Contributions to society

Transcription

1 D 4.2 Contributions to society Two contributions from each approach and one contribution from each application The course requires that you know and understand two contributions for each of the five AS approaches, and another one contribution per A2 application: a total of thirteen contributions. The table below first of all takes you through the eight approaches/applications and briefly states their contributions (which are all explained in depth in this section of the guide), but there are alternatives should you choose to study them. Note that you must also know one key issue for each approach or application, and a lot of the contributions and key issues double up (i.e. some of the key issues are simply the same as contributions). For this reason, 4.5 Key Issues will redirect you to this chapter for the majority of detail on the key issues, as you can learn the same thing for each. The table outlines the thirteen contributions you might choose to learn (note that again, some of the contributions are the same across units, such as eyewitness testimony, so once more you can double up). Words highlighted in RED show key psychological concepts, theories and hypotheses which you will know about, whilst the GREEN text shows how those theories apply to make a contribution to society. Social approach Cognitive approach Psychodynamic approach Biological approach AGENCY THEORY helps us in situations such as Abu Ghraib to UNDERSTAND BLIND OBEDIENCE SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY is used to explain the formation of in-groups and out-groups and can be used to help REDUCE PREJUDICE Learning more about the RELIABILITY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY has helped show how heavily it can be relied on in court settings CUE-DEPENDENCY THEORY has led to improvements such as developing the COGNITIVE INTERVIEW to help police with enquiries Parts of Freud s PSYCHO- SEXUAL MODEL have led to the therapy DREAM ANALYSIS which has been used to explain the significance of dreaming Freud developed the PSYCHOANALYSIS method of therapy which has been used as a therapy for many decades The use of biological research and studies has shown how SEX ASSIGNMENT AFFECTS GENDER BEHAVIOUR The work of Baron-Cohen and his EXTREME MALE BRAIN hypothesis has helped to understand and EXPLAIN AUTISM using biological concepts Learning approach Child psychology Criminological psychology Clinical psychology The principles of CLASSICAL CONDITIONING are used to develop SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION to treat phobias Principles of OPERANT CONDITIONING were used in TOKEN ECONOMY PROGRAMMES to aid social control Baron-Cohen has used his EXTREME MALE BRAIN and his THEORY OF MIND explanations to help understand and EXPLAIN AUTISM using concepts from the cognitive and biological approaches, which has increases understanding and awareness of the disorder Research by forensic psychologists such as Elizabeth Loftus has shed light upon the RELIABILITY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY (this is a contribution from the cognitive approach so you can learn the same content for both) Scientific research has led to the development of DRUG THERAPY for many mental health disorders in clinical psychology which has led to care in the community efforts after the wave of deinstitutionalisation Social psychology: explaining blind obedience You will remember several studies from the social approach which show how normal people will obey instructions which in the hindsight they would not normally. Perhaps the most famous study into obedience comes from Milgram (1963) whose study involved participants asking who they believed to be other participants questions, and whenever they got a question wrong, supposedly giving them an electric shock. In fact, the answerers were actors, and not really given shocks, but this was unbeknownst to the participants, who (albeit reluctantly) followed the experimenter s instructions and supposedly-knowingly administered lethal 450V electric shocks to complete strangers. It was after Milgram s 1963 study and a number of variations that he developed his agency theory to help explain obedience.

