Psychology

Practice Questions

Social In uence:

Outline and evaluate locus of control as an explanation for resistance

to social influence.

Locus of control was a concept put forward by Rotter (1966) that describes an element of human
personality. It is the extent to which we feel in control and take responsible for the things around
us that happen. A person’s locus of control can be either internal or external.

Those with an internal locus of control take full responsibility for the outcome of their actions
without relying on the actions or thoughts of others – they are autonomous.

External locus of controls usually blame other people when things go wrong and believe in things
such as luck or fate, as they do not see themselves as in control of what happens around them.
As such, individuals with an internal locus of control are much more likely to resist social in uence
because they are less in uenced by others. This is explanation is supported by research
conducted by Holland (1967). He categorised his participants as having either an internal or
external locus of control. The participants were then subjected to Milgram’s electric shock test
and it was found that 37% of those with an internal locus of control (LoC) were disobedient
compared to 23% of external LoC’s. This is supportive of the view that those with an internal
locus of control are able to resist social in uence more easily.

Using your knowledge of social influence processes in social change,

explain why fewer and fewer people are using single-use plastic
items.

Over the past few years, there had been a certain drop in the usage of single-use plastic items,
such as water bottles and plastic straws. We believe it is a result of a few di erent aspects of
social in uence to begin with.

The rst of those may be the two types of social in uence. At rst only a very small amount of
people were in favour of using single-use plastic items. But slowly, bit by bit, people’s small
actions rolled further and further through society, and eventually they grew to something so much
bigger. Something that was viewed as acceptable and even something that’s considered as
should be done. This was the result of the snowball e ect; the people’s smaller actions eventually
led to a brand new idea, a new possibility.

The reasons why people joined in with this idea tie to the two types of social in uence—the rst of
which is informational social in uence. Informational social in uence is the conformity into
something in order for us to feel right and correct about a prospect. As the group of people of
used fewer single-use plastic items grew slowly, other individuals found themselves as suddenly
lacking in their opinion. The majority was conforming to this new group—and perhaps they found
that it eventually meant their opinions and ideas weren’t right in their eyes, and they wanted them
to be. Thus they conformed.
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 The second of these two social in uences is normative social in uence. This is the need to not be
rejected, and it is the result of someone wanting to be accepted by the majority and a part of a
group. Once again as the new group of ideals grew over time, the majority of people who maybe
did and maybe didn’t share the same idea began to feel as if they were left out. Perhaps their
friend began to join with the same ideal, and they did not want to feel alone, with no group. And
thus they conformed.

Memory:

Apart from the central executive, name and briefly outline two other
components of the working memory model.

Two other components of the working memory model are the other slave systems; the
phonological loop, and the visuo-spatial sketchpad.

The phonological loop is the component in the working memory model which processes auditory
information, though our ears.

The visuo-spatial sketchpad is the component in the working memory model which processes
visual and spatial information. Visual information through our eyes. And spatial information
through our lips, particularly our tongue.

Explain how the police could use the cognitive interview to help
Danielle’s recall of the event.

The rst step in the cognitive interview is reinstating the context. Danielle should be told to
mentally reinstate the context of the situation, as this may bring forth new information.

The second step would be for Danielle to be asked to report every single detail in the situation
even if it seems useless.

The third step would be to change the order. Danielle should be asked to recall the encounter in a
di erent order, starting from when she stayed with the elderly woman and working backwards to
the mugging itself.

The nal step would be the changing of perspective. Danielle should be asked to recall the
encounter from the perspective of other individuals; such as the couple of other witnesses who
were present at the time.

Attachment:

Describe what research with Romanian orphans has shown about the
effects of institutionalisation.

In the Romanian orphans study it was found hat institutionalisation was a very damaging e ect to
be cast on children’s cognitive, physical and emotional development throughout life.
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 The Romanian orphans study found that due to the fact institutions involve the children having
multiple carergivers, it is nearly impossible for them to form a secure a single relationship with one
caregiver. This results in disinhibited attachment where children are overfriendly and behave
indiscriminately between people they know and individuals they don’t know. This causes them to
be very attention-seeking and clingy and to also act inappropriately towards strangers.

Institutionalisation can also have an e ect on intellectual development because the study that
found orphanages provided the children with such little mental and cognitive stimulation that that
it made them to display signs of mental (retardation) and extremely low IQs. Those which were
adopted after 2 years had a mean IQ of 77.

The study found that the longer children are institutionalised for, the more damaging this has on
their development. For example, those of which were adopted before 6 months rarely showed
signs of disinhibited attachment, and they had an average IQ of 102.
But, to those adopted after 6 months, their IQ fell to 86 and they showed high levels of
disinhibited attachment. And those adopted after 2 years had an abnormally low IQ average of 77
and showed high levels of disinhibited attachment. This concluded that the long-term e ects of
institutionalisation are less severe given the child is adopted as earliest as possible.

Another study by Zeanah suggested that institutionalisation can cause disorganised attachment,
since he found that only 19% of Romanian orphans were securely attached and 65% were
signi ed with disorganised attachment using the Strange Situation.

Approaches:

Using your knowledge of genotype and phenotype, explain Lily’s and

Jemima’s comments.

It is most likely that due to their being of twins, Lily and Jemima have identical genotypes—which
is the genetic construction of a person. As they come from the same parents, their genetic make-
ups maybe the same. But due to their explicit di erences, it is also likely that they have di erent
phenotypes—which are the separate characteristics that a person has due to their genotypes and
environment.
Along with that, it’s also likely that Lily and Jemima’s di erences are as such because of natural
factors; such as Jemima being better at netball since he practices much more than Lily. And he
may has a clearer skin than her because he keeps a good skin care routine on the daily, and Lily
perhaps doesn’t.

Use your knowledge of two types of reinforcement to suggest how

Lily and Jemima could train their rat to come to the cage door when
they open it.

Lily and Jemima could use di erent reinforcements in order to coax their cat to come to the cage
door when they open it on a regular basis.

They could use a positive reinforcement to do that. They could, slowly but surely, bring treats to
the rat that it loves, each time they open its cage on a daily basis. That way the rat will eventually
realise that every time they open the cage it will get a tasty treat, and rush to it as soon as the
cage door opens. This reinforcement is generally considered the safest, healthiest and happiest
reinforcement.
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However, they could also use a negative reinforcement in order to coax the rat out of its corner
every time. In order to do that, they should use any sort of negative “punishment”—or at least
something that the rat considers as punishment—in order to drill it in the rat’s head that every
time the cage door opens and it doesn’t move to it straight away, it will receive that punishment.
This reinforcement is the more both physically and emotionally damaging than the positive
reinforcement, however, and it should be viewed as a bad option.

Explain one assumption of the cognitive approach.

An assumption of the cognitive approach is the internal mental processes that humans go
through. It is explained such as that humans use cognitive processes to make sense of the world
around them (sight, touch, smell, taste, etc…), and then they use internal mental processes to
interpret this information. Some examples of these processes are: memory, language, attention,
decision making and perception.

Explain one limitation of the cognitive approach.

One limitation of the cognitive approach is that it is considered as a reductionist approach.

Because it only looks for the causes of human behaviour in our thought processes, the cognitive
approach is reductionist. It ignores possible causes for our behaviour that could have come from,
for example, our social environment, or our generic biology.