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WJEC AS Psychology
By Megan Brown

BIOLOGICAL APPROACH

Assumption 1: Evolutionary Influences
• Evolution is the gradual change of a species over time
• Characteristics which will enhance chances of survival and
reproduction are passed onto the offspring through genetics
...
g touch taste temperature
pain) as well as balance
...

• For example, low levels of serotonin are linked with depression
...

• Involved drilling a hole on each side of the skull and inserting an
instrument that resembled an ice pick to destroy the nerve fibres
underneath
• Moniz later invented the leucotome ; an instrument with a
retractable wire loop that could sever nerve fibres
• It was hoped that cutting into nerve pathways that carried
thoughts would relieve patients of their distressing behaviours and
thoughts

Main components of psychosurgery:
Stereotactic surgery
• Neurosurgeons have developed more precise ways of
surgically treating mental illness
• Surgeons use MRI scans to locate exact areas of the brain
involved in mental illness and sever connections precisely
• Use anasthetic
• In OCD, a circuit linking the orbital frontal lobe to deeper
structures appears more active than normal
• Bilateral cingulotomy = where surgeons burn away brain
tissue or use a gamma knife to focus beams of radiation on
the target site
• Capsulotomy = Surgeons insert probes through the top of
the skull and down into the capsule
...
Lobotomies had a fatality rate of up to 6%
and severe side effects such as brain seizures
...
However, many people have expressed grave doubts
about these claims
...
However, only around 25 patients a
year are currently treated this way in the USA and so research is not reliable as the sample is too small to
generalise
...
MAYBERG ET AL found that
significant improvements were made following stimulation to the an area of the frontal cortex in four out
of six patients
...
Szasz believed that a
person’s psychological self is not physical and cannot be operated on

•

Future Directions
DBS can tell us where activity is and when it is happening, like a combination of EEG and fMRI
...


Raine et al methodology and
procedures
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Raine et al believed that certain parts of the brain are different in criminals which
may predispose those individuals to violent behaviour
They focused on murderers who had pleaded NGRI in their experiment
The sample was of 41 murderers (39 men 2 women) with a mean age of 34
...

14 members were non-white, 6 were left handed, 23 had history of head injury
Research has identified links between areas of the brain and aggression, for example that the limbic system is related to
emotion and learning, and activity in these areas might explain abnormal emotional responses and failure of violent offenders
to learn from their experiences
...

These findings are supported by this study and taken together, provide evidence that murderers pleading NGRI have different
brain functioning to normal individuals
...

•
Less activity in parietal lobe which is associated with abstract thinking
•
More activity in occipital lobe which is associated with vision
•
Less activity in corpus callosum (bridge of nerve fibres that connects the hemispheres together) which is associated with long term panning
•
Less activity on left hemisphere of the brain and more on the right
CONCLUSIONS
•
Prefrontal deficits may make a person more impulsive and emotional
•
Deficits in limbic system might make someone more aggressive
•
Deficits in corpus callosum might make it difficult for the to hemispheres to communicate effectively, therefore making it difficult for one to
anticipate long term consequences and make decisions

•

•

•
•
•
•

Research has identified links between areas of the brain and aggression, for example that the limbic system is related to emotion and learning,
and activity in these areas might explain abnormal emotional responses and failure of violent offenders to learn from their experiences
...

These findings are supported by this study and taken together, provide evidence that murderers pleading NGRI have different brain functioning
to normal individuals
...
Therefore, it is a quasi experiment and so casual conclusions cannot be justified
...

Technique
PET scans allow researchers to study detailed regions of the brain in action
...
Despite being a quasi experiment, it was a very
controlled procedure
...

Sample
The sample was not typical of all criminals as they pleaded NGRI and were all murderers
...
The brain differences could be linked to environmental influences
such as background, role models, learned responses etc
...
39 men and 2 women means that the study was andocentric and biased
towards men, therefore results cannot e generalised of female criminals
...
The participants
may not have been fully aware of what they were supposed to do
...
Also, they may not have understood their
right to withdraw as they were prisoners and felt they couldn’t drop out
Socially sensitive research
This research is socially sensitive
...
For example, we can scientifically
measure the effects of psychosurgery and chemotherapy by monitoring the behaviour
and symptoms of patients before and after treatments, as well as using PET scans
...
This means that if we know what
‘predetermines’ our behaviour, we can treat people in advance
...
The neurotransmitter
dopamine has been linked to schizophrenia on many occasions and so we can treat
schizophrenia by altering the levels of dopamine
...
For example,
medication and treatments
...
Bipolar disorder has been
successfully treated with drugs and 60% of bipolar patients improve when taking lithium
(VIGUERA ET AL)

•

•

•

Evaluation of Biological approach:
Weaknesses
Reductionist
The biological approach is reductionist
...
For example, reducing the feeling of stress to the hormone
adrenaline
...
Also, a simplified explanation may prevent us from
reaching a true understanding of the target behaviour
...
It is concerned with altering abnormal biological factors
rather than talking to people how they feel about their illness to work their way towards
improvement
...

Individual differences
The biological approach is nomothetic, meaning it looks to make generalisations about
people and find similarities
...
Biological research often only
involves a small group of individuals – we cannot reliably generalise the results of these
experiments for the whole population
...
Also, biological research tends to use males as female hormone
systems tend to interfere with the research
...


PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

Assumption 1: Influence of Childhood
Experiences
• Freud believed that experiences during childhood
shape our adult personality
• He proposed that psychological development takes
place in a series of developmental stages –
psychosexual stages
• Frustration – when the stage has not been resolved
because needs have not been met, for example the
child is unsatisfied
• Overindulgence – when the needs of the child have
been more than satisfied and so the child is too
comfortable and is reluctant to move onto the next
stage

Assumption 1: Influence of Childhood Experiences :
Psychosexual Stages
Stage

Origin of libido & source of
pleasure

Key events

Outcome of fixation

Oral
0-18 months

Mouth:
Sucking, chewing,
swallowing and biting

Breast feeding

Frustration =
Pessimism, envy, sarcasm

Weaning onto solid food
Overindulgence =
optimism, gullibility,
neediness

Anal
18 months – 3 years

Anus:
Withholding, expelling,
playing with faeces

Potty training

Frustration = stubborn,
possessive, overly tidy
Overindulgence = messy,
disorganised, reckless

Phallic
3 – 5 years

Genitals:
masturbation

The Oedipus complex leads
to superego and gender
identity

Self assured, vain, may
have problems with
sexuality and difficulty
building relationships in
adulthood

Latency
5 years - puberty

Little/no sexual motivation

Acquiring knowledge and
understanding of the world

No fixations as no pleasure
focus

Genital
Puberty +

Genitals:
Heterosexual intercourse

Well developed adult
personality, well adjusted

Assumption 2:The Unconscious Mind
• Freud believed that the majority of what goes on in our minds
occur in the unconscious and preconscious mind
• The conscious mind is logical, whereas the unconscious mind is not
and is ruled by pleasure seeking
• Freud believed that much of our behaviour is determined by the
unconscious mind and that we are motivated by unconscious
emotional drives
• Conflicts between the id, ego and superego create anxiety, and so
the ego protects itself with various ego defences
• Displacement – transfer of impulses from one person or object to
another
• Projection – undesirable thoughts are attributed to someone else
• Repression – pushing painful memories deep down into our
unconscious mind so they are effectively forgotten

Assumption 3: Tripartite Personality
• Freud believed that the adult personality is structured into three parts
that develop at different stages in our lives
• Id = The impulsive and unconscious part of our personality and is present
at birth
...
The main aim is to gain pleasure and gratification at
any cost
• Ego = The conscious, rational part of our personality
...
Its function is to work out realistic ways of balancing
demands of the id in a socially acceptable way
...

• Superego = The last part of our personality to develop forming at the age
of around 4
...
It
embodies the child’s sense of right and wrong
...

For example, overindulgence during the oral stage could result in
an unhealthy dependency on others in later life, which could result in
someone being ‘needy’ in a relationship
...
Fixation in this stage could result in an adult who is not
capable of loving another person
...
If the Oedipus
complex is not successfully resolved, according to Freud, it may lead
to homosexual relationships being formed
...
Psychoanalysis is a therapy that aims to
help people gain insight to these drives and become aware of them so they can
be cured
...
The purpose of dream analysis is to decode the dreams to find
what is in the unconscious mind
...

Traumatic memories form childhood experiences may surface in dreams as a
means of working through past traumatic events
...
The purpose of
dreaming is to act our wishes and desires of the id in an acceptable way
...


Main Components of Dream Analysis
• Dreams as wish fulfilment:
Freud believed that all dreams are the unconscious fulfilment of wishes
...
The real meaning of a
dream (latent content) is transformed into a more inoffensive form
(manifest content)
...
He also said that not everything within a dream has a
meaning
...


Freud’s Dreamwork Processes
• Condensation:
Dream thoughts are rich in detail but these are condensed to the brief images
we experience during a dream
...

• Displacement:
The emotional significance of a dream object is separated from its real
object/content and attached to a different one so that the dream content is not
censored
...

• Symbolism:
A symbol replaces and action, person or idea
...
The dream
material may be supplied from a recent event in a person’s life
...
Solms used PET scans to highlight regions of the brain active during dreaming
...

Another source of support comes from Hopfield et al on neural networks
...
They show that neural networks deal with
an overloaded memory by condensing memories
...

Methodological issues:
Much of the research into dreaming is conducted in sleep laboratories
...

We cannot generalise these results to usual sleep experience and therefore, the ecological validity
of dream research is questioned
...
Significant disruption will impair important biological functions
such as the secretion of hormones
...

Subjective interpretation:
Interpreting manifest content and coming up with its underlying meaning relies on the
subjective interpretation of the therapist
...


Dream Analysis Ethical Issues
•

Therapist-client relationship
The therapist takes the expert role, offering the patient insight into their unconscious
...

This may create a power imbalance and an over dependence on the therapist
...
The result of FMS is that patients may
experience anxiety because of memories that didn’t even happen
...

A patient may be likely so succumb to the belief of the therapist as they are an
authority figure
...


•

Emotional harm
During dream analysis, a therapist may guide a client towards an interpretation of a
dream that is emotionally distressing
...


Bowlby : Methodology & Procedures
•
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•
•

•

Bowlby wanted to find out whether early separation from a child and his/her mother
could explain ‘habitual delinquency
...

The sample consisted of 31 boys and 13 girls aged between 5 and 17 years
...
22 children
were grade 4
...

A control group consisted of a further 44 children from the same clinic and were similar
in age, sex and IQ to the experimental thieving group
...

The sample was obtained by opportunity sampling
...
The
psychologist also noted their emotional attitude
...
Both the
psychologist and the social worker reported to Bowlby who then personally
interviewed the child and the mother
...
These meetings and discussions enabled a detailed case study to be
recorded and also enabled the psychiatrist to diagnose the children’s emotional
problems
...
During
that time, he was not visited by his parents
...

