PSYCHOLOGY

CAPLORA STEM
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

PSYCHOLOGY (9990)

YEAR 12

COURSE OUTLINE

AS LEVEL CONTENT (2 key debates)

A LEVEL CONTENT

Biological
• Canli et al. (brain scans and
emotions)
• Dement and Kleitman (sleep and
dreams)
• Schachter and Singer (two factors in
emotion)

Cognitive
• Andrade (doodling)
• Baron-Cohen et al. (eyes test)
• Laney et al. (false memory)

2 TOPICS OF CHOICE FROM
THE OPTIONS OF:

●ABNORMALITIES

●HEALTH

●CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR

●ORGANIZATIONS

Learning
• Bandura et al. (aggression)
• Saavedra and Silverman (button
phobia)
• Pepperberg (parrot learning

Social
• Milgram (obedience)
• Piliavin et al. (subway
Samaritans)
• Yamamoto et al. (chimpanzee
helping)

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES

❖

AO1 Knowledge and understanding:Demonstrate their knowledge and understanding

❖

AO2 Applying knowledge and understanding:Apply their knowledge to familiar and
unfamiliar situations and real life and theoretical contexts

❖

AO3 Analysis and evaluation:Analyse, interpret and evaluate psychological
information, ideas and evidence

ASSESSMENT:

Paper 1 Approaches, issues and debates

Paper 2 Research methods

Paper 3 Specialist options: theory

Paper 4 Specialist options: application

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

The science of mind and behaviour.

❖

A disciplined inquiry

❖

Formalized curiosity

❖

An attempt to understand human experiences of themselves and the world.

❖

Systematic development and testing of theory about human behaviour and
mental events.

❖

Holds on to the promise on unlocking the architecture of our psyche and our
behaviour in the world around us.

❖

A language requiring skilled use of tools to deliver a way of thinking.

❖

Holistic

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

●Techniques/processes used by scientists/psychologists to systematically test
and determine the utility of a theory.
Theory

The hippocampus plays a role in spatial memory.
Light level affects concentration..

Hypothesis

Taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus.
Low levels of light lead to poor concentration on classroom
tasks.

Method

Administer tests on taxi drivers’ brains to see how the
hippocampus reacts to navigation.
Administer tests/carry out observations to see the
effect of different light levels on classroom
concentration in a group of children.

STEPS IN RESEARCH

THEORY

Form a hypothesis and create a research question
from it.

METHOD

Gather materials and resources needed: use sampling
techniques: instrumentation of all the variables and
consider the ethics of the study.

DATA

Collecting information from
participants(subjects or objects), data entry and
analysis.

RESULTS
Reporting the finding of the study done.

RESEARCH METHODS

A.

EXPERIMENTS

An experiment is a procedure designed to test a hypothesis as part of the scientific method.

The two key variables in any experiment are the independent and dependent variables. The
independent variable is controlled or changed to test its effects on the dependent variable

i.Laboratory

ii.

Field

iii.

Natural

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

●Independent measures

●Repeated measures

●Matched pairs design

ETHICAL ISSUES IN EXPERIMENTS

●Informed consent-use of deception to reduce demand characteristics in lab exp.:
in field and natural, consent may be impossible to obtain(unaware)- Impacts the
right to withdraw.

●Right to withdraw- field and natural- participants may not be aware: in the lab,
can be done.

●Privacy:pre-planned questions in the lab: risk of invading privacy in field and
natural experiments.

●Confidentiality-Keeping data anonymous in lab experiments: in field and
natural, ensure anonymous participants cannot be individually identified.

PRACTICE STUDY

A researcher wants to study the effects of light levels on childrens’
attention during class.

I.

Outline each of the following aspects of the study:
A.

The Independent and dependent variables.2mks

B.

Extraneous and experimental variables 4mks

II.

In your opinion,which type of experiment would be best suited for
the study? Support your answer.4mks

III.

Describe how each of the experimental designs can be applied to
this study.9mks

IV.

Identify and describe the challenges and strengths presented by
each of the above designs in this particular study.12 mks

V.

Outline the ethical issues that may arise in the course of the
study.6mks

PSYCHOLOGY
WEEK 2

LESSON 1

LESSON OBJECTIVES

By the end of this week, I should be able to:

●Evaluate the use of experiments in psychological research.

●Apply knowledge of experiments to a novel research situation(Self assessment)

●Introduction to Self reports as a research method.

●Describe how interviews and questionnaire techniques generate data in
research.

●Evaluate the use of the two techniques in research

●Outline examples of how self reports are used in psychological research

●Describe case studies and how they are used in psychological research.

●Apply knowledge of case studies to a novel research situation.

USE OF EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
RESEARCH

●Involve the use of scientific methods to collect data and perform research.

●Researchers work in a variety of settings, including universities, research
centers, government agencies and private businesses.

●Applications- recognise experiments
○be able to operationalise them

○to comment on controls, standardisation, ethics and reliability and validity

○to plan an experiment,

○deciding on an IV and a DV

○how to implement suitable controls and to avoid ethical issues

●Example research situations.

RESEARCH METHOD B:SELF -REPORTS

●A research method, such as a questionnaire or interview, which obtains data by asking
participants to provide information about themselves.

●Any test, measure, or survey that relies on an individual's own report of their
symptoms, behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes.

●Describe methods of gathering data where participants provide information about
themselves without interference from the experimenter.

●Include questionnaires, interviews, or even diaries, and ultimately will require giving
responses to pre-set questions.

●Different from experimental tests or observations.

●Give information about what a person is thinking and feeling, including their motives
for doing something.

Technique 1:Questionnaires

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Questions presented in written form.

❖

Either through paper or online surveys.

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Varying types of questions.

❖

Open ended and closed.

Closed questions: questionnaire, interview or test items that produce quantitative data. They have only a
few, stated alternative responses and no opportunity to expand on answers.

Examples

➢What is your gender: male or female? (YES/NO)

➢List:How do you travel to school? walk / bicycle / bus /train / car

➢List:Indicate which animal(s) scare you: dog, spider, cat, rat, fish, rabbit, bird. [You may tick as
many as you like]

➢Rating:How much do you like psychology on a scale of 0–4?(0 = not at all, 4 = very much)

➢Likert scale:Obesity is a self-imposed condition.(Strongly agree/agree/neutral, disagree/strongly
disagree)

➢

CONT..

❖

Open questions

❖

Qualitative data.

❖

Descriptive answers in the
participants’ own words.

❖

Can yield much valuable and
diagnostic information to a
researcher or a clinician.

❖

Prompt the respondent to give
detailed answers, which may be
quite long

❖

Typically ask ‘Why…’ or simply
‘Describe…’

Examples

❖

What do you think about children having
access to the internet?

❖

Why do you believe it is important to help
people who suffer from phobias?

❖

How would you suggest parents should
discipline their children?

❖

When do you feel it is important to allow
young people the freedom to control their own
TV viewing?

❖

Describe your views on the use of social media
sites with regard to encouraging helping
behaviour.

❖
Explain how you would respond if you were

told to hurt another person.

Evaluating questionnaires

Advantages

●Produces qualitative and quantitative data

●Closed questions easier to analyze eg
averages, summaries,

●Qualitative- more detailed in depth
information.

Disadvantages

●Lack of reliability- researcher being
inconsistent in interpretation

●Lack of inter-rater reliability-differences in
consistencies in interpretations

●Easy for participants to ignore the
questionnaire- low return rate

●Target group may have too many similar
characteristics

●Lower validity-Social desirability bias.

●Demand characteristics vs filler questions

LESSON 2

Technique 2:Interviews

❖

The researcher is typically face-to-face with the participant.

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Be conducted through any medium that allows real-time interaction, such as by
telephone or through a chat facility.

