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GCSE Psychology
Knowledge Organiser Booklet

Criminal
Psychology
Key Concepts:
• Criminal behaviour - any act that goes
against the law of the land
...
g
...
g
...
g
...
g
...
g
...

• Deviation from norms - crime is when an
act or behaviour goes against what is
expected in society
...
As cultures change, so do their
norms
...
Not
all crimes are necessarily reported
...

1
...

2
...

3
...

4
...
Self-efficacy (belief in ourselves)
...

5
...

Internalisation - the behaviour becomes part of
us and no longer needs to be reinforced for it to
continue
...

Core Study #1 Criticisms:
• Sample was biased
• Artificial setting - low ecological validity
• Uncontrolled extraneous variables e
...
prior
experience of the game
...


Core Study #1: Cooper and Mackie (1986)
●
●

●

●

●
●

●

Aim: to investigate if playing an aggressive video game
would lead to an increase in aggression in children
...
IV = game played
...

Target population was a set of schools in New Jersey,
USA
...

Participants randomly allocated to one of three
conditions where some played and some observed
others playing:
○ Missile Command (aggressive game)
○ Pac-Man (non-aggressive game)
○ Paper and pen maze games (control condition)
Participants then were either taken to a playroom to
choose a toy, or had to complete a test
...
This made no
difference to results
...

Conclusion: Girls were more aggressive after playing the
aggressive game due to increased arousal which led to a
disinhibition effect (more socially acceptable to play
with aggressive toy as they had already been
encouraged to play an aggressive game
...


Criminal
Psychology
Applications - reducing
criminal/anti-social behaviour
• Punishments - negative
consequences to certain behaviours
that aim to reduce the chance of
these behaviours happening again
...
g
...
E
...
use of media to
make punishment public, vicarious
reinforcement
• Rehabilitation - promoting
pro-social behaviour and teaching
social skills
...
g
...

Core Theory #2 Criticisms:
• Ignores individual differences
• Unlikely criminals all share a similar
personality
• Too deterministic as it ignores free
will

Core Theory #2: Eysenck’s Personality Trait Theory/Biological theory
●
Criminal personality - personality traits associated with people who
commit crimes
...

●
Supertraits - we all have these to a certain extent:
○
Extraversion - how outgoing an individual is (Criminals are often
extroverts as they need a lot of stimulation from the
environment and are often thrill-seekers
...

○
Psychoticism - how impulsive/aggressive an individual is
(Criminals are often psychotic as they are aggressive and
impulsive)
...
Cerebral cortex
becomes hungry for stimulation which is then gained from
criminal behaviour
...
Extroverts respond more
positively to reinforcers like sex and money, increasing dopamine
release
...
Becomes over-aroused in neurotic individual leading
to violent behaviour
...

○
High levels of extraversion and neuroticism make people difficult
to condition (learning by consequences) and often more resistant

Core Study #2: Heaven (1996)
•

•
•

•

•

Aim: to investigate if psychoticism,
extroversion and self-esteem predict
delinquent behaviour
...

Self-report questionnaires to
measure personality and self-esteem
and for delinquency two years later
...

• Weaker correlation between
extraversion and delinquency
...

Conclusion: Psychoticism can predict
delinquent behaviour, but not
extraversion or self-esteem
...


Core Study #2 Criticisms:
• Sample was culturally biased
...

●
Stages of development:
○
Pre-natal (from conception to
birth) - develop neural tube,
cerebral cortex, neurons and
simple synapses
...

○
Adolescence (from 13-19) grey matter reaches
maximum density,
maturation of limbic system,
pre-frontal cortex and frontal
lobes
...

Neurodegenerative diseases
can be developed
...


Core Theory #1: Piaget’s Stage Theory
●
Invariant (do not change) and universal (the same for all
children)
●
Schemas (mental pictures of the world) develop over time
due to assimilation (new information merged into an
existing schema) and accommodation (existing schemas
altered or new ones formed to fit in new information)
...

○
Concrete Operational (7-11) - conservation (able
to understand that if something changes shape or
form, it still has the same volume, mass or length),
decentration (able to see from another’s point of
view), reversibility (can think about things in
reverse order), seriation (putting things in order),
linguistic humour (playing with words to create
jokes)
○
Formal Operational (11+) - abstract thought,
hypothetical thinking and problem-solving
...

Natural experiment and cross-sectional
study
...

Small sample of Swiss school children from
Geneva were tested individually by showing
them counters lined up in two rows
...

Results:
○ Pre-operational stage = more counters
in the longer row
...

○ Some near the end of the P-O stage
were able to state that the amount of
counters stayed the same, but couldn’t
understand why
...


