exam questions

• outline how psychodynamic perspective explains behaviour (2)

  The psychodynamic perspective explains that our behaviour is due to what goes on in our unconscious mind. We cannot access this directly but our dreams give us some insight.
• explain how 1 core study can be considered to be located within area of social psych (5)

  Social psychology relates to the influence others have on our behaviour. This is seen in the study by Bocchiaro et al., where the participant was given instructions and asked to respond by obeying, disobeying or whistle-blowing in writing to other potential participants about carrying out a task. Bocchiaro looked at whether personality traits (individul factors) actually affect our disobedience and found that this was generally not the case. It seems whether we disobey is due to situational factors mostly.
• outline 1 application of behaviourist psychology support answer w 1 core study

  Behaviourist psychology is about reinforcement (operant conditioning). If that reinforcement is positive (a reward) then it is more likely that the individual will repeat the behaviour. This can be used with young children. A good application of this is in the Funhaler study by Chaney.

  Children do not like to take their asthma medication but the reinforcement of rewarding them every time they use it with the whistle and the spinner means the child is more likely to repeat the behaviour, improving their health. The reward for the child works best when they inhale properly, in a way that allows the medicine to be administered most effectively.
• outline 1 similararity between developmental psych and individual diff psych- support answer w evidence from research (6)

  They are both similar because both contribute to the nature nurture debate, which is the extent to which our behaviour is influenced by inherited factors (nature) or learning (nurture).

  For example, in Bandura's study (the developmental orea the children learned to be aggressive watching the aggressive model. This is nurture. Similarly in Freud's study (individual differences area, Little Hans was influenced by the psychosexual stages he had to go through, including the oedipus complex. This could be said to be part of his nature as Freud believed we all go through these same stages.
• outline reductionism/ holism debate (2)

  The reductionism/holism debate looks at whether we explain behaviour in terms of the small parts that make it up (reductionism). This could be a simple cognitive process, for example. Or whether we say humans are too complex for this and the whole (the complete person) is more than the sum of its parts (holism). We are more than a set of mental processes or brain structures.
• outline what is meant by individual explanation of behaviour- core study to support answer (5)

  The individual explanation is the opposite to the situational explanation of behaviour. It says that we are influenced by dispositional factors such as gender, personality and genes.

  A study that looks at this is Baron-Cohen where the Asperger's participants performed worse on the eyes task than the other two groups. Baron-Cohen explains this difference as being down to a core deficit in cognitive processing known as Theory of Mind. Theory of Mind is knowing others have different thoughts from those that you have. This is an individual explanation because no external influences are causing this difficulty in performance for the AS group.