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Same kind of questions (more open-ended)

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Focuses more on qualitative data.

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Schedule/range of questions that are asked and the order of them, diff ers
between different types of interviews.

❖

Structured vs unstructured interviews.

CONT…

Structured

●

Fixed questions

●

Fixed order

●

Standardized
variables

Unstructured

Questions based on
participants feedback.

Different questions for
each participants

Flexible

Hard to compare data-
different researchers/
different participants.

Semi-structured

●

Some fixed and
open questions.

●

Qualitative and
quantitative
data.

●

Comparisons/
averages

Evaluatinginterviews

Advantages

●Quantitative data

Disadvantages

●Social desirability bias

●Demand characteristics

●Time consuming

●Subjectivity

Applying knowledge to novel research situations

❖

Types of data

❖

Types of questions

❖

Design a type of interview

❖

Reliability

EVALUATION OF SELF-REPORT DATA

Advantages

●Inexpensive

●Information is easy to
obtain.

●Can reach many more
test subjects than could
be analyzed by
observation or other
methods

●Can be performed
relatively quickly

●Can be made in private
and can be anonymized

Disadvantages

●Honesty: Subjects may make the more socially acceptable
answer rather than being truthful.

●Introspective ability: The subjects may not be able to assess
themselves accurately.

●Interpretation of questions: The wording of the questions may
be confusing or have different meanings to different subjects.

●Rating scales: Rating something yes or no can be too
restrictive, but numerical scales also can be inexact and subject
to individual inclination to give an extreme or middle response
to all questions.

●Response bias: Questions are subject to all of the biases of
what the previous responses were, whether they relate to
recent or significant experience and other factors.

●Sampling bias: The people who complete the questionnaire are
the sort of people who will complete a questionnaire. Are they
representative of the population you wish to study?

RESEARCH METHOD C:CASE STUDIES

●Detailed investigation of a single instance.

●Focus on a particular subject.

●Based around one unit e.g individual, family, environment, institution.

●Very detailed data collected,

●Obtained through a variety of research techniques e.g interviews, observation,
tests, questionnaires

●Rare cases with a detailed description.

●Sometimes linked to therapy- therapeutic purpose is not the main aim

CONT:APPLICATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGY

●Study rare cases that need a detailed
description

●Examine subjects, projects, or
organizations to tell a story.

●Search for commonalities between
humans

●Prescribe further research

●Elaborate on a solution for a
behavioral ailment.

●To track developmental changes

LESSON 3
Continuation of Lesson 2

Evaluating case studies

Strengths

●

Validity

●

Triangulation

●

Depth of research

Weaknesses

●

Relationship between the
participant and researcher

●

Ethical issues

●

Reliability

Application of research method to nove; research
situations

As a researcher, I can:

●Recognise cases studies

●Suggest possible techniques that can be implemented i.e triangulation

●Question the validity and reliability of a case study

●Raise ethical issues shown in the course of or findings of a case study.

RESEARCH METHOD D: OBSERVATIONS

●Involves watching participant(s).

●Seeing their behavior, reactions, interactions etc

●Two ways:Naturalistic and controlled

Naturalistic

●Done in the participants
original/normal environment

●No interference from the
observer.

Controlled

●Situation manipulated by the
researcher.

●Can be done in the participants
normal environment or in an
artificial setting.

CONT…

●Beginning- non focused observations i.e all range of behaviours observed.

●Continues- range of observed behaviours is narrowed.

●Specific activities to be recorded- behavioural categories.

Structured observation

Focused on a specific range of
behaviors

Behavioural categories are broad

Unstructured observation

All range of possible behaviors
considered.

CONT…

Role of the observer:

●Participant observer-part ofthe social setting

●Non-participant observer-does not become involved in the situation being
studied.

●Overt-obvious and aware

●Covert-Hidden and disguised

EVALUATION OF OBSERVATIONS

Naturalistic vs Controlled
●Real behaviour

●Interference by researchers

●No guarantee of true
behaviour

Structured vs unstructured

●Important behaviour
recognized

●Difficult to record all activities
accurately

●Irrelevant activities.

●Reliable data in specific
activities

Role by observer
●Participant vs non-participant
observation

●Social desirability bias

●Validity of findings

●Ethical issues

Participants awareness
●Covert vs overt observation

●

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Describe experiments, self reports, case studies and observation as research
methods.

Identify different categories for each research method studied.

Recognize the discussed research methods in a novel research situation

Evaluate each research methods on its merits and demerits

Apply knowledge to any research situation by suggesting techniques,
methods,variables involved.

Access the validity and reliability of findings in a research situation

PSYCHOLOGY
WEEK 3

LESSON 1

THIS WEEK’S OBJECTIVES

By the end of this week I should be able to:

I.

Describe the use of correlation a s research method in psychology

II.

Evaluate the use of the method in psychological research

III.

Apply this knowledge to a novel research situation

IV.

Describe how research processes begin.

RESEARCH METHOD E:CORRELATION

A research method which looks for a causal relationship between two measured variables.

A change in one variable is related to a change in the other (although these changes cannot be
assumed to be causal).

For correlation to happen:variables must exist over a range; must be possible to measure variables
numerically.

Several techniques can be used e.g self-reports, observations,tests.

The nature of the relationship between the two variables in a correlation can be described in terms
of its direction.

Nature of correlation

POSITIVE CORRELATION

Change in the same direction.

Increase in one and increase in
the other.

NEGATIVE CORRELATION

Inverse relation.

High score on one corresponds
with low score on other variable.

EVALUATING
CORRELATIONS

●Validity

●Reliability

NOTE: CONCLUSIONS DONT
NECESSARILY REFLECT A
CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP.

APPLYING
CORRELATIONS

●Good starting point

●Usefulness

●Difference between correlation and
experiments

●Recognize +ve and -ve
correlations

●Appropriateness

●Justify choices for ways of
measuring variables

●Displaying results

LESSON 2

THIS LESSON’S OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, I should be be able to:

●Describe non-directional and directional hypotheses.

●Apply each appropriately to a novel research situation.\

●Describe null hypotheses

1.6: RESEARCH PROCESSES

Research is needed for many real-life problems,behaviour and events e.g to test
ways to help students learn better, seeking therapies for the mentally-ill, enhance
performance in the workplace e.t.c

Steps are needed to develop an conduct research:

1.

Development of aims and hypotheses

2.

Select a research method

3.

Define, manipulate, measure and control variables, ethical considerations

4.

Selection of participnts

5.

Data analysis and drawing of conclusions

6.

Evaluation of research

DEVELOPMENT OF HYPOTHESES AND AIMS

What is an aim?

●Tells you the purpose of the study.

●Expressed in terms of what the study intends to show.

Correlation: Aim is to investigate a link between two measured variables.

CONT:

What is a hypothesis?

●A testable statement predicting a difference between level of the IV(experiment)
or a relationship between variables(correlation).

●Provides more details about variables being investigated.

●Should be falsifiable-possible to be shown to be wrong.

●Main hypothesis aka alternative hypotheses- written several ways.

●Differ by nature of the prediction they make about the results of an
investigation.

Types of main/ alternative hypotheses

NON DIRECTIONAL HYPOTHESIS

Aka two-tailed hypothesis

●Predicts there’ll be an effect.

●Doesn’t give the direction of the effect e.g
increase, decrease

●Experiment: IV will change the DV: effect
of the variable is being tested for the first
time.

●Correlation:predicts there will be a
relationship between two measured
variables.

DIRECTIONAL

Aka one tailed hypothesis.

●Backed by previous research/ other
evidence- suggests direction of an effect.

●Experiment-which condition has the highest
score.

