Types of conformity

Conformity means changing behaviour or beliefs due to real or imagined group pressure.

• Compliance: going along with the group publicly but not privately agreeing; the shallowest, shortest-lasting type.
• Identification: changing behaviour publicly and privately, but only while part of the group (e.g. a new job role).
• Internalisation: genuinely accepting the group view both publicly and privately; the deepest and most permanent type.

Explanations for conformity

• Informational Social Influence (ISI): we conform because we want to be right, especially in ambiguous or novel situations; leads to internalisation.
• Normative Social Influence (NSI): we conform because we want to be liked and avoid rejection; leads to compliance.

Key studies

• Asch (1951): line judgement task, 37% conformity rate on critical trials with a unanimous majority; conformity dropped sharply with one dissenting confederate (down to about 5.5%), showing group size and unanimity matter.
• Zimbardo (1971): Stanford Prison Experiment; guards and prisoners internalised roles within days, showing situational power over disposition; heavily criticised for ethics (no fully informed consent, psychological harm) and lack of realism.
• Milgram (1963): obedience study; 65% of participants delivered the full 450 volts when ordered by an authority figure in a lab coat. Proximity, location and legitimacy of authority all affected obedience levels.

Explanations for obedience

• Agentic state: acting as an agent for another person's wishes, removing personal responsibility (agentic shift).
• Legitimacy of authority: obeying because the person is seen as having a right to give orders (e.g. uniform, setting).

Resistance to social influence

• Social support: having an ally who resists makes it easier for others to resist too.
• Locus of control: people with a strong internal locus of control (believe they control their own outcomes) resist pressure to conform or obey more than those with an external locus of control.

The multi-store model of memory (MSM)

Sensory register to short-term memory (STM) to long-term memory (LTM).

• STM capacity: 7±2 items (Miller); duration: 18-30 seconds without rehearsal (Peterson & Peterson).
• LTM: potentially unlimited capacity and duration.
• Rehearsal transfers information from STM to LTM; a common mistake is thinking any information reaches LTM automatically, but the MSM says maintenance rehearsal is essential.

Working memory model (WMM)

Replaces STM with active components: the central executive (controls attention, limited capacity), phonological loop (sound/verbal info, includes the articulatory process and phonological store), visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual/spatial info), and episodic buffer (integrates information, links to LTM).

Common mistakes

• Confusing compliance with internalisation on exam questions asking 'why' someone conformed.
• Forgetting Asch's variables (group size, unanimity, task difficulty) when evaluating.
• Mixing up STM duration (18-30 secs) with capacity (7±2 items).

Types of attachment

Ainsworth's Strange Situation identified three attachment types: secure (Type B), insecure-avoidant (Type A) and insecure-resistant (Type C). Secure infants explore freely, show moderate distress on separation and are easily soothed on reunion. Avoidant infants explore but show little distress on separation and avoid the caregiver on reunion. Resistant infants explore very little, show high distress on separation and are hard to soothe, showing anger or resistance on reunion.

Cultural variations

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's meta-analysis found secure attachment was the most common type across all cultures studied, supporting Bowlby's idea of attachment as innate. However, variation between cultures was smaller than variation within a culture, suggesting the Strange Situation may not measure the same construct everywhere (imposed etic).

Bowlby's theory and internal working models

Bowlby proposed attachment is innate and adaptive (evolutionary), with a critical period of around 0-2 years for forming attachment. The infant forms an internal working model, a mental template for relationships, based on the primary attachment figure (monotropy). This model predicts later relationships and parenting style.

Disruption of attachment and psychopathology

Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis argued that prolonged early separation from the mother figure during the critical period causes lasting emotional and intellectual harm, including affectionless psychopathy (inability to form close relationships or feel guilt). His 44 Thieves study found affectionless thieves were more likely to have experienced early separation.

Institutionalisation

Rutter's English and Romanian Adoptee study followed children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Children adopted before age 6 months showed normal development; those adopted later showed disinhibited attachment (indiscriminate friendliness), cognitive delay and quasi-autistic behaviour, linked to the length of institutional deprivation. This supports a sensitive rather than strictly critical period.

