Unit 2 Psychology Exam Notes PDF

lOMoARcPSD|34289055 Unit 2 Psychology Exam Notes Psychology- Unit 2 (Beaconhills College) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected]) ...

lOMoARcPSD|34289055 Unit 2 Psychology Exam Notes Psychology- Unit 2 (Beaconhills College) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 PSYCH UNIT 2 EXAM REVISION NOTE/S :) Tri-component model of attitudes: A model proposing that attitudes must have three related components- affective, behavioural and cognitive. Affective component- the emotional component of attitudes, involves how you feel about people, objects, places, events or ideas. E.g: ‘I feel good when I’m with my friends’ Behavioural component- the action component of attitudes, what you do as the expression of your attitudes. E.g: ‘I hang out with my friends whenever I can’ Cognitive component- the mental component of attitudes, beliefs or thoughts that you have about people, objects, places, events or ideas. E.g: ‘I think my friends are nice, funny and cool’ Stereotypes: A collection of fixed ideas about members of a certain group in which their individual characteristics/differences are ignored. Stereotypes ignore individual characteristics and regard every member of a certain group as possessing the same set of characteristics. Stereotypes about certain groups can be positive, negative or neutral. Stereotypes can be helpful as they allow us to efficiently form impressions of people, thus saving us time in terms of determining how we should behave towards new people. However, they can be harmful as we tend to disregard unique information about individuals that doesn’t fit the stereotype we have of them, which sometimes leads to us treating them differently through discrimination and stigmatisation. Direct & indirect discrimination: Direct discrimination is the unfavourable treatment of a person due to a personal characteristic protected by law (e.g: age, sex, marital status or sexual orientation) For example, if a family were refused service at a cafe due to their race Indirect discrimination is when the same treatment is applied to everyone, but it disadvantages someone due to a personal characteristic. For example, if a building only has stairs but no way to enter for disabled people Prejudice: The negative attitude people possess towards individuals based only on their membership of a group. Etc. I dislike hiring old people instead of younger people Stigma: A negative attitude against someone based on a distinguishing characteristic, such as disability, gender, sexuality, race, religion, or culture. E.g: some people have developed a negative stereotype that all long-term unemployed people are alcoholics and drug users. This has resulted in people being unfairly stigmatised. Biological factors that affect taste: Age (your taste buds take longer to grow back over time and you have less of them as you get older) Genetics (you might genetically have fewer or less taste buds than normal) Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 Illness (such as blocked nose) Pregnancy (hormones associated with pregnancy can change taste perception often in quite unusual ways) Social factors that affect taste: Food culture (attitudes, behaviours, customs and values in which we were raised) Historical experiences (food culture in countries develop practical solutions to everyday problems, using ingredients that are available) Songlines (contain the memories and knowledge of aboriginal people, their purpose was to help the traveller find their way to safety, including knowing where to find food & which food to eat) Gestalt principles: A set of principles that explain how we interpret visual info most effectively by grouping individual elements together to perceive a whole object. Gestalt- a german word for form, shape, organisation or configuration. Figure-ground- the tendency to perceive a visual stimulus as more relevant (the figure) and standing out against its less relevant surroundings (the ground) Camouflage- when a figure appears to mix with the background due to a lack of contour Closure- our ability to ignore gaps in visual stimulus and perceive objects as a meaningful whole Similarity- the tendency to group together as a whole, any stimulus that are alike in size, shape or colour. Proximity- the tendency to perceive the parts of a visual stimulus that are close together as belonging to a group Perceptual set: A perceptual set is the tendency to view things in a certain way due to the readiness to receive certain stimuli Factors that influence perceptual factors: Past experience- the situations and events we have encountered throughout our lives, prior to the present Memory- an information processing system that actively receives, organises, stores and recovers information Motivation- our desires, which cause us to perceive stimuli that align with our goals as more salient Context- the situation or conditions in which something occurs Identify three constancies: Size- the ability to perceive an objects actual size, despite changes in our retinal images of the object Shape- the ability to perceive an objects actual shape, despite changes in our retinal images of Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 the object