●Correlation- positive or negative correlation

Null Hypothesis

●Main hypothesis is alternative to null hypothesis.

●Experiment: States any difference in the DV between different levels of the IV
is so small that it likely happened due to chance.

“THERE WILL BE NO DIFFERENCE IN THE DV BETWEEN

CONDITION X AND CONDITION Y UE TO CHANCE.”

“ANY DIFFERENCE IN THE DV BETWEEN CONDITION Y AND

CONDITION X IS DUE TO CHANCE.”

CONT

●Correlation:Predict either no link or any relationship could have occurred by
chance.

“THERE WILL BE NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VARIABLE

X AND VARIABLE Y.”

“ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VARIABLE X AND VARIABE

Y IS DUE TO CHANCE.”

PSYCHOLOGY

WEEK 4

LESSON 1
1.7: THE DEFINITION,
MANIPULATION, MEASUREMENT
AND CONTROL OF VARIABLES

DEFINITION

What is a variable?

Factors that can be changed of change in a research study e.g Independent and

dependent variables, 2 measured variables.

Experiments: changes in the DV due to two or more levels of the IV; set up

by the experimenter; should be clearly defined and operationalized.

CONTROLLING VARIABLES AND
STANDARDIZING PROCEDURES

●

Controlling variables:-Increase certainty of results.
○Experiments- control any confounding variables- confuse the results

■Can go against the effect of the IV, increase the effect of the IV by
acting on DV selectively on one IV level.

■Other extraneous variables- random effect on the DV across all level s
of the IV.

NOTE: The difficulty is in identifying which variables will be important to control
before experiment starts.

Pilot study

●A preliminary test of the procedures of a study.

●Identify most important extraneous variables to minimize the
confounding effect.

Standardization

●

Controls- levels of IV represent what they are supposed to.

●

Ensures validity

●

Every participant treated the same way.

■

Standardized instructions

■

Standardized procedures

Control: a way to keep a potential extraneous variable constant, e.g.
between levels of the IV, to ensure measured differences in the DV are
likely to be due to the IV, raising validity

Applying your knowledge of variables and controls to
novel research situations

●Decide to operationalize the IV- produce different conditions.

●Measure the DV in a consistent way.

●Justify these choices

●Decide appropriate controls.

●Ideally operationalized when writing the hypotheses.

LESSON 2
1.8: SAMPLING OF
PARTICIPANTS

Class activity:

Operationalizing variables

in a study.

Students who use revision apps perform better

than those who use video apps.

1.8:Sampling of participants

A population: Group of people with one or more characteristics in common.

A group of people who share a particular interest.

A sample: Group of people who participate in a study.

Taken from a population.

Ideally should be representative of that group to produce representative findings.

Details about the sample e.g age, ethnicity, traits, gender,employment, geographic

location, occupation etc.

Size o f the sample matters.

Different sampling techniques: differ on how well and representative the results will be.

Extent of representation=how effective generalizations will be

TYPES OF SAMPLING

A)Opportunity sampling: People who are around at the time.

●Unlikely to represent the population- readily available within the environment
of researcher.

●Most common method- professional pychologists- results unlikely to be affected
by age or education.

B) Volunteer (self-selected): Researcher invites people to volunterr or to take
part in the study.

Through advertisements eg email, notices, internet requests.

Replies become the sample.

People who respond and become participants by own choices.

CONT..

C)Random sampling: Each person in the population stands an equal chance of being
chosen.

Sample likely to be more representative.

Random number generation methods used.

Applying your knowledge of variables and controls to novel
research situations
Extent of generalizations=how representative the sample is.
Get the best sample possible.
Practicality constraints.
How you would use each technique and reasons for the choices.

LESSON 3
1.9:DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS

1.9:Data and data analysis

Studies produce numerical date ie raw data

Large amounts: require simplification through mathematics: represented visually
through graphs, charts.

Note: No calculations in exams: count up scores, find the mode, median,range of a
data set,make simple comparisons, interpret data from tables.

Types of data: Qualitative vs quantitative

Data analysis

Ways that maths can be used to simplify and understand quantitative data.

A)MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Summarized set of quantitative data.

Mode

Median

Mean

Most frequent score in a data
set
Numerical data (scores) and
data sets that are contable
choices.
If two or more are equally
common= two or more modes

Cant be used with data in
discrete categories.
Only used with numerical data
in a linear scale.
All scores lined from smallest
and largest .
Challenge:even number?

Average
How is it calculated?

B)MEASURES OF SPREAD: Indicator of variation

RANGE

Simplest

(Largest value -smallest value) + 1

Scale measures gaps within points of data,
not the points themselves.

E.g Number line on scale of student
happiness.

Interpret:means and median slight;y
different: ranges also different,

Indicate variation/diversity/dispersion
across a set of data.

Doesn’t accurately reflect outliers in the
data set.

STANDARDDEVIATION

Better measure of spread.

Considers the differences between each data
point and the mean= deviation.

More spread out scores- larger deviations

Closely clustered scores-smaller deviations

Takes every score into account.

PSYCHOLOGY

WEEK 5

LESSON 1
1.9:DATA AND DATA
ANALYSIS:
Graphs

C)GRAPHS

Visual representation of data.

Many types of graphs.g bar charts, histograms,
scatter graphs

I) Bar charts

Data is in separate categories rather than in a
continuous scale.

Used for the totals of data collected in named
categories: can be used to map out all measures of
central tendency,

Bars must be separate: X-axis rep distinct group,
Y-axis rep no of participants

Levels of the IV

Levels of the DV

II)HISTOGRAMS

Used to show pattern in a whole data set.

Works with data measured on a scale
rather than separate categories.

May be used to illustrate the distribution
of a set of scores.

Has a bar for each score value, or group
of scores, along the x-axis. The y-axis
has frequency of each category. Each
category must be shown, even when
thereis a zero score.

iii)Scatter graphs

Correlational studies.

Each plotted point represents where an individual’s scores on each variable cross.

Line of best fit- position calculated- line is drawn as close to as many points as
possible.

Strong positive vs
weak positive
correlation
Values close to +1

Strong negative vs
weak negative
correlation

Nocorrelation

iv)Normal distribution curve

Bell-shaped graph-normal distribution.

Shows even spread of a variable.

Graph of frequency rises gradually and
symmetrically.

A frequency distribution that:

• has the mode, median and mean together
in the centre

• has 50% of the scores to the left and 50%
to the right of the mean

• is symmetrical

LESSON 2 & 3
1.10 ETHICS IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

What are ethics?

Ethical issues: problems in research that raise concerns about the welfare of
participants (or have the potential for a wider negative impact on society).

Ethical guidelines: pieces of advice that guide psychologists to consider the welfare
of participants and wider society.

●Concerns about welfare of participants.

●Nature of study e.g psychological discomfort

●Implications of the study

●Ethical code: an organisation to establish code of conduct

Ethical guidelines for human participants:Based on the British
Psychological Society Code of Ethics and Conduct.

A)Informed consent:Right to know what will happen in a study.

●Presumptive consent

●Debriefing

B)Protection: Physical and psychological

●No greater risk than they experience in their normal lives.

C)Right to withdraw:Leave the study whenever a participant feels like it.

D)Deception:participants should not be deliberately misinformed (lied to) about the aim or
procedure of the study. If this is unavoidable, the study should be planned to minimise the risk
of distress, and participants should be thoroughly debriefed.

CONT…

E)Confidentility: The storage of data separately to ensure participants’ confidentiality
is maintained.

●Need to know basis.

F)Privacy: Invasion of privacy into the participants physical space and emotional
territory.

Are there any exceptions?

G)Debriefing: giving participants a full explanation of the aims and potential
consequences of the study at the end of a study so that they leave in at least as
positive a condition as they arrived.

