Schizophrenia introduction

We started the topic with a look at the clinical characteristics of schizophrenia. 

We then started to discuss why diagnosing schizophrenia can be difficult. Reliability (whether or not two psychiatrists agreee) and validity (whether schizophrenia is a correct label for the person's symptoms) are both relevant here, and I suggest you separate your essay into sections on reliability and validity. 

The essay title is:

'Discuss issues associated with the diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia' (8+16 marks)

This is due on Friday 11th January.

We also watched a short video on 'Being sane in insane places' - a classic psychology experiment from 1969. Please do have a read of the original article by Rosenhan - the link is here. The powerpoint on reliability and validity is here.

Evolutionary theories of relationships

For Wednesday 12th - bring your gender mind map and prepare for a gender research quiztest.

Prepare for a test on 'Sexual Selection and Human Reproductive Behaviour' on Thursday 13th:
Here is the presentation on Sexual Selection and Human Reproductive Behaviour.

Write a homework essay for Wednesday 19th:
'Discuss theories relating to parental investment' 8 + 16 marks
Here is the presentation on PIT and Sexual Strategies Theory

For your research task for Wednesday 19th (completed) and Thursday 13th (data gathered):

• Alternative hypothesis and null hypothesis
• Theories / studies for your introduction
• Research method / design
• Outline of procedure
• Table for results
• Statistical test (with justification)
• Level of significance

Kona, Sam, Prince, Rosjen, Charlie - youthfulness is more important to men when choosing a mate than it is to women.

Ellen, Hannah, Shalina, Naveed - Resources (wealth) are more important to women when choosing a mate than for men.

Michail, Anna, Mehnald, Sofina, Mehnnaz - Men would prefer to have more sexual partners over a given period of time than women.

Rina, Ella, George, Max - men would prefer to have sex earlier in a relationship than women.

Friday 30th November

Today's lesson is ON (periods 3 & 4). We will be doing the timed essay on the restoration theory of sleep.

Mrs Watson

A homework essay on gender dysphoria – due next Wednesday:

Discuss the possible role of biological and social factors in gender dysphoria. 8 + 16 marks.

There is a new double-spread in the newer edition of the ‘dog book’ that deals with dysphoria in the greater detail that the new specification requires. We don’t have this edition, but you can download the new pages here:

http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/oxed/secondary/psychology/a2_gender_update.pdf

Sleep disorders

We've now covered insomnia, narcolepsy and sleepwalking. The insomnia ppt is here, the patient accounts are here and the narcolepsy & sleepwalking ppt is here.

The current homework essay is:

Discuss evolutionary explanations of the function of sleep      (8+16 marks)

This is due on Friday 30th November. On that date we will also be doing a timed essay on the restoration theory of sleep. The lesson powerpoint on the restoration theory of sleep is here. 

Rosjen, Charlie & Shalina: please can you fill in your student comments for the long reports on the following sheet and then email back to me asap?

Gender Dysphoria

The last part of our gender topic is gender dysphoria. Since your textbook was published the specification has changed slightly - androgyny (having both masculine and feminine psychological characteristics) is no longer in the spec and you won't be asked about it. Dysphoria has moved into the biosocial section (along with the biological and evolutionary explanations) and exam questions on it will be somewhat different to those in past years. The focus will be more on how combinations of biological and social (nature and nurture) factors can lead to people having a gender identity at odds with their physical sex.

There are some useful online resources relating to dysphoria - have a look at what the NHS has to say about the condition (the videos are well worth watching):
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gender-dysphoria/Pages/Introduction.aspx
and about the possible causes:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gender-dysphoria/Pages/Causes.aspx
What do you think of the second comment on this page?

Have a read in your book too and make some notes on the following:

• How can a combination of biological (genes and hormones) and social (reinforcement and modelling) factors be used to explain gender dysphoria?
• Can you relate Money and Ehrhardt's biosocial theory to dysphoria?
• It is possible for either biological or social theories to explain dysphoria without the other?
• Could Gender Schema theory play a role?

Bring your notes and thoughts to Friday's lesson.

Biosocial Theories of Gender Development

'Biosocial' simply means that a theory deals with both biological and social factors. It's worth knowing two, and we have looked at Money & Ehrhardt's biosocial theory and Eagly & Wood's Social Role Theory.

