Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
Psychology as a Science 3
What is to be scienti c? 3
Topic A: Social Psychology 3
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology 4
Topic C: Biological Psychology 5
Topic D: Learning theories and Development 6
Topic E: Developmental Psychology 7
Topic F: Criminological Psychology 8
Topic H: Clinical Psychology 9
Psychology as a Science, Essay plan 10
Is Psychology Ethical? 12
Ethical Issues 12
Ethical Guidelines for the Treatment of Animals 12
The Three Rs 12
The Bateson Decision-Making cube 13
Ethical Issues in Research Using Humans 13
Risk Assessment 14
Ethical Issues when children are the participants 14
UNCRC 15
HCPC 16
Topic A: Social Psychology 17
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology 17
Topic C: Biological Psychology 18
Topic D: Learning theories and Development 19
Topic E: Developmental Psychology 20
Topic F: Criminological Psychology 20
Topic H: Clinical Psychology 21
Ethical Issues in Psychology, Essay plan 22
Is Psychology Useful? 24
An understanding of how psychological understanding has developed over time 24
The use of psychological knowledge within society 24
The use of social control in psychology 24
Topic A: Social Psychology 24
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology 25
1
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,Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
Topic C: Biological Psychology 26
Topic D: Learning theories and Development 26
Topic E: Developmental Psychology 27
Topic F: Criminological Psychology 28
Topic H: Clinical Psychology 28
The Usefulness of Psychology, Essay Plan 30
Essay Draft 1- Science 32
Essay Draft 2 - Ethics 34
Essay Draft 3 - Usefulness 36
2
, Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
Psychology as a Science
What is to be scienti c?
• Objectivity - scientists try to stay detached from what they are studying and don’t let their
feelings or emotions a ect their conclusions. One way it does this is by focusing on quantitative
data.
• Reliability - a reliable procedure should always work the same way whenever you use it, and
should produce the same results every time it’s used on the same people. Research is reliable if
it is well-designed with standardised procedures that can be replicated accurately.
• Validity - research is valid if the behaviour being studied is natural and realistic and not
in uenced by outside factors. Research becomes invalid (and un-scienti c) if there are lots of
other possible explanations for the results that are just as plausible as the one being o ered.
• Testing Hypotheses - there is a particular way of understanding the world that follows a distinct
procedure. This is the hypothetico-deductive model. This procedure involves beginning with a
research question from which a hypothesis is formed; this hypothesis is tested empirically (with
physical evidence) and from this a theory is formulated: the theory then produces more
questions, more hypotheses and more testing.
• Empiricism - the idea that true information comes to us through the 5 senses: stu we can see,
hear, touch, taste and smell. Empirical facts are physical facts: they are backed up by physical
evidence and can be measured in an objective (unbiased) way. Science is an empirical
discipline. Hypotheses have to be tested against the facts to see if a theory can be formulated.
If the physical facts contradict a theory, it will have to be changed or scrapped.
• Falsi ability - Karl Popper pointed out that the best scientists do not try to prove theories; they
try to disprove (falsify) them. In order to be considered scienti c, Psychology should o er
falsi able theories. These would be theories that could be proved false, but haven't yet. If
there's no way for a psychological theory to be falsi ed, then it isn't really a scienti c theory.
• Reductionism - reducing everything to the simplest possible explanation: bare physical facts,
numbers, the brain. It involves taking things apart and looking at what they're made of, but
missing out on the bigger picture.
Topic A: Social Psychology
I. Milgram’s research into obedience and 3 of his variation studies - the aim was to investigate
whether ordinary people would follow orders and give an innocent person a potentially harmful
electric shock.
- All of his variation studies were highly standardised and controlled. Each participant was
debriefed in the same way and experienced the same verbal prods, feedback and apparatus in
the same way. Behavioural data was gathered about how long participants took to press each
switch and for how long the switch was depressed. Both objective quantitative data and
qualitative observations were made, making the research highly scienti c.
3
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, Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
- However, Gina Perry conducted an archival analysis of Milgram’s studies and concluded that
his procedures were not as standardised as he claimed. Analysis of video and audio recording
showed that there was a great deal of improvisation through the experiments by the
experimenter, resulting in direct coercion to make the teacher continue with the shocks.