Ethical guidelines for animal participants: Based on the British
Psychological Society Guidelines for Psychologists Working with
Animals (2012),

Animals are used for different reasons:

●Convenient models

●Carry out procedures that would be unethical on humans

●Good/interesting on their own merit

Consequence: welfare protection for animals.

Veterinary consultation should be sought.

Aim to ensure that in any research, the means justify the ends i.e. that the animal
suffering caused by the planned experiment is outweighed by the benefits.

BATESON’S CUBE (1986)

When the certainty of
benefit (e.g. to humans)
is high, the research is
good and the suffering
is low, the research is
worthwhile.

Note:Hollow=research
continues:
Solid= research
stopped or refined first

Ethical issues to consider

●Replacement

●Species and strain

●Number of animals

●Procedures

●Housing

●Reward, deprivation and aversive stimuli

●Anaesthesia, analgesia and euthanasia

Evaluating studies based on ethical guidelines and
applying your knowledge of ethical guidelines to novel
research situations

Practise on page 45 of Coursebook

LESSON 4
1.11 METHODOLOGICAL
ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
RESEARCH

METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

Let’s define the following terms:

1.

Reliability: the extent to which a procedure, task or measure is consistent, for
example that is would produce the same results with the same people on each
occasion.

2.

Validity:the extent to which the researcher is testing what they claim to be
testing

3.

Generalisability: how widely findings apply, e.g. to other settings and
populations.

4.

Test-retest:a way to measure the consistency of a test or task. The test is used
twice and if the participants’ two sets of scores are similar,

5.

Ecological validity:the extent to which the findings of research in one situation
would generalise to other situations.

Reliability

The way the results of the research
are collected is the same each time.

Affected by differences in participants,
conditions in an experiment,data
obtained by different researchers.

Depends on the tools being used: must
use consistent measures.

●Test-retest

●Subjectivity

●Standardization

Validity

Affected by reliability and
objective interpretation.

●

Face validity

●

Demand characteristics

●

Ecological validity

●

Task

●

Generalisability

Reminders

●Inter-rater reliability; the extent to which two researchers interpreting
qualitative responses in a questionnaire (or interview) will produce the same
records from the same raw data.

●Inter-observer reliability: the consistency between two researchers watching
the same event, i.e. whether they will produce the same records.

●Demand characteristics: features of the experimental situation which give away
the aims. They can cause participants to try to change their behaviour, e.g. to fi
t with their beliefs about what is supposed to happen, which reduces the validity
of the study

Evaluating methodological issues in research studies

1. Are the measures reliable?
2. Is the study valid?
3. Suggest ways to improve:

a.

Method

b.

Design

c.

Sample

d.

Tool

e.

Procedure

CHAPTER 2

CORE STUDIES

INTRODUCTION

■ Canli et al. (2000) which is a brain scanning study looking at the links between
the amygdala and memory for emotional experiences.

■ Dement and Kleitman (1957) which is a study using a range of methods to
investigate the relationship between dream content and eye movements.

■ Schachter and Singer (1962) which is an experiment that explores the of role of
two factors, cognition and physiology, in our experience of emotions

Key points

• the psychology that is being investigated

• the background to that particular study

• the aim(s) of the study

• the procedure of the study, including as appropriate, the research methods used, sample
size and demographics [if known] and sampling technique [if known]), experimental design,
controls, question types, tasks, measured and manipulated variables

• ethical issues regarding the study

• the results of the study, including key quantitative and qualitative findings

• the conclusion(s) the psychologist(s) drew from the study

• the strengths and weaknesses of all elements of the study.

CANDIDATE’S OBJECTIVES

• describe and evaluate the research methods used

• consider how the study relates to psychological issues and debates

• apply the findings of the study to the real world.

THE BIOLOGICAL
APPROACH

Main assumptions of the biological approach:

●behaviour, cognitions and emotions can be explained in terms of the working of
the brain and the effect of hormones

●similarities and differences between people can be understood in terms of
biological factors and their interaction with other factors.

●Emotions, cognitions and behaviour are controlled by biological systems and
processes, such as evolution, genes, the nervous system and hormones and;

●can be investigated by manipulating and measuring biological responses, such as
eye movements, brain activity and pulse rate.

CORE STUDY 1

Canli, T., Zhao, Z., Brewer, J.,
Gabrieli, J. D. E., & Cahill, L.
(2000). Event-related activation in
the human amygdala associates with
later memory for individual
emotional experience. Journal of
Neuroscience, 20, 1–5.

Canli et al. (2000)

SUMMARY

Aim: to show that emotive images will be remembered better than those that have
little emotional impact on an individual.

Research Questions:

●whether the amygdala is sensitive to varying degrees of emotional intensity to
external stimuli

●whether the level of intensity enhances memory for the stimul

Background

There are two types of medical scans

1. Structural- detailed images of the brain structure.
2. Functional- images of how different levels of brain

activity during different tasks.
●

Computer generated scans

●

Based on magnetic fields that cause hydrogen particles in the
brain to spin.

●

Contrast imaging of different levels of blood flow in the brain.

The amygdala plays role in:processing
emotions:determines where memories
are kept, which memories are kept.

Research questions:

Is the amygdala sensitive to varying
degrees of individually experienced
emotional intensity?
what degree of emotional intensity
affects the role of the amygdala in
enhancing memory for emotional
stimuli?

METHOD(RESEARCH DESIGN)

●Research method used-Lab experiment

●Procedure-Scanning through an fMRI during a sequence of 96 images shown to
the participants.

●Independent variable-intensity of emotional arousal to each of the 96 scenes
shown to participants.

●Experimental design- repeated measures design

●Dependent variable-level of activation of the amygdala;measure of memory

●Participants-10 healthy right handed females

●Controlling of the variables-Use of fois in the memory test

●Results

ELEMENT

DESCRIPTION

JUSTIFICATION

RESEARCH
METHOD

Laboratory Experiment

Apparatus/equipment used in a specific
environment.
Limits the realism that can be
introduced into a study as they are
large machines.

INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE

intensity of emotional
arousal

96 scenes shown to participants.

DEPENDENT
VARIABLE

level of activation of the
amygdala

measure of memory

fMRI contrast imaging used
11 scans per emotive image shown to
the participants.

SAMPLING
DETAILS

10 healthy right handed
females

Females more likely to report intense
emotional experiences and show
physiological responses to stimuli.

EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGN

Repeated measures design

Participants contributed to each of
the four conditions depending on
their rating of each scene.

PROCEDURE

Brain scans at control
condition/resting stage and at
each task

Participants

PROCEDURE

❖

Participants viewed a series of 96 cents presented via overhead projector and
mirror.

❖

Informed consent

❖

Individuals operating machines

❖

Randomisation

❖

Stimuli set

❖

Duration of the task

❖

Instructions given

❖

Memory task

RESULTS

●Participants experience of emotional intensity in the present study correlated well
with emotional violence and arousal.

●Average correlation coefficient between participants intensity ratings and
normative valence and arousal.

● Ratings of emotional intensity reflected equally the valence and arousal
characteristics of the stimuli.

● Amygdala activation significantly correlated with higher ratings of individually
experienced emotional intensity.

CONCLUSIONS

●Canli et al. (2000) found an association between individual experiences of
emotional intensity for stimuli with amygdala activation and subsequent
memory for the stimuli.

●The more emotionally intense and image is the more likely it will be
remembered.

●The level of arousal a person is under could affect the strength of a memory
Trace.

●The amygdala is sensitive to individuals experience emotional intensity of
visual stimuli with activity in the left amygdala during encoding and storage of
information.