The thieves that hadn’t experienced separation had mothers that had traits
‘that mask unconscious hostility
...
g anxiety, rigidness, dominance and
oppressiveness
...
Particularly he focused on the relationship
between mother and child
...
However, this is an extremely slow and
difficult process
• A better approach is prevention rather than treatment
...
There may be other variables that caused the emotional problems
and we cannot determine cause and effect
...
However, it is limited because it
is based on the view of one person
...
g his
belief in the importance of early experience
...
These recollections may
have been inaccurate as the parents may have wanted to remember their child’s childhood to have been a
more positive one
...
For
example, all 88 of the children were emotionally disturbed
...

Bowlby experienced separation throughout his childhood
Research support
Bowlby’s basic conclusion has been supported in other research
...
Michael Rutter et al
compared Romanian orphans who had been adopted before or after the age of 6 months
...


Bowlby : Ethical Issues & Social
Implications
• The participants in the study were not afforded confidentiality
...
Their case
histories provide considerable detail of their lives, making them easily
identifiable
...

• The parents were involved in the study and so gave valid consent for their
child
...
The data was published 5 years after the data was collected
...

• The parents were involved in the study and so gave valid consent
...
However, the ethics of research
was different during this time and so only informing the parents was
perfectly ethical
...
For example, nurture is taken into account through the idea that childhood
experiences shape adult personality
...
The
nature debate is taken into account through the idea of innate drives such as the id, ego and superego
...


•

Useful

•

Reflects complexity of human behaviour
Freud’s explanations take into consideration the complexity of human behaviour
...
Freud’s method of
psychoanalysis seeks to uncover deep meanings and acknowledges that understanding behaviour is a lengthy
process
...
It highlights the fact that
childhood is a critical period of development
...

Ideas put forward by Freud have greatly influenced therapies used to treat mental disorders
...

This is a strength because ultimately, psychologists conduct research to improve the world and help to
treat and cure mental illnesses
...
It simplifies complex behaviour down to
the mechanics of the mind, for example, the battle between the id, ego and superego and early
childhood experiences
...
For
example, in the 1950’s, an explanation for autism was that the mothers were distant from their children
...

Determinist
Freud believed that infant behaviour is determined by innate forces such as id and libido, and
adult behaviour is determined by childhood experiences
...
This allows people to have a plausible excuse for their behaviour as
they can simply say that they can’t control themselves
...

Cannot be proven wrong
One major objection to Freud’s theory is that it can’t be falsified
...
For example, Freud’s view that all men have
repressed homosexual tendencies cannot be disproved
...
We cannot physically see our dreams and so it is difficult to test
...
g dentist and pain)
pre-determine our later reactions to people and situations

Assumption 2: Behaviour is learned
through conditioning
• In CLASSICAL CONDITIONING, behaviours are learned through
association
...
Similarly, negative reinforcement takes
place in school where a teacher may confiscate a child’s
phone in order for them to complete their work

Behaviourist explanation for
relationship formation
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• We like people who we associate with pleasant events
• If we meet someone when we are feeling happy (positive
mood), we are much more inclined to like them than if we
met them when we are feeling unhappy (negative mood)
• A previously neutral stimulus (someone you haven’t met
before and therefore have no feelings about) can become
positively valued because of their association with a pleasant
event
...

• This liking of a person can lead to the formation of a romantic
relationship
...
People are born as a blank slate,
and learning occurs as a result of conditioning
...

• SD is used to treat phobias as it aims to counter condition
maladaptive learning by helping people break it down and
replace it with more functional learning
...
For
example, feeling relaxed in the presence of a phobic object
can be seen as rewarding which could be a form of positive
reinforcement
...
The aim is to
acquire a new stimulus-response link, moving from responding to a stimulus
with fear to responding with a feeling of relaxation
...

• Desensitisation Hierarchy :
A series of gradual steps starting with least fearful situations to most
fearful
...

• In Vivo / In Vitro :
In the early days of SD, clients were guided through in vivo
desensitisation; learning to relax in the presence of objects or images that
would usually arouse anxiety
...
In
Vivo has found to be more successful by Menzies and Clarke
...
In SD, the
steps are conducted slowly and at the clients preferred pace
...

• Able to provide valid consent:
SD is used for clients with phobias and not problems such
as depression and schizophrenia
...

People participating in SD attend at their own free will,
therefore they know they have the right to withdraw at any
point
...

Barlow & Lehman found that 90% of patients with a fear of injections and injury were cured after
5 sessions of SD
...
Therefore, it is not a result of conditioning but instead is because of our
ancestry
...
This concept has been supported by Bregman, who failed to
condition a fear response in young infants by pairing a loud bell with wooden blocks
...
SD may
remove the symptoms but if the cause still remains, the symptoms will re appear
...
He recorded the case of a boy who was afraid of
horses
...
The phobia was cured when he accepted his feelings about his father
...
” It is not an experiment because there
was only one condition
...

Albert was then tested with a loud sound by a metal bar being struck
SESSION 1: A white rat was presented to little Albert an he started to reach for it
...

SESSION 2: A week later, he was shown the rat again to see his the previous experience
affected his behaviour
...
’
SESSION 3: 5 days later, Albert was presented with the other objects to see whether the
learned link would be generalised
...
’ This took place in a new environment
...


Watson & Raynor: Findings
• Albert showed no fear responses to the objects before conditioning
...

• SESSION 1: Albert showed more fear the more times the metal bar was struck
...

• SESSION 2: Albert did not reach for the rat but just stared at it
...
He became distressed when he was exposed to the joint
stimulation
...

• SESSION 3: He played happily with the blocks but showed fear in response to the
rat
...
He
showed the same amount of fear in response to the rabbit
...

• SESSION 4: In the new environment, his responses were less extreme
...
He always played
happily with the building blocks suggesting that his fear was exclusively to furry
objects
...


Watson & Raynor: Conclusions
• A fear response can be easily created
...

• Watson & Raynor suggested that ‘it is probable’ that
many phobias are acquired in this way
...
Watson & Raynor
suggested that Freud may have been wrong in
presuming that sucking the thumb is a form of pleasure
sucking; instead, it may be a form of fear blocking
...
It was conducted in a lab of sorts where extraneous variables could be
controlled
...
There was a baseline condition where
Albert’s pre-manipulation behaviour was established which sowed that he was not a fearful child
...

A control condition of the blocks showed that Albert’s fear was exclusive to furry objects, and Albert’s
behaviour was recorded on film so his behaviour could be confirmed by other researchers to get rid of any
researcher bias
...
Albert was a baby so could not respond to
demand characteristics
...
Also, they changed the environment
of the study to a lighter room with more people and found similar results
Two – process theory:
Watson & Raynor ‘freshened up’ Albert to reinforce his fear response
...
In a real life situation, this would not occur and so the
study could be deemed ecologically invalid
...

Ecological validity:
The environment was very controlled and so it is difficult to generalise the results to real life settings
...

The sample:
Only one infant was used in the sample and so it is difficult to make generalisations to all infants as the
responses could have been unique to Albert
...
Some people who have experienced a traumatic
incident do not develop phobias e
...
someone who has been bitten by a dog might not become fearful of all
dogs
...


Watson & Raynor: Ethical Issues and
Social Implications
•

Creating fear:
This study involved creating fear and anxiety within a young child and the effects were potentially
long lasting
...

Watson & Raynor stated that “in order not to disturb the child too seriously, no further tests were
given for a week
...
”
Albert sucked his thumb as a calming mechanism to block fear
...
However, this caused Albert more anxiety, again breaching his
protection from harm
...
Watson & Raynor said that “such attachments would arise anyway as
soon as the child left the nursery for home
...
However, this
could not be done as Albert was suddenly removed from the hospital
...
The
researchers should have ensured that the unconditioning occurred and that the mother was fully
informed of the procedures
...
Concepts such
as feelings and thoughts are operationalised in terms of stimulus and response behaviours
...
We can
distinguish beliefs from facts through conducting experiments
...

Focus on the here and now
The behaviourist approach is not concerned with the events of a persons past
...
Systematic
desensitisation treats phobias by teaching a new stimulus-response link
...
The approach is more
direct and positive as it does not bring up unwanted memories
...
Classical conditioning was devised from the behaviourist
approach and is applied in systematic desensitisation to help people suffering from phobias
...
Operant conditioning in
education allows students to work at their own pace as they are rewarded for improvements, rather
than meeting a general target
...
For example, behaviourists would not consider how
our genetic make up could influence personality and behaviour even though there have been many studies that
provide evidence for this
...
If learning was all that mattered, then everyone could
become a surgeon or a scientist
...


•

Determinist approach
This approach suggests that all behaviour is determined exclusively by classical conditioning (associations we
make between certain environmental stimuli) and operant conditioning (the rewards/punishments provided by our
environment)
...

This determinist approach undermines our free will and therefore implies that we are not responsible for our
behaviour and cannot make choices
...


•

More relevant to animals than humans
Behaviourism has its roots in experiments on non-human animals, such as the research by Pavlov on his dog
and Skinner on his rat
...

Wolpe created a phobia in cats by placing them in cages and administering electric shocks
...
The act of eating recued their anxiety and eventually the cats could be placed in
cages more similar to the original without symptoms of anxiety
...
Wolpe treated one woman with a phobia
of insects and found that SD did not cure her phobia
...
Therefore her fear was not the result of conditioning but a means o representing her
marital problems
...


COGNITIVE APPROACH

Assumption 1 : Computer Analogy
•
•
•
•
•

This assumption compares the human mind to a computer
We take in information (input), change/store it (process), and recall it when
necessary (output)
Mind = hardware
Cognitive processes = software
One example of this approach is the multistore mode
...


Assumption 2 : Internal Mental
Processes
• This assumes that human beings are like information
processors, where essential cognitive processes (e
...

perception, attention, memory and language) work
together to enable us to make sense of and respond to the
world around us
• When we see a dog, for example, we pay attention to it,
perceive its features, then search through our memory to
find a ‘match’; in order to name it, we use our knowledge
of language
...
This is where an individual is given a stimulus
e
...
A ticking metronome, and would then report how this
made them think and feel
...

• For example our ‘dog schema’ may include
‘four legs,’ ‘fur,’ ‘bark,’ ‘tail’ etc
...
g
...
This is a schema called the HALO EFFECT
...
g
...
Therefore, we may become more interested in
forming a relationship with them
SELF SCHEMAS, how we feel about ourselves and govern our self concept, can also play
a part in the formation of romantic relationships
...

According to the matching hypothesis, we are attracted to those we feel match
us in terms of physical attraction
...

If our self concept is strong and we perceive ourselves to be highly attractive, we
are more likely to try to form a relationship with highly attractive others
...


How cognitive assumptions apply to
CBT
• The overall assumption of the cognitive approach is that our thoughts
influence our emotions and the behaviour that follows
...

CBT is a therapy based on these assumptions and works by helping
clients change their thinking patterns and behaviour
...
g
...
This enables the
client to see for themselves that their perceptions are not base don any
real evidence which can help them change their negative, irrational
thinking
...
In CBT, the client is helped to change their schemas
so that their automatic thoughts become more positive
...
They
should then record automatic ‘negative’ thoughts associated with the event and rate how much they believe in these
thoughts (on a scale of 1-100%)
...

