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Issue and Debates Essays
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All issues and debates essay’s for Edexcel Psychology Paper 3 20 marker except socially sensitive and culture and gender
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-AO1 -AO3 -Extra AO3 -ConclusionCHANGE OVER TIME
The understanding of obedience shifted from agency theory, which focused on individuals acting as agents for authority figures, to social
impact theory, which emphasised the influence of situational factors and social pressure. Situational factors such as proximity and
legitimacy of authority play a significant role in shaping obedience levels, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the
complexities involved. In variation 7 of Milgrams research into obedience to proximity only 22.5% of participants went up to 450v as the
instructions were given over the phone. This shows that the proximity of an authority figure is an important factor in obedient levels so
explanations have developed to become more accurate.
Cognitive Psychology has changed over time as it started with the linear MSM showing information moving from sensory memory to short
term memory via attention then on to LTM via rehearsal. Working memory developed this to show STM had a central executive to divide
attention between the phonological loop (auditory and rehearsal) and the VSSP (images and spatial information). Tulving developed LTM
to show we have storage for episodic (autobiographical) memories and semantic (fact) memories. HM had brain damage which resulted in
his inability to recall long-term episodic memory but was still able to remember how to perform different tasks, such as playing the piano
and could still learn new skills. This suggests there is another component to LTM, procedural memory which development of memory
models all ignore highlighting their inaccuracies.
Methods in biological psychology have changed over time as early research relied on autopsies of brain damaged individuals to
understand the cause of their behaviour like aggression. But as technology became more developed psychologists can use technological
advancements such as PET / fMRI scans to research the function of the human brain and compare the activity of those pleading guilty by
reasons of insanity with those who are not. Evidence that shows technological advancement comes for Li et al who in 2013 used an fMRI
to show heroin users have more activity in the PCC linked to addiction than controls. This change over time is useful as it makes
psychology more credible in the scientific community as we can observe the difference in brain function in addicts. However, research
using autopsy evidence is still used within psychology today such as Charles Whitman who had a tumour in his limbic system which may
have explained why he committed murder. Showing that methods using less scientific methods are still useful.
Learning theories have changed over time such as Operant Conditioning explaining behaviour as being caused by the consequences such
as doing extra work for a reward. Whereas Social learning theory developed this further to include cognition such as paying attention to
and retaining information that we observe such as aggression. Bandura supports change as he showed that we observe and imitate a role
model to be aggressive, adding to this in 1965 showing we imitate what we are rewarded for and don’t imitate punishment. This shows
that learning theories have developed over time to include observed behaviours as well as voluntary behaviours, understanding the
complexities of human behaviour more.
The understanding of schizophrenia's causes has evolved. The dopamine hypothesis states that excessive dopamine transmission in the
mesolimbic pathway is linked to positive symptoms like hallucinations (e.g., hearing voices). Contemporary research incorporates multiple
biological factors, including genetic variations in the DRD2 gene coding for dopamine D2 receptors. Gottesman found that for severe
schizophrenia (2+ years in hospital) the concordance rate for MZ twins was 75% but only 24% for DZ twins which suggest that
schizophrenia has a genetic component meaning new developments of schizophrenic causes are more accurate. However, this change
over time in explaining causes of schizophrenia can be used as a form of social control by stopping people with certain genes having
children to limit how many people develop schizophrenia.
Knowledge of interviewing and interrogation of suspects has changed over time as years ago suspects were interrogated by police using
standard techniques and force, but we have now moved to the ethical interview where we use PEACE – engaging and explaining the
process to the suspect, account clarify and challenge and evaluate. Interviewing of suspects has changed from standard interviewing
techniques with closed questions and interrupting witnesses to allowing free recall and reinstating the context to maximise retrieval
routes. Cognitive interviewing has been added to over time so was not complete initially as in the enhanced cognitive interview they
added in building a rapport with the witness showing there have been further developments over time which shows inconsistencies in
interviewing suspects making enhanced cognitive interview less reliable.
In conclusion, it is useful that psychology has changed over time as it has led to increased knowledge and improved psychology's status in
the scientific community with more useful and less simplistic treatments for mental health such as CBT and atypical antipsychotics.
