Qualification > Revison Notes
OCR AS Psychology Notes- 15 Studies
Ukhti-R:
Quick notes on the 15 studies we need to know for the OCR exam:
MILGRAM
Aim- To investigate the process of obedience, to demonstrate the power of legitimate authority even when the command requires destructive behaviour.
Participants- Advertised in a newspaper, 500 men from New Haven, Everyone paid $4.50 for coming to the lab. Final group consisted of 40 men, aged 20-50 years old, who came from various occupational backgrounds.
Two further participants, the part of the experimenter, who was a biology teacher, and the part of the learner, who was a 47 year old accountant. Both participants were Milgrams confederates.
Procedure- When each participant arrived, they were told the purpose of the experiment was to see how punishment affected learning. The "naiive" participant was introduced to the other participant. Both were asked to draw lots to see who would play the part of the learner, and the part of the teacher, The confederate always got the part of the learner.
The learner was strapped to a chair in the next room with an electrode attached to his wrist. The teacher would call our words, and the learner would have to match the words with other words. With each mistake, the learner would receive and electric shock, which would increase by 15V.
The "teacher" was given a sample shock of 45V in order to demonstrate that the machine was working, though- this was the only time it worked. For the rest of the experiment, the learner only pretended to to be receiving shocks.
At 300V the learner banged on the wall and gave no answer
At 315V the learner punded on the wall again, but after that, there were no further answers.
4 Prods:
- Please continue
-The experiment requires that you continue
- It is absolutely essential that you continue
-You have no other choice, you must go on.
Results:
- 65% of participants went to the full 450V
- 12.5% dropped out at 300V, 4 dropped out at 315V, 5 refused before the end. Thus, 35% did not obey completely.
- Participants showed signs of great tension, they were seen to sweat, tremble, bite their lips, groan, dig their nails into their flesh, some even laughed in a bizarre fashion. Three had full over-blown seizures.
Paritipants were debriefed, 84% were glad they had participated, and 78% said they had learned something new, only one participant said they felt sorry for participating.
Variations- The experiment was conducted at Yale University, it's presitgous setting could add to the authority of the experimenter. Milgram was aware of this, and therefore repeated it in a Downtown Shabby office, the level of obedience dropped by 47.5%
elemis:
Nice work Roxy. Keep it up ;) +rep
Ukhti-R:
REICHER AND HASLAM
Aim- To repeat Zimbardos experiment in an ethical way
- To analyse conditions that lead to individuals to identify with their group
- To analyse conditions that lead to individuals to critise roles within their group.
- To analyse the importance of power in group behaviour.
Participants- 15 males were selected from 332 who had replied to adverts in the press. They were chosen after these screening procedures:
a) Full weekend assessments by clinical Psychologists
b) Psychometric tests to ensure they were mentally healthy and were well-balanced.
c) Medical and character references and police checks
The final 15 were selcted from a short list of 26 to enure diversity, age, class, and ethnicity.
Ethics - Submitted for scrutiny by the BPS ethics committee
- All had informed consent
- mointored by clinical psychologists
- Guards present.
- Study could be terminated which the ethics committee needed to do so.
Procedure - Mock prison
-10 days
- 5 guards, 10 prisoners
- Guards had the authority to punish uncooperative prisoners however they couldn't use physical violence.
- They could reward cooperative prisoners with cigarettes and snacks.
- they had a dress code, and enjoyed better living conditions
- Prisoners had their heads shaved
- Uniform of loose trousers, skimpy sandals, t-shirt with a 3 digit number.
- They were told their rules and rights.
Independant vaiables:
-Permeability of roles
-Legitimacy of roles
-Cognitive alternatives.
Dependant Variables:
-Social variables ---- social identification, authoritarian attitues
-Organisational Variables ---- compliance with the rules
-Clinical Variables --- depression, stress
Measured in 3 ways:
-Video and audio survellience
-Daily psychometric tests
-Daily saliva swabs
Results:
GUARDS, DAYS (1-3) - The guards and prisoners were told roles are permeable. The guards did not develop group identity though it was the highest when prisoners were cooperative. The disagreed over how to treat the prisoners, and became more depressed over time.
PRISONERS, DAYS (1-3) They were cooperative, had little social identification.
DAYS (4-6)- When roles became impermeable, the new prisoner was introduced, they became less cooperative, had greater social identification, and began to challenge the guards. The prisoners became more positive and empowered.
Ukhti-R:
--- Quote from: Ari Ben Canaan on June 09, 2010, 03:16:16 am ---Nice work Roxy. Keep it up ;) +rep
--- End quote ---
Thaaankkss! :D
2 down, 13 to go! LOL. (:
Ukhti-R:
MAGUIRE - TAXI DRIVERS BRAINS
Aim- Maguire wanted to find out whether taxi drivers had a different brain structure to non taxi dirivers. The hypothesis was that taxi-drivers would have a structurally different hippocampus.
In order to gain their license, the London, black cab taxi drivers must learn "The knowledge", which consists of 320 routes, and over 25,000 streets. They must practice spatial navigation intensively everyday. So Maguire wanted to find out whether the hippocampi of taxi drivers became larger as a result.
Participants- 16 male, licensed black-cab drivers, aged 32-62 (avg. age 44), length of time as a taxi driver 14 years, right handed.
Control group consisted of 50 brain scans from the MRI database of healthy, right-handed men, ages 32-62, none of which
were taxi drivers.
Reseach was ethical because all participants applied to be included in the study and gave informed consent.
Procedure - IV- Job (taxi driver or not)
- DV- Scores on the MRI scans
- MRI scans- works by obtaining 3D images of the brain and body tissue.
- Scans analysed by VBM and pixel counting methods. Grey matter can be calculated.
- Expert conducting analysis didn't know who's MRI scan it was of (taxi driver or not)
Findings:
-Compared to the control group, the taxi drivers had more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, and less in the anterior hippocampus. But the overall volume was the same.
- The hippocampus got bigger over time. There was a positive correlation between the volume of grey matter in the right posterior hippocampus and the length of time they had been taxi drivers.
Conclusions:
-Posterior hippocampus becomes enlarged due to greater spatial awareness.
-The hippocampus increases the longer they had been driving
-Local plasticity in the structure of a healthy human adult brain as a function of increasing exposure to the environment.
-Taxi drivers have a mental map of London lying in their Posterior hippocampus.
It is not a traditional lab experiment because the IV is not manipulated. The IV is the occupation which is the naturally occurring variable. As such, it is called a Quasi Experiment. This makes it more difficult to establish cause and effect.
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