2 Studies such as Hofling et al. (1966) and Meeus and Raaijmakers (1986) found the same results as Milgram participants would willingly follow the instructions of an authority figure and behave as they would not normally. It may be useful to look such studies up. It seems that people act as agents to an authority figure, and obey instructions which go against what they would normally do sometimes even those that go against the individual s own moral code. In real life this can be seen in events such as the infamous Abu Ghraib prison where US soldiers were seen treating Iraqi prisoners in abusive and inexplicably violent ways. The treatment involved the verbal and physical abuse, rape, torture, sodomy and homicide of a number of Iraqi prisoners. There was a court hearing, where the eleven US soldiers were tried and sentenced to individual sentences for their behaviour. Thanks to the aforementioned studies as well as those such as Zimbardo (1973) with his Stanford Prison Experiment, social psychology had by then explained that people do blindly obey those above them. Zimbardo himself was involved in the court case and used his findings to explain it was the soldiers situation which caused them to behave as they did not their apparently abusive personalities. Although they lost the court hearing, Zimbardo s contributions seemed to carry some weight: but agency theory alone was not sufficient to excuse them, the court refused to believe that even so they bore no responsibility over their own actions. Evaluation of explanations for blind obedience Much of the research into obedience uses experimental methods, such as Milgram and Hofling et al. and so there are strong controls over extraneous variables and the methodologies are replicable Meeus and Raaijmakers found the same as Milgram: blind obedience occurred in both cases, although this was in the Netherlands and twenty years after Milgram s 1963 study, which suggests that this is a valid explanation across many cultures, and strengthens the research as similar findings are obtained It might be argued, though, that the Netherlands isn t too different a culture from the USA and so generalising the theory to other cultures which are elementally different might still be difficult Milgram used agency theory to explain obedience, whilst Zimbardo suggested situation causes obedience rather than personality. Other theories include that of social power, and since there are numerous theories, this may affect how the theories are used to contribute to society: there is no one definitive explanation Social psychology: reducing prejudice using social identity theory Social psychologist Tajfel fronted social identity theory to explain that people form in-groups and out-groups (shown classically in his own study Tajfel et al. (1970, 1971) to show how prejudice and discrimination occurs even without group history). One aspect of categorising oneself as part of an in-group is to publicly identify with the group, its members and its norms. In order to raise self-esteem, and individual will want to see their in-group favourably, and will tend to look down on any out-groups. This theory helps to explain the formation of stereotypes and prejudice. Prejudice is seen as an explanation of a range of social behaviours: it leads to discrimination. It has been associated with things such as football hooliganism (a key issue from the AS social approach), right up to the extreme of genocide. This is something that society wants to reduce not only from a moral and humane point of view but also in an economic sense. Evaluation of explanations for prejudice leading to suggestions for its reduction Much research into prejudice (e.g. Tajfel) comes from lab experiments which have strong controls and are replicable, and some are field experiments (e.g. Sherif s Robbers Cave study) which have ecological validity too Social identity theory is not incompatible with other explanations for prejudice, such as Sherif s social conflict theory, in fact the two go hand-in-hand, and research into both has produced similar results Studies have shown how in-group/out-group prejudices can occur between artificially-created groups without any previous competition or history, supporting the ideas of these theories The theories which suggest explanations of prejudice only consider one aspect (the idea of being part of an in-group), which means it does not consider the whole complexity of prejudice and discrimination, but a holistic view which does consider all aspects of prejudice would be needed for a valid and credible explanation Studies are therefore also likely to lack validity, because they do not represent the real situations which exemplify prejudices (for example, Tajfel s studies used artificial groups, which may lack validity)

3 Cognitive psychology: the cognitive interview The cognitive interview technique has been developed from a number of models of memory and forgetting from the cognitive approach, which is used to interview eyewitnesses of crimes. The major two contributors are cue-dependency theory from Tulving (1975), and reconstructive memory of Bartlett (1932). Cue-dependency theory can lead to the reconstruction of crimes to improve the effectiveness of eyewitnesses, which is also supported by Bartlett s ideas of reconstructive memory who suggested that we interpret things to make them make sense to ourselves: this process, Bartlett suggested, caused us to omit certain details of the events and to focus too much on others. Tulving suggested that remembering is better when state (physical and emotional) and context (environmental) cues are just as they were at the time of learning. Thus, recreating the situations of the crime can lead to an improved recall from eyewitnesses. The cognitive interview exploits the psychological knowledge these theories contribute, as well as the research of studies such as Loftus and Palmer (1974), to prevent leading questions, and to provide witnesses with state and context cues (such as how they were feeling or what they were planning to do when the event happened), to improve remembering. Evaluation of the development of the cognitive interview using cognitive theories The contribution has benefitted society, as studies such as Loftus and Palmer (1974) and Yarmey (2004) have shown the effects of leading questions, and the cognitive interview technique deters unreliability of eyewitness testimony due to such effects (practical application) Developed from research with strong findings such as Loftus, Tulving and Bartlett s own research, as well as that of Godden and Baddeley (1975) who found in his divers experiment that cues led to better recall A better technique for interviewing eyewitnesses was needed from both a moral and ethical point of view Cognitive psychology: understanding the problems of eyewitness testimony Studies such as Memon et al. (1997) found that using the cognitive interview to ask a witness to recall details from different places in the sequence did not actually generate any more useful and reliable information than non-cognitive methods Even if a witness is interviewed by the cognitive interview technique (which rests somewhat on Bartlett s ideas), perfect recall is not possible as, according also to Bartlett, schemata affect learning and so details will still have the bias of selection and omission of details from the event Eyewitness testimony plays a large part in court judgements, and sometimes the entire outcome of the trial can depend solely on an eyewitness testimony. This illustrates the importance of ensuring such a testimony is as reliable as possible. Studies such as Loftus and Palmer (1974) and Yarmey (2004) have shown that leading questions can affect the recall of eyewitnesses, suggesting unreliability and that they should not be relied on in courts. However, a counterargument from Yuille and Cutshall (1986) suggests that eyewitnesses are reliable, as they were not affected by leading questions (and this evidence is perhaps more convincing, given this was a naturalistic study). Findings from these sorts of studies have led to the development of techniques such as the cognitive interview, as well as helping police to effectively get reliable information from eyewitnesses for example, by not using leading questions. Evaluation of developments from understanding problems to do with eyewitness testimony Most of the studies, such as Loftus and Palmer, and event the field study by Yarmey, tend to have strong controls over extraneous variables, and tend to show therefore the effect of the IV on the DV, showing credibly that factors such as leading questions can affect eyewitness testimony The courts now accept these findings and acknowledge them in trials, now that they understand the conclusions are reliable, generalisable and objective so the practical application is that they help to improve the effectiveness of testimony Yuille and Cutshall actually found that eyewitnesses of a real crime were very reliable, and were not affected by leading questions, which opposed the findings of the experimental evidence, suggesting that those studies lacked validity Ethically, it becomes difficult to study the memories of real eyewitnesses, as any further questioning can affect their memories (and therefore the case and verdict), making true experimentation into the area difficult especially if the eyewitnesses find it particularly distressing to revisit the event, cues should not be used to make them relive the experience

4 Psychodynamic psychology: psychoanalysis as a therapy Using his ideas from the psychodynamic approach, Freud developed psychoanalysis as a therapy, which has been used since on a wide variety of patients for a number of disorders. This causes some controversy, and is a particular focus for the psychological debate of the power of the practitioner (see 4.7 Debates and look up psychology and social control). The contribution to society is that it can be used to help treat certain mental health disorders, creating a healthier individual who will contribute to a more economically-productive society. Psychoanalysis has also led to or contributed towards the development of other major therapies, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy. Evaluation of psychoanalysis as a therapy The therapy is in-depth and thorough, taking time to explore the whole individual, including background and concerns of the patient, and taking such a holistic view is likely to increase the chance of finding a cure As a therapy it can be said to be fairly successful, as in its time it has helped to treat a number of people with minor mental health disorders, but mostly clinicallysound people to function normally in society Studies such as Fonagy (1981) suggest that Freud s approach to understanding the individual is actually more scientific as looking at a patient with an objective and reductionist approach is not valid for treatment Concepts such as dream analysis and symbol analysis are very subjective, and so Freud s methods are not scientifically measurable (the same patient visiting two different psychoanalysts would get two very different interpretations how successful can this therapy be?) Masson suggested that the extent to which this is a contribution is questionable, as it could actually be more of a problem, due to the amount of power the psychoanalysts wield over their analysand which can have adverse consequences (e.g. Beth Rutherford) It is an expensive, time-consuming and not always effective therapy, so the extent to which it can be called a contribution is debatable from this angle too Psychodynamic psychology: explaining the significance of dreaming Freud s development of dream analysis was based on the concept that our unconscious thoughts and desires were hidden in the latent content of our dreams. This had to be retrieved from the actual dream content: the manifest content. The contribution from dream analysis is that once uncovered by the psychoanalyst the unconscious desires can become conscious and therefore be overcome, so that they lose power held over the individual. The psychodynamic approach therefore considers dreams to have significant importance in treating mental, personality and anxiety disorders, although alternative explanations, such as the biological activation synthesis theory, rest on much stronger evidence. This theory suggests that the brain is still active during sleep, although it does not receive any sensory information, and so it tries to make sense of a string of random thoughts (these most likely come from final thoughts before sleeping). Biological explanations often support each other. They suggest that dreaming takes place during periods of REM (rapid eye movements), and so you know when someone is dreaming. It can be argued that these explanations also contribute to society, offering therapies such as those to overcome sleeping disorders. Evaluation of explaining the significance of dreams to develop dream analysis as a therapy Shares most of the strengths of Freud s psychoanalysis: in-depth and rich information is gathered which takes a holistic view, and so there is a better understanding of the individual as a whole, and therefore the treatment is more likely to be valid and successful Freud s ideas can help to explain the occurrence of upsetting dreams and recurring dreams, which biological theories (such as activation synthesis theory) cannot, which is a weakness of biological theories as such dreams definitely occur (we know from anecdotal evidence), so perhaps Freud s explanations for dreaming are more realistic and valid than alternatives Activation synthesis theory, and other biological explanations, suggest that dreams do not have meaning: they are caused by the brain making sense of a random string of thoughts, and these theories have much more supporting data, including animal studies and brain scanning (although we should be careful generalising from animal studies to humans) Freud s work is not scientific, because his concepts cannot be scientifically measured, and they are objective and non-reductionist: can we take such a nonscientific theory as a realistic explanation of the meaning of dreams?

5 Biological psychology: explaining autism using biological concepts By providing an explanation of what autism is, and using the biological explanation for how autism occurs, the individuals affected (those who have some form of autistic spectrum disorder) or their parents can receive the help they need to develop as normally as possible, and lead a life which is as normal as possible. Autism is a developmental disorder which affects a child s development, and it affects males much more than females (there is a male:female ratio of 10:1), and the biological explanation for autism is the extreme male brain explanation. This suggests that, with much scientific evidence to support it, autistic brains are heavier than non-autistic brains, have a smaller corpus callosum and a larger amygdala. All of these are features of a male brain, but these are exaggerated more so in autistic brains. Characteristics which define autism include difficulty in communication and making friends, liking routines and non-severe social withdrawal. Evaluation of the biological explanation for autism as a contribution to society There is much scientific evidence to support the theory behind the contribution (the extreme male brain), such as with the use of brain scans, which can be used to verify the differences in brain structure and function between autistics and non-autistics such as a smaller corpus callosum and more lateralisation The extreme male brain explanation fits with many features of autism and other males, such as systematising, low empathising and higher ability at visuo-spatial tasks, which suggests that the explanation has some validity Biological psychology: sex assignment and gender behaviour Gender assignment is a key issue from the biological approach which features in the nature-nurture debate. Gender identity disorder causes some controversy because transgendered people do not believe it should be considered a disorder. We now know the role of genes in determining sex: XX for girls, and XY for boys. Some chromosomal disorders, such as Turner s syndrome (XO) and Klinefelter s syndrome (XXY) can lead to hormonal abnormalities as the difference in genes causes the irregular release of hormones. Sometimes a child can be assigned the wrong sex at birth: this can be very distressing as he or she develops. The contribution of understanding such sex assignment is that we can help those who feel they have been wrongly-assigned, as this sheds light on their feelings. The biological basis of the explanations also has led to the development of some treatments, usually hormone therapies. The study of Money (1975) is useful for showing the influence genes play in gender assignment and gender behaviour. Evaluation of the biological approach helping to understand sex and gender There is a great deal of evidence about the role of genes and hormones with regard to the development of the human foetus: such evidence comes from animal testing and human DNA testing, which is scientific, objective and has been shown to be reliable, as the tests are easily replicable and have been conducted a number of times (evidence supports other evidence) It can be argued that the findings of testing has predictive validity, as it has been shown that gene structure predicts the type of development, and vice versa those with a particular development type share the same gene structure, and studying different people over time has found the same correlations (predictive validity is when the same findings occur over different time periods) Whilst it can be said the study of autism by brain structure is a scientific methodology (mainly done using brain scans), it takes a reductionist view by only considering the one aspect that might contribute towards autism, and therefore environmental factors might be missed which also may affect the disorder The extreme male brain explanation might be a contribution in that it helps us to understand autism as a disorder, but its weakness is that it does not offer any treatment or therapy, because brain structure is fixed and cannot change: an environmental explanation would allow for such treatments to be made The biological approach focuses on how nature leads to gender behaviour but nurture also has an input and there is probably an interaction between the influence of both nature and nurture (therefore this suggests that this explanation may not be complete), although the study of Money showed nature to have significance over nurture Much gene research has been done using animals, and whilst the animals tested are chosen because they share so many similarities to humans, great care must be taken when generalising such findings, as they are ultimately very different from humans in some essential ways

6 Learning psychology: systematic desensitisation to treat phobias Systematic desensitisation uses the principles of classical conditioning to treat phobias (and some mild anxiety disorders). This suggests that conditioning begins with one automatic reflex action, which can be induced by the introduction of a second stimulus which is matched with the first (becoming the conditioned stimulus). This can explain how fears are learned, and the same principles can be used to help people overcome their fears. For example, someone with a fear of closed spaces getting on a plane is likely to develop a fear of flying, because they are stuck on the plane (an enclosed space) for so long. The fear of flying is learned through this bad experience, as the association between the plane and the small space is built up. This becomes a phobia when it prevents someone from flying when they need or want to. During the treatment, a hierarchy of fears is established, and then the client works with the therapist working through the hierarchy, trying to overcome the fear in small steps at the client s own pace. An important part of the treatment is learning the relaxation techniques, as the individual needs to be able to relax at each stage to overcome the fear. Gradually they work toward to goal, until reaching the top of the hierarchy, where the phobia is said to be cured. Evaluation of systematic desensitisation as a