Topic 1: Development
Early brain development begins in the womb at three weeks, forming the
forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain, followed by the cerebellum for motor skills
and the medulla for involuntary functions like breathing. A baby’s brain
develops nearly 1,000 new neural connections every second until age three,
emphasizing the need for stimulation.
Theories
• Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: This theory posits that children
progress through four distinct stages—sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete
operational, and formal operational—building mental schemas via assimilation and
accommodation.
◦ Strengths: It has strong practical applications in discovery learning and
has generated a vast amount of research showing children build knowledge through
schemas.
◦ Weaknesses: It ignored the influence of social interaction and culture,
and the data collection was often subjective or lacked validity.
• Dweck’s Mindset Theory: This explores how a person's mindset (fixed vs.
growth) regarding their ability affects success; a growth mindset believes
effort can improve ability, while a fixed mindset believes ability is innate.
◦ Strengths: It is a positive theory showing change is possible and is
supported by large-scale studies showing growth mindset training improves
performance.
◦ Weaknesses: Many supporting studies were artificial experiments, and the
theory risks focusing too much on the child rather than the quality of teaching.
• Willingham’s Learning Theory: This theory argues that factual knowledge must
be learned before skills can develop and that practice and effort are required
to make skills automatic to free up working memory.
◦ Strengths: It draws on multiple scientific areas (neuroscience, memory
theory) and offers universal strategies for classroom development.
◦ Weaknesses: It does not emphasize individual differences or genetic
contributions that cannot be easily changed with strategies.
Studies
• Piaget and Inhelder (1956) ‘Three Mountains’ Task:
◦ Aim: To investigate at what age children are able to take the viewpoint of
another person.
◦ Procedure: 100 children (ages 4–12) used a mountain model with distinct
features; they had to select pictures or cardboard shapes showing what a doll
could "see" from different positions.
◦ Findings: Children aged 4–6.5 years were egocentric (choosing their own
view); those aged 7–9 began to understand the doll had a different perspective.
◦ Conclusion: Children in the pre-operational stage lack the understanding
of viewpoint, while concrete operational children can coordinate different
perspectives.
◦ Evaluation: It provided rich qualitative data, but was criticized for
being too difficult/unrealistic; studies using familiar characters found 3-year-
olds could succeed.
• Gunderson et al. (2013):
◦ Aim: To see if the type of parental praise (process vs. person) given in a
natural setting predicts a child’s motivational framework five years later.
◦ Procedure: 53 parent-child pairs were videotaped at home for 90-minute
sessions over several years; at age 7–8, the children answered questionnaires
about intelligence and morality.
◦ Findings: Process praise (effort) made up 18% of all praise; boys received
significantly more process praise (24.4%) than girls (10.3%).
◦ Conclusion: Process praise leads to an incremental framework (believing
effort pays off), while person praise did not consistently predict a fixed
(entity) mindset.
◦ Evaluation: The study had high ecological validity and avoided observer
bias, but the sample was small and limited to one city (Chicago).
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Topic 2: Memory
Memory involves input from the senses, encoding (acoustic, visual, or semantic),
storage, and retrieval. Understanding memory helps address issues like
retrograde amnesia (forgetting the past) and anterograde amnesia (inability to
store new long-term memories).
Theories
• Multi-store Model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968): This describes memory as three
separate stores: sensory register, short-term memory (limited capacity, ~18s
duration), and long-term memory (unlimited).
◦ Strengths: Supported by amnesia cases where STM remains intact while LTM
is damaged, and by Murdock’s serial position effect.
◦ Weaknesses: It overemphasizes the role of rehearsal and simplifies LTM,
which likely contains several different types of storage.
• Theory of Reconstructive Memory (Bartlett, 1932): This claims memory is not an
exact copy but an active reconstruction influenced by schemas (knowledge
packages from past experience).
◦ Strengths: It has real-world applications for eyewitness testimony and
used realistic tasks, giving it high ecological validity.
◦ Weaknesses: Bartlett's analysis was somewhat subjective and unscientific,
and he lacked standardized procedures.
