Psychology- Unit 1 (Core studies and theories)

                          Sex and Gender: The Core Study Aim- Diamond and Sigmundson wanted to show that a child cannot be socialised to take on the role of the opposite sex. Procedure- They researched a Case study of a twin boy named Bruce in Canada who had been raised as a girl, after his penis was accidentally burned off at 8 months old, on the advice of Doctor Money who suggested that the parents socialise him as a girl called Brenda. Money had observed both twins. He reported that as a small child Brenda had adapted to her new gender role well, playing with girls toys. But when Brenda reached puberty, she needed hormones to help her develop breasts and hips . She reported that she felt like a man inside, finding other girls attractive and prefering masculine activities like sport. At 13 her parents told her the truth and she was relieved as it explained why she had these masculine feelings. She then decided to spend the rest of her life as a man and renamed herself David and married a woman.Conclusion- The effect of David's chromosomes outweighted the efforts to socialise him as a girl. Therefore gender is more a product of nature than nurture.                                             Limitations 1. It was a case study, so it is difficult to generalise.- Just because Bruce could not adapt to his new gender role, does not mean other boys would not be able to.2. There may have been experimenter effects. - Dr Money may have stopped being objective, because he was so heavily involved in the case study, he may have interpreted Brenda's behaviour to suit his theory.3. As it was a case study, it was not possible to control key variables.- He had been raise as a boy for 17 months therefore maybe the study would have been successful if his parents had socialised him from birth. 

                 Sex and Gender: The Core TheoryThe Biological theory suggests that someone's gender is decided at the same time as their sex during conception. The biological theory also suggests that the sex chromosomes also devide if the individual will be masculine or feminine. Females have the chromosomes, XX while males have the chromosomes, XY. Until 6 weeks, male and female's gonads look the same. At 6 weeks the male gonads develop into tests while the female gonads develop into ovaries. The testes produce high levels of testosterone, making boys more aggressive and competitive. The ovaries produce high levels of oestrogen which is thought to make girls more senstive and caring.The Biological theory also suggests that human behaviour is instinctive. The different levels of hormones effect psychological characteristics. Females need to sensitive and caring to care for their children. Males, need to be aggressive and competitive to fight for resources and provide for their family.                                      Limitations 1. It ignores the idea that gender roles can be learnt.- Families socialise males and female differently e.g. boys are rewarded for being tough and girls for being 'lady-like', but punished for behaving like the opposite sex.2. It doesn't example why the male and female sexes have such a wide range of behaviours.- Some males can have the same chromosomes and levels of testosterone, but one can be very masculine and the other very feminine. 3. Gender roles can change.- Nowadays, there seems to be more women in the workplace whereas years ago women would stay at home and look after their children. 

         Sex and Gender  

           Memory: The Core TheoryThe multi-store model of memory suggests that information is passed through it from one store to the next. This theory suggests that informations comes into our sensory store through our senses. However it cannot stay there for very long, if we pay attention to the information then it passes through into our short term memory (STM) . Our STM can only keep information for up to 30 seconds duration and has a limited capacity of about 7+-2 pieces of information. When information is in the STM we can either use it, keep it in the STM by rehersing it, or trasnfer it to the long term memory (LTM) by rehersing it. In the LTM, we can store an unlimited amount of capacity, and minutes to a lifetime of duration.                            Limitations1. This theory if very simplistic.  - It assumes that our memory if like a computer. Some researches suggests that there is more to our memory than this.2. Not everyone's memory works in the same way. - Every person is individual and some people find remembering things much easier than other. This model suggests that our memories all work in the same way.

               Memory: The Core StudyAim: Terry wanted to investigate whether memory is effected by time.Procedure: He used a repeated measures design using university students. Participants had to watch 15 TV adverts. They were then asked to recall the adverts immediately. Terry then gave then a 3 minute written task and asked them to recall the adverts again. Results: Terry found that the participants were good at remembering the adverts from the beginning of the list (the primacy effect) and they were also good at remembering the adverts at the end of the list (the recency effect). The Adverts in the middle were forgotten. This was because the adverts at the start to the list had been rehearsed and so were in the LTM and the adverts at the end of the list were still in the LTM. Conclusion: Memory of the adverts was effected by the position of the advert in the order. This supports the multi- store model of memory because it shows that we have different stores in our memory.                        Limitations.1. It lacks ecological validity.-  This is an unrealistic task, normally when adverts are on TV we do not pay them any attention.2. There may have been Demand characteristics. -  The participants may have figured out the aim of the study and acted accordingly, and it may have made them try harder than usual to remember the adverts. 3. He used an unrepresentative sample.- Students will already need to memorize information i.e. for exams. 

                    Memory

    Obedience: Core Theory Setting: People obey depending on the setting that you are in. For example, people will behave appropriately when they are in a place of worship.  When Milgram's study was conducted in a run down office block, only 47% of the participants gave the shocks of 450 volts, compared to 65% in the lab. Authority: People will more likely obey if they know that they will be punished by the people in Authority. Milgram was wearing a white lab coat, this gave him authority over the participants. Culture: Individualistic countries  were people are encouraged to be independent and self-reliant  e.g. USA. Collectivist cultures where people are less independent e.g. Japan. Milgram carried out his study in a number of countries and found that people who are from Individualistic countries are less likely to obey.Consensus: Having people around us may make us less likely to obey but also having people around may also make us more likely to obey. Milgram repeated his experiment but included two more participants who purposely disobeyed to give shocks. Only 10% of the participants obeyed the command.                   Limitations:1. It ignores the role of personality. - It suggests that the only things effecting whether or not we obey are factors to do with setting, authority etc. It may just be that some people are naturally more likely to obey than others.2. Most of the research this theory is based around has very low ecological validity. - Milgram's experiment is not something that anyone would ever be asked to do in day to day real life. 3. There are ethical problems with the research that this theory is based on. - Most of the research left the participants distressed, and could result to psychological harm.

             Obedience: Core StudyAim: To investigate if uniform has an impact on obedience.Procedure: A field experiment set on a street in Brooklyn, New York. 3 male confederates took it in turns to dress in 3 uniforms. A guard uniform, a milkman's uniform and a civilian clothes. They stood on the street and asked people who were walking past to do one of the following things: To pick up the litter, to put some money into a parking meter for someone else, or to stand on the other side of the bus stop pole.Results: Bickman found that people were more likely to obey when the confederate was dressed as a guard and were least likely to obey when the confederate was dressed as a civilian. Conclusion: Certain types of inform give the person wearing it authority. We are more likely to obey someone if we feel that they may be able to punish is for disobeying.                         Limitations1. There was a lack of control over the variables.- Other factors such as crowds, noise and weather may have impacted on people's likelihood to obey.2. The study was gender biased. - The confederates who gave the orders were all men. If women were wearing the uniforms and gave out the instructions, we may have different results. Being male may have given the confederate more authority anyway.3. The study was culturally biased. - The study was carried out in Brooklyn, New York which is an individualistic culture, if the study was carried out in a collectivist culture, we may have different results.   

                  Obedience

       Attachment: Core TheoryBowlby suggested that babies have an innate drive to form an attachment. He believed that the ability to form attachments was crucial in helping a baby to survive. Bowlby believed that we form an attachment with one main caregiver, usually the mother, this was called monotropy. He said that there was a critical period in a baby's life. If we did not form an attachment in the first 3 years of life, there would be psychological consequences. Bowlby suggested that if we did not have the opportunity to form an attachment (privation) then there would be problems with relationships later on in life and the child may have poor social and language skills e.g. Genie. If an attachment is formed and then broken (deprivation) , Bowlby suggested that these people would grow up to show signs of depression.                       Limitations.1. Bowlby's critics said that children can have multiple attachments.- There is evidence that some children form attachments to their father or child-minders which are equally as strong as the attachment they have with their mother.2. Critics say that the idea of a critical period is too extreme.- Children can still form secure attachments after this time to adoptive parents after 3 years of age.3. Bowlby thought that the effects of deprivation were irreversible, however some psychologists suggest that it can be reversed. - For example the Czech twins suffered from deprivation in early childhood, but made a full recovery and formed secure relationships in adulthood.