Money & Ehrhardt developed their theory based on research with abnormal individuals born with 'ambiguous genitalia' - somewhere between a penis and vagina. Their theory is basically that the factors we covered in our look at Social Learning Theory (parents, peers, the media and schools, through reinforcement, modelling and direct tuition) are the key shapers of gender identity, but with labelling as 'male' or 'female' based on biology at birth, and hormones (especially at puberty) interacting with the socialisation.

They supported their claim that a child's gender could be simply reassigned as long as the process was started before they were two with the Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer case study. Of course, the truth of this supports the claim of the biological approach that prenatal hormones are crucial to gender identity.

Eagley & Wood put a 'social constructionist' twist on the claims of Evolutionary psychology. Their theory states that biological differences between the sexes have evolved, but not behavioural differences. They state that these arise through socialisation, but due to the 'social roles' which are assigned to men and women (by society) based on their physical differences. Furthermore, they claim that hormonal differences between men and women are largely due to the different social situations they are encouraged into (men have more testosterone because they are competitive and hostile, rather than the other way round).

Here is a 'colourful' presentation which has some more details, and here is an exemplar essay written by a helpful psychology teacher somewhere - careful though, it's not necessarily great!

Gender Schema Theory

Last Friday we completed our look at cognitive explanations of gender development with gender schema theory. This is the most recent of the theories we have looked at, and an influential one with plenty of common-sense appeal.

 Like Kohlberg's cognitive developmental theory it broadly agrees with the social learning explanation, but stresses that early in childhood children learn their gender schema from their parents, peers, the media etc. This mental framework then affects what they learn from their models in the future. Information which doesn't fit with their schema is likely to be forgotten or distorted. This makes gender identity / behaviour less flexible than SLT suggests.

This approach disagrees with Kohlberg in that it claims that children's gender schemas are developed early - as soon as they have gender identity aged around two.

Here is the presentation.

And the video illustrating how young children have fairly fixed, stereotypical views relating to gender role and behaviour - their gender schema:

Cognitive Developmental explanations of gender - Kohlberg's Gender Constancy Theory

We're back to the 'nurture' side of the gender debate here, but whereas the Social Learning approach assumes that behaviours are learned in the same way regardless of age, this one emphasises changes in the way ideas about gender are acquired. Children are also seen more as active seekers of gender information, rather than being passively taught / reinforced.

Kohlberg's theory of Gender Constancy basically argues that children don't start to deliberately acquire gender roles until they understand that their gender is fixed and won't (naturally) change. An important related idea is 'conservation' - the ability to understand that some fundamental property of a thing stays the same when in changes in a superficial way.

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

Here is Ernie Lawrence aged three and a bit, not showing much in the way of conservation:

Here he is last week, now four and a bit, capable of conservation in the simpler situation:

Edith Lawrence, aged two and four months, doesn't seem to have achieved Kohlberg's first stage, gender identity, at first, but her later answers are probably more valid, but she clearly isn't a gender expert:

Ernie aged three and a bit - gender identity, and signs of gender stability.

Aged four and a bit - gender stability more-or-less evident but gender consistency still some way off:

Evolutionary explanations of gender

Evolutionary explanations are different from biological explanations of gender development (in terms of genes and hormones) but don't contradict them. Rather they deal with 'distal' or 'ultimate' causes (why biological differences, and hence psychological ones, have come about between males and females) whereas the biological explanations deal with 'proximate' or 'immediate' causes - how these differences become manifest.

There are different evolutionary theories - you should know two and we have covered:
Sexual Division of Labour - the idea that men are psychologically specialised for hunting, and women for gathering and child rearing.
Parental Investment Theory - the idea that different reproductive behaviour gives men and women the best chance of passing on their genes (women should exercise more 'quality control' when deciding who to have sex with, and should only have sex when they are reasonably sure that they will have the support they need to raise a child).

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

Here is a blog post that give a bit of insight into the controversy that rages around evolutionary explanations - it has some links that would be worth exploring if you have the time.

An essay on this is due on Wednesday 7th November:
"Discuss two or more evolutionary explanations for differences in gender role."
8 marks AO1 + 16 marks AO2
Handwrite or word process, but don't make it too long - aim for 600-800 words (the length you will hopefully be capable of in 25 minutes come June!).