Orientation- the ability to perceive an objects actual orientation, despite changes in our retinal images of the object Supertasters: Supertaster is someone who has a higher number of papillae than average, giving them a heightened sensitivity to taste. Everyone has taste buds, which help perceive taste. Taste buds are found inside papillae and located throughout the mouth. Papillae collect sensory info about how sweet, salty, umami, sour or bitter something is. That info is sent to the brain for processing, this affects how they perceive taste and thus which flavours/foods they enjoy/don’t enjoy. Papillae? Gustation?: Papillae are the raised structures on the tongue containing taste buds. Gustation is the sense of taste. What is synaesthesia? List three factors: Synaesthesia is a rare condition in which certain sensations are perceived using another system. Lexical-gustatory synaesthesia- when an individual perceives words as having tastes Chromaesthesia- when an individual simultaneously hears sounds and sees colours Ordinal linguistic personification- when an individual views ordered sequences (numbers, letters, days, weeks) as having personalities What are the causes of synaesthesia?: A person can be born with synaesthesia, develop it, inherit the condition in genes, acquire it due to injury/drug use later in life What is attention? Sustained, selective and divided? Provide examples: Attention is the level of awareness directed towards certain stimuli to the exclusion of others. Attention is like a filter that we use to decide what is important to us - we focus on certain stimuli and ignore others. This allows us to concentrate on what is important at the time - enabling us to make sense of the world in which we live. It prevents us from being overwhelmed. Sustained attention- the maintenance of a high degree of attention over a prolonged period Selective attention- focusing on a single activity while disregarding other environmental stimuli Divided attention- distributing attention to allow the processing of two or more stimuli at the same time Define conformity. What factors affect it? Conformity is the process by which people modify their ideas, attitudes, behaviours or perceptions to more closely reflect those held by groups to which they belong to/aspire to belong to. Factors: Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 -size of group -unanimity (the complete agreement that group members experience in terms of knowing the answer) -informational influence (an occurrence in which a person conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others they believe might have more information) -normative influence (the occurrence in which we conform with others because we want to be liked by them and we assume that our conformity will make them like us more) -culture (the many characteristics of a group of people, including their attitudes, behaviours, customs and values, that are transmitted from one generation to the next) -social loafing (a person’s tendency to reduce their effort when working in a group, as opposed to when working alone) -deindividuation (when people act a certain way because of the anonymity (loss of identity) that a group provides) Identify two positive and two negative influences of social media: Positive: -platform to voice opinions -raise money for charities -raise awareness of global issues Negative: -mental health issues -harder to identify emotions being expressed by people they’re talking to Hypothesis (how to write): A hypothesis is a statement predicting the possible outcomes of the study. Population IV DV Direction How to identify IV and DV: IV- the variable being manipulated/controlled/selected/changed by the researcher DV- the variable being measured by the researcher E.g: ‘does consuming sugar affect attention in children?’ IV- consumption of sugar DV-level of attention Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 Define ‘respect’: Respect is an ethical concept involving the consideration of the value of living things, giving due regard and consideration of the capacity of living things to make their own decisions. Explain these terms- observations, self-reporting, qualitative and objective Observations- the careful, close examination of an object, process, or other phenomenon for the purpose of collecting data about it or drawing conclusions Self-reporting- occurs when participants record the results themselves Qualitative- data that describes characteristics and quality Objective- opposite to subjective. Objective is the tendency to base judgements and interpretations on external data rather than on subjective factors, such as personal feelings, beliefs, and experiences. Describe the ‘halo effect’: A cognitive bias in which one impression of a person influences our beliefs about their other qualities E.g: physically attractive=warmer, happier, more intelligent Explain and define heuristics (problems & benefits): Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow us to make quick decisions on limited information Problems- errors in judgement, stereotyping and overconfidence Benefits- quick and effective when we don’t have all the relevant information, automatic, good when speed matters more than accuracy. E.g: walking away