Studies
• Bartlett (1932) ‘War of the Ghosts’:
◦ Aim: To test how personal schemas influence the recall of an unfamiliar,
"odd" folk story.
◦ Procedure: Participants read a Native American story twice and used serial
reproduction (telling others) or repeated reproduction (recalling over
months/years).
◦ Findings: Recall showed rationalization (giving reasons for odd events),
omissions (leaving out unfamiliar parts), and familiarization (e.g., changing
"canoe" to "boat").
◦ Conclusion: Memory is an active process of construction where schemas fill
in gaps to make information make sense.
◦ Evaluation: Used naturalistic recall material, but the story was
intentionally illogical and the procedure lacked scientific controls/timings.
• Peterson and Peterson (1959):
◦ Aim: To measure the true duration of short-term memory when rehearsal is
prevented.
◦ Procedure: 24 students recalled consonant trigrams after counting
backwards in threes for delays between 3 and 18 seconds.
◦ Findings: After 3 seconds, recall was over 80%, but after 18 seconds, it
dropped to less than 10%.
◦ Conclusion: Information in STM fades rapidly (within 18 seconds) if it is
not rehearsed.
◦ Evaluation: Used high levels of control and standardized timings, but
lacked mundane realism as recalling trigrams is not an everyday task.
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Topic 3: Psychological Problems
Unipolar depression is characterized by low mood, lack of energy, and lack of
motivation, affecting roughly 1 in 15 people annually. Addiction is a dependence
disorder where a person needs a substance or activity (like the internet or
gambling) to feel "normal".
Theories
• Genetic Explanation: Suggests mental health problems are inherited through
genes, such as the 5-HTT gene for depression or the DDR2 A1 gene for addiction.
◦ Strengths: Reduces social stigma by showing biological causes and is
supported by twin and adoption studies.
◦ Weaknesses: It is deterministic and reductionist, failing to account for
life events or social factors like poverty.
• Cognitive Theory (Depression): Explains depression through Beck’s negative
triad (negative views of self, world, and future) or Ellis’s ABC model
(activating events leading to irrational beliefs).
◦ Strengths: Recognizes the role of life events (nature and nurture) and has
been successfully applied to CBT.
◦ Weaknesses: It's unclear if irrational thoughts are a cause or a symptom,
and some types of depression may be more biological (e.g., post-natal).
• Learning Theory (Addiction): Proposes that addiction is learned through
classical conditioning (associations), operant conditioning (rewards), or social
learning (role models).
◦ Strengths: Suggests addictions can be "unlearned" and explains why
environmental triggers cause relapse.
◦ Weaknesses: Ignores internal biological reward pathways and doesn't
explain why most people who try substances do not become addicts.
Studies
• Caspi et al. (2003):
◦ Aim: To investigate if a variation in the 5-HTT serotonin gene makes
people more likely to develop depression after stress.
◦ Procedure: 847 participants from a longitudinal study were grouped by
their 5-HTT gene version (short or long) and completed questionnaires about life
stress and depression.
◦ Findings: Those with at least one short version of the gene who
experienced stressful events showed a significant increase in depression and
suicidal thoughts.
◦ Conclusion: Depression is caused by an interaction between nature (genes)
and nurture (stressful life events).
◦ Evaluation: Used a large, generalisable sample, but relied on self-report
data, which can be unreliable or exaggerated.
• Young (2007):
◦ Aim: To investigate whether online CBT is an effective treatment for
internet addiction.
◦ Procedure: 114 internet addicts received online therapy involving
functional analysis (identifying triggers) and skills training (coping
strategies).
◦ Findings: Scores for motivation, time management, and relationship
function improved significantly by session 12 and remained high after 6 months.
◦ Conclusion: CBT can provide effective, long-term treatment for behavioral
addictions like internet use.
◦ Evaluation: Used standardized measurements, but participants might have
lied on questionnaires to appear "better".
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Topic 4: The Brain and Neuropsychology
The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord, with neurons
passing chemical messages called neurotransmitters across gaps called synapses.
Lateralisation refers to the hemispheres having different jobs, such as language
in the left brain (Broca’s area) and spatial awareness in the right.
