Summary: Psychology

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• 1 Psychology

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• Evaluate research on conformity to group norms

  Asch. Sherif (autokinetic effect). Cultural variation: Bond and Smith (Asch paradigm in 17 countries), Berry (Tenne in Africa and Inuits in Canada).

• Explain Social Learning Theory

  Bandura et al: group matched on level of aggressiveness,watched behaviour aggressively/passively/no adult. Charlton et al: St Helena, this kind of behaviour was not accepted on the island.

• Examine the role of two cultural dimensions on behaviour

  Hofstede: large survey, IBM employees in 40 different countries, questions about work and relationships within the workplace. Zhang, Winterich & Mittal: Asked questions to make PD more pronounced, money or vice products, PD promotes restraint and self-control. Graf et al: Americans prefer to make decisions alone. Wei et al: avoidance based conflict resolution style vs dominant.

• Discuss two errors in attribution.

  Ross et al: Questioner or contestant, rated general knowledge. Suedfeld. Blackwell et al: Males answered statements from the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire while having an fMRI scan, premotor cortex was activated, area related to goal directed behaviour. 
  Lau and Russel: american football coaches and players. 
  Kashima and Triandis: cultural consideration, modesty bias, slides of unfamiliar countries.

• Discuss two effects of the environment on physiological processes (neuroplasticity).

  Rosenzweig, Bennet & Diamond: brain and cortex of the EC rats had increased in thickness and weight, also more acetylcholine receptors important for learning and memory. 
  Maguire et al: extensive navigational experience, MRI scans analysed by VBM and pixel counting, increased grey matter volume in posterior hippocampi, larger volume, smaller anterior hippocampi.

• Discuss two effects of the environment on physiological processes (stress)

  Kiecolt-Glaser: first-year medical students filled in the Social Readjustement Rating Scale, two blood samples before and after exams, the lower the NK activity the poorer the immune system is functioning. 
  Marmot et al: Whitehall department employees, questionnaires and health screenings.

• Examine one interaction between cognition and physiology in behaviour

  Davidson et al: Buddhist monks, novice mediators, control group, PET scan, monks had more gamma wave activity which is associated with high level of information processing, quicker thinking and an enhanced perception of reality. 
  Luders et al: MRI scan, larger right hippocampus, increased grey matter.

• Explain the effects of neurotransmission on human behaviour

  Martinez and Kesner: Injection of substance that reduces or increases levels of acetylcholine, group with less had problems. 
  Kasamatsu and Hirai: Buddhist monks on 72h pilgrimage, sensory deprivation triggered the release of serotonin which activated the brain resulting in hallucinations.

• Explain functions of two hormones on human behaviour

  Newcomer et al: four day lab experiment, asked to listen to and recall parts of a prose paragraph.

• Examine one evolutionary explanation of behaviour

  Curtis et al: investigated core disgust, 40 000 participants, questionnaire on a BBC science Web site, twenty photos rated on the Likert scale.
  Fessler et al: 500 women recruited via posting on pregnancy-related websites, report current level of nausea, distracted with common filler questions, explained disgust scale, measured disgust sensitivity in eight domains.