More sleep please

The powerpoint containing the summary of sleep (ie general things we can say about sleep) is here.

We've now started to investigate some of the theories that attempt to explain why we sleep. We looked at two evolutionary theories - the energy conservation theory and the predator avoidance theory. Neither theory is satisfactory on their own, but probably go someway towards explaining the benefits of sleep - if not actually why we sleep. The ppt containing the work on evolutionary theories is here.

Jet-lag and an essay

We've now finished our look at what happens when rhythms are disrupted - using the examples of shift work and jet lag. The ppt on jet lag is here.

Your next essay is:

Discuss the consequences of disrupting biological rhythms (e.g. jet lag, shift work). (24 marks).

Due Monday 5th November. 

More evidence for the biological approach to gender

We looked at evidence using correlations between 2D:4DR (a finger-length ratio related (but only indirectly) to sex-hormone exposure before birth) and gender role / gender identity as identified using questionnaires - this doesn't provide very strong evidence for the importance of hormones in gender development, but does it significantly weaken the biological explanation?

We also very briefly introduced the Bruce / Brenda / David Reimer case (subject of the book-club book). Here is the documentary in case you're not much of a reader:

Here is the presentation from the lesson. Notes for Wednesday next week:

• Outline research support for the role of genes and hormones: 
• Animal studies (Young 1966) 
• Case studies with abnormal individuals (Money) 
• Correlations with normal populations (Troche et al 2007) 
• Discuss methodological issues 
• Draw an overall conclusion

Shift work

Working at night is an inevitable by-product of our 24 hour society for a large number of workers. We looked at some industrial accidents that have occured because of human error at night, like Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and also looked at the poorer health outcomes reported for shift workers. You need to be able to discuss how we can try to improve these poor outcomes - using your knowledge of human biological rhythms. Today's ppt is here.

Biological influences on gender - genes and hormones

Make sure your can describe the sequence of events by which the genes on the Y chromosome lead to a male gender identity / male gender behaviour according to the biological approach. Key words to use:
Androgen
Prenatal
Hypothalamus

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

Homework is to make notes addressing these questions on Young (1966):

What does this suggest about human gender development?
What are the strengths of this research?
- What arguments can be made for applying these findings to human gender development?

What are the limitations?
- What are the arguments against?

Exogenous zeitgebers

Here is the work on the last section of endogenous pacemakers - the effects of melatonin.

We've discussed how the regulation of biological rhythms is due to a fine balance between internal and external information. Exogenous zeitgebers are things like light, social cues and temperature - here is the powerpoint I used.

The template that you will need for the essay on pacemakers is here.

Introducing biological influences on gender

Work for next Wednesday:

Read your textbook and try to find one other text or on-line source, then make notes on the following:

• What are ‘sex chromosomes’ and what are they in males and females? 
• What are ‘hormones’ and ‘androgens’? Give an example of the latter. 
• What affect do sex hormones have on brain development in utero? – nuclei in the hypothalamus are different at birth 
• What happens if a person doesn’t respond to androgens?

Research and produce a very short (2 or 3 slide) powerpoint presentation on abnormal chromosomal and hormonal conditions, and the gender identities / behaviours that result from these, for Wednesday's lesson.

Cultural variations in gender role

We've now looked at the cross cultural research into gender development. Here is the presentation from the lesson. This contributes to the nature/nurture question, because if gender roles / behaviour are genetic / hormonal in origin we'd expect every culture to show the same differences. Anthropologists like Margaret Mead went looking for cultures which didn't fit, and found them, providing seemingly strong evidence for the Social Learning explanation of gender. However there are big methodological issues with anthropological research, particularly investigator effects (seeing what they want to see) and participant reactivity (trying to please the investigator).

Here is an essay question to do for homework for Wednesday 26th:

To what extent does cross cultural research support the importance of social learning in gender development? 8 AO1 + 16 AO2

Here is the first installment of the very useful Margaret Mead documentary

Of rats, chipmunks and weasels

Here is today's powerpoint on endogenous pacemakers.

The important thing to remember is that the endogenous clock can maintain rhythms without external cues (the electrical activity of the SCN carries on even if it is isolated from the rest of the brain), but it needs light input to work perfectly - hence the location of the SCN close to the optic nerves.

