and imitation.

Method: The researchers chose 36 boys and 36 girls between the ages of 3 and 6 for this experiment. The children were all from the Stanford University Nursery School.

Prior to the experiment, the children were tested for their levels of ‘everyday’ aggression. The researchers observed the subjects at school and measured their aggressive behaviour according to four 5-point rating scales. The aim of this step was to be matched with other children with similar levels of aggression in everyday life, so that an individual’s level of aggression would not have too much of an effect on the results. Grouping subjects in this way is an example of a matched-pairs design, in which samples are ‘paired’ between the two conditions being measured, based on common variables.

Under these experimental conditions, individual children were led into a room containing a variety of toys. They were given 10 minutes to play in the room, and were observed through one-way glass. The observational groups were divided as follows:

Group 1 consisted of 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls) who watched either a male or a female model behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll. These behaviours included: punching the doll, throwing the doll, sitting on the doll, using a rubber mallet to hit the doll on the head or kicking the doll. The model also used verbal aggression towards the doll, using phrases such as “Sock him in the nose!”, “Hit him down!” and “Pow!”

Group 2 consisted of a different set of 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls). This group watched a non-aggressive model who played quietly with Tinkertoys without exhibiting any form of either physical or verbal aggression.

Group 3 was the control group, consisting of the same sample size of 24 children, equally divided between genders. This group was not shown any model.

Then, the children were led into another room and all of them were primed for aggression arousal. The room contained a variety of attractive and exciting toys, and once the child played with them for two minutes the experimenter remarked that "these were her very best toys", that she did not let just anyone play with them, and that she had decided to reserve these toys for the other children. This was meant to frustrate the children and thereby prime aggression. The children were then led to another room, where they were allowed to play with any of the toys in it.

In this third room, the children were observed through a one-way mirror, and their behaviour was scored for aggression.

Results: The researchers found that children from Group 1, who observed aggressive models, exhibited far more aggressive behaviours than children from Groups 2 and 3, who were exposed to non-aggressive models or to no model. The children often exhibited the exact same forms of physical and verbal behaviour that they had seen in the models.

Differences in behaviour between boys and girls were observed. Boys tended to imitate more of the physically-aggressive acts than girls, and were much more likely than girls to imitate models of the same gender. The evidence showed little difference between boys and girls with regard to verbal aggression, but the girls in Group 1 were shown to be more likely to display physical aggression if the model was male.

Another key observation was that of transference of behaviour. The children not only imitated behaviour they observed, but they also exhibited aggressive behaviour that was not learned in the context of the experiment. For example, some children used a toy gun to show aggression towards the Bobo doll, despite the fact that this act was not exhibited by any model as part of the experiment. This type of behaviour shows that the children were not blindly modelling specific behaviours, but that they seemed to understand that the type of behaviour exhibited towards the Bobo doll was aggression and thus used other acts of aggression they may have observed elsewhere (for example in television programmes, comic books or stories).

Conclusion: All added up, the researchers interpreted this as meaning that social learning had taken place, and that similarity to role models (male or female) appeared to be a factor.

Strengths:

Clearly demonstrated Bandura's Social Learning Theory.

Dual gender study.

Matched pairs design was a strength of the study as it served to minimise confounding variables.

Limitations:

Children were used in the study, therefore results were not generalisable to adult population.

Emic study

Children were used in the study, therefore parents needed to consent to their participation, which they did.

The violence displayed as well as the violence demonstrated by the children was directed at inanimate objects and not humans, therefore it was morally acceptable

Demand characteristics may have played a part in the children behaving in ways that they presumed they were 'supposed' to behave thus resulting in 'false positive' results

Huesmann et al (2003)

Aim: To investigate the relationship between children's exposure to TV violence and later aggressive and violent behaviour in young adulthood.

Method: It was a longitudinal study, including a meta-analysis of the data. The original study was conducted upon 557 children growing up in the Chicago area, and the follow-up study was conducted on the same individuals, now as young adults, in 1992.

Four questions were asked by the researchers when examining the data:

To what extent does early childhood exposure to media violence predict young adult aggression and violence?

Are there gender differences in the predictability?

Does the extent to which the child viewer identifies with the aggressive character or believes the plot is realistic affect the strength of the prediction?

To what extent does any long-term relation seem to be due to more aggressive children simply liking to watch violence, or due to some environmental, family, or personal 'third variable' that stimulates both childhood violence viewing and childhood and adult aggression?

Results: For both male and female participants, childhood TV-violence viewing correlated significantly with young adult aggression 15 years later. Furthermore, childhood perceptions that TV-violence reflects real life and childhood identification with same-sex aggressive TV characters significantly correlated with adult aggression 15 years later.

Parent factors play a role in influencing both aggression and TV habits. However, the results suggest that the parent factors probably do not account by themselves for the longitudinal relations between TV-violence viewing and later aggression.

Conclusion: Social learning appeared to account for aggressive behaviour in young adulthood, as a result of TV-violence viewing, and there were no gender differences in the findings.

Strengths:

This is a rare example of a longitudinal study that looks at the long-term impacts of social learning.

The analysis included controls for socioeconomic status, intellectual ability and a range of parent factors.

Supports Bandura's findings, and social learning theory in general.

Large sample size.

Established a clear correlation between exposure to TV violence and adult violence.