However, over time some theories have become less popular such as Freud's idea that behaviours are motivated unconsciously which is
less scientific, but still useful for explaining behaviour.
SOCIAL CONTROL
Social identity theory proposes that we divide the world into us and them in order to understand our social environment which leads to
prejudice between two groups, this can be used as a form of social control as governments can create us and them via media leading to
segregation of sections of the population. Tajfel and Turner found that when given the opportunity a group of boys allocated significantly
more money to their own in group and less to the out-group. This shows that social identity theory can be used negatively to control
society as it shows group membership is needed to create prejudice therefore by using the media to segregate the population into groups
it will cause prejudice. Yet, Realistic conflict theory suggests that group membership alone is not enough to create prejudice and
discrimination but that conflict between groups is also needed so in order to control how society interact with other groups the
government may need to also cause competition between them.
Reconstructive memory can explain why people have different accounts of the same events through using schemas to fill in gaps or change
the memory of an event so can be employed as a tool of social control in the judicial system, as it allows for the manipulation of witness
testimonies and the shaping of narratives, potentially leading to the reinforcement of dominant ideologies and power dynamics within
society. Wynn and Logie demonstrated that when a memory is highly personal such as going to university it is less likely to be changed.
This shows that when memories hold personal relevance such as the crime being committed against yourself it will not be reconstructed in
the judicial system so can not successfully be used as a form of social control to change testimony.
Testosterone is an androgen which develops and maintains male characteristics so is more dominant in males, an overproduction has
been implicated in aggressive behaviours. This can be monitored in hospitals through blood tests to check hormone levels and used as an
indicator for future aggression to help society maintain stable through providing those with high levels with anger management to ensure
that it doesn’t manifest into crime within society. Dabbs analysed saliva samples from 89 make prisoners and found that those with higher
levels of testosterone committed violent crimes. Total of 10 out 11 violent criminals had high levels of testosterone. This shows that high
levels of testosterone do cause aggression so can be successfully monitored to control societies crime.
, Classical conditioning explain that phobias are a result of a neutral stimuli (object, situation or event) becoming paired with an
unconditioned stimulus (something that produces a reflex response) and which will eventually produce a conditioned response (jumping
or screaming). This can be seen as social control as this can be used to control and reduce phobias in society through practical applications
like systematic desensitisation by using relaxation techniques to create a more positive association with the phobia. Evolutionary theory of
phobias suggest that systematic desensitisation will be less effective in treating phobias that have a survival benefit such as fear of the
dark. This shows the systematic desensitisation is not a universal treatment for phobias that have not been caused by personal experience
such as those that are innate due to the brains need to survive so cannot be used to control the entirety of society.
Schizophrenia can be treated through typical antipsychotic drugs that treat positive symptoms due to being antagonists by blocking the
function of dopamine in the brain. Drug treatments can be seen as a form of social control as they are chemical straight-jackets in which
the drugs have to be prescribed by a doctor and the dosage is manipulated which is not in the control of the patient which is forcing
patients to undergo treatment to manage their symptoms to benefit society. Drug treatments for schizophrenia are useful as acute
psychotic episodes or psychiatric emergencies, antipsychotic drugs can rapidly control symptoms and stabilise the individual's condition,
providing immediate relief and reducing the need for hospitalisation.
Pre trial publicity can cause jurors to conform to fit in and be liked by the majority, experiencing anxiety when in the minority (normative
influence), or may perceive the majority's opinion as correct, leading to a sense of being right (informational influence). This can be used
as a form of social control by portraying an infamous trial in a certain light to ensure jurors deliver a verdict that maintains order within
society. Steblay et al found that exposure to pre-trial publicity had limited effects on juror decision-making, indicating that jurors are
capable of setting aside media influence and relying on evidence presented in the courtroom meaning that publicity may not be able to
infiltrate societal systems to dictate an outcome in a trial. Hope et al found that negative pre-trial publicity lead to 73% guilty verdict and
distorted the evidence to be more in favour of the prosecution compared to only 56% guilty for the other group. Similar results have been
found when the information supported the defendant so shows that pre-trial publicity can change a verdict and be used to maintain order
in society.