from a stranger, the brain relies on negative fear response to judge that there might be a threat What is meant by the term ‘group’?: Two or more people changing their behaviour in response to direct commands from an authority figure Define obedience: The act of people changing their behaviour in response to direct commands from an authority figure Milgram’s experiment: Aim- to investigate the extent to which individuals would obey authority figures and administer what they believed to be harmful electric shocks to another person Results- of the 40 participants in Milgram’s study, about 90% of participants went above 150 volts (high to very high) shock. Conclusion- when we are confronted with someone we perceive as a legitimate authority figure, we defer our proper and moral judgements and comply without giving much thought. Milgram’s experiment revealed that we all have the capacity to inflict great pain and suffering on others under certain conditions. Ethical concerns- no harm principle (participants were exposed to extremely stressful situations Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 that could’ve caused psychological harm) Withdrawal rights (participants told experimenters they were uncomfortable however were suggested they stay and continue and were told ‘you must continue’) Deception (participants weren’t told the true nature of this experiment, but were debriefed and offered support afterwards) Zimbardo’s study: Aim- to find out whether the reported brutality of guards in US prisons was due to their personalities or the prison environment Results- participants assigned to roles of guards and prisoners exhibited rapid psychological and behavioural changes. Prisoners experienced emotional distress, anxiety, depression and some had to be removed early. Guards became authoritarian, abusive, and sadistic. Individuals lost their sense of identity and authority figures abused their power. Conclusion- people will readily conform to social roles they are expected to play. Behaviour of normal, well-educated men can be significantly affected when they’re given a role that involves considerable power and status. Overall, the stanford prison experiment demonstrated the extreme effects of status and power on behaviour. Ethical concerns- no harm principle (prisoners were not protected from psychological harm and experienced many incidents of humiliation and distress) Withdrawal rights (zimbardo attempted to convince 1 prisoner to stay when he wanted to leave) Informed consent (zimbardo himself didn’t know what would happen/it was unpredictable. Further, the prisoners did not consent to being arrested at home) Status and power: guards were given a position of authority and high status symbolised by uniform, glasses and the authority they were granted to control the prisoners. The guards’ status came with significant power over prisoners, they controlled daily routines, access to necessities and even the use of the bathroom. The power dynamic reinforced the guards’ belief in their authority and contributed to their increasingly abusive behaviour. The prisoners were stripped of their power and individuation. Distinguish between bottom-up and top-down processing: Bottom-up: the processing of sensory information beginning with salient sensory data, which is then integrated to form a bigger picture. Top-down: the processing of sensory info by applying prior knowledge and expectations. Distinguish between ingroups and outgroups: Ingroups- any group that a person belongs to/identifies with Outgroups- any group that a person does NOT belong to/identify with Define social proximity: in the field of psychology, social proximity is how physically close one or more people are to each other Explain cognitive dissonance: the discomfort that people experience when they are conflicting beliefs or when their behaviours contradict their beliefs. Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])  lOMoARcPSD|34289055 e.g: if you dislike dishonesty and believe that liars are bad people, but you find yourself in a situation where you must tell a small lie to a friend, you will likely feel tense about your behaviour. e.g: people who regularly eat meat but object to animal farming Define perception: the mental process of recognising, interpreting and giving meaning to the information received by the sense organs. Asch’s experiment: Aim- to investigate the factors that affect/influence conformity and how group pressure can lead people to conform, even when they know that the rest of the group is wrong. Results- on average, 75% of participants conformed at least once throughout all 12 trials. Conclusion- Asch concluded that people conform for 2 main reasons. They want to fit in with the group or they believe the group is more informed than they are. There are three experimental designs. What are they? Between-subjects design- participants randomly allocated to control or experimental conditions Within-subjects design- an investigation design in which all participants in the sample are involved in both experimental and control conditions Mixed design- an investigation design that combines elements of between-subjects design and a within-subjects design Downloaded by Kulsoom shah ([email protected])