Distinguished between 'realistic' and 'unrealistic' violence

Limitations:

The study was based in Chicago, in an individualist culture, so results may not be generalisable to other cultural contexts

There were no ethical concerns with this study as all the variables were naturally occurring

It's a correlational study, so it's not possible to know whether exposure to TV-violence caused later aggression, or if other unidentified factors might be involved

STEREOTYPING

Definition :

a social perception of an individual in terms of group memberships or physical attributes

a generalization that is made about a group and then attributed to members of that group

Spencer et al (1999)

Aim: To investigate stereotype threat as applied to women and maths performance.

Sample: 28 men and 28 women were selected from the introductory psychology pool at the University of Michigan. All participants were required to have completed at least one semester (but not more than a year) of calculus and to have received a grade of ‘B’ or better.

Procedure: In Experiment 1, women and men completed an easy or difficult math exam. Performance was equivalent when the test was relatively easy, but men outperformed women when the test was difficult.

In Experiment 2, all participants completed the same set of mathematical items, but they were told either that the test would or would not produce gender differences.

Results: Women performed more poorly than men, particularly in the condition in which gender differences were highlighted.

Conclusion: Stereotype threat can undermine performance of women in mathematics, particularly when a challenging task is confronted and when stereotypic assumptions of gender differences in performance are not specifically dismissed.

Strengths:

Participants were selected for their high maths abilities, therefore controlling for the variable of math skills and making the results more robust

There were no real ethical concerns with this study

Laboratory experiment could minimise many, but not all, confounding variables

Limitations:

Although women and men were selected for their mathematical ability and randomly assigned, there could still be confounding variables present that contributed to the results.

Rogers and Frantz (1961)

Aim: To investigate stereotype threat as applied to women and maths performance.

Sample: 28 men and 28 women were selected from the introductory psychology pool at the University of Michigan. All participants were required to have completed at least one semester (but not more than a year) of calculus and to have received a grade of ‘B’ or better.

Procedure: In Experiment 1, women and men completed an easy or difficult math exam. Performance was equivalent when the test was relatively easy, but men outperformed women when the test was difficult.

In Experiment 2, all participants completed the same set of mathematical items, but they were told either that the test would or would not produce gender differences.

Results: Women performed more poorly than men, particularly in the condition in which gender differences were highlighted.

Conclusion: Stereotype threat can undermine performance of women in mathematics, particularly when a challenging task is confronted and when stereotypic assumptions of gender differences in performance are not specifically dismissed.

Strengths:

Participants were selected for their high maths abilities, therefore controlling for the variable of math skills and making the results more robust.

Limitations:

Although women and men were selected for their mathematical ability and randomly assigned, there could still be confusing variables present that contributed to the results

The research was conducted on participants under the age of 18 and therefore their parents would have had to give their consent for their children's participation

Deception was used to hide the true aim from participants

The study was conducted in a lab, therefore it had high levels of control over variables. This means it lacked both ecological validity and mundane realism

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS

hofestede

Berry (1967)

Aim: To investigate whether rates of conformity were higher in individualist or collectivist cultures.

Method: Berry focused on two societies with subsistence-level economies (as opposed to industrial or technological economies) based on daily needs for food and shelter:

the Temne (Sierra Leone)

the Inuit (Canada).

He then applied the Asch paradigm to both groups

Results: His comparative study showed that conformity was higher in the more collectivist Temne culture. In theory, this happens because an agricultural economy demands a higher degree of cooperation, and therefore conformity, while a hunting-fishing economy does not – it's not only possible, but preferable, to do it alone.

Conclusion: An agricultural economy may require farmers to cooperate on irrigation, or to help each other with the bigger jobs like planting and harvesting. In theory, this level of interdependence and cooperation shapes social norms – the collective effort of agriculture shapes a collectivist society. By contrast, fishing or hunting can be done completely solo, with no collective effort. This level of economic independence may shape social norms, and this in turn may impact behaviours like conformity.

Strengths:

Cross-cultural study limits ethnocentrism

Limitations:

Only two cultures studied which limits the generalisability, particularly to non-subsistence cultures

Research into conformity requires researchers to deceive participants

The Asch paradigm is often criticised for its artificiality

culture and cognition

cole and scribner

They observed the effects of formal schooling/education (in relation to culture) had on memory.

Methods:

Tested the memory ability of non-schooled children in the Kpelle tribe in Liberia and compared them with US school children.

Children were expected to remember items on word lists that were organized into different categories.

Test was repeated with the children several times.

Results:

The Kpelle children did not improve their performance in free recall memory tests after the age of 10 in the same way as US children; after 15 trials they only remembered 2 more items.

Kpelle children who attended school had similar performance tUS school children.

School children in US and Liberia used categorical recall; they appeared to have chunked the items in to linked categories as they recalled them in groups such as utensils, clothes, vegetables, tools.

When items were presented as part of a story the Kpelle children (non-schooled) had equally good performance as the US children.

Children with formal schooling in America and Liberia used this mnemonic which improved their memory of the items. Children without formal schooling however, did not use the categories to aid their recall and subsequently did not remember as much as children who had attended school.

Connection of study to question:

This study supports that culture affects memory.

The Kpelle children performed just as well as their US counterparts in a culturally-familiar memory task, but not on a free recall task.

This is because the free-recall task that Cole and his colleagues originally used to assess memory among Liberian tribal people has no precise analogy in traditional Liberian cultures, so it is not surprising that the corresponding way of remembering would not be acquired.

Cognitive skills (memory) are dependent on the environment – which is made up of education, social interaction, technology and in this case, culture.

Therefore culture influences schemas, and thus our memory ability/ability to recall and have advantageous effects if asked to do a task associated with your culture.

Kearins

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