Cultural differences in gender role

For Friday:

Read about the investigation of gender roles in different cultures and make notes.

Your notes should answer the following questions:

• Why did researchers go looking for cultural differences in gender role?
• How did they conduct their research?
• What did they find?
• Why have their conclusions been questioned?

Sleep resources

Here is the sleep article by Jim Horne that I would like you to read.

Also, here are the presentations on circadian, infradian and ultradian rhythms.

Here is a copy of the sleep diary to fill in if you need another one.

Here is the schedule for the Sleep topic that I gave out in the first lesson. It includes all the essay titles and the specification so you will need your own copy if you missed it.

Psychology book club

Everyone is invited to the first meeting of our Psychology book club

R23, Monday 17th September at 1.30 pm

We will be reading 'As nature made him' by John Colapinto. Copies are limited so will  be shared within pairs. It is out of print but there are a number of used copies on Amazon. The following meeting will be 15th October where we will meet to discuss the book and introduce the next.

Social Influences on Gender Role

Here is the presentation for this lesson.

In addition to using studies (aim for four to six) to comment on (support or otherwise) the theory, you should offer some general evaluation of the Social Learning approach. There are some prompt questions on the last-but-one slide on the presentation - here is some help with the answers:

'Adevelopmental' means that a theory ignores the fact that children change as they develop. Learning Theory in general assumes that learning occurs in the same way at all ages - this may well not be true as children's ideas about gender change significantly between the ages of two and seven.

'Empirical testing' means using controlled experiments with objective results to test a theory. These ideas can be easily tested in naturalistic or laboratory observations - the predictions of the theories and the results of the study are clear. However focusing on one element of gender-related learning in an artificial environment may mean that research is too low in ecological validity. Aim to write a separate paragraph dealing with these 'methodological issues'.

It's hard to argue against parents, peers, the media and schools being important in the shaping of gender behaviour, but children may be more active in seeking out this information than the Learning Theory approach suggests. The main alternatives are the biological explanation (which states that boys and girls are different anyway, so we treat them differently) and the cognitive developmental approach (which doesn't really disagree with social learning, but which emphasis the active role and development of the child much more).


A homework essay for Monday:
Discuss research relating to the impact of parents, peers, schools and the media on gender development. 8 + 16 marks

Next lesson:
Describe and evaluate the social learning explanation of gender development. 4 + 8 marks (in 20 minutes)

Social influence on Gender - studies

Here is the presentation from this lesson.

¡Litton and Romney (1991) – Meta-analysis of parental treatment of boys and girls aged 6 found girls more encouraged to do household chores, boys outdoor tasks.

¡Seagel (1987) – fathers more likely to react negatively when sons carried out feminine behaviour.

¡Smith and Lloyd (1978) – babies in unisex snow-suits given different names are treated differently by carers (reinforcement of play etc).

¡Fagot (1985) – boys more likely to be criticised by peers for feminine activities.

¡Morgan (1982) – more TV correlates with stronger sex-typed identity.

¡Fagot et al (1982) – parents how show the clearest patterns of differential reinforcement have children who are quickest to develop strong gender preferences.

For each of these track it down in a textbook or online (search by name and date and you should be able to find all of them) and add some more detail to the brief outline of method and findings here. For our next lesson, whenever that may be!

The Evolutionary Approach - holiday work for Mr Lawrence

Answer the following questions, either in the form of a single essay, short answers or a presentation, in time for our first lesson in September.

• What are the assumptions made by the evolutionary approach to psychology?
• What did Clark and Hatfield (1989) find out about casual sex?
• How does the evolutionary approach explain these findings?
• Why is the approach so controversial?

Statistics - The Third Kind of Lie

On Thursday we will have a Unit 4 Exam-style test on the statistics work we have been doing this term. Here is what you need to be able to do:

• How to tell if data is ordinal or nominal.
• What means, medians, modes, ranges and standard deviations are and what they show.
• What independent groups, repeated measures and matched pairs designs are.
• How to choose and justify the choice of a statistical test for a set of data.
• What a level of significance is and how to justify a choice of the 5% level.
• How to decide whether a result is significant using a statistical table.
• How to state the result of a statistical test.

Here is the flow-chart for choosing a statistical test - stating the decisions you make when working through this is what 'justifying your choice of test' means.