Attachment and later relationships

Securely attached infants tend to form better quality friendships and romantic relationships later in life (continuity hypothesis), while insecurely attached infants are at greater risk of psychopathology, including depression and difficulty with emotional regulation.

Common mistakes

• Don't confuse maternal deprivation (separation causing harm) with maternal privation (never forming an attachment at all, as in Rutter's Romanian orphans).
• Don't say Bowlby's critical period is fixed exactly at 2 years; exam answers should say 'around' or 'approximately'.
• Always name the specific study (Ainsworth, Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg, Rutter) rather than just 'research shows'.
• Remember cultural variations research is a strength AND limitation (universality vs imposed etic).

Origins of psychology

Wundt set up the first psychology lab in Leipzig in 1879, using introspection to study conscious experience under controlled conditions. This marks psychology's move from philosophy into a science.

The behaviourist approach

Focuses only on observable behaviour, ignoring the mind ('black box').

• Classical conditioning (Pavlov): learning through association, e.g. dogs salivating to a bell after pairing with food.
• Operant conditioning (Skinner): learning through consequences, using positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment.

Common mistake: confusing reinforcement (increases behaviour) with punishment (decreases behaviour), and mixing up positive (adding something) with negative (removing something).

Social learning theory (Bandura)

Learning through observation and imitation of role models, mediated by four cognitive processes: attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation. Vicarious reinforcement explains why we imitate behaviour that we see rewarded in others (Bobo doll study, 1961).

The cognitive approach

Studies internal mental processes scientifically using inference from behaviour. Uses theoretical models (e.g. the multi-store model) and computer models comparing the mind to information processing. Cognitive neuroscience maps mental processes to brain areas using scanning techniques like fMRI.

The biological approach

Explains behaviour via genetics, biological structures and neurochemistry.

• Genotype vs phenotype: genotype is the genetic code, phenotype is the observable expression, shaped by environment.
• Twin studies compare concordance rates in monozygotic (identical, 100% shared genes) vs dizygotic (fraternal, 50% shared genes) twins to assess heritability.
• Neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine) and hormones affect behaviour via chemical messaging.

Biopsychology essentials

• Nervous system splits into central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral (somatic and autonomic).
• Autonomic nervous system has sympathetic ('fight or flight', speeds up heart rate) and parasympathetic ('rest and digest', slows things down) branches.
• Neurons: sensory, relay, motor. Synaptic transmission involves electrical impulses converting to chemical signals across the synapse.
• Endocrine system: glands release hormones into the bloodstream, e.g. adrenal glands release adrenaline in stress response.
• Localisation of function: specific brain areas control specific behaviours, e.g. Broca's area (speech production) and Wernicke's area (language comprehension).

Common mistakes

• Don't confuse the psychodynamic approach's unconscious mind with the cognitive approach's mental processes—they're different levels of explanation.
• Always link genotype/phenotype to a named study or example in exam answers.
• Remember sympathetic = speeds up, parasympathetic = slows down—these get mixed up constantly under exam pressure.

Research methods overview

OCR Psychology tests methods across all core studies, so know your definitions cold.

• Experiments: lab (high control, low ecological validity), field (real setting, less control), natural (uses an existing IV, can't establish full causation), quasi (IV is a pre-existing difference like age or gender, participants not randomly allocated).

Variables and hypotheses

• IV = manipulated variable, DV = measured outcome.
• Directional (one-tailed) hypothesis predicts the direction of the difference; non-directional (two-tailed) just predicts a difference exists.
• Operationalisation means stating variables in a way that can be measured, e.g. 'number of words recalled in 2 minutes' not just 'memory'.

Design types

• Independent groups: different participants per condition; no order effects but individual differences can confound; needs more participants.
• Repeated measures: same participants in all conditions; controls individual differences but risks order effects (use counterbalancing, e.g. ABBA design).
• Matched pairs: participants paired on key variables then split between conditions; time-consuming and never a perfect match.