Theories
• Brain Lateralisation: This explains sex differences by suggesting that female
brains are less lateralized (using both sides for tasks) while male brains show
more hemisphere dominance.
◦ Strengths: Supported by scientific brain scans and controlled experiments
showing some areas (like language) are larger in females.
◦ Weaknesses: Evidence is mixed; for example, not all spatial tasks favor
males, and some studies find no strong proof that females use both hemispheres
for language.
Studies
• Damasio et al. (1994):
◦ Aim: To identify the specific areas of Phineas Gage’s brain that were
damaged by an iron rod.
◦ Procedure: Created a 3D computer replica of Gage's skull to test 20 entry
and 16 exit points to find the rod's likely path.
◦ Findings: Damage was likely confined to the frontal lobe (specifically the
ventromedial region) in both hemispheres.
◦ Conclusion: The ventromedial frontal lobe is essential for emotional
control and decision-making.
◦ Evaluation: Used modern scientific modeling, but relied on clinical
reports that were 150 years old and a unique, ungeneralisable case.
• Sperry (1968):
◦ Aim: To test the mental capabilities of patients with a "split-brain"
(severed corpus callosum).
◦ Procedure: 11 participants performed tasks where different information was
sent to each hemisphere via the left or right visual fields or hands.
◦ Findings: Participants could name objects seen in the right visual field
(left brain) but could only point to (not name) objects seen in the left visual
field (right brain).
◦ Conclusion: Each hemisphere can work independently, but they have distinct
roles (Left for language, Right for spatial/visual).
◦ Evaluation: Highly standardized and reliable, but the sample was too small
(11 people) to apply to people with "normal" brains.
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Topic 5: Social Influence
This topic covers conformity (following the majority), obedience (following
orders), and the bystander effect (failing to help those in need). Factors
influencing these behaviors include deindividuation (losing personal identity in
a group) and whether a person has an internal or external locus of control.
Theories
• Bystander Intervention: Helping is hindered by diffusion of responsibility
(believing others will act) and pluralistic ignorance (interpreting others'
inaction as a sign of a non-emergency).
◦ Strengths: Knowledge can be used to design anti-bullying programs that
encourage intervention.
◦ Weaknesses: It is hard to predict behavior because helping is heavily
dependent on situational factors like the "cost" of helping.
• Obedience to Authority: Milgram’s work showed obedience is influenced by
proximity (distance to authority/victim) and the legitimacy of the
setting/figure.
◦ Strengths: Explains real-world atrocities (like the Holocaust) and
provides ways to resist blind obedience through education.
◦ Weaknesses: Milgram’s lab experiments were artificial and may have
encouraged demand characteristics; it also ignored the role of the Authoritarian
personality.
Studies
• Piliavin et al. (1969):
◦ Aim: To investigate the bystander effect in a natural setting and see how
victim characteristics affect help.
◦ Procedure: Staged a victim collapse on a New York subway (over 103
trials); the victim appeared either ill (with a cane) or drunk (with a bottle).
◦ Findings: The "ill" victim was helped in 95% of trials, while the "drunk"
victim was helped in 50%; help was faster in larger groups.
◦ Conclusion: People help more when the victim is seen as not responsible
for their plight, and they do not "diffuse responsibility" when help is clearly
needed.
◦ Evaluation: High ecological validity (natural setting), but raised major
ethical issues including lack of consent and potential distress to passengers.
• Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Study:
◦ Aim: To see if conflict in prisons arises from the personalities of those
involved or the situation.
◦ Procedure: 22 male students were randomly assigned as guards or prisoners
in a mock prison; prisoners were "arrested" at home and deindividuated with
uniforms and ID numbers.
◦ Findings: Guards became aggressive and hostile; prisoners became
submissive; the study had to be stopped after 6 days.
◦ Conclusion: People quickly conform to social roles, and deindividuation
(uniforms) makes antisocial behavior more likely.
◦ Evaluation: Evidence showed participants were not just "acting," but it
was highly unethical due to the psychological harm and distress caused.