Here are the instructions for the write-up of the 'finger-tapping' experiment we did, and here is the data. I want to take this work in on Thursday.

More practice statistics problems:
Four more tests to do.
Significant or not significant?

Unit 2 Revision Map

http://popplet.com/app/#/24311

I've made mind maps for the Unit 2 topics which I've taught, attempting to clarify what I recommend you focus your revision on. If you're aiming for an A or B grade you will need a bit more detail than is here, e.g. brief details of some additional research which you can find in your textbook which will be useful for evaluation in your longer answers.

Popplet is a fairly new website for mind mapping - it's in beta development meaning that the programming isn't quite finished and they're looking for feedback on how it works, but it's really easy to use and might make this kind of revising painless if you don't enjoy doing it on paper. Give it a try (e.g. by making a detailed mind-map for one topic e.g. 'independent behaviour' or 'stress management').

Exam preparation

Here is a powerpoint from AQA that contains lots useful guidance on how to approach the exam. One useful point is that you must clearly label any work that is outside of the allocated space for your answer.
Take this slide for example - the candidate has not indicated that the answer is continued so the marker has no reason to believe the answer is continued:

BUT see this next picture:

It's REALLY important that you indicate that you have gone onto extra pages or have continued elsewhere. The papers are scanned and then marked online so the examiner doesn't have a paper copy of your paper in front of them.

Revision questions used today - Thurs 26th

Here is the question on eyewitness testimony (containing lots of RM).
The two questions on memory improvement strategies are here.
Do keep handing in questions attempted for me to mark and give feedback. 

Individual differences in independent behaviour, Social Change and REVISION

In addition to situational explanations for independent behaviour (that is, factors in the situation which encourage people to do what they think is right, rather than conforming or obeying) you need to know personality factors which explain why some people disobey while most obey.
09 Individual Differences in Independent Behaviour 2012

You need to be able to apply findings from social psychology research to changes in society e.g. the smoking ban, gay marriage, votes for women - minority influence is the most useful idea here, but it's useful to have some other ideas at the ready.
10 Social Change 2010

We will be revising Social Psychology in the first week back, Abnormality in the second and Stress in the third, leaving the fourth week for a Unit 2 mock paper and its analysis. As for Mrs Watson's lessons, your task is to come to these with the topics fully revised - we will be using the lessons for exam practice rather than reviewing content.

Correlations, graphs, content analysis and REVISION

What you need to know from today's lessons:
The advantages and disadvantages of carrying out correlational analysis
How to analyse and interpret correlational data
Positive and negative correlations
How to interpret correlation coefficients
The key features of line graphs, bar graphs, scattergraphs and tables
How to carry out a content analysis
Qualitative vs quantitative data
The powerpoint on graphs etc is here and the one on content analysis is here. The graphs sheet is here.
Your job during the Easter holidays is to start your revision. Today I gave you our revision schedule for after the holidays. You will get most out of the lessons if you revise the relevant material before each lesson. The schedule is here. We will cover memory and attachment in the four weeks before your study leave, and this will include some research methods as well.

Factors influencing independent behaviour

Individuals behave independently when they are not influenced by members of a group, or when they do not obey orders from an authority figure, and instead act based on their own beliefs and values.

In each of the studies we have looked at into conformity and obedience, some of the participants have been more independent than others, and some conditions (variations on the basic method) have led to more independent behaviour. Situational factors refer to aspects of the situation that make independent behaviour easier, and we looked briefly at these in the lesson. Make sure your notes address the following:

• Outline factors that allowed participants to resist the pressure to conform in Asch’s study.
• 37% - Ally condition only 5.5%
• Social support (helps if it’s valid – glasses!)
• Private answers…
• Why might resisting the pressure to conform be easier outside the laboratory?
• Moral considerations / personal significance
• Outline factors that allowed participants to resist thepressureto obey in Milgram’s study.
• Buffers / proximity of experimenter / status / presence of ally
• 40% / 30% / 21% / 48% / 10%

On Tuesday we will look at individual differences that relate to independent behaviour, e.g. personality factors. Make notes on these too, and bring them to the lesson.

More lovely research methods

Yesterday we covered the following sections of the RM spec:

• Reliability and validity
• Control of extraneous variables
• Demand characteristics and investigator effects
• Awareness of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Code of Ethics
• Ethical issues and ways in which psychologists deal with them

Ppts here and here and here from today. The writing frames we used in the lessons for reliability and validity are here and here.