Core Study #1 Criticisms:
• Demand characteristics as some children
were asked the same question twice
• Artificial as it is not a real-life situation
• Culturally biased

Development
Applications - changing role of
education
Piaget’s theory
• Key stages - Piaget’s stages used to
organise education of children
• Readiness - children not ready to
learn certain things until they have
reached a particular stage
• Active learning - children should
actively engage with their
environment to learn from it
• Symbolic play - children need to play
‘make believe’ to aid development
Learning theories
• Growth mindsets - teachers to
encourage teachers to try hard and
praise effort not intelligence
• Meaning - teachers focus on
supporting students to think about
the meaning of information
...

• In schools, failure can affect self-esteem so students do not like
making an effort if they have a fixed mindset
...

• Individuals can hold different mindsets for different abilities
...

• Praising effort, not intelligence, is key to increasing learning as they
will value hard work instead of performance
...
Knowing what
they are going to learn is more important than the learning style, as
is their background knowledge, ability, and interest in a subject
...

• Meaning for learning - students should understand the meaning of
what they are being taught rather than just being given lists of facts
to memorise
...

Core Study #2 Criticisms:
• Culturally biased
• Reductionist as it only focused on students’ mindsets
• Effect was actually very small

Core Study #2: Blackwell, Trzesniewski and
Dweck (2007)
• Aim: to investigate whether theories of
intelligence correlate with academic
achievement in maths and to test the impact
of academic intervention
• Longitudinal study of students in NYC over 5
years
...

• Study 1:
• Students given motivational
questionnaire at the beginning of 7th
grade
...

• 8 week workshop to improve study
skills
...

• Study 2 - intervention group gained
higher grades and showed more
motivation
• Conclusion: Positive effect on motivation and
effort for students with a growth mindset
...

Quite subjective and personal experience
...

Use a mental health continuum to define mental
health on a scale to show degrees of mental health
...

Difficult to measure mental health because not all
problems are diagnosed, definitions change over
time, and relies on self-report surveys
...

Cognitive factors to stigma as people perceive mental
health issues differently, which can lead to
discrimination
...

Problem of mental health labels becoming a
self-fulfilling prophecy (behaves in a way they think
they are expected to)
...
g
...
g
...
g
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Covers 1% of the
population
...

●
Working class people 5 times more likely to be diagnosed
...

●
Experience a rejection by society as they stop following social norms
which leads to further disengagement
...

●
Messages from dopaminergic neurons fire too easily or too
often/unusually high number of dopamine (D2) receptors resulting in
more binding and more neurons firing across synapses
...

●
Neurological damage tends to happen in the womb but doesn’t appear
until later in life
...
(1991)
•
•

•

•

•

Aim: to investigate the role of dopamine
in Schizophrenia
...

10 inpatients from a mental health ward
in USA either given a placebo or
amphetamine and completed a mock
test, a test of simple motor control and a
test of prefrontal activation (WCST)
...

• No significant differences in the
effects of the placebo or
amphetamine on blood flow
except a small effect in the WCST
...

Conclusion: amphetamine increased
prefrontal cortex activity during
performance of a cognitive task showing
a link between brain function and
Schizophrenia symptoms
...

●
Blocking dopamine receptors to stop some chemical
messages being passed to the brain
...

●
Can help with positive symptoms (thoughts and feelings) as
well as negative symptoms (tiredness and social withdrawal)
●
Conventional psychotics = tiredness, jerky movements, loss
of movement or trembling)
...

Anti-depressants to treat Depression
●
Increasing number of neurotransmitters in the brain such as
serotonin or noradrenaline
...

Psychotherapy /CBT
●
Psychotherapy - “Talking” therapy introduced by Freud in
late 19th century
...

●
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) - aims to change how
individuals think and behave to confront irrational thoughts
...
5-20 sessions
...

●
Schizophrenia - CBT helps re-evaluate the voices
...
g
...

●
Symptoms:
○
Low mood/sadness
○
Feeling hopeless
○
Low self-esteem
○
No motivation/lack of interest in things
○
Suicidal thoughts
ABC Model (Ellis)
●
Depression is the result of irrational beliefs and thinking
...

●
A = Activation event (situation which triggers an irrational
thought)
●
B = Beliefs (how the event is interpreted by the individual)
●
C = Consequences (how they end up feeling or behaving)
Biological Theory/Social Rank Theory
●
Depression has evolved to help us adapt and survive by
reducing conflict and stopping competition
...

●
By giving in to the winner (higher social ranking), it allows
the loser (lower social ranking) to remain in society rather
than being outcast
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g
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(2015)
•
•
•

•
•
•

•

Aim: to see whether depression could be
predicted by Facebook usage
...
736 students from USA
...

Also asked to rate 8 different items
relating to envy on a 5-point Likert scale
...

Results:
• Heavy FB use showed stronger
feelings of envy
...

• No relationship between
frequency of FB use and
depression
...

Conclusion: Using FB does not directly
lead to depression, but can contribute to
feelings of envy
...


Core Study #2 Criticisms:
• Cultural bias
• Age bias
• Social desirability bias

Social Influence
Key Concepts:
• Conformity - giving in to the pressure of
the group
...

• Obedience - following orders from
someone we perceive as having more
authority than us
...
The behaviour of
crowds can often be spontaneous and
unplanned, causing people to act in a
way they normally wouldn’t do
...

• Pro-social behaviour - actions that
benefit society and its members
...

• deindividuation does not always lead to
violence; it can be positive too
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1
...

●
Informational conformity - go along with the group because they are
unsure and so follow the lead of others
...

Effect of deindividuation on collective and crowd behaviour
●
In-group - someone who is part of the group
●
Out-group - someone who is not part of the group
●
Deindividuation - when people lose their sense of individuality and feel
more anonymous, (Lack of consequences for their behaviour
...

Effect of culture on pro- and anti-social behaviour
●
Collectivist culture - the needs of the group are more important than
the needs of the individual (more helpful to each other)
●
Individuality culture - the needs of the individual are seen as more
important than the needs of the group (more independent)
...

4
...

●
Autonomous state - where an individual feels responsible for their own
actions
...

●
Charismatic leaders theory - House et al
...
The leader is seen as almost being superhuman and is
idolised by the followers
...
3
experimenters dressed as either a
policeman, a milkman or a civilian
...

• Campaigning to reduce stigma and
discrimination associated with mental
health
...

• For minority influence to work:
○ Message must be consistent
○ Must show commitment to the
cause
○ Argument must be persuasive
Majority influence
●
National campaigns to reduce
stigma and discrimination
associated with mental health
...


Core Theory #2 Criticisms:
• Reductionist as it ignores the influence
of situational factors
...

• Authoritarian personality does not take
into account differences in parenting
...

1
...

●
Self-esteem - how we perceive ourselves
...

●
People with low self esteem tend to look to others to behave in the
‘correct’ manner
...

Effect of locus of control on collective and crowd behaviour
●
Locus of control - how much control a person feels they have over their
own life
...

●
External locus of control - feel like they have no control over their own
decisions and that other people have the control
...

Effect of morality on pro- and anti-social behaviour
●
Morality - understanding what is right an wrong
...

Effect of the authoritarian personality on obedience
●
A personality type that is very obedient to authority
...

5
...
They are less able to control stress levels and emotions
...
Similar to psychopaths in personality
...

(2011)):
• Aim: to investigate what triggered
the Tottenham riots in 2011
...

• Data gathered 5 weeks after the
riots took place
...

• Findings:
• Key motivation for
involvement: benefitting
from exciting experience,
opportunity to loot, getting
back at police
...
g
...
g
...

• Conclusion: behaviour is influenced
by both situational and dispositional
factors
...
Important for semantic memories of
facts and autobiographical memories
...

• Cerebellum is responsible for learning
movements and procedural memory (motor
skills)
...
Caused by brain injury, illness,
some medications or illegal drugs
...

○ Retrograde - cannot recall existing
memories due to damage of the
frontal lobe
...
If we don’t pay
attention to it, the information decays (fades until
forgotten)
○
Short-term memory (STM) - limited capacity (7+/-2)
and duration (30 seconds)
...
If more
information enters and the store is full, information
becomes displaced (pushed out)
...
Information in STM that goes through
maintenance rehearsal (repeating the information
over and over), is moved into LTM
...

Types of forgetting:
○
Decay - if we do not pay attention to the information
that enters the sensory store then it breaks down and
is no longer available
...

○
Displacement - when STM is full, new information
pushes out the old information and causes it to be
forgotten if it has not been rehearsed
...
Context cues help to take you
back to the place where the memory was encoded,
so helps to trigger the memory
...


Core Study #1 Criticisms:
• May have caused psychological distress over 21 years
• Confidentiality not maintained
• Hard to generalise

Core Study #1: Wilson et al
...

Used neuropsychological tests such as IQ tests,
and MRI scans to test his STM and LTM and to
see the amount and location of damage in his
brain
...
Virus destroyed large parts of his
brain
...

Results:
• Severe brain abnormalities, both
retrograde and anterograde amnesia,
inability to form new memories, loss of
semantic memory and damaged episodic
memory
...