● the study suggested a correlational aspect in association between the emotional
impact on the participants and subsequent memory.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

●Internal validity

●Use of fMRI scanner

●Low ecological validity

●Objective findings

●Validity in comparisons

●Sampling

WELCOME BACK !!!

Term 1 Part 2

CORE STUDY 2

Dement, W., & Kleitman, N. (1957). The
relation of eye movements during
sleep to dream activity: An objective
method for the study of dreaming.
Journal of Experimental Psychology,
53, 339–346.

Dement & Kleitman

(1957).

AIM

The aim of this study was to find out more about dreaming.
●This included three specific research questions:
Question 1

Does dream recall diff er between eye movement (REM) and quiescent (nREM)
stages of sleep?

Question 2

Is there a positive correlation between subjective estimates of dream duration and
the length of the REM period before waking?

Question 3

Are eye movement patterns related to dream content?

BACKGROUND:Sleep cycles

An EEG produces a chart (an
encephalogram) showing how
brain waves vary, i.e. how the
frequency and amplitude (height)
of electrical activity changes over
time.

The chart records changes which
indicate the sleep stage a person is
in.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

The difference in dream
recall between REM and
nREM sleep, an
experiment with a
repeated measures
design was used.
IV:whether
the participant was
woken from REM or
nREM sleep.
DV:whether they
recalled a dream or
not.

the relationship between
dream duration and the length of the
REM period was a
correlation (although the comparison
between estimates
of 5 and 15 minutes was another
repeated measures
design experiment).

the
relationship between eye movement
patterns and dream
content, self-reports were compared to
the direction of
eye movements observed.

SAMPLE

Seven male and two female adults
were used, five of whom

were studied in detail. The remaining
four were used to

confirm the results of the first five.

Question:What are the weaknesses of
the sample above?

On each day of the study participants ate normally,
excluding caffeine-containing drinks (such as coffee)
and alcohol. They arrived at the laboratory just
before their normal bedtime.

The participant went to sleep in a dark, quiet room
with electrodes attached beside the eyes and on the
scalp (the EEG), which fed into the experimenter’s
room. The wires were gathered together into a single
cord from the participant’s head (like a pony-tail) so
they could move easily in bed.

Participants were woken (by a doorbell) at various
times during the night, asked to describe their dream
if they were having one, then returned to sleep. They
were not told about their EEG pattern or whether
their eyes were moving.

PROCEDURE

The procedure for the three questions differed:

Participants were woken either from REM or
nREM sleep but were not told which. The
choice of REM or nREM waking was decided
in different ways for different participants:
• using a random number table (participants
PM and KC)
• in groups of three REM then three nREM
(participant DN)
• by telling the participant that they would
only be woken in REM but actually waking
them in REM or nREM randomly (participant
WD)
• in no specific order, the experimenter just
chose (participant IR).
Immediately after being woken, the
participant stated whether they were having
a dream or not and then, if appropriate,
described the content of the dream
into a recorder. When the participant had
finished, the experimenter occasionally
entered the room to ask further questions
about the dream. There was no
other communication between the
experimenter and
the participant.

Participants were woken after
either 5 or 15 minutes in REM
sleep.
The participant guessed which
duration they had been dreaming
for. Longer REM periods were
also allowed.
The number of words in the
dream narrative was counted.

The direction of eye movements
was detected using EEG
electrodes around the eyes.
Participants were woken after a
single eye-movement pattern had
lasted for more than one minute
and asked to report their dream.
The eye-movement patterns
detected were:
‘mainly vertical’, ‘mainly
horizontal’, ‘both vertical and
horizontal’ and ‘very little or no
movement’.
Comparison EEG records were
taken from awake participants,
20 naive ones and five of the
experimental sample, who were
asked to watch distant and
close-up activity.

FINDINGS

●Uninterrupted dream stages lasted 3 - 50 minutes (mean approx 20 minutes), were typically longer
later in the night and showed intermittent bursts of around 2 - 100 REMs.

●The cycle length varied between participants but was consistent within individuals, eg 70 for one, 104
for another.

●When woken in nREM participants returned to nREM, but when woken in REM they typically didn’t
dream again until t he next REM phase (except sometimes in the final REM phase).

IV 1: Participants frequently described dreams when woken in REM but rarely did from nREM sleep
(although there were some individual differences) and this differences was marked at the end of the nREM
period (within 8 minutes of cessation of REM – only 6 dreams recalled in 132 awakenings). In nREM
awakenings, participants tended to describe feelings but not specific dream content.

IV 2: Accuracy of estimation of 5 or 15 minutes’ of REM was very high ( 88% and 78% respectively). REM
duration and number of words in the narrative were significantly positively correlated.

IV 3: Eye movement patterns were related to dream content, eg horizontal movements in a dream about
throwing tomatoes, vertical ones in a dream about ladders and few movements in dreams about staring
fixedly at something.

Class activity

Describe the results of the study for each of the three research questions.

1.

Does dream recall differ between eye movement (REM) and quiescent (nREM)
stages of sleep?

2.

Is there a positive correlation between subjective estimates of dream duration and
the length of the REM period before waking?

3.

Are eye movement patterns related to dream content?

CONCLUSIONS

●Dreaming is reported from REM but not nREM sleep, participants can judge the
length of their dream duration and REM patterns relate to dream content. As a
consequence, dreaming is more likely at the end of the night, as the REM stages are
longer. These two observations fit with those reported by other researchers. The
occasional recall of dreams from nREM is likely to happen because dreams are being
recalled from the previous REM phase (as this is more likely closely following REM sleep).

●The finding that REM sleep occurs in phases during the night helps to explain why
participants in other studies who were awoken randomly may not have reported dreaming.
Perhaps they were only woken in nREM stages, or were dreaming about distant objects so
had few REMs, making accurate detection difficult.

●Measurement of eye movements and brain waves has shown that dreams progress
in ‘real time’ and that this is a more objective way to study dreaming than using subjective
recall of dreams alone, which can also be affected by forgetting.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

●

Laboratory experiment:

■High level of control over variables

■Low ecological validity

■Use of EEG

●

Types of data collected

■Quantitative data for IV 1 & 2- easy to collect and analyse statistically.

■Qualitative data for IV 3- describe content of dreams; richer and more
interesting data; difficult to use for comparisons: prone to subjectivity

●

Sample

■Size of sample

■Features of the sample

■Both genders included

CONT

●

Ecological validity

■Sleeping in a lab

■Electrodes attached to scalp and eye region

■Awakenings

■Research outside controlled conditions- unable to measure rain activity adn eye
movements

●

Reliability

■Methodological issue

■Study replicated on other studies.

Reflection task: Ethical issue of deception participant WD and how it affected
Informed Consent.

Classroom
task

CORE

STUDY 3

Schachter, S., and Singer, J.
E. (1962). Cognitive, social

and physiological

determinants of emotional

state.

Psychological Review, 69,

379–399.

Schachter and Singer (1962)

●Trained psychologists.

●Two factors in emotion

theory suggests:
1.

Physiological arousal

determines strength of emotion
2.

Cognitive appraisal

identifies the emotion label.

Introduction

●Eliciting event —->change in physiology + change in cognitive appraisal.

●Physical arousal happens first; leading to cognitive appraisal process.

●Physiological changes tell us how intensely we are experiencing the emotion.

High levels= strong or intense emotion

Low levels=weak or less intense emotion.

●We cannot determine emotion label from arousal level.

Reflection task:Suggest the reason why we can’t label emotions from

level of arousal.

●Cognitive appraisal of event+of physiological changes= label attached to the
emotional experience.

●The process can be quick and automatic or slow and conscious.

●Cogn. appraisal determines our behaviour changes and subjective feelings.

Aim of the study: To test the Two-factor theory of emotion.

-

What are the two factors represented in the theory?

Main hypothesis:If given a state of physiological arousal for which the individual
has no adequate explanation, cognitive factors can lead the individual to describe
their feelings with any of a number of emotional labels.

Quick think!!

BACKGROUND

Cognition:the mental processes of acquiring and processing knowledge and
understanding through experiences, senses and thought.

Emotion;the body’s adaptive response to a particular situation.

Emotional response is
a combination of
physiological arousal
and cognitive
understanding of the
situation.

TWO-FACTOR THEORY OF EMOTIONS

Theory argues that;

★

When people become aroused they
look for cues as to why they feel
the way they do from the
environment and interpret their
arousal in relation to this.
Therefore, any emotional
experience is a combination of
physiological arousal and a
cognitive interpretation.

★

We experience emotions as an
interaction between physiological
and psychological variables

HYPOTHESIS:

• If a person doesn’t have an
explanation to their state of arousal,
they will label their feelings based on
immediate cognition.

• If a person has an explanation for
their state of arousal they won’t
necessarily take into account available
cognitions to label their feelings.

• If a person experiences a previously
encountered emotional situation, they
only react or feel emotional if they are
physiologically aroused

RESEARCH DESIGN

●Research Method-Laboratory experiment

●Variables-

■Control group- Not injected with epinephrine but with saline
solution.

■Experimental group

●IV 1- Knowledge about epinephrine injections

○Informed

○Misinformed

○Ignorant

●IV 2-Emotional situation

○Euphoria

○Anger

■DV -Two measures

○Observational data

○Self report

Research design-Independent measures design.

SAMPLE:

There were 185 individuals, all male college students, participating in the study,
who were taking a course of introductory psychology at the University of Minnesota.
They were given course credit for participation.

The university health records of all participants were checked prior to the
experiment to ensure that no harmful effects would result from the injections.

Reflections: Why might psychologists use psychology students in their
experiments? What impact might this have on the validity of any findings?

🍐

QUICK REVIEW!

What were the seven conditions of this study?

PROCEDURE

Participants’ medical records were checked to ensure the injection they were about to receive could not have caused
health problems

After the participants arrived at the laboratory, they were deceived and were told the experiment investigates the
effect of the vitamin Suproxin on vision

in fact, they were injected with either adrenaline or saline solution in the placebo condition

Participants were then split into the informed, misinformed and ignorant conditions and being told different
information about the symptoms of the injection.

They were then introduced to the stooge, who they were told was another participant and asked to wait 10 minutes
for the injection to absorb in the bloodstream

The stooge, unaware of the participant’s condition started performing their standardized routine.

When the routine was over, the experimenter returned to the room and measured participant’s pulse and gave them
the final questionnaire.

They were then debriefed, promised secrecy to and asked for consent.

Deception

“In this experiment we would like to make various
tests of your vision. We are particularly interested
in how certain vitamin compounds and vitamin
supplements affect the visual skills. In particular, we
want to find out how the vitamin compound called
“Suproxin” affects your vision. What we would like
to do, then, if we can get your permission, is to give
you a small injection of Suproxin. The injection
itself is mild and harmless; however, since some
people do object to being injected we don’t want to
talk you into anything. Would you mind receiving a
Suproxin injection?”

Sample questions

RESULTS

Hypotheses

1.If a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have no immediate
explanation, they will label this state and describe their feelings in terms of the
cognitions available to them at the time.

2.If a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have an appropriate
explanation (e.g. ‘I feel this way because I have just received an injection of
adrenalin’), then they will be unlikely to label their feelings in terms of the
alternative cognitions available.

3.If a person is put in a situation, which in the past could have made them feel an
emotion, they will react emotionally or experience emotions only if they are in a
state of physiological arousal.

Welcome back…

Classroom activity

Describe the procedure of the
Schachter and Singer study on the
two factor theory of emotional
response.

RESULTS

●All but one of the 185 participants agreed to the injection,

●5 of them had no physiological response= data was dismissed.

●11 participants were too suspicious=data was discredited

168 data samples being analyzed.

★

Individuals who received the adrenaline injections showed more sympathetic arousal
and had higher scores on the questions in the questionnaire about palpitations and
tremor. Therefore, those in the adrenaline condition were more physiologically
aroused than the placebo condition.

★

Self-reports showed that in the euphoria condition, the misinformed participants felt
the happiest – they used the happy mood of the stooge to explain their physiological
arousal. The informed euphoria group felt the least happy. In the anger condition,
those in the ignorant group were the angriest – they were more susceptible to stooge’s
mood since they had no explanation for their arousal.

CONCLUSIONS:

★

The results support the Two Factor Theory of Emotions which assumes that
the physiological arousal which we experience in relation to different emotions
is the same and we label these emotions based on available cognitions.

★

All the three proposed hypothesis were arguably supported and found that
indeed if there is a lack of explanation for a state of arousal the feelings will be
labeled based on available cognitions.

★

People use environmental cues to help interpret their physiological changes.

CRITICAL EVALUATION:Discussion points

➢

Research method- laboratory experiment

○Level of control

○Double blind technique

➢

Participant features

○Gender

○Age

○Students

➢

Method of arousal

○Use of adrenaline

➢

Assessment of participants before study

○What would this accomplish?

➢

Ecological validity

○Stooge

○Awareness of environmental cues

➢

Data collection methods

○Use of questionnaires

ISSUES, APPROACHES
AND DEBATES

Canli et.al(Amygdala
activation)

Dement and Kleitman
(Sleep and dreams)

Schacter & Singer (Two factor
theory of emotions)

The application of
psychology to
everyday life

Use of EEG to accurately
detect dreaming
Application for people with
sleep and dream disorders

Nature vs nurture

Use of EEG
Nurture influence on dream
content; Nature influence on
capacity to dream

Differences in emotional
responses:
Nature:hormonal levels
Nurture:emotional experiences

Using children and
animals in
psychological research

Do animals show
emotions at all?
Non-human animals
experience REM sleep.

Individual and
situational
explanations

96 images on valence
scale

Mood created by stooge

THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

CHAPTER 3

Main assumptions

of the cognitive

approach

■Behaviour and emotions can be
explained in terms of cognitive processes
such as attention, language, thinking and
memory

■ Similarities and differences between
people can be understood in terms of
individual patterns of cognition.

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this chapter is to introduce you to the cognitive approach in
psychology and to explore three studies from this approach. They are:

■ Andrade (doodling) which suggests that doodling can improve concentration and the
memory of a conversation

■ Baron-Cohen et al. (eyes test) which investigates how a lack of a ‘theory of mind’ in
adults with Asperger’s Syndrome or autism can result in problems recognising
emotions

■ Laney et al. (false memory) which explores how false memories can impact on
memories and beliefs in relation to eating asparagus.

Is behaviour
all about
information
processing?

Starter activity

1.

Cup of tea

2.

Student life

3.

Last movie I watched?

4.

Did we really discuss that?

5.

My hobby

INFORMATION PROCESSING

●Processes that work within
the mind.

●Mental concepts e.g
attention, memory

Activity 2:Give other examples
of mental concepts

●Compared to a computer i.e

INPUT>>PROCESS>>OUTPUT

Memory as a cognitive function

What is memory?

●A cognitive process

●Cognitive ability to encode, store and retrieve information when needed.

●Example- Experiencing an event

Activity 3: How do you use memory as a student?

Activity 3:Reflections

How much information have you processed in the last five minutes? What about the last five
hours?

How much of the information that you have processed have you been aware of and can you
recall? You can probably remember a general summary of what you have just read, but could
you write it word-for-word?

If you think about what you ate six days ago, can you remember it? You should be able to, since
you were there and all your senses were involved: you saw your food, you tasted and smelled it
and probably talked about it with those around you. Can you remember it?