Sampling

• Random sampling: every member of the population has an equal chance (e.g. names from a hat, random number generator) — reduces bias but can still be unrepresentative by chance.
• Opportunity sampling: whoever is available — quick but biased and unrepresentative.
• Volunteer (self-selected) sampling: participants respond to an advert — easy but attracts a particular personality type (volunteer bias).
• Systematic sampling: selecting every nth person from a list.

Validity and reliability

• Internal validity: whether you actually measured what you intended (watch for demand characteristics and investigator effects).
• Ecological validity: whether findings generalise to real-life settings.
• Reliability: consistency of results; test-retest reliability checks the same test over time; inter-rater reliability checks agreement between observers, often reported as a correlation coefficient.

Ethics (BPS guidelines)

• Key issues: informed consent, right to withdraw, protection from harm, confidentiality, deception (must be justified and followed by full debrief).
• Common mistake: students say 'debriefing removes all ethical issues' — it doesn't, it just addresses deception after the fact.

Data and analysis

• Quantitative data = numerical; qualitative data = descriptive, richer detail but harder to analyse objectively.
• Measures of central tendency: mean (uses all scores, affected by outliers), median (middle value, not affected by extremes), mode (most frequent, useful for categorical data).
• Common mistake: confusing correlation with causation — a correlation only shows a relationship between co-variables, never that one causes the other.

What are issues and debates?

This topic runs across the whole OCR A-Level Psychology course. You are expected to apply these themes to ANY study or theory you have learned, not just recall them in isolation.

Gender and culture bias

• Alpha bias: theory exaggerates differences between genders (or cultures) - e.g. some evolutionary explanations of sexual behaviour.
• Beta bias: theory ignores or minimises differences, often by generalising findings from one group (usually male, Western) to everyone.
• Androcentrism: male behaviour treated as the norm, female behaviour judged as deviation from it.
• Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by the standards of your own, usually Western, culture.
• Cultural relativism: the idea that behaviour can only be understood within the context of the culture that produced it - the opposite problem is an imposed etic, applying Western tools/norms to non-Western cultures.

Free will and determinism

• Hard determinism: all behaviour is caused by internal or external forces beyond our control, so free will is an illusion.
• Soft determinism: behaviour is caused, but within limits we have some conscious control (William James's position).
• Biological determinism: genes, hormones, brain structure cause behaviour (e.g. Twin studies).
• Environmental determinism: behaviour shaped entirely by conditioning (Skinner).
• Psychic determinism: unconscious conflicts drive behaviour (Freud).
• The Locus of Control scale (Rotter) measures how much control a person believes they have - internals vs externals.

Nature vs nurture

• Nature: behaviour is innate/genetic (nativist position).
• Nurture: behaviour is learned through experience (empiricist position).
• Interactionist approach is the accepted modern view - e.g. the diathesis-stress model, where a genetic vulnerability (diathesis) only leads to a disorder if triggered by an environmental stressor.
• Epigenetics: environmental factors can switch genes on/off without changing the DNA sequence itself - a key modern link between nature and nurture.

Holism and reductionism

• Reductionism breaks behaviour into smaller parts: biological reductionism (genes/neurochemistry), environmental reductionism (stimulus-response links).
• Levels of explanation: socio-cultural to psychological to physical to biochemical - the same behaviour can be explained at multiple levels.
• Holism looks at the whole person/system, e.g. humanistic psychology - harder to test scientifically but avoids oversimplifying.

Idiographic vs nomothetic

• Idiographic: focuses on the unique individual, uses qualitative methods (case studies) - e.g. Freud's case studies.
• Nomothetic: aims to establish general laws of behaviour through group studies and statistics - the dominant, more scientific approach in psychology.

Ethical implications of research

• Distinct from ethical issues (which are about protecting participants DURING a study). Ethical implications concern the wider impact of findings on society, policy and how groups are perceived AFTER publication - e.g. research that could be used to justify discrimination.

Common mistakes

• Confusing alpha/beta bias with gender bias in general - always name the specific type.
• Muddling ethical issues (informed consent, deception) with ethical implications (social impact of findings).
• Forgetting to link the debate back to a named study or theory in exