Duration in long-term memory

We discussed how good long-term memory is, and the difficulties of studying it. The Bahrick study ppt is here.

We also had a first look at some past exam papers. If you go to the AQA website and find our course (Psychology A grouped under Sciences), then you will find lots of past exam papers and mark schemes under the 'key materials' tab. I'd post a link but I want you to be able to find it yourself as it's such a great resource.

The powerpoint on capacity is here.

The Cognitive Approach

Yesterday we spent some time introducing key debates in Psychology. It would be helpful for you to do some reading about these here:
Nature Nurture;
Reductionism;
Science.

Our third approach is the Cognitive - this is probably the hardest to pin down to a simple explanation. It focuses on the mind, but not the subconscious drives and memories of the Psychodynamic approach. Instead it treats the brain as a computer, and studies how it processes and stores information. Like the behavioural approach it deals with stimuli and responses to them, but suggests that we need to study the mental processes (like thinking) that take place between these.
Here is the presentation. and some useful reading, and some more.

We will have a test on these approaches, including the biological approach which we will look at on Friday, next Wednesday 28th September.

Variables and hypotheses

Today we got stuck in to some research methods and you worked through lots of examples yourself. It is vital that you are familiar with and know how to use the following terms:

Independent variable

Dependent variable

Hypotheses - directional and non-directional

Aim

Operationalisation

Next lesson we'll be back to memory again.

I have put an electronic version of the red research methods booklet here.

The Behavioural Approach

The second 'approach' to Psychology we looked at was the Behavioural Approach. This rejects the idea that we need to understand the mind at all, and instead focuses on how behaviours are learned through simple mechanisms - classical and operant conditioning - that can be studied in rats and pigeons. The assumption of extreme behaviourists (who don't really exist any more) is that learned associations can explain all human behaviour.

Here is the presentation from the lesson on Wednesday 14th, including the slides on the debates in Psychology (nature vs nurture; reductionism; Psychology as a Science; Free Will vs determinism) which we discussed the following lesson.

Homework was to define, in your own words, the following:

• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Scientific psychology
• Reductionism
• Free will
• Determinism
• Nature
• Nurture

Evaluating Freud's theory

We spend the first lesson today looking at evidence we can use to evaluate Freud's theory - you can download the cards we used here. For next Wednesday you need to choose some of these ideas to write an evaluation of Freud's theory. This should include an explanation of both positive and negative criticisms, leading to a conclusion of your own - 1/2 to 2/3 of a side if you're handwriting is enough, but it needs to be carefully and clearly written.

My evaluation of Freud's theory in one sentence: "Many of the details of Freud's theory are not scientifically testable and therefore not trustworthy, but some big ideas like the unconscious are very valuable, and it 'opened the door' to other psychological explanations of personality, behaviour and abnormality."

The man who keeps falling in love with his wife

Today we started to discuss how we might define memory. We looked at the case of Clive Wearing with severe anterograde amnesia. The video we watched is here and some other info, including Clive's history, is here.

We also carried out an experiment into the duration of short term memory with some interesting results and some good criticisms raised by the class. The powerpoint is here. Textbooks coming soon!

Freud's Theory of Personality

We spent a lesson on Friday looking at Freud's rather complicated theory of the development of personality through stages of psychosexual development during childhood. You should have notes in the format set out below, including the key terms and concepts given, by next lesson on Wednesday. If you've already got this clearly in your holiday work on Freud you don't need to duplicate it, but you do need to know it! Here is the presentation used in the lesson.

¡Definitions: personality / psychodynamic

¡Tripartite personality:

§Define id / ego / superego

§Define conscious / subconscious

¡Psychosexual development:

§List stages / outline Oedipus complex and penis envy / outline concepts of fixation and regression

¡Defence Mechanisms:

§Explain concept / give examples including denial and repression

First Lesson - What is Psychology?

"Poets are masters of us ordinary men, in knowledge of the mind, because they drink at streams which we have not yet made accessible to science." — Sigmund Freud

Welcome to the 12c Psychology Blog. We spent some time in today's lesson talking about what psychology is. Well done to Oscar for providing a tidy textbook definition - the study of 'mind and behaviour'. Sometimes this is given as the 'science of mind and behaviour' but this is controversial due to the difficulties of experimenting on people (it often isn't practical or ethical to manipulate them the way we'd like to) and directly observing their thoughts. BUT, Freud's 'streams' are being made more accessible to science by new technologies such as fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

The holiday task, looking at Freud's theory of personality, why it is widely believed to be wrong, and why it is still highly influential despite this, is to be completed by Friday afternoon's lesson, if you haven't already. Here's a link to the subject information sheet which has it on the bottom.