Psychology B541

Psychology B541

1. Memory

   • Key Concepts
     • Information Processing: input, encoding, storage, retrieval, outout
       • Input: Information entering the body through senses
         • Encoding: Putting data into a format
           • Storage: Storing information
             • Retrieval: Retrieving the information
               • Output: Saying something or writing it down
       • Accessibility: problems occur when we can't get information into the memory, cant retrieve it
         • Availability: information is no longer in the memory
   • Core Theory
     • Multi-Store Model
       • STM: limited capacity & duration - info will decay or be displaced
         • LTM: unlimited capacity & duration - 25% of into that reaches STM goes to LTM
           • Sensory Store: info held until attention is paid
             • Decay: info fades over time
               • Displacement: info replaced with new info
                 • Memory retrieval: repeating info
       • 1. Too rigid and ignores individual differences
         • 2. Over simplifies STM & LTM
           • 3. Over emphasises role of rehearsal - not all info in LTM is rehearsed
   • Core Study
     • Terry 2005
       • Lab experiment
         • Procedure: commercials shown to 15 people
           • Repeated measures design
             • Whether ptp recalled commercials immediately or after a delay
               • Results: serial position effect - good recall of first few and last few. Middle ones were displaced
       • 1. Lab exp lacks ecological validity as it was an artificial setting
         • 2. Lacks construct validity - narrow measure
           • 3. Demand characteristics - there were clear cues of what the researcher was trying to investigate
     • Alternative Theory
       • Levels of processing
         • Shallow processing: noticing only the colour - not processing deeper information. Less likely to recall
           • Deep processing: understanding - processing info for meaning. More likely to recall
             • Levels of processing: wrong to assume that memory is so limited - we can remember vast amounts of info in a short amount of time
   • Applications
     • Memory aids
       • Techniques for improving memory
         • Cues - to trigger info and memories through the senses
           • People recall info better if they are in the same context or situation
             • Visual cues

2. Phobias

   • Key Concepts
     • Typical behaviour: considered normal - applies to the majority of people
       • Atypical behaviour: considered abnormal - applies to minority of people
         • Phobia: atypical fear response
           • Agoraphobia: fear of public spaces
             • School phobia: fear of school
               • Social phobia: fear of embarrassment
                 • Acrophobia: fear of heights
                   • Arachnophobia: fear of spiders
           • Heart pounding, sweating, feeling sick, dizziness
     • It's all about avoiding what you're scared of
   • Core Theory
     • People learn their phobias
       • Classical conditioning: learning by association
         • UCR: response is natural and doesn't need to be learnt
           • UCS: something that triggers a natural response
             • NS: doesn't trigger reaction
               • CS: triggers learnt response
                 • CR: response that's been learnt through association
     • 1. Ignores thinking behind behaviour
       • 2. Phobia's can be learnt indirectly
         • 3. Cannot explain the fact that some people have phobias that they have no direct experience of
   • Core Study
     • Watson & Rayner 1920
       • Little Albert, 9 months old
         • Hammer hit a steel bar and scared him
           • 11 months old - Albert was shown a rat and the steel bar was hit
             • Results: By the end of 7 trials, the rat scared Albert in it's own and he would cry and avoid it
               • Fear of white fluffy things
       • 1. Lacks ecological validity - artifical setting
         • 2. Can't generalise data as it was carried out on one boy
           • 3. Unethical - Albert was caused distress
   • Alternative Theory
     • Evolutionary Theory
       • Animals have evolved over time and instinctively behave in ways that allow them to survive and reproduce
     • Some things are more threatening than others
     • Doesn't agree that people are born with phobias
   • Applications
     • Behaviour Therapy
       • Reversing phobias
         • Flooding: clients immersed in their fear - works on specific phobias, but it can be dangerous
         • Systematic desensitasion: more ethical - form new associations for gradually
         • Implosion: client imagines worst situation rather than physically experiencing it

3. Obedience

   • Key Concepts
     • Obedience - obey a command from an authority figure
     • Denial of responsibility: blame your behaviour on a higher authority
     • Defiance: don't obey the authority figure
     • Agentic state: you are an agent and not to blame
   • Core Theory
     • Situational factors
       • Setting: Milgram exp in a down town office - obedience decreased
         • Culture: Hofling - culture of nurses obeying doctors
       • Punishment: power to punish
         • Consensus: copy others - obedience goes up
           • 1. Research lacks ecological validity - not real life
             • 2. Research was unethical - caused distress and deceived them
               • 3. Ignores role of personality - suggests that behaviour is always a reflex or reaction - we live on an automatic pilot
   • Core Study
     • Bickman 1974
       • Procedure: dressed up as a guard, milkman & civilian and asked ptp to pick up litter or give money
         • Findings: More obeyed when wearing a guard uniform - 89%, milkman - 57%, civilian - 33%
       • 1. Lacked control of extraneous variables - ptp could have been deaf
         • 2. Unethical - he didn't get consent from ptp
           • 3. Experimenters were all male so it can't be generalised - women may behave differently
   • Alternative Theory
     • Authoritarian Personality
       • Sees world in black and white
       • Obeys authority and looks down on lower social class
       • Does not like ambiguity (when things aren't clear)
       • Fixed ideas of right and wrong, good and bad
       • Someone who is willing to be bossed around by people of a higher status than them

4. Attachment

   • Key Concepts

5. Applications

   • Keeping order in institutions
     • Rules
     • Uniform - power and status or loss of identity
     • Punishment if a rule is broken
     • School: Detentions
       • Prison: Solitary confinement