             Attachment: Core StudyAim: To investigate if the attachment type you have as a child impacts on adult relationships.Procedure: Hazen and Shaver used a questionnaire. The participants were 620 adults who had replies to an advert in the local newspaper, they were between the ages of 14 and 82 years old. The questionnaire measure two things, infant attachment type and attitude towards love and relationships using multiple choice questions. Results: Hazen and Shaver found that adults who had secure relationships as children were found to have had the longest and the most happiest adult relationships.Conclusion: Hazen and Shaver concluded that there was a relationship between the type of attachment a person has during their childhood and their late adult relationships.                                               Limitations:1. The sample was biased. - Hazen and Shaver only advertised in one newspaper, this means that their sample all came from the same area and read the same newspaper. It could mean that people from a certain type of class or culture took part in the quiz.2. People may not have been truthful in their answers. - They may not have wanted to admit to having poor adult or childhood relationships. 3. The questionnaire used multiple choice questions.   - This meant that participants were not able to give their own answer, but had to select from the answers provided for them. Intimate relationships are complex so using a multiple choice questionnaire would be inappropriate.

             Attachment 

        Phobias: Core TheoryThe Behaviourist theory suggests that we learn phobias. Many people link their phobia to a bad experience. Behaviourists also believe that some behaviours are not learnt but are instinctive e.g. reponses such as vomitting and anxiety. These are called Unconditioned Responses (UCR). These responses are triggered by Unconditioned Stimuli (UCS). People learn to associate a particular response with a particular stimulus. Sometimes these responses happen because of a Neutral Stimulus (NS) one that normally doesn't cause a reaction. e.g. NS=Burger. You may once have been sick after eating one. You then associate the burger (NS) with the response (vomiting). The NS e.g. burger is now known as a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) because it triggers a learnt response.                      Limitations:1. This theory ignores the thinking behind phobias. - It is not just about having a bad experience but also about how we think about it. For example two people could be attacked on a dark night but one person can think about it irrationally and develop a phobia of the dark and the other irrationally. 2. This theory is unable to explain why some people have phobias of things that they have never been in contact with.- For example, a person may have a phobia of snakes, however it is likely that they have never had an experience with a dangerous snake.3. This theory suggests you learn having a direct experience with the stimulus.- However, some people learn through social learning. For example, a child might learn to be afraid of spiders because their mother has always screamed and shown fear towards them. The child might have never had a negative experience with a spider and shown fear towards them.

                 Phobias: Core StudyAim: To investigate whether a phobia could be learnt using the principles of classical conditioning. Procedure: 'Little Albert' was tested to see if he was afraid of anything. They found that Albert did not show fear to any of the stimuli except to the noise of a metal bar being hit with a hammer, this made him cry. When he was 11 months old, he was brought back and began the experiment. They used the unconditioned stimulus that Albert was afraid of (noise of metal bar being hit with a hammer) and paired it with a white rat (neutral stimulus) which Albert had been shown before and gave no response to. After several tries, Albert began to associate the bang of a hammer hitting a metal bar (UCS) with the white rat (NS). When he saw the white rat, he cried. Results: Watson and Rayner had successfully taught Albert to be afraid of a white rat. One month after the experiment, Albert still showed a fear of the white rat.Conclusion: Phobias can be learnt using classical conditioning.                          Limitations:1. This study was highly unethical.- Albert was distressed during the process. They didn't attempt to uncondition the phobia, so Albert may have been afraid of these things for the rest of his life.2. The experiment lacks ecological validity.- It was all done in an artificial environment which was unlike anything that would naturally happen in real life. 3. The sample consisted of only one child. - We cannot say if other children would response in the same way as Albert did, or if it would work on adults at all.

                    Phobias 

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