• Lacked autobiographical consciousness
(unable to create new autobiographical
memories)
...

Unable to rehearse information to commit to
LTM
...

●
When the consumer is in the same situation or
emotional state, the advert will act as a cue to trigger
their memory of the product
...

Repetition
●
Advertisers use repetition to build a familiarity with
their brand and to promote positive feelings about
their product
...

Avoiding overload
●
Overload = Too much information entering a memory
store
...

●
Slogans need to be kept short and product details at a
minimum
...

Measuring memory
●
Weschler Memory Scale - evaluates the extent of
brain damage in patients with a brain injury or
dementia
...

●

Core Theory #2: Reconstructive Memory
Memory is influenced by our prior experiences and
schemas (mental representation of an object or
situation)
...
We can be flexible
and access what we need to when we need
to
...

●
Experience - memory is influenced by prior
experiences, so it is not always entirely
accurate when recalled
...
May not always be correct, but
help to respond quickly
...
People don’t do this on
purpose
...
Leading questions can
influence what people remember
...

Core Theory
#2 Criticisms:
●
●
●

Too reductionist
Doesn’t explain how memories are
processed
Difficult to test

Core Study #2 Criticisms:
• Age bias
• Unethical to manipulate memory
• Lacked ecological validity

Core Study #2: Braun et al
...

• Laboratory experiment with an independent measures
design
...

• Participants shown either a Disney advert or a control
advert and then had to complete a questionnaire on 20
childhood events (Life Events Inventory) including ‘met
and shook hands with a favourite TV character’
...

• 74% reported the advert caused them to imagine
the experience
...

Experiment 2
●
Aim: to see whether false information in an advert
could implant false memories
...

●
Same as experiment 1, but more life events added in
(shaken hands with Bugs Bunny/Ariel)
...

●
Conclusions: autobiographical adverts influence how
consumers recall their past and can create false
memories
...

• Sleep cycle (90 minutes)
○ Stage 1 - 10%
○ Stage 2 - 50%
○ Stage 3 - 10%
○ Stage 4 - 10%
○ Rapid Eye Movement (REM) - 20%
• Neuropsychology
○ Endogenous pacemakers internal biological clocks that
manage circadian rhythms (e
...

Suprachiasmatic nucleus)
○ Exogenous Zeitgebers - features
of the environment that manage
circadian rhythms (e
...
light)
○ Hypothalamus - part of the brain
that controls key bodily functions
○ Melatonin - hormone that
induces sleep
...


Core Theory #1: Freudian Theory of Dreaming
A theory that looks at behaviour as a produced of the different parts of
the personality
...

●
Actions are motivated by unconscious urges and desires
...

●
Repression (defence mechanism) - pushing unpleasant
thoughts into the unconscious mind to protect yourself
...

●
Dreams have manifest content (actual content of the dream)
and latent content (what the true meaning of the dream is)
...
Often
caused by anxiety, caffeine, heavy meal before bedtime,
playing computer gams etc
...

Often caused by depression, alcohol, restless legs
syndrome, sharing a room with a snorer, menopause
etc
...

Case study involving a series of
interviews with Sergei Pankejeff
(Wolfman)
...

Analysed childhood dream involving
wolves in a tree outside Pankejeff’s
window
...

• Afraid of father’s power over
mother’s pleasure, he developed
castration anxiety
...

Conclusion: unconscious mind influences
behaviour as traumatic events are
pushed into the unconscious mind as a
safety mechanism
...


Core Study #1 Criticisms:
• Small sample
• Cannot easily be proven by research
...


Sleep & Dreaming
Applications - treatments for insomnia:
• Neurological damage to the
hypothalamus - injury or disease to the
hypothalamus, where the SCN is
located, can lead to sleep issues such as
insomnia
...
Some patients
given a substitute melatonin
...
Anxiety causes SNS to
respond, but relaxing encourages PNS to
balance the nervous system
...
Dark,
quiet, good temperature,
comfortable bedding, no
screens
...

○ Do regular exercise, avoid naps
and expose yourself to natural
daylight
...
Dreams have no real
meaning
...

Just before and during REM sleep, signals arise from the pons
(message station in the brain) in the brainstem, and from the
neurons that move the eyes, and activate the limbic system
(memories and emotions) and occipital lobe
...

These signals cause a surge of stimulation through the brain
activating the cerebral cortex
...

3
...

Core Theory #2 Criticisms:
• Reductionist as dreams are more complex than this
• Doesn’t explain recurring dreams
• Patients with damage to the brainstem do not stop dreaming
...
(1992)
•
•
•

•

•

•

Aim: to assess the bizarreness of dreams
and fantasies to support the AST
...