- In such experiments, variables could be controlled and carefully manipulated to ensure cause
and e ect relationships under laboratory or more naturalistic conditions, ensuring validity of the
ndings. However, despite an experimental methodology, social psychology can be criticised
for studying human social behaviour in a vacuum that cannot be generalised to the real world.
Group dynamics rarely exist in a social vacuum, but are a ected by social, historical and
cultural events which continually change, so any scienti c approach taken to study human
behaviour through experimentation should acknowledge this. This raises a question: should it
be scienti c in the rst place?
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology
I. The multi-store model of memory, Atkinson and Shi rin, 1968 - proposed a general theoretical
framework for understanding human memory. They distinguished between the permanent
structural features of memory and its control processes. The model involves 3 features:
sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.
- This model clearly underplays the interconnections between di erent memory systems by
proposing that the memory has distinctly di erent stores. Arti cially breaking up the memory
stores makes it easier to study memory experimentally, however, it is extremely reductionist.
II. Working memory model, Baddeley and Hitch, 1974 - included features such as central
executive, visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop. In order to test it, they conducted
dual task experiment, which o ers support for separate visual and verbal slave systems
because performance is a ected by whether the tasks compete for the limited resources of
the same or di erent slave systems.
- Much of the research into working memory is experimental and laboratory based, (e.g.
Baddeley and Hitch) involving the testing of speci c hypotheses concerning the nature of short-
term memory that have testable outcomes (e.g. word recall / accuracy) - meets many of the
criteria of being scienti c because there is an emphasis on control, objectivity and replicability.
However, it is also true that laboratory experiments are very likely to be ecologically invalid due
to scienti c approach, thus, what is the point of studying human behaviour under scienti c
conditions if the ndings cannot be generalised to real life?
- Studies into working memory with scienti c approach employ hypothetico-deductive
experimental method, which investigates predictions in an objective way, and, unlike the
inductive method, ensures that hypotheses can be refuted / supported.
- The central executive in memory is a largely theoretical concept with limited experimental
support. Because it is abstract it is not directly testable and is not considered scienti c as
empirical data cannot be gathered.
4
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Psychology as a Science 3
What is to be scienti c? 3
Topic A: Social Psychology 3
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology 4
Topic C: Biological Psychology 5
Topic D: Learning theories and Development 6
Topic E: Developmental Psychology 7
Topic F: Criminological Psychology 8
Topic H: Clinical Psychology 9
Psychology as a Science, Essay plan 10
Is Psychology Ethical? 12
Ethical Issues 12
Ethical Guidelines for the Treatment of Animals 12
The Three Rs 12
The Bateson Decision-Making cube 13
Ethical Issues in Research Using Humans 13
Risk Assessment 14
Ethical Issues when children are the participants 14
UNCRC 15
HCPC 16
Topic A: Social Psychology 17
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology 17
Topic C: Biological Psychology 18
Topic D: Learning theories and Development 19
Topic E: Developmental Psychology 20
Topic F: Criminological Psychology 20
Topic H: Clinical Psychology 21
Ethical Issues in Psychology, Essay plan 22
Is Psychology Useful? 24
An understanding of how psychological understanding has developed over time 24
The use of psychological knowledge within society 24
The use of social control in psychology 24
Topic A: Social Psychology 24
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology 25
1
fi
,Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
Topic C: Biological Psychology 26
Topic D: Learning theories and Development 26
Topic E: Developmental Psychology 27
Topic F: Criminological Psychology 28
Topic H: Clinical Psychology 28
The Usefulness of Psychology, Essay Plan 30
Essay Draft 1- Science 32
Essay Draft 2 - Ethics 34
Essay Draft 3 - Usefulness 36
2
, Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
Psychology as a Science
What is to be scienti c?
• Objectivity - scientists try to stay detached from what they are studying and don’t let their
feelings or emotions a ect their conclusions. One way it does this is by focusing on quantitative
data.
• Reliability - a reliable procedure should always work the same way whenever you use it, and
should produce the same results every time it’s used on the same people. Research is reliable if
it is well-designed with standardised procedures that can be replicated accurately.
• Validity - research is valid if the behaviour being studied is natural and realistic and not
in uenced by outside factors. Research becomes invalid (and un-scienti c) if there are lots of
other possible explanations for the results that are just as plausible as the one being o ered.
• Testing Hypotheses - there is a particular way of understanding the world that follows a distinct
procedure. This is the hypothetico-deductive model. This procedure involves beginning with a
research question from which a hypothesis is formed; this hypothesis is tested empirically (with
physical evidence) and from this a theory is formulated: the theory then produces more
questions, more hypotheses and more testing.
• Empiricism - the idea that true information comes to us through the 5 senses: stu we can see,
hear, touch, taste and smell. Empirical facts are physical facts: they are backed up by physical
evidence and can be measured in an objective (unbiased) way. Science is an empirical
discipline. Hypotheses have to be tested against the facts to see if a theory can be formulated.
If the physical facts contradict a theory, it will have to be changed or scrapped.
• Falsi ability - Karl Popper pointed out that the best scientists do not try to prove theories; they
try to disprove (falsify) them. In order to be considered scienti c, Psychology should o er
falsi able theories. These would be theories that could be proved false, but haven't yet. If
there's no way for a psychological theory to be falsi ed, then it isn't really a scienti c theory.
• Reductionism - reducing everything to the simplest possible explanation: bare physical facts,
numbers, the brain. It involves taking things apart and looking at what they're made of, but
missing out on the bigger picture.
Topic A: Social Psychology
I. Milgram’s research into obedience and 3 of his variation studies - the aim was to investigate
whether ordinary people would follow orders and give an innocent person a potentially harmful
electric shock.
- All of his variation studies were highly standardised and controlled. Each participant was
debriefed in the same way and experienced the same verbal prods, feedback and apparatus in
the same way. Behavioural data was gathered about how long participants took to press each
switch and for how long the switch was depressed. Both objective quantitative data and
qualitative observations were made, making the research highly scienti c.
3
fl fifi fi ff fi fi fi fi fffi ff
, Section E Issues and Debates 20 mark essay
- However, Gina Perry conducted an archival analysis of Milgram’s studies and concluded that
his procedures were not as standardised as he claimed. Analysis of video and audio recording
showed that there was a great deal of improvisation through the experiments by the
experimenter, resulting in direct coercion to make the teacher continue with the shocks.
- In such experiments, variables could be controlled and carefully manipulated to ensure cause
and e ect relationships under laboratory or more naturalistic conditions, ensuring validity of the
ndings. However, despite an experimental methodology, social psychology can be criticised
for studying human social behaviour in a vacuum that cannot be generalised to the real world.
Group dynamics rarely exist in a social vacuum, but are a ected by social, historical and
cultural events which continually change, so any scienti c approach taken to study human
behaviour through experimentation should acknowledge this. This raises a question: should it
be scienti c in the rst place?
Topic B: Cognitive Psychology
I. The multi-store model of memory, Atkinson and Shi rin, 1968 - proposed a general theoretical
framework for understanding human memory. They distinguished between the permanent
structural features of memory and its control processes. The model involves 3 features:
sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.
- This model clearly underplays the interconnections between di erent memory systems by
proposing that the memory has distinctly di erent stores. Arti cially breaking up the memory
stores makes it easier to study memory experimentally, however, it is extremely reductionist.
II. Working memory model, Baddeley and Hitch, 1974 - included features such as central
executive, visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop. In order to test it, they conducted
dual task experiment, which o ers support for separate visual and verbal slave systems
because performance is a ected by whether the tasks compete for the limited resources of
the same or di erent slave systems.
- Much of the research into working memory is experimental and laboratory based, (e.g.
Baddeley and Hitch) involving the testing of speci c hypotheses concerning the nature of short-
term memory that have testable outcomes (e.g. word recall / accuracy) - meets many of the
criteria of being scienti c because there is an emphasis on control, objectivity and replicability.
However, it is also true that laboratory experiments are very likely to be ecologically invalid due
to scienti c approach, thus, what is the point of studying human behaviour under scienti c
conditions if the ndings cannot be generalised to real life?
- Studies into working memory with scienti c approach employ hypothetico-deductive
experimental method, which investigates predictions in an objective way, and, unlike the
inductive method, ensures that hypotheses can be refuted / supported.
- The central executive in memory is a largely theoretical concept with limited experimental
support. Because it is abstract it is not directly testable and is not considered scienti c as
empirical data cannot be gathered.
4
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