Issues & Debates

• what is always maintained in ethics for brain damaged people

  confidentiality
• who made the ethical guidelines for experiments?

  (BPS) British Psychological Society
• what do experimenters have to make sure to avoid for participants

  physical and psychological harm, deception
• what must be given by participants to enter experiment

  informed consent
• why might the full nature of the experiment not be told to the participants

  they may create demand characterises
• if deception is used for experiment to run what are the participants given

  right to withdraw at any time
• what can effect the ecological validity of an experiment

  control variables being controlled
• why do field experiments have better ecological validity

  extraneous variables are no controlled
• if extraneous variables are not controlled what happens to the findings and what is the result

  it can affect the findings and therefore effect the conclusion which then lacks internal validity
• what is reductionism?


  approach to understanding something complex by breaking it down to each component
• what does a reductionist theory seek?

  the simplest explaination
• why is it a problem for understanding theories about human behaviour?

  the behaviour now may be oversimplified
• what theories are considered reductionist?

  MSM and Bartlett's theory
• what happens if the experiment only focuses on one gender?

  cultural and gender bias
• where can cultural bias occur?

  when lots of research is conducted in westernised cultures 'ethnotentic'
• what is the nature-nurture debate??

  Debate to whether characteristics arise from biological factors or environmental factors
• what are theories called if they take into account both nature and nurture

  called interactionist theories
• what was the first model of memory?

  Multi Store Memory Model
• how did the MSM help understanding psychology?

  informed Baddeley and Hitch (WMM) & Tulving (LTM memory)
• what are the issues socially?

  psychology helps us understand minds and behaviour - this could change behaviour, attitudes and beliefs
• what is the social benefit for social control?

  can treat mental illness, reducing prejudice
• what are the social problems with social control?

  can manipulate the way and will of people and that they can be subjugated
• what are practical applications of psychology within society?

  education, mental heath, police interviews
• what are everyday tasks that involve memory from psychological studies

  chunking information together for telephone numbers, treatment of dyslexia
• what is the most significant application of psychological knowledge

  eye witness testimony application
• what is a shortcoming from research findings

  they have the potential to create social division, prejudice and conflict within society
• what are taboo topics

  gender, immigration, racial difference, deviance
• what can findings be used negatively for?

  social/political propaganda