AO1 - Implications of Psychological Research for the Economy

• Psychology, mental health and the economy:

  • Absence from work costs the economy over £15 billion a year
  • A third of all absences are due to mild and moderate mental health conditions e.g. stress, depression
  • Psychological research into effective treatments can have a huge benefit for the economy
  • E.g. research has found combining drug therapy with psychological therapies such as CBT is more effective for treating depression than drug therapy alone
• Psychology, attachment research and the economy:

  • Research into multiple attachments has shifted the importance of the mother on child rearing and development to more shared parenting, increasing the importance and involvement of the father in child rearing
  • Research has found both parents are equally capable of providing the emotional support necessary for a child to have healthy psychological development
• Psychology, social influence research and the economy:

  • Research into how people conform can be used to influence the economy
  • For example, informational social influence research has found that individuals have the desire to be right and therefore, presenting the information/ statistics behind hotel guests towel washing/use and the water waste, significantly reduced the hotel guests towel consumption
• Psychology, eyewitness testimony and the economy:

  • Research into the influence of leading questions on eye witness testimony has an influence upon the economy
  • Loftus and Palmer found that leading questions can alter someone’s perception of an event, this lead to the development of the cognitive interview which does not use leading questions and has been found to improve the accuracy of an individual’s eye witness testimony