Now consider this: if you forget something, is it gone forever? What might you need to help
you recall what you ate six days ago?

Over the course of
this chapter…

●How cognitive processes
for example memory can
be influenced by doodling
and focusing concentration

●Autism as a problem with
cognitive processes

●False memories influencing
our preferences for
different foods

CORE STUDY 1

ANDRADE (2010)

Andrade, J. (2010). What
does doodling do? Applied

Cognitive Psychology,
24(1), 100–106.

RESEARCH ELEMENTS

AIM OF THE STUDY

What is doodling?

To know whether this activity
assisted information processing,
perhaps by enabling people to
attend more effectively or by
enhancing their memory.

Reflection: Does doodling help
or hinder concentration?

BACKGROUND

●We perform less well when our attention is divided between tasks. It might make sense to
assume that if we are engaged in doodling, we would not be attending as well to any other
task, so be worse at them than if we were not doodling.

●Doodling might aid concentration (Do and Schallert, 2004), for example by reducing
daydreaming so that you stay focused.

This idea is based on the working memory model.

●Doodling may help to maintain arousal (Wilson and Korn, 2007), for example by giving you
something physical to do while you think. It could raise arousal to help to keep you awake if
you are sleepy or reduce arousal if you are agitated because you are bored.

●Andrade defines doodling the sketching of patterns and figures that are unrelated to the
primary task.

○
Could take cognitive resources away from the intended (primary) task as if it placed
simultaneous demand on cognition by dividing attention

○
For the most concurrent cognitive tasks, could improve performance by raising arousal
and enhancing focused attention on the primary task.

KEY TERMS

Divided attention: the ability to split mental eff ort between wo or more simultaneous tasks (called
‘dual tasks’), for example, driving a car and talking to a passenger. Divided attention is easier when
the tasks involved are simple, wellpractised and automatic. You may notice that inexperienced
drivers fi nd conversing more diff icult, and any driver maystop mid-sentence if the road conditions
become diff icult. The primary task is the main task, in this case driving, and the additional task is
called the concurrent task because it is happening at the same time.

Daydreaming: a mildly altered state of consciousness inwhich we experience a sense of being ‘lost in
our thoughts’, typically positive ones, and a detachment from our environment.

Focused attention: the picking out of a particular input from a mass of information, such as an array
or a continuous stream, for example, concentrating on your teacher’s voiceeven when there is
building work outside and the student next to you is whispering.

Working memory model: This model of memory suggests that two diff erent types of current or
‘working’ memory can be used at the same time, one is vis spatial and the other auditory. These are
governed by an overall ‘central executive’.

THE
WORKING
MEMORY
MODEL

RESEARCH METHOD

●

Laboratory experiment

●

Ecological validity

●

Controlled situation

●

Independent measures

SAMPLE

●

40 pps

●

Medical Research Council Unit
for cognitive Research

●

Panel from the general
population; aged 18-55yrs.

●

Paid a small sum

●

20 pps in each group

●

Mainly females

●

Randomly assigned to
condition

RESEARCH ELEMENTS

PROCEDURE

VARIABLES

Dependent

variable

Independent

Variables

Doodling
condition

Non-doodling

/control
condition

Monitoring

task

Recall
task

📞☎

‘Hi! Are you doing anything on Saturday? I’m having a birthday party and was hoping you could come. It’s not actually my birthday, it’s my

sister Jane’s. She’ll be 21. She’s coming up from London for the weekend and I thought it would be a nice surprise for her. I’ve also invited her

boyfriend William and one of her old school friends, Claire, but she doesn’t know that yet. Claire’s husband Nigel was going to join us but he has

just found out that he has to go to a meeting in Penzance that day and won’t be back in time. I thought we could have a barbecue if the weather is

nice, although the way it has been so far this week, that doesn’t look likely. I can’t believe it has got so cold already. And the evenings are really

drawing in aren’t they? Anyway, there is plenty of space indoors if it rains. Did I tell you that I have redecorated the kitchen? It is mainly

yellow—the wallpaper is yellow and so is the woodwork, although I thought it would be better to leave the ceiling white to make it look lighter.

I’ve still got the old blue fittings—they are pretty battered now but I can’t afford to replace them at the moment. Do you remember Craig? I used

to share a flat with him when we were both working for that bank in Gloucester. He has bought a house in Colchester now but he promises to

take time off from gardening to come to Jane’s party. Suzie is going to be there too. She’s the person I met at the pottery class in Harlow last year.

Apparently she has got really good at it and may even be having an exhibition of her work soon. Will you be able to bring some food? Maybe

crisps or peanuts, something along those lines. Jenny from next door is going to bring a quiche and I’ll do some garlic bread. I found a good recipe

for punch—you warm up some red wine with gin and orange juice plus cloves and cardamom and cinnamon. Add some brown sugar if it’s not

sweet enough. The boys from the house down the road have promised to bring some of their homebrew. There are three of them sharing that

house now—John, Tony and Phil. I think they were all at college together. Phil teaches at a primary school in Ely now and the other two commute

to Peterborough each day. I think they both work inthe hospital there—I know Tony was training to be a nurse at one point so maybe he is

qualified now. John can’t come on Saturday because his parents are coming to stay for the weekend but Phil and Tony should be there. Tony has

to pick their cat Ben up from the vet so he may be a bit late. By the way, did I tell you about our holiday in Edinburgh? It was a complete disaster.

We were camping and it rained constantly. We spent most of the time in museums, trying to keep dry and then, to make matters worse, Nicky got

her handbag stolen. I wasquite glad to get back to work after that. Anyway, hope you can make it on Saturday—let me know if you want to stay

over. Bye!’ ☎📞

Activity

1)Describe the procedure of the
Andrade (doodling) study.

2)What is the order effect?

3)Explain how this effect was
overcome in the study?

KEY POINTS

●Lasted 2.5 minutes and was

●Recorded in a monotonous voice at an average speed of 227 words per
minute.

●Had eight names of people attending a party

●Names of three people and one cat who could not attend.

●Eight place names were mentioned, as well as irrelevant details.

●Standardized instructions and tools

‘I am going to play you a tape. I want you to pretend that the speaker is a friend
who has telephoned you to invite you to a party. The tape is rather dull but that’s
okay because I don’t want you to remember any of it. Just write down the names of
people who will definitely or probably be coming to the party (excluding yourself).

Ignore the names of those who can’t come. Do not write anything else.’

RESULTS

Key result

Recall for monitored and
incidental information was better
for doodlers than
non-doodlers–even after
eliminating pps with demand
characteristics.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Control condition; Lower mean recall of
names and places by 29%.

●No pps doodled spontaneously.

●4pps suspected a memory task.

●Demand characteristics??

●Correct recall mean of
partygoers=7.1 (SD 1.1)

●5pple with false alarms

●Total mean recall of 5.8 for names
and places.

Doodling condition:Higher recall of
monitored and incidental information.

●1pp with false alarm

●Mean of shaded shapes: 36.3

●Range of 3-110

●3 doodlers suspected a memory test

●Correctly recalled mean of 7.8 for
partygoers’ names(SD of 0.4)

●Total mean of 7.5 (names and places)
29% more than control group.

ASSIGNMENT

1)Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the study. 10 mks

2)Discuss on the issues and debates in the scope of the study.

CONCLUSIONS

● Doodling helps concentration on a primary task.
● Doodlers have better recall on monitored and incidental

information.

● Possible explanations:

○Effect on attention

○Encourage deeper information processing

● No measure of daydreaming (blocking attention)

○Difficult to distinguish between the two explanations

○How could they have measured daydreaming?