contribution for curing phobias There has been much research to show the treatment to be effective for treating phobias, including fear of flying by Capafons et al. (1998), and also with severe technophobes by Brosnan and Thorpe (2006) whose students in a crash ICT course were cured of their fear of technology The therapy is much more ethical than its alternatives, such as aversion therapy or flooding, which both subject the individual to harm and stress (also more ethical because these programmes are much more flexible and the client has the control over the stages that are set and the speed they work at) Learning psychology: token economy programmes to aid social control Token economy programmes have been introduced to schools, prisons and mental health institutions to help shape behaviours. This is achieved by rewarding target behaviours, so that individuals are encouraged to repeat them. Likewise, undesirable behaviours are ignored, and sometimes even punished. Such a programme is based on the principles of operant conditioning, whereby behaviours are learned through reinforcement (the rewards, in this case). Demonstrating the required behaviours earns participants tokens, which at regular intervals can be traded for rewards the individuals really desire this encourages them to try and earn the tokens. Important factors to consider when setting up a token economy programme include making sure that all staff understand the programme and what behaviours earn tokens, when the tokens can be exchanged, and what they can be exchanged for (it is crucial that this is something they really desire, or else there is no motivation and the programme will not be successful). Evaluation of token economy programmes to shape behaviour Operant conditioning comes from a heavily evidencebased theory, which looks at the behaviour of many types of animal, and it seems operant conditioning can shape the behaviour of animals universally, such as in Skinner (1935) and Thorndike (1911), which are scientific and reliable, and so the theory behind TEPs rests on reliable support Staff members in the school, prison or institution are trained so that specialists are not required, so lower time investment and training costs The principles of classical conditioning come mainly from animal studies, and we have to take care when generalising such results to humans (as the whole treatment rests on these principles, it may not be valid) Whilst the therapy proves useful for those who are able to relax, it is not the most convenient contribution, as it can only help those who are able to learn the relaxation techniques and implement them during times of stress (i.e. when confronting fears) Similarly, this means systematic desensitisation is not appropriate for treating psychoses for example Unfortunately, shaped behaviour does not always generalised to outside of the setting of the programme, so the usefulness of the contribution is questionable either simply due to the change in environment, or because there is a lack of motivation (since the rewards stop being given), in which case the programme wastes time and money shaping these individuals Evidence comes from animal studies which may not be generalisable to humans, despite being similar in many ways humans will always differ from other animal species in a number of key ways

7 Contributions from A2 applications You only need to know about one contribution from each of the three A2 applications you have studied. This means one from clinical psychology, and one from each of the options you chose for 6PS03. Fortunately, the contributions can match up to some of the ones from the AS approaches, however, you may have to discuss them slightly differently. Child psychology: explaining autism You are able to use the explaining autism contribution both for the biological approach and for child psychology. You need to be prepared to discuss them both as a key issue and contribution. The difference for child is that you can bring the alternative explanation for autism that you studied during child psychology: the theory of mind hypothesis from Baron-Cohen. The focal area of this topic is on development and autism, so key features include the biological and cognitive explanations for autism, and how the disorder affects development, such as causing difficulty communicating or making friends. Criminological psychology: unreliability of eyewitness testimony The contribution chosen here for criminological psychology concerns the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, which is the same contribution as with cognitive psychology. You will have learned about more studies into eyewitness testimony at A2 than you will have during the AS approach, so if you discuss this contribution it gives you an opportunity to discuss research methods (you will know one lab experiment, one field study and one naturalistic study into EWT). Clinical psychology: token economy, systematic desensitisation, drug therapy or psychoanalysis The contribution for clinical psychology can be any one of the treatments or therapies you studied to treat mental health disorders. You should know one from each of the AS approaches. Token economy programmes and systematic desensitisation have been discussed previously, as well as psychoanalysis. Drug therapy may also be used as the contribution, and an evaluation for this and a description of its process can be found in 3.7 Treatments and therapies. What you need to talk about If there is a question in the exam on contributions, it could be a question worth anything from 4 marks through to 18 marks. Therefore, be prepared to know a lot for each contribution, although you may well get the opportunity to discuss more than one in the same question. For each contribution you should know: a description of the contribution how has the psychological theory benefitted society? an evaluation of the contribution and the concepts/studies which have led to its development a description of the key issue concerning the contribution (see 4.5 Key issues) an evaluation of the methodologies used to study the contribution and key issue an evaluation of the ethics regarding the key issue