Finally, clients should re-rate their beliefs in the automatic thoughts
...

The client is taught to challenge dysfunctional thoughts, for example by asking themselves ‘where is the
evidence that X was talking about me? What is the worst that can happen if X was?’
Clients are able to find new ways of behaving by challenging dysfunctional thoughts and replacing them with new ones
...
It may be something that gives a
sense of accomplishment (e
...
Gym) or something that takes them away from their usual routine (e
...
Having lunch
away from office desk, talking to someone new)
...
This is an example
of behavioural activation – helping clients change their behaviour
...
If the activity didn’t go as planned, the client is encouraged to explore why and what they could have done to
change it
...


CBT: Evaluation
•

Research support
There is a large body of evidence to suggest that CBT is effective in treating mental illnesses, depression and
anxiety-related problems in particular
...

However, HOLLON ET AL found no difference in CBT when compared with a slightly different kind of
antidepressant drug in a sample of 107 patients over a 10-week trial
...
Competencies include ability
to structure sessions, ability to plan and review assignments (e
...
dysfunctional thought diary), application of
relaxations kills, and the ability to engage in and foster good therapeutic relations
...


•

Individual differences
CBT may be more suitable for some people than others
...
It is also less suitable where high levels
of stress in the individual are a result of realistic stressors in the person’s life which cannot be changed (e
...
Divorce,
death of a loved one, poor financial state) (SIMONS ET AL)

•

Empowerment
CBT empowers clients to develop their own coping strategies and recognises that people have the free will to
do so
...
e
...
Important situational
factors that are contributing to the behaviour may be overlooked, such as family
problems or life events that the client has no control over
...


• What is rational?
Another ethical debate concerns who judges an irrational thought
...

Alloy and Abrahamson suggest that depressive realists tend to see things for
what they are, and ‘normal’ people tend to distort things in a positive way
...

The ethical issue here is that it breaches the patients protection form harm,
as criticising their ‘irrational thoughts’ can damage their self esteem, causing
psychological harm
...

In experiment 1 there were 45 student participants
...


•

EXPERIMENT 1:

•

This experiment investigated whether leading questions could bias a person’s response
...
After each clip, the participants received a questionnaire
...
There were 5 groups with 9 P’s
...


•

EXPERIMENT 2:

•

This experiment investigated whether leading questions could actually alter a person’s memory
...
They were then asked a set of questions including the critical question
about speed
...

Group 1 was asked ‘how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?’ Group 2 was asked
‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ Group 3 was a control group and received no questions
...


•

Loftus & Palmer: Findings
• EXPERIMENT 1
The mean speed estimate for the ‘contacted’
group was 31
...
The means speed estimate for the
‘smashed’ group was 40
...

• EXPERIMENT 2
Participants gave higher speed estimates in the
‘smashed’ condition than the ‘hit’ condition
...


Loftus & Palmer: Conclusions
•

The findings indicate that the form of a question (in this case, a single word) can affect a witnesses
answer to that question
...
g
...
Some critical words would change a person’s perception and make them believe it to be
more serious
...
In the ‘smashed’ condition, the word used forms a memory of an accident that
appears quite severe and therefore generates certain expectations, for example that there is likely
to be broken glass
...

Carmichael et al found that verbal labels cause a shift in the way information is represented in
memory, in the direction of being more similar to the suggestions given by the verbal label
...
This means that cause and effect can be
demonstrated and we can reach casual conclusions; By deliberately manipulating the independent variable (verb) we can see
the effect it has on the dependant variable (speed estimate)
...

However, the P’s may have displayed demand characteristics as a result of the lab environment; this could have
influenced their speed estimates as they may have been trying to mess the results up or please the researcher
...
Therefore, they may not have taken the task
seriously and may not have been emotionally aroused in the way they would be if it were a real event
...

In real life, EWT may be more accurate
...

However, BUCKOUT conducted a real life study where a short film was shown on TV
...


•

The sample
The participants in the study were US college students
...
For example, one study showed that children are more easily swayed by leading questions are therefore are
more likely to misidentify a suspect
...

Also, as they were all of a similar age and background, the results cannot be generalised to a wider population; the
sample does not reflect other cultures or age groups
...

However, the researcher still deceived their participants
...

• Psychological harm
The participants did not witness a real accident but instead watched film
clips
...

However, watching a real accident may have been more distressing, and could
have cause long lasting emotional damage to P’s
...

Therefore, Loftus & Palmer’s research avoided the ethical issue of
psychological harm
...
Psychologists have used
the approach to explain how important meditational processes such as perception and memory affect the way we
respond to the world around us
...
Such research can show us why
we need to make shopping lists etc
...

PIAGET developed a theory that suggested children’s thinking is not the same as adults
...
This idea had a major effect on education as teachers realised it
was important to use concrete examples on younger children, and therefore changed teaching methods within schools
...
The work of Elizabeth Loftus showed that
eyewitness accounts can be easily distorted by post-event information
...

Scientific approach
The cognitive approach lends itself to objective and controlled scientific research
...
Also, in more recent times, memory research
has involved using brain scanning techniques such as PET and MRI scans to pinpoint specific areas of the brain as
opposed to using guesswork
...
It is devoted to pinpointing exact locations of the brain to
establish which parts are active and responsible for different things
...


Evaluation of cognitive approach:
Weaknesses
•

Nature and nurture
The cognitive approach does consider both internal factors (processes within the mind) and external
factors (development of schemas), it fails to consider both nature and nurture
...

Additionally, social and cultural actors are also ignored
...