CRITICAL EVALUATION

● Laboratory experiment
● Independent measures design
● Operationalisation and standardization
● Validity and reliability
● Participant variables
● Sample characteristics
● Quantitative data
● Ethical issues

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

WELCOME TO TERM 2 2023

THE COGNITIVE
APPROACH

Reflections:
Can such a scientific approach
to understanding mental
processes really tell us about
how we think, feel and behave?
What issues might we
encounter trying to measure
cognitive processes that we
cannot directly see?

REVIEW OF THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

Activity:

What are the main assumptions in the cognitive approach to psychology?

How does the brain work like like a computer?

Quick reminder:

Andrade doodling found that doodling can improve concentration and memory of a
conversation.

CORE STUDY 5:
BARON-COHEN
ET AL.(Revised

eyes test)

Main aim: Investigate how a
lack of a ‘theory of mind’ in
adults with Asperger’s
syndrome/autism can result in
problems recognising emotions.

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, J., Hill, J., Raste, Y.,

&

Plumb, I. (2001). The ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’
Test revised version: A study with normal adults, and
adults with Asperger Syndrome or
High-functioning Autism. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(2), 241–251.

Background to the study

‘The eyes are the window to the soul.’

Key Notes

●Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) = A neurodevelopmental disorder
impairing a child's ability to communicate and interact. Symptoms:
repetitive behaviour, little or no eye contact and can't recognise facial
expressions. High Functioning Autism is HFA.

●Aspergers Syndrome (AS) = Autism spectrum disorder that affects
language and communication skills. Symptoms: restricted & repetitive
behaviours and trouble identifying facial expressions.

●Autism Spectrum Quotient Test (AQ) = self-report questionnaire with
scores ranging from 0 to 50. A high score suggests that the person has
more autistic traits.

●Theory of Mind (ToM) = the ability to understand the view of another.

A)

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES

●To test whether a group of adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS) orHigh-functioning Autism
(HFA) would be impaired onthe revised version of the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ task.

●To test if there was an association between performance on the revised ‘Reading the Mind
in the Eyes’ task and measures of autistic traits

●To investigate if there were sex diff erences in those without autism on this task

Reflection:

Why was the test revised?

●Participants were presented with 25 photos showing different eye expressions and they
chose the mental state shown between 2 options.

Issues with the original study:

●1. It had more female faces than male faces. Solution: equal no. of male and female faces
in the RET question.

●2. Test had both basic and complex mental states. The basic ones were too easy. Solution:
Only complex mental states were used.

The hypotheses of

the study

• Participants with autism will score signifi cantly
lower scores on the revised ‘Reading the Mind in the
Eyes’ task than the control group.

• Participants with autism will score signifi cantly
higher on the Autism Spectrum Quotient Test
(AQ) measure.

• Females in the ‘normal’ groups (Groups 2 and 3)
will score higher on the ‘Reading the Mind in the
Eyes’ task than males in those groups.

• Males in the ‘normal’ group (Group 3) would score
higher on the AQ measure than females.

• Scores on the AQ and the ‘Reading the Mind in the
Eyes’ task would be negatively correlated.

B)RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

●Research method:

Laboratory experiment

Quasi experiment

●Research design: Independent measures design

●Sampling:Self-selected(recruited through adverts and clinics)

GROUPS 1,2,3 &4.

●Variables;

IV:Type of participant

DV:Scores on the RET(all groups) and AQ tests(Groups 1,3 and 4).

C)PROCEDURE

In 1997:

●25 photographs

●15*10cm

●Black and white

●3 seconds per picture

●Same eye region

●Forced choice between the semantic and foil
word.

●Test 1:Eyes Test

●Test 2:Strange stories task

●Test 3:Gender recognition of eyes

●Test 4:Basic emotion recognition

●3 groups:

○16 AS/HFA adults

○50 normal adults

○10 adults with Tourette’s Syndrome

In 2001:

●36 photographs (equally distributed)

●Standard size

●4 choices of responses(one semantic, three foil
words)

●No time deadline

●Classaty provided for references of foil words.

●Practice item provided before the actual test

●All participants fully informed and consented to
the study.

●Data was anonymized for privacy and
confidentiality.

●Four groups

○15 male adults with AS/HFA

○122 normal adults

○103 Cambridge students

○14 IQ matched control group

D)RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Exercise:Describe the results of the study as shown by the figures.

D)RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

●Group 1 participants identified significantly fewer target words than comparison groups.

●No participants in any condition checked the glossary for more than two definitions.

●Adults comparison and Student comparison groups showed apparent but not significant
sex differences on the RET.

●All participants in HFA/AS condition scored 33 or above on sex recognition task.

●Some participants did not return the AQ test( Group 1,3,4).

●Group 1 scored higher than student and IQ matched control groups.

●Significant difference between male and female scores on the AQ test within the Student
group.

●Negative correlation between the AQ and RET scores.

●No correlation between IQ and RET scores.

CLASS ACTIVITY: What conclusions can we draw from the results above?

E)CRITICAL EVALUATION

●Laboratory experiment: Standardised procedures and tools

○Control of confounding variables

○Increases internal validity

○Improved validity through changes made to the eyes test

●Natural /quasi experiment: No random placement of participants to conditions.

●Ecological validity

●Generalisability

REFLECTIONS:

Can we be sure it is really all in the eyes? What else could be important when we are
interpreting emotions? To answer this question, think about whether there are any
issues with using photographs of eyes rather than a real person in this study. How
could this experiment be conducted in a more ecologically valid way? What impact
would it have?

CORE STUDY 3:

LANEY ET AL.

(FALSE MEMORY)

Laney, C., Morris, E.,

Bernstein, D., Wakefield, B.,

&

Loftus, E. (2008).

Asparagus, a love story.

Healthier

eating could be just a false
memory away. Experimental
Psychology, 55(5), 291–300

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Memory is not always a factual recording of an event and can
become distorted by other information both during encoding and
after the event.

Braun et al. (2002) found that it is possible to implant these
rich false memories by convincing participants that they had
met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland (impossible as Bugs Bunny is a
Warner Bros creation).

Bernstein et al.(2005)-generating a false memory lead to a
change in the preferences of food.

REFLECTION: Could there be behavioral consequences of false
memories?

If a false memory about getting sick after eating eggs or pickles
can lead to avoiding these foods, can the opposit also occur?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

AIM:To investigate whether giving false feedback suggesting that a
participant had loved to eat asparagus as a child would create a false belief or
memory or experience is linked to eating and enjoying asparagus.

RESEARCH METHOD:Laboratory experiment

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Whether the participants had the false belief
they enjoyed asparagus and better do the second part of the experiment.

DEPENDENT VARIABLE: Use of 5 questionnaires (self report measure).

SAMPLE: Independent groups design

●128 participants

●Undergraduate students at UC (99females+29males)

●Randomly assigned to the conditions of the IV(63+65)

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PROCEDURE:

●Participants arrived at the laboratory in groups of up to eight

●They were told they were going to participate in a study of food
preferences and personality.

●Week 1: participants were treated identically

●First completed the FHI and RQ questionnaires.

●They were then asked to complete three other filler questionnaires on
‘personality measure’, ‘social desirability’ and ‘eating habits’.

●Week 2; participants were invited back to the laboratory.

●They were randomly assigned to the ‘love asparagus’ condition and
control group.

●All participants were told their responses had been processed by a
computer which generated a profile of their childhood experiences with
food and then given a report.

●They were asked questions about the fake profile to ensure they
processed the feedback.

●They then completed the FHI and RQ questionnaire for the second
time, then went on to the FPQ, FCQ and MBQ questionnaires.

●Final debrief on the true nature of the experiment.

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EXPERIMENT ONE SUMMARY

What conclusions can we draw from the results above?

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS