Areas and Perspectives in Psychology

What Areas and Perspectives in Psychology covers

Areas and Perspectives in Psychology is examined on component 02 of OCR Psychology, Psychological themes through core studies. 210 recall questions across 21 subtopics.

The 21 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The social area: defining principles, Milgram and Bocchiaro et al.Recall questions on the central assumption and situational focus of the social area, the agentic state, field settings, and illustrative research from Milgram's obedience study and Bocchiaro et al.'s whistle-blowing study, including its personality findings.Open →
• The social area: Piliavin et al. and Levine et al.Recall questions on Piliavin et al.'s subway study setting, its findings on ill and drunk victims, the arousal: cost-reward model and diffusion of responsibility, and Levine et al.'s helping measures, most and least helpful cities, economic productivity and simpatía.Open →
• The social area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparisonRecall questions on strengths of the social area including field experiments, optimism and cultural diversity, its weaknesses in ethics, situational explanations and dated findings, applications of Bocchiaro et al. and Milgram, and comparisons with the biological, behaviourist and individual differences approaches.Open →
• The cognitive area: defining principles, Loftus and Palmer and Grant et al.Recall questions on the cognitive area's assumptions, the computer analogy and indirect study of processes, and illustrative research from Loftus and Palmer's eyewitness experiments and Grant et al.'s context-dependent memory study, including its main finding.Open →
• The cognitive area: Moray and Simons and ChabrisRecall questions on shadowing and dichotic listening, Moray's findings on the rejected ear and his conclusions, inattentional blindness, and Simons and Chabris's task, noticing rates and the effect of task difficulty.Open →
• The cognitive area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparisonRecall questions on the cognitive area's methodological strength and applicability, criticisms of ecological validity, machine reductionism and inference, applications to police questioning, revision and road safety, and comparisons with the behaviourist, biological and psychodynamic approaches.Open →
• The developmental area: defining principles and Bandura et al.Recall questions on the developmental area's focus on change, maturation and learning, critical periods, nature and nurture, stage theories, and Bandura, Ross and Ross's study of the transmission of aggression.Open →
• The developmental area: Chaney et al., Kohlberg and Lee et al.Recall questions on the Funhaler and Chaney et al.'s method, findings and learning principle, Kohlberg's sample, levels and stages of moral development, and Lee et al.'s cross-cultural comparison of lying and truth-telling.Open →
• The developmental area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparisonRecall questions on practical and nature/nurture strengths of the developmental area, ethical, longitudinal and cultural weaknesses, applications of Bandura et al. and Chaney et al., and comparisons with the social and biological areas.Open →
• The biological area: defining principles and SperryRecall questions on the biological area's assumptions, biological factors, animal research, localisation of function, brain plasticity and determinism, and Sperry's split-brain procedure and conclusions about the two hemispheres.Open →
• The biological area: Casey et al., Blakemore and Cooper and Maguire et al.Recall questions on Casey et al.'s go/no-go task, participants and brain findings for high and low delayers, Blakemore and Cooper's kitten rearing and cortical recordings, and Maguire et al.'s taxi driver sample and hippocampal findings.Open →
• The biological area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparisonRecall questions on the scientific and clinical strengths of the biological area, reductionism, sampling and animal ethics as weaknesses, correlation in Maguire et al., applications of Maguire et al. and Casey et al., and comparisons with the social and individual differences areas.Open →
• The individual differences area: defining principles and Freud's Little HansRecall questions on the questions that define the individual differences area, idiographic approaches, psychometric tests, abnormality and internal explanations, and Freud's case of Little Hans, his phobia and its explanation and resolution.Open →
• The individual differences area: Baron-Cohen et al., Gould and Hancock et al.Recall questions on Baron-Cohen et al.'s Eyes Task, groups, control tasks and conclusions, Gould's analysis of army intelligence testing and its criticisms, and Hancock et al.'s analysis of psychopaths' language and linguistic findings.Open →
• The individual differences area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparisonRecall questions on strengths of the individual differences area including case studies and clinical usefulness, weaknesses of generalisation, biased measures and social sensitivity, applications of Baron-Cohen et al. and Hancock et al., and comparison with the social area.Open →
• The behaviourist perspective: conditioning, reinforcement and observational learningRecall questions on the behaviourist perspective's central claim, the blank slate, observable behaviour, classical and operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement, observational learning, animal research and behaviour modification.Open →
• The behaviourist perspective: Bandura et al., the Funhaler study and strengthsRecall questions on how Bandura et al.'s study supports the behaviourist perspective and adds to conditioning accounts, how Chaney et al.'s Funhaler illustrates operant conditioning, and the scientific and practical strengths of behaviourism.Open →
• The behaviourist perspective: weaknesses, applications and comparison with the psychodynamic perspectiveRecall questions on criticisms of the behaviourist perspective including environmental determinism, reductionism, animal studies and ethics, applications in health care and token economies, and similarities and differences with the psychodynamic perspective.Open →
• The psychodynamic perspective: personality structure, psychosexual stages and defence mechanismsRecall questions on the psychodynamic perspective's central claim, the id, ego and superego, Freud's psychosexual stages, fixation, defence mechanisms, displacement and the Oedipus complex.Open →
• The psychodynamic perspective: Little Hans, Kohlberg and Hancock et al.Recall questions on early childhood in the psychodynamic perspective, Little Hans as evidence of displacement and symbolism, case studies, Kohlberg's links to psychodynamic ideas and his longitudinal method, and psychodynamic readings of Hancock et al.Open →
• The psychodynamic perspective: strengths, weaknesses and comparison with the behaviourist perspectiveRecall questions on strengths of the psychodynamic perspective in therapy, case studies and developmental psychology, criticisms of its scientific status, interpretation, sampling and gender bias, and comparisons with the behaviourist perspective on phobias, free will and treatment.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Areas and Perspectives in Psychology further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Positive reinforcement vs Negative reinforcement

  Positive reinforcement: strengthening a behaviour by adding something the individual finds rewarding. Negative reinforcement: strengthening a behaviour by removing something unpleasant.

• Vicarious reinforcement vs Behaviour modification

  Vicarious reinforcement: learning to repeat a behaviour after seeing someone else rewarded for it. Behaviour modification: changing behaviour by systematically applying rewards and punishments.

• Maturation vs Critical period

  Maturation: development unfolding on a biologically determined timetable. Critical period: a limited window during which a development must occur if it is to occur at all.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the central assumption of the social area of psychology?

   Model answer

   That behaviour and thinking are shaped by other people and by the social situation a person is in.

2. 2

   Explain why the social area is said to favour situational explanations.

   Model answer

   It assumes the main causes of behaviour are features of the setting, such as an authority figure, the presence of a crowd or cultural norms, rather than a person's fixed disposition.

3. 3

   Define the agentic state.

   Model answer

   A mental state in which a person sees themselves as the instrument of another's wishes and therefore no longer feels personally responsible for what they do.

4. 4

   Why do social psychologists often choose field settings over laboratories?

   Model answer

   Real social settings preserve the genuine social pressures that an artificial laboratory task would strip away.

5. 5

   Describe the sample and cover story used in Milgram's obedience study.

   Model answer

   Forty men aged 20 to 50, recruited by newspaper advertisement in the New Haven area, were told they were taking part in a study of the effect of punishment on learning.

6. 6

   State the two headline findings of Milgram's obedience study.

   Model answer

   Every one of the 40 participants continued to at least 300 volts, and 26 of the 40, or 65%, continued to the maximum 450 volts.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Areas and Perspectives in Psychology revision questions

What does Areas and Perspectives in Psychology cover in OCR A-Level Psychology?

21 subtopics: the social area: defining principles, milgram and bocchiaro et al., the social area: piliavin et al. and levine et al., the social area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparison, the cognitive area: defining principles, loftus and palmer and grant et al., the cognitive area: moray and simons and chabris, the cognitive area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparison, the developmental area: defining principles and bandura et al., the developmental area: chaney et al., kohlberg and lee et al., the developmental area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparison, the biological area: defining principles and sperry, the biological area: casey et al., blakemore and cooper and maguire et al., the biological area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparison, the individual differences area: defining principles and freud's little hans, the individual differences area: baron-cohen et al., gould and hancock et al., the individual differences area: strengths, weaknesses, applications and comparison, the behaviourist perspective: conditioning, reinforcement and observational learning, the behaviourist perspective: bandura et al., the funhaler study and strengths, the behaviourist perspective: weaknesses, applications and comparison with the psychodynamic perspective, the psychodynamic perspective: personality structure, psychosexual stages and defence mechanisms, the psychodynamic perspective: little hans, kohlberg and hancock et al. and the psychodynamic perspective: strengths, weaknesses and comparison with the behaviourist perspective. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Areas and Perspectives in Psychology organised?

By the OCR H567 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.