Evaluating Obedience Research

In tomorrow's (Thursday's) lesson we will answer an exam question on the question of whether obedience research is valid. You will need to consider internal and external validity criticisms of Milgrams research (internal - do the participants really believe the set-up? / external - are the conclusions only true in the context of an experiment, or in the 'real world' too?), and how it is supported or not by other research including field experiments.

Evaluating Milgram - Combined

Psychiatry work experience opportunity

Although the Warneford psychiatric hospital is only across the road from Cheney, it can be very hard to get work experience placements in this field due to the sensitive nature of the work. However we've been contacted by a psychiatrist at the Warneford who is keen to take an interested Cheney student in July. See Mr Lawrence if you are one.

Research Methods

Apologies for lack of posts recently.

We've finished attachment and are now spending a couple of weeks getting our heads round research methods. Here's the spec sections that we have covered - these are the bits that you need to know:

Experimental method, including laboratory, field and natural experiments - advantages and weaknesses

Self-report techniques including questionnaire and interviews - advantages and weaknesses

Some resources used recently:

Ppt on experimental methods

mix & match sheet on experimental methods

Ppt on self-report techniques

Obedience to Authority

 

In yesterday's lesson we moved from our study of conformity onto the new topic of obedience - the question now is over what factors lead people to obey an 'unjust' order from an authority figure, to do something they don't want to.

The classic experiment is Milgram (1963). Your homework for next Tuesday is to make notes on this, and on two field experiments (conducted in the 'real world') - Bickman (1974) and Hofling (1966).

Here is the presentation on this research - use your textbook too.
05 Obedience Research 2010

Explanations of Conformity

Make sure you have notes on the issues relating to conformity research (cultural and historical context - e.g. conformity only in certain societies, or among certain groups of people; ethics and validity), and on the three theories which are outlined here and explained more fully in your textbook. 04 Explanations and Issues in Conformity 2010

The effects of day care

There is a vast body of research out there on day care, and much more than you need in the textbook. I would try and learn the findings from a couple of studies showing positive outcomes and a couple showing negative ones. The specification specifically mentions aggression and peer relations - we looked at one study on this in class but there are others to choose from.

The important thing is that you are able to draw out the implication of all the research for child care practices. You will also need to draw on your knowledge of attachment formation to do this - one example is the keyworker figure now in common usage in nurseries etc, which of course comes from our knowledge of children's need for an attachment figure.

The ppt containing the studies on aggression is here and the one with the list of features of good day care is here.

Don't forget that we have an attachment mock exam on Thursday and a few of you still have to hand in the 12-mark essay on privation.

Minority Influence / Internalisation

For Thursday's lesson you need to learn the details (including criticisms) of Asch, Moscovici and Clark. Yesterday we looked at a clip from 'Twelve Angry Men' - the film Clark used in his role-play investigation. Here it is:

Identification

Like internalisation, identification involves changes to thoughts / attitudes / beliefs as well as behaviour, but unlike internalisation (conversion) this isn't necessarily permanent - it relies on an association with the influencing people in a particular situation.

A classic study that relates to this is the Stamford Prison Experiment - it's not as important to know in detail as Asch, Moscovici and Clark, but is useful especially in terms of the ethical and methodological issues that it illustrates.

Here is the presentation with questions you should have answers to in your notes: 03 Identification 2010

Here is the first part of the documentary on the experiment we watched in the lesson:

Here is part 2:

Social Influence: Conformity

Conformity takes place when an individual's behaviour changes as a result of the behaviour of others - a result of social influence. There are a number of technical terms which you need to be able to define and apply to examples:

• Conformity
• Majority Influence
• Minority Influence
• Compliance
• Identification
• Internalisation
• Conversion
• Informational Influence
• Normative Influence

For next Thursday's lesson you need notes on the aims, procedures, findings, conclusions and criticisms of three studies of conformity:
Asch (majority influence in a lab experiment)
Moscovici (minority influence in a lab experiment)
Clark (minority influence in a role-play)

Here is the presentation on majority influence research:
01 Researching Conformity 2010

And here is the one on minority influence:
02 Minority Influence and Internal is at Ion 2010

Is day care good or bad for children?

