Psychology Revision

Aims= To see if children under the age of 8 can conserve.

To test piagets findings using only one question.

Sample = 252 children aged 5 - 8 from schools in Deveon.

LAB EXPERIMENT

Procedure = standard conditions ( 2 questions)

                    one judgement condition (1 question)

                    fixed array control (1 question and no transformation)

FIndings = older children can conserve better. Conservation was better in 1 question condition. Number task easiest to conserve

Aim= To see if children imitate aggression.

          To see if there are any gender differences in the imitation of aggression

Sample and Method= 72 children from Standford nursery. (36 boys/girls), mean age 4 and a half. Lab experiment with controlled observation.

Procedure= Group 1: observed an aggressive model

                   Group 2: observed an non aggressive model

                   Group 3: no model (control group)

3 iv's (behaviour of model, sex of subject, sex of model. 3 stages procedure: room 1, 2 and 3

Findings = Children imitated models, children who observed aggressive model were more aggressive imitated same sex models, boys showed more physical aggression

Aims= To test theory of the oedipus complex and how phobias develop

Sample and Method - 1 boy, Little Hans aged between 3 and 5 (18 months)

Procedure= Han's father recorded events and conversations for Freud and the father to interpret. Included: phobias of horses, lumf complex, widdler obesession, giraffe, marriage and plumber dreams.

Findings= oedipus complex exists - phobias of horses represents fear of father. Also supports phallic and anal stages

Aims= To see if American men will follow order to hurt another man when told to by authority figure.

Sample and Method= 40 males, aged 20 to 50 from New Haven, wide range of jobs, were paid. Lab experiment and controlled observation.

Procedure= Experimenter and learner were confederates. Teacher(always participant) told to give shock (15 and 450v) if learner got a memory test question wrong. Given Prods if participant wanted to stop.

Findings= 100% obeyed up to 300volts

65% obeyed all the way up to 450volts

participants were stressed during study.

Aims = To study how people respond to a system of inequality(tyranny) to re examine SPE

Sample and Method= 15 'stable' males, selected after 3 phases of screening. Experimental case study

Procedure= Mock Prison, filmed by the BBC, 3 iv's planned interventions, permeability, legitamacy, alternatives.

Findings= Low social identity in guards, higher social identity in prisoners. Stopped early (day 8) as it had the potential for violence

Aims= To investigate whether variables (drunk/cane/race/gender) have an impact on helping behaviour

Sample and Method= 4450 males and females who used the New York subway. 45% black, 55% white. Field Experiment

Procedure= over 2 month period 1 model, one victim, (males) and 2 observers (female) joined subway in critical/adjacent carriage. Model conditons were:

• drunk/cane
• early/late
• adjacent/critical

Findings= 95% spontaneous help for cane, 50% for drunk. 90% of help were male, more same race help for black drunk condition. No diffusion of responsibility.

Aims= To see if the hippocampus is associated with spatial memory and navigation. Also to see if the brain has plasticty.

Sample and Method= 16 london taxi drivers. All male, right handed all passed THE KNOWLEDGE. Quasi lab experiment with correlation.

Procedure= Data collected using structural MRI scans, analysed using VBM and pixel counting. Compared grey matter volume of hippocampus between taxi drivers and non taxi drivers

Findings= Taxi drivers had larger volume posterior hippocampus. Also greater volume for more experinced taxi drivers.

Aims= To investigate the link between dreaming and REM sleep.

Sample and MEthod= 9 adults, 5 studied in detail. Lab experiment.

Procedure= Electrodes on participants to measure eye movement and brain waves. Woken at different times by bell in REM sleep and NREM sleep, recorded dreams

FIndings= Participants dream more in REM. Participants knew length of the dream. Eye movement reflected content.

Aims= TO study the effects of hemispheric disconnection in split brain patients.

Sample and Method= 11 participants who had their corpus callosum severed due to severe eplilepsy. Quasi Lab experiment

Procedure= Visual test= one eye covered, gaze at fixed point on projection screen, then visual stimuli projected onto screen on L/R at high speed.

Tactile test= Objects places into hands when hands under a screen

Findings= Left hemisphere controls language. Corpus callosum is needed to pass information from one hemisphere to another.

Aims= To compare behaviour of regular gamblers and non regular gamblers.

Sample and Method= 30 regular gamblers (29 male and 1 female), 30 non regular gamblers (15 male and 15 female)

Procedure= Each given £3 to gamble for 60 gambles the could stop or carry on, half of the participants were in each group one group was thinking aloud.

FIndings= Regular gamblers more irrational thoughts. Similar skill based behaviours, Regular Gamblers think they are skillful

Aims= To record the case history of a person with Multiple personality disorder.

Sample and Method= 1 woman, eve white, 25 years old. From United states of AMerica. Case study (14 months)

Procedure= Thigpen treated Eve white for headaches and blackouts. Thigpen and Cleckley interviewed eve white, eve black and eventually Jane. Did inkblot, memory and iq tests.

FIndings= Thigpen and cleckly confirm it is a real disorder, could be caused by a trauma in the childhood.

Experiment 1

Aim= to see if sane people would be admitted as insane. Sample and Method= Staff and Patients at 12 psychiatric hospitals in the USA. Field Experiment with participant observation. Procedure= Pseudo patients said they heard voices, admitted on average for 19 days with schizophrenia in remission. Made notes while in hospital Findings= Doctors have strong bias towards type 2 erros(calling healthy people sick)

Experiment 2

Aim= to see if more sane people would be admitted as insane

Sample and Method= Staff at 1 psychiatric hospital in the USA, that knew the results of study 1.

Procedure= Staff informed of experiment and told pseudopatients would be sent over in the next 3 months. Had to say how many turned up.

Findings= Type 1 errors(calling sick people healthy) as no pseudopatients sent.

Experiment 1

Aim= To see if leading questions (verb used) affects participants speed estimates Sample and Method= 45 students from university of washington. Lab experiment Procedure= Shown 7 film clips of car crashes. Verb used in critical questin was either: smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted. Participants asked to estimate speed of car in MPH Findings= If told verb 'smashed' estimated higher speed (40.8) told verb 'contacted'lowest speed (31.8)

Experiment 2

Aim= To see if memory is reconstructive. will the verb affect whether they report seeing glass? Sample and Method= 150 students from university of washington. Lab experiment Procedure = Shown 1 min film of car crash. Verb used in question was smashed, hit or no verb. One week later participants asked if there was broken glass in the film clip.  Findings= Smashed = 16 said yes, Hit= 7 said yes, Control= 6 said yes.

Aim= To see if high functioning indiviuals with autism have theory of mind

Sample and Method= 16 adults with Autism/Aspergers Sydrome (normal or high iq), 50 normal adults, 10 adults with tourettes. Quasi Experiment.

Procedure= Eyes Task: test understanding of mental states

                    Strange Stories Task: confirm results on eye task

                    Gender Recognition (control), Basic emotion task (control)

FIndings= Eyes task: Lower score for autistic group ( mean 16.4), and males. Strange Stories: autistic group did worst. Control tasks: no diffrence.

Aim= To study whether a pygmy chimp can learn language.

Sample and Method= 2 pygmy chimps: Kanzi and Mulika, 2 common chimps: Austin and Sherman.

Procedure= Kanzi (for 17 months) Mulika (for 10 months) learned to use lexigrams by observation. Record kept of spontaneous and imitated lexigram use. Also given formal tests to test comprehension.

Findings= Kanzi did better on formal tests than Austin and Sherman. Pygmy chimps learnt more words than common chimps.