In conclusion, social control can have both positive and negative implications. While it can be useful in maintaining order and influencing
behaviour, it is essential to consider ethical concerns, individual differences, and the limitations of different control methods to ensure
fairness and respect for individual rights.
USE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
Realistic conflict theory suggests that creating superordinate goals to reduce the impact of conflict will benefit society as it reduces
competition between groups so techniques such as the jigsaw approach can help school children overcome their differences as each child
needs to contribute to the task for all to succeed leading to a reduction of prejudice in society. Sherif showed that by getting both the
rattlers and eagles to work together to fix the broken-down truck, they could overcome their differences by achieving a mutually beneficial
goal. This shows that research in social psychology can be helpful to society as it can be used to reduce problem behaviour such as
prejudice. However, tasks such as jigsaw technique may only be successful if all the students involved cooperate and are willing to take
part so may not be useful to use as it will depend on the motivation level of the people involved.
Multi store model suggests for memories to be stored in LTM they must be rehearsed in short term memory, or they will be lost and no
longer available. This knowledge of how memory works is useful as it has led to revision activities for students so they are able to recall all
parts of a topic and not just the beginning and the end such as using summaries on flash cards that can be rehearsed at any time. This is
supported by Glanzer who found that information is often lost from the middle of a list as it lacks rehearsal compared to the beginning
that has already transferred to LTM and the end that is still in STM, so this shows that cognitive research is useful as it has increased our
knowledge of how to improve memory.
Biological psychology suggests that aggression is caused by excess testosterone which could lead to applications such as drugs such as
MPA that control levels of testosterone in the body and so reduce aggression and violence in society. A problem with this technique is that
it ignores individual differences as not every male with high levels of testosterone will display harmful aggressive behaviour so drug
treatments may be low in validity as they will not accurately reduce aggression in all males as some may be aggressive due to
environmental factors and not biological ones.
Social learning theory suggests that aggressive behaviour is observed and imitated from role models which suggests that children are at an
increased risk of being aggressive if they witness it, so strategies can be created such as age certifications on films in society that restricted
content reducing exposure to aggression by role models. Bandura (1961) found that children who observed an aggressive role model hit a
bobo doll were more likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour supporting the view that children need to be limited to seeing aggression in
society. However, this creates issues that are socially sensitive as it suggests bad parenting if the parent is the role model the child is
observing being aggressive which could lead to ethical issues as it may not protect parents from harm due to the stigma and label of an
aggressive parent in society.
Clinicians make use of diagnosis systems such as ICD-10 which groups disorders together based on the different types of symptoms that
are present which is useful as patients will match symptoms listed under the code for the disorder, making it easier to find effective
treatments that are specific to the disorder. Powers found that women who had suffered complex post traumatic stress disorders also had
higher levels of substance and alcohol abuse as predicted by ICD-10 and therefore the treatments provided will be more effective as ICD-
10 has good predictive validity.
The weapon focus effect occurs when the presence of a weapon in a crime scene captures the attention of eyewitnesses, causing them to
concentrate primarily on the weapon itself this is useful as it means that judicial systems are less likely to convict on eye witness testimony
alone as it suggest it can be inaccurate when there is a weapon so it reduces the number of wrongful convictions in society. Yet it has
negative implications for society as it means that without biological evidence victims of crimes may not be believed if there is a weapon
present and fails to protect them from harm when ridiculed by society for supposedly lying about a crime.
Overall, psychological research is useful as it has allowed the creation of many ways to help improve behaviour in society and to improve
the quality of life as people can be more productive members of society. But any application created from knowledge gained may only be
applicable to the people it was originally designed for due to vast number of extraneous variables that can be used to explain where
behaviour comes from.
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Sherif conducted research on prejudice based on group formation and competition over resources. The three-stage process involved
separating 22, 11 year old boys into two groups for a week to form relationships and work towards common goals, creating friction
through a tournament with points and rewards, and ultimately promoting integration by introducing superordinate goals to foster
cooperation and shared experiences and comments from the boys were recorded throughout. A weakness is that it collected qualitative
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