“We know day care doesn’t do any harm especially if it’s good quality”

–Tony Munton of London University

“When a child’s mother dies it is a terrible tragedy. Why impose this tragedy every day?”

–Katy Gyngell of the Full-Time Mothers Association

The intro powerpoint is here. Over the next few lessons we will explore some of the research into day care.

Privation

We've looked recently at what can happen if a child doesn't form an attachment - this is privation. We discussed two case studies - Genie and the Czech twins and you need to know the details of one of these. We also looked at a longitudinal study on privation by Hodges & Tizard (ppt here).

If an attachment has been formed but is broken then this is separation. In the short term this will result in separation anxiety in a securely attached child, but if the separation is longer than a few minutes then the PDD model (protest, despair, despondency) will be relevant. Remember the video clip that we watched of Little John who sought comfort in the large teddy bear and tried to elicit attention from the nurses:

We also covered institutionalisation (ppt here), a specific form of attachment that can result in disinhibited attachment.

Today I set a 12 mark homework essay. This is due in a fortnight. 'Discuss the effects of privation' (12 marks).

Key terms that you should know: Privation, Separation, Institutionalisation, PDD, Disinhibited attachment.

Stress short tests

Here are the questions from the three tests we have done on the stress topic. If you missed one, or scored less than half-marks, do it as soon as possible:

Test 1
Outline two ways in which the body responds to stress. 4 marks + 4 marks

Test 2


Test 3
a) Outline the conclusions of one study into the workplace as a source of stress. 3 marks
b) Give one criticism of this study. 3 marks
c) Outline the method used in a study of the effects of personality on stress related illness. 3 marks
d) Describe the findings of this study. 3 marks.

Stress Management Techniques

As of this year you do not need to learn about 'problem-focused' and 'emotion-focused' ways that people cope with stress in their everyday lives. You do need to know about physiological (affecting the nervous system) and psychological (talking-therapy) techniques for managing stress. This means:

Physiological - two types of drugs - benzodiazepines (reduce brain activity) and beta blockers (stop the stress response in the body).
Psychological - two types of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) - Stress Inoculation Training and Hardiness Training.

Here is a short presentation introducing the different types of therapy, and here is a longer one with some more detail.

On Tuesday 21st February we will have a test on the whole of the Stress topic.

The effects of day care

After half-term we will be looking at the effects of day care (nurseries, childminders etc) on children. There is a vast body of research on this topic with very often contradictory findings.

I would like you to have a look at a current UK longitudinal study on childcare - the Families, Children and Child Care (FCCC) project. The website address is here. Have a read of the homepage and the page about the FCC and then the findings. Find the page of published results and have a look at some of the abstracts (summaries of the journal articles).

AS long reports

The sheet for you to write your comments in is here.

Cross-cultural variations in attachment

A day care center in Kibbutz Nachshon in Israel.

Today's powerpoint is here, which contains the results table from Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg's meta-analysis.

Personality and Stress

We introduced the role of personality in modifying the effects of stressors on health today. A number of different personality types with effects on stress related illness have been proposed, but the ones you need to be able to define and discuss research into are Type A, Type B (the opposite of Type A) and 'Hardy'.

Here is the presentation.

For next Tuesday you need to get your notes up to date on Life Changes and Daily Hassles, Workplace Stressors and Personality. Revise the details of Marmot et al's study of Workplace , Friedman and Rosenman's study of Type A / Type B personality and CHD and Kobassa's 'Hardy Personality' research.

There are several tasks set for you on Kerboodle, including a research task on Workplace Stress which is due to be completed and a presentation handed in (through Kerboodle) by Friday 3rd February.

Workplace Stress

We started today's lesson by tackling an exam question - 15minutes:

a) Outline the findings and conclusions of one study into the relationship between ‘life changes’ and stress. (6 marks)
b) What is meant by ‘hassles and uplifts’? (2 marks)
c) How can the idea of ‘daily hassles’ be used to criticise research into ‘life changes’? (2 marks)

We then introduced the concept of 'Workplace Stress'. Homework for next Tuesday is to bring notes on this section of your textbook including the studies by Marmot et al and Johansson et al.

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

Life Changes

We have moved onto the second section of our stress topic, looking at sources of stress. The first type of these we consider are 'life changes', sometimes called 'life events' - fairly big changes ranging from holidays up to the death of a spouse (husband or wife), and including 'good' and 'bad' changes.

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

Prepare for a question in today (Thursday's) lesson on Rahe et al (1970) - research using the SRRS (Social Readjustment Rating Scale - questionnaire on life change) to see if life change is correlated with illness, and the 'Hassles and Uplifts' approach to the causes of stress which may be more important...

The strange situation

The powerpoint listing the separate stages in the strange situation is here.

The key thing with this area is to make sure you know the difference between type A (insecure avoidance) and type C (insecure resistant). The insecure-avoidance category is characterised by children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others.

The insecure-resistant category (sometimes called ambivalent) characterises those who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction. These children respond to separation from their caregiver with immediate and intense distress, but may resist being picked up on reunion whilst still trying to maintain proximity.

Bowlby's evolutionary theory of attachment

"Babies' smiles are powerful things, leaving mothers spellbound and enslaved. Who can doubt that the baby that most readily rewards his mother with a smile is the one who is best loved and cared for?" (Bowlby, 1957).

Today we discussed Bowlby's evolutionary theory of attachment. Bowlby believed that attachment was adaptive and promoted survival in two ways - to ensure the baby is cared for and also so that the child develops an internal working model on which to base future relationships (which can be traced back to Freud's ideas).

The baby has inbuilt social releasers which elicit caregiving - baby faces, noises etc, that prime the parents to care for them. Attachment needs to happen within a critical period for future relationships to function properly.

The sheet of keywords from today's lesson is here and you need to have a good understanding of them all. The powerpoint is here.

Stress, illness and the immune system

We began the lesson with this timed question:
"Outline two ways in which the body responds to stress." 8 marks AO1

It's now common knowledge that psychological stress can lead to poor health and a less effective immune system, but what research is this based on?

Selye's classic research with rats isn't directly named on the specification, so you won't be asked about it directly in the exam, but it's a useful study to know about, and provides evidence for two different stress response systems - here is the presentation.

What you do need to know is what the immune system is and how stress affects is, and you may need to describe and evaluate research into this. Here is a presentation on the immune system which looks at Kiecolt-Glazer (1995) - a study looking at wound-healing and cytokine levels in women caring for relatives with senile dementia.

You need to read and make notes about two other studies - Kiecolt-Glazer (1984) measuring natural killer cell (a type of white blood cell) levels in medical students during their exams - and Cohen, spraying cold viruses up participants' noses and asking them how stressed they felt. You also need notes on the meta-review of stress / immunse system research which provides strong evidence for a link.

We will meet a number of studies in this topic which look at the effects of stress on different aspects of health. These are the only ones that deal specifically with the immune system, and you need to use them for questions which refer to it.

Essay question for Friday 20th January:
"Describe and evaluate research findings relating to the link between stress, illness and the immune system." 6 marks AO1 + 6 marks AO2

The body's response to stress.

We started our 'Stress' topic (an aspect of Physiological Psychology - focusing on how the body works) last week with an introduction to the concept of psychological stress, and a look the changes in the body which accompany different kinds of stress response. Here is the Presentation.

The specificaiton specifically mentions two systems in the body which become activated when we perceive a stressor (a stimulus which produces a stress response).
The Sympathetic Adrenal Medullary system (SAM) leads to the acute (fast) 'fight or flight' response - adrenalin is quickly released into the blood increasing heart and breathing rates and preparing the body for action by diverting blood to the brain and muscles.
The Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal axis (HPA) leads to a chronic (slow) stress response which is less obvious - the end result is the release of cortisol, a hormone which increases blood glucose levels and the energy available to the body, but makes the immune system less effective.

These are named in the specification so you must be able to desribe them in reasonable detail. Homework was to produce a visual revision poster using as many of the words on this Key terms list as possible, showing the body's acute (fast) and chronic (slow) stress responses.

What is attachment?

Another picture of Luke as I'm sure you didn't see nearly enough today.

For homework, make notes on the stages of attachment proposed by Schaffer & Emerson in 1964. Also, don't forget the working memory model 12-mark essay due in next week.

Today's powerpoint is here.

Two video clips from today as well: separation anxiety (boy in the strange situation) and joy on reunion (US soldier returning home) - weepie alert.