•

Determinist approach
People acquire schemas through direct experience and social interactions, and they have a significant
influence on our behaviour
...
These stereotypes,
however, may determine the way we interpret situations and approach different people
...
This means that it often ignores social and emotional factors
...
However, the cause of the depression may lie in significant events such as divorce or death of a loved
one
...
In many cases, this is not possible
...


Assumption 2: Authenticity of
goodness and excellence
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

States that the feelings of happiness are as natural as feelings of anxiety and
stress, and therefore psychologists need to assign these positive states of mind
equal attention
According to Seligman, the belief that traits such as happiness are less authentic
than negative traits such as anxiety has been an obstacle in psychological research
Seligman believes that we have inherent traits or ‘signature strengths’ such as
kindness, generosity and humour
...
g
...
In
order to achieve it, we need to develop our strengths and virtues (e
...
wisdom, knowledge,
courage, spirituality, love)
...

Positive individual traits: may include personal qualities such as a sense of integrity,
morality, creativity, bravery, courage and humility
Life regulation qualities: qualities we need to develop to regulate and control our
behaviour
...

•
•

The meaningful life – happiness comes from a deep sense of fulfilment by living for a purpose
much greater than oneself (religion, charity)
Seligman encourages people to seek the meaningful life

Positive explanation for relationship
formation
• Positive psychology would advocate that we strive towards a ‘good
life’, which is a place of happiness, good relations and work
...
’
• For Seligman, happiness and the good life come from pursuing
activities that absorb and engage us
...

• This idea is supported by research that shows tat people in
relationships are happier than those who are not
...


How positive assumptions apply to
Mindfulness
• The overall aim of the positive approach is to promote human flourishing;
Mindfulness encourages the development of positive characteristics and
virtues
• One of the assumptions, authenticity of goodness and excellence, states
that individuals strive to achieve better lives by developing their natural
strengths and virtues
...
’
• Another assumption, acknowledgement of free will, states that humans
have control over their emotions and can take action to change their lives
...
Mindfulness enhances self-regulation and
encourages people to gain control of their thoughts and emotions in order
to develop a more productive attitude towards them

Main components of mindfulness
•

Gaining control of thoughts
Being mindful trains us to focus on our present thoughts, emotions and feelings, and to become aware of them
and accept them
...

The goal of focusing on the present is to gain greater awareness of negative thoughts in order to gain control
over them to remove them
...
The mindfulness practice will help an
individual notice when these automatic processes are occurring and to alter their reaction so it becomes more of a
reflection
...

Guided meditation will involve getting the client to sit in a comfortable position, keeping the spine straight and
asking them to direct their attention to breathing
...

Meditation helps people reprocess their internal experiences and helps them to accept that thoughts and
emotions are impermanent
...


•

Informal practices of mindfulness
Once learned, mindfulness can be practiced in daily life amid other activities such as driving, cleaning, taking a
walk or having a shower
...

It involves paying attention to your surroundings, for example, when driving, noticing how the wheel feels
under your hands, or the sensation as the car moves
...


Mindfulness: Evaluation
•

Integration with other therapies
Mindfulness techniques have become incorporated with other therapies such as psychoanalysis and
cognitive-behavioural therapy
...
Traditionally, CBT
attempts to identify and modify people’s unrealistic thoughts, but MiCBT helps to change the process of thinking,
not just the content of our thoughts
...


•

Application in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
MBCT has been used to prevent those suffering form depression from relapse
...
Patients were randomly allocated to receive
treatment as usual as well as 8 MBCT classes
...
It substantially reduced the risk of relapse in those who had 3 or more previous
episodes of depression
...

REIBEL ET AL reported that MBSR decreased levels o f anxiety and depression in 136 patients who
participated in an 8 week mindfulness programme involving 20 minutes of meditation per day
...


•

Group versus individual mindfulness
There is evidence to suggest that mindfulness meditation is more effective in group settings
...
These participants practised mediation for 6 weeks with
their group or individually
...


Mindfulness: Ethical issues
• Positive
Mindfulness does not involve dragging up the past and unwanted memories
as a means of explaining behaviour
...

It does not involve attributing current issues to past events; this lack of a
determinist stance is positive for the individual as it makes them feel as though
they are in control of their health
...

• Mindfulness and morality
Mindfulness can be seen as essential in maintaining moral and ethical
standards
...

One study showed that individuals who were higher in mindfulness were less
likely to cheat on a task and more likely to uphold ethical standards
...


Myers and Diener: Methodology and
procedures
•

Myers and Diener did not conduct a study, but instead carried out a review of research on the topic of
happiness
...
Their main aim was to find out “who is happy?”

•

Interviews & questionnaires:
Happiness was assessed by considering the participants sense of their own well being (subjective
well being)
...


•

Observations:
One way to discover what people are doing is by asking them to report what they are doing at
selected times
...


•

Correlations:
Another way to understand happiness is to consider what factors co-vary with it
...


•

Review:
Myers and Diener reviewed some research that was also based on multiple studies
...
However, at different ages, different factors contribute to happiness
...

Gender:
The same survey by Inglehart found that 80% of men and 80% of women said they were fairly satisfied
with life
...

However, research also shows that women are twice as vulnerable to depression than men
...
10% of people
in Portugal reported that they were happy compared to 40% in the Netherlands
...

Money:
75% of American college students ranked ‘being well off financially’ in 1993 as an essential life goal,
compared with 39% in 1970
...
12
...
People who win the lottery only report brief increases in happiness
...
Once a certain level of comfort is reached (e
...
Basic needs like food and warmth are met)
increased wealth makes little difference
...
Costa et al found
that people who reported being happy in 1973 were happy 10 years later
...
It is not clear whether they are happy
because of these traits or whether these traits occur because they are happy
...

