AICE PSYCHOLOGY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
SET A+
✔✔Learning Approach - ✔✔Conditioning and social learning helps explain changes in
behavior
S:
they use experimental and non-experimental data.
W: It does not take into account the affect of biology or genetics in aggression.
Some of the experiments lack ecological validity.
✔✔Biological Approach - ✔✔Behavior, cognitions, and emotions can be explained in
terms of the working brain and hormones.
S:
A. generally the most scientific (as studies often use machines for measurement)
B. uses the experimental method and more controls in trying to determine cause &
effect
W:
A. often reductionist- cannot reduce complex behaviors, emotions, etc. to a single
aspect
B. findings often show correlations, but cannot definitively show cause & effect
✔✔Cognitive Approach - ✔✔Behavior and emotions can be explained in terms of the
role of the cognitive processes such as attention, language, thinking, and memory
S:
A. use of experimental methodology in most cases
B. approach centers on the mind, a central aspect in understanding human psychology
W:
, A. though advancing, it is still seen to be 'less scientific'- many have simply guessed or
inferred how people think
B. idea of the human mind is like a computer is reductionist (leaves out social,
emotional, & behavioral)
C. the approach often fails to account for indidividual differences
✔✔ Milgram Sample - ✔✔40 white males aged 20 - 50 from New Haven CT and the
surrounding area (Yale University)
a. Wide range of education levels from one who did not complete elementary school to
those with PhD's
b. 15 skilled or unskilled laborers, 16 white collar or salesmen and 9 professionals
c. They answered ads in a newspaper for a Yale study on memory and learning.
d. They were paid $4.50 for their participation. 4.00 for participation and .50 for travel
✔✔Milgram Results - ✔✔Aims:
1. To investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told
by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person
2. This study was conducted as a PILOT study for one that Milgram intended to carry
out in Germany
3. He believed that he would have lower levels of obedience in the US than in Germany
Quantitative Results
1. All participants went to at least 300 volts on the shock generator
2. 65 % of participants went to the end and believed they had administered the full 450
volts
3. Average was 368 volts
B. Qualitative Results
the amount of stress and tension clearly observed in the participants.
Signs of anxiety included sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, groaning,
digging their fingernails into their flesh, and having of nervous laughing fit.
3 subjects had seizures
✔✔Piliavin Sample - ✔✔Subway 'participants'
43- avg # of riders per section (carriage)
8.5-avg # of riders in 'critical area'
roughly 55% white & 45% black
estimated 4,500 people overall
(opportunity sample)
✔✔Piliavin Results - ✔✔Aim: to investigate whether diffusion of responsibility applies in
all situations and what other factors might influence helping behaviour
Cane victim- 100% help w/out model (62/62)
SET A+
✔✔Learning Approach - ✔✔Conditioning and social learning helps explain changes in
behavior
S:
they use experimental and non-experimental data.
W: It does not take into account the affect of biology or genetics in aggression.
Some of the experiments lack ecological validity.
✔✔Biological Approach - ✔✔Behavior, cognitions, and emotions can be explained in
terms of the working brain and hormones.
S:
A. generally the most scientific (as studies often use machines for measurement)
B. uses the experimental method and more controls in trying to determine cause &
effect
W:
A. often reductionist- cannot reduce complex behaviors, emotions, etc. to a single
aspect
B. findings often show correlations, but cannot definitively show cause & effect
✔✔Cognitive Approach - ✔✔Behavior and emotions can be explained in terms of the
role of the cognitive processes such as attention, language, thinking, and memory
S:
A. use of experimental methodology in most cases
B. approach centers on the mind, a central aspect in understanding human psychology
W:
, A. though advancing, it is still seen to be 'less scientific'- many have simply guessed or
inferred how people think
B. idea of the human mind is like a computer is reductionist (leaves out social,
emotional, & behavioral)
C. the approach often fails to account for indidividual differences
✔✔ Milgram Sample - ✔✔40 white males aged 20 - 50 from New Haven CT and the
surrounding area (Yale University)
a. Wide range of education levels from one who did not complete elementary school to
those with PhD's
b. 15 skilled or unskilled laborers, 16 white collar or salesmen and 9 professionals
c. They answered ads in a newspaper for a Yale study on memory and learning.
d. They were paid $4.50 for their participation. 4.00 for participation and .50 for travel
✔✔Milgram Results - ✔✔Aims:
1. To investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told
by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person
2. This study was conducted as a PILOT study for one that Milgram intended to carry
out in Germany
3. He believed that he would have lower levels of obedience in the US than in Germany
Quantitative Results
1. All participants went to at least 300 volts on the shock generator
2. 65 % of participants went to the end and believed they had administered the full 450
volts
3. Average was 368 volts
B. Qualitative Results
the amount of stress and tension clearly observed in the participants.
Signs of anxiety included sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, groaning,
digging their fingernails into their flesh, and having of nervous laughing fit.
3 subjects had seizures
✔✔Piliavin Sample - ✔✔Subway 'participants'
43- avg # of riders per section (carriage)
8.5-avg # of riders in 'critical area'
roughly 55% white & 45% black
estimated 4,500 people overall
(opportunity sample)
✔✔Piliavin Results - ✔✔Aim: to investigate whether diffusion of responsibility applies in
all situations and what other factors might influence helping behaviour
Cane victim- 100% help w/out model (62/62)
