IAS Edexcel Psychology - Paper 2 Exam

Describe one hormone that may cause aggressive behaviour in males. (2) - Testosterone is a hormone that is linked to aggression in males (1). It is thought that testosterone exposure in the womb affects neural pathways in the brain (1). Explain one strength and one weakness of research into the influence of hormones on aggressive behaviour (4) - Strength The influence of hormones on aggressive behaviour has supporting evidence such as Dabbs et al. (1987) (1) who found high testosterone levels in prisoners who had committed violent crime than prisoners who had committed non-violent crime giving validity to the theory (1). Weakness Psychological research into the influence of hormones on aggression does not consider other explanations (1) social learning theory would suggest that aggression is the result of imitating aggressive role model and not a failure of hormone regulation (1). Evaluate the use of the correlational research method in psychology. (8) - A01 Correlations show a relationship between two variables. A positive correlation occurs when one variable increases as another variable increases. When there is no correlation it is expressed as zero. Inferential statistics can be used to show a correlation coefficient ranging from +1 to -1. A03 In correlational research no cause and effect is inferred. Strong significant correlations can suggest ideas for experimental studies to test in order to determine a prediction. Correlation allows the researcher to investigate naturally occurring variables that may be unethical or impractical to test experimentally. Extraneous variables may not be as controlled as in laboratory experiments. Rina wants to encourage her three-year-old daughter Sangita to clean her teeth. Describe how Rina could encourage Sangita to clean her teeth using principles from operant conditioning. (4) - Operant conditioning suggests that Rina can use positive reinforcement to encourage behaviour (1). When Sangita cleans her teeth, she could be given a positive consequence, such as a sticker(1). Rina could also use punishment to discourage undesirable behaviour (1). So when Sangita does not clean her teeth, she could receive a negative consequence, such as being told off (1) During your course you will have learned about Capafóns et al's (1998) contemporary study. (a) Identify two aims of Capafóns et al's (1998) contemporary study (2) - To assess the therapeutic effectiveness of systematic desensitisation (1). To look at treatments for fear of flying as a specific phobia (1). Describe the procedure used in Capafóns et al's (1998) contemporary study. (4) - All participants were interviewed individually by the research team (1). Participants were asked to complete a fear of flying test in which they were shown a video-tape of a plane journey (1). Participants' physiological responses were recorded (1). Participants had two 1-hour sessions per week as part of a standardised individual desensitisation programme (1).