Relationships
Research shows that people who can name several close friends are healthier and happier
than those who cannot
...
In one study, the
rates were 39% versus 24%
...

Work & Flow
Work satisfaction affects happiness
...
He found this out by
using beepers
...
People
with a high ‘religious commitment’, were twice as likely to say they were very happy (Gallup)
Happiness is also associated with strength of religious affilation and frequency of worship
attendance (Witter)

Myers and Diener: Conclusions
•
•

•
•

•

Three elements can be identified that are a part of a theory of happiness:
The importance of adaptation
The effects of positive and negative events fade over time
...
Similarly, people who go through trauma recover their hope and
happiness
...
This
is all due to the human capacity to adapt to life circumstances
...
Some cultures see the world as a
benevolent and controllable place whereas others emphasise negative emotions
...
All other factors, such as money or intelligence,
only matter if they are relevant to their goals
...
In a more affluent society money matters less because that is not the prime actors
in achieving one’s goals
...
It does, however, seem to be
associated with race and culture
...
This understanding is important as it helps psychologists build a world that enhances human well
being
...
When someone reports that they are
happy, we have no way of confirming this
...
Research has found that people who tend to give socially desirable answers also
often report to be very happy
...

However, when the friends of these people are asked about the individual’s happiness, their ratings
correlate with the target individual’s personal answer
...

Another possibility is that people think they are happy but are actually repressing their true feelings of
unhappiness
...

Correlations
Many of the findings are correlational; however, correlations do not allow us to determine cause and
effect
...
A further issue is that we do not know
the direction of the relationship
...

The samples
A lot of the data is based on Western samples as the researchers are America and have conducted much
of their research in the USA
...

The article does, however, touch upon the differences between individualistic and collectivist cultures
...


Myers and Diener: Ethical issues &
social implications
•

•

Psychological harm
There was vey little risk of harm to participants because behaviour is not being
manipulated
...
It is
important that researchers are sensitive to participants and debrief them before and after
...
This means that they should not try to help someone who begins to discuss, for
example, their depression during a debriefing session
...

Socially sensitive research
Myers and Diener’s research draws conclusions such as that 10% of Portuguese people
were happy compared to 40% of Dutch people
...
This is of course unfair and untrue, but as well as
this, we need to be cautious about such statistics; we do not know that the sample used was
a fair representation of the Portuguese and Dutch populations
...
It recognises that focusing solely on disorder and disease results in a limited
understanding of the human condition
...
”
Traditional psychology has tended to be deterministic, looking at the individual’s past instead of their future
...

Seligman: “the aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyse a change in focus of psychology from preoccupation
only with repairing the worst things in life, to also building positive qualities
...
It has also been successfully applied in resilience training for the US army
...
The programme focuses on building mental toughness by focusing on signature strengths (e
...
humour, courage,
perseverance) as well as preventing pathology, so that soldiers can return home without serious mental health issues
...
In 2002, The
department of education was awarded 2
...

Wellington college in Berkshire added positive psychology and happiness lessons to the timetable and made it part of
the core curriculum
...

Free will approach
Positive psychology is based on the notion that humans are neither pre-determined or restricted; they have freedom to
grow and develop their strengths, and are not victims of their conditions
...

Positive psychologists believe that developing our signature strengths results in control over our mental health and well
being, leading to a contented and happy life
...


Evaluation of positive approach: Weaknesses
•

•

•

Not a new idea
The positive potential of human beings was first celebrated by Abraham Maslow and
the humanistic psychology movement in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s
...
Maslow urged people to think about addressing their higher needs and
recognised that humans are internally directed; however, Seligman has been criticised for
ignoring such work
...
Positive psychology
separates itself from humanistic psychology on the grounds that it is more scientific,
however humanistic psychologists criticise this and believe that ignorance of qualitative
methods will result in narrow explanations of human behaviour
...
Therefore, developing scientific measurements for this subjective
state of mind is a challenge
...

Ignoring individual differences
The positive approach has been criticised for proposing a ‘one size fits all’ philosophy
...
Julie Norem suggests that it is dangerous to assume that all
positive qualities are beneficial
...
It is thought
that forcing optimism on such people can actually damage performance
...
If so, drugs can be used to
change these levels and “treat” criminals
...
Phrenologists claimed that insanity was a
disease of the brain and should be treated as a disease rather than a behaviour requiring punishment (Cooter)
However, using drugs to treat criminals could be unethical because it reduces their free will if it becomes mandatory
...
If we treat them as mentally ill, they cannot
give full consent to take the drugs and make decisions fro themselves
...
g performances on academic tasks
...
16% of American college students take stimulants as regular
study aids
...
TDCS apparatus is not available to everyone; it is unfair to treat some but not all
...


•

Understand Consciousness
Neuroscientists propose that a thin sheet of neurons found in the centre of the brain is the seat of the consciousness
...
This knowledge
can help us make decisions about patients who are in a persistent vegetative state
...

However, the study on consciousness involved a patient with an abnormal brain(epilepsy), therefore, the evidence can be
challenged
...
We must consider whether we have the moral right to withdraw life support from individuals who have lost
consciousness and are in a persistent vegetative state
...
This
means that the mother is going to need to be available to feed the infant possibly every 2 hours, and so it is
practical/essential that the mother be the primary care giver
...
Harlow and Harlow found that infant monkeys
spent more time with a cloth mother than a surrogate who provided food
...
Therefore, breastfeeding is not essential
in creating a relationship with an infants and so the father can be the primary care giver as well as the mother
...
In the natural animal
world, this responsive role would be carried out by the mother as they can provide food by breastfeeding
...