12 students at Harvard asked to keep
written journal of dreams and fantasies
...

Reports were judged separately by 3 judges
so that inter-rater reliability could be
tested
...

• 7/12 participants had dreams with
higher bizarreness scores than
fantasies
...


Core Study #2 Criticisms:
• Relied on self-report
• Social desirability bias
• Sample difficult to generalise

Research Methods
Hypotheses and variables
• Hypothesis = prediction
• Alternative hypothesis = predicts a
difference in results (There will be a
significant difference…)
• Null hypothesis = predicts no difference in
results (There will be no significant
difference…)
• Directional hypothesis = predicts the
direction results will go
• Non-directional hypothesis = does not
predict the specific directions results will go
• Variables = anything that can change
• Independent variable = what the researcher
manipulates or changes
• Dependent variable = what is being
measured by the researcher
• Extraneous variables = anything that can
influence the results
• Standardisation = controlling extraneous
variables by keeping them the same across
conditions
• Confounding variables = anything that does
change the results
• Cause and effect = one variable affecting a
change in another
• Co-variable = something that changes in
relation to another variable

Experimental design
●
Experimental design = the way participants are allocated into conditions
●
Repeated measures design = all participants take part in each condition
●
Independent measures design = participants are different in each condition
Experimental methods
• Experiments - measure the effect of an IV on a DV
○ Laboratory = controlled, artificial environment where the researcher manipulates the IV
...

○ Natural = IV not directly controlled by the experimenter but is naturally occurring
...

○ Structured = pre-determined questions
○ Unstructured = questions vary depending on the interviewee’s answers
• Questionnaires - uses self-report method to answer a series of written questions
○ Open questions = no fixed responses so participants can respond how they wish
○ Closed questions = participants have to choose from a set of responses e
...
multiple choice or rating scales
• Observations - researcher watches the behaviour of the participants
○ Naturalistic = observing people in a real life setting
○ Controlled = observing people in an artificial environment
○ Overt = observing people with their knowledge
○ Covert = observing people without their knowledge
○ Participant = observing people while joining the group
○ Non-participant = observing people from a distance
• Case studies - collecting detailed information on one person or a small group of people to gain qualitative data
...

○ Positive correlation = when two variables travel in the same direction
○ Negative correlation = when two variables travel in the opposite direction
○ Zero correlation = when two variables show no relationship
○ Correlation coefficient = a score that measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two
co-variables
...

• Cross-cultural study - a study that takes place across different cultures
...

●
Deception - psychologists should not unnecessarily deceive participants by misleading them
...

●
Debriefing - dealing with ethical issues by informing them of the aim at the end of the study to fully understand
what has taken place
...

●
Right to withdraw - participants can leave at any point or have their data removed from the study
...

Reliability, validity and bias
• Reliability = how consistent or replicable something is (can it be repeated to get the same results?)
○ Internal reliability = making sure the measure is consistent within itself
○ External reliability = making sure it is consistent across situations
○ Inter-rater reliability = where two or more researchers agree on a set of results
• Validity = how true or accurate something is
○ Ecological validity = how far it can be generalised to real life
○ Construct validity = how far a variable is measured in relation to the whole concept
○ Population validity = how far the sample represents the target population
• Bias = when a study is influenced by the experimenter or the participants
○ Demand characteristics = cues from the study that give away the aim of the experiment, which causes the
participants to behave differently to try to help the researcher
...

●
Significant figures = the amount of digits that
carry meaning (how accurate it is)
●
Normal distribution = where data follows a
“bell shaped” curve
●
Skewed distribution - where data has an
asymmetric curve to one side
Tables, charts and graphs
●
Frequency table/tally chart = records how
often different measures occur
●
Bar chart = presents data to represent
frequencies of different categories
●
Pie chart = presents data using proportions
●
Line graph = presents data using a line to
show changes in frequency
●
Histogram = presents data to show changes
in frequencies or sets of scores
●
Scatter diagram = presents data by plotting
scores to see if there is a relationship
between two variables

Psychological debates
Nature vs
...

●
Nurture = all the environmental variables
that impact who we are, including our early
childhood experiences, how we were raised,
our social relationships, and our surrounding
culture
...
Not only that, they
also realize that nature and nurture interact
in important ways all throughout life
...
determinism
●
Freewill = we have a choice in how we
behave
...

●
Determinism = all behavior is decided already
and therefore behaviour is predictable
...


Reductionism vs
...
The best
way to understand why we behave as we do
is to look closely at the very simplest parts
that make up our systems, and use the
simplest explanations to understand how
they work
...




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