•

Deprivation Damage
Bowlby demonstrated that early and prolonged separation between a mother and child can have lasting
emotional effects
...
This character is more likely to become a thief and have difficulty forming
relationships
...
Also, the mother is
automatically the primary care giver for a child from the moment it is born
...
g
father) would be just as damaging
...


•

Mothers not fathers
The female hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour so that women, generally, are more orientated
towards emotional relationships than men
...

In terms of social factors, there continue to be sex-stereotypes that influence male behaviour
...

There is evidence to suggest that men can form close attachments with their children e
...
Our changing stereotypes mean that both men and women feel freer to take on roles traditionally reserved for
the opposite sex
...
e giving positive reinforcement at appropriate times
...

The ‘naughty step’ is criticised by childcare experts as it can have long term emotional effects
...
Without empathy and help with their feelings, the naughty step may have a negative effect on development
...

•

In school
Using operant conditioning techniques improves student behaviour; A study looking into inappropriate language in schools found that an increase in use of
teacher praise, as well as teacher disapproval, led to a decrease in inappropriate language
...
One psychologists proposed that in order to improve student performance and positive feelings, teachers should
maximise pleasant stimuli (e
...
nice smells, laughter, wall displays) and minimise negative stimuli (e
...
shouting, negative comments)
...
A study o nursery children showed that children spent half as much time drawing a picture when promised a reward than a control group who
were not promised a reward; this suggests that their own motivation was destroyed by the expectation of a reward
...

Another psychologist found that schools In Japan rarely used reward systems, but also that the children were internally motivated
...
Applied Behaviour Analysis was developed to increase
social interactions for children with autistic spectrum disorder
...

Robinson et al showed how the use of token economies can improve performance in vocabularly-relate dtasks of children with hyperactivity issues
...

The use o the ‘Funhaler’ on children with asthma showed to improve the child’s motivation to use their medication and created a more positive response to
treatment
...
g
...
This means that any conclusions drawn about the effectiveness of treatment may not be entirely valid
...
This would be incredibly expensive, but also, another researcher found that just 20 hours a week of treatment was enough to
allow for a significant improvement
...


Cognitive; The reliability of eyewitness
testimony (including children)
•

Post event information
In Loftus and Palmer’s classic research, the information ‘suggested’ after the event became incorporated into the original memory; participants were shown clips of a car
crash then split into groups
...
The
groups where the adjective was more dramatic e
...
“smashed” predicted a higher speed than those who had the word “bumped” or “contacted
...
This shows that subtle changes in wording can greatly influence an eye witness’ response
...
g
...

Also, not all research suggests that post-event information is misleading
...
The P’s were later exposed to information containing subtle errors, although they were often wrong about unimportant items, 98% of the participants correctly
remembered that the purse was red
...


•

Memory is reconstructive
Information already held in our schemas may distort new information; we would try to fit it in to suit our schemas and logic
...
These expectations may become incorporated with our memory when we have to recall
information about a crime, leading to inaccuracies in recall
...
Eyewitnesses may not select the actual criminal, but perhaps the person who looks like a criminal
...
When asked to recall the event, they misremembered the
black man as the mugger
...
RapeCrisis report tha 90% of rapists are known to their
victims
...

When research is conducted with eyewitnesses to real-life crimes, their accuracy is much higher than that suggested by lab-based research
...

Sometimes our schemas can help us remember an event more accurately; One study showed that participants, after witnessing a video of a bank robbery, recalled more
details that fitted with the stereotype of a bank robber (such as the bank robber being male)
...


•

Child witnesses
Children as eyewitnesses are often regarded as unreliable as they are more easily swayed by the suggestions of others and prone to fantasy
...
Children aged 5-13 did not differ significantly in
identifying the target individual, however they were more likely to make a choice (which was inevitably wrong) when the target individual was not even present
...
Therefore children may be less reliable and sensitive to
leading questions
...

Davies et al found that children aged 6-7 and 10-11 are fairly accurate in their memories of an event; they do not make things up or deliberately lie
...

Some research suggests that all age groups are most accurate when recognising an offender from their own age group; this could mean that children might be more
reliable to use as an eyewitness when identifying another child
...

The Penn Resiliency Programme (PRP) supports Seligman’s claims; students on the programme showed reduced symptoms of depression compared to a
control group
...
The students, their parents
and teachers then completed a questionnaire
...

One argument is that the research for the evidence of positive psychology programmes tends to be based on small-scale or short-term interventions
...
Even Seligman admitted that further research
needs to be conducted to ensure effectiveness with students from a wide variety of backgrounds
...
This might mean that society would end up
paying more for students to leave school with fewer academic achievements/qualifications
...
The ‘flow’ theory suggests that our experiences will be most positive when
both challenges and skills are high; the person is enjoying the moment, stretching their capabilities and increasing self-esteem
...

Although positive psychology reports findings that support the concept of “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”, it is
not a new idea; we have to consider whether positive psychology in the workplace has offered us anything more than support for something that society already
knows
...
12 between income and happiness
...
’
Therefore, positive psychology in the workplace may only be suitable for certain occupations
...
Medical professionals might treat patients with advice on how to
increase their happiness, along with other lifestyle advice
...
This shows that
stress can cause damage to our health/immune system, and so techniques like mindfulness can help us reduce stress and benefit our health
...
Positive psychology could influence health significantly, however, it cannot e taken seriously if its research
cannot draw clear cause and effect conclusions
...
Therefore,
techniques such as mindfulness can never cure people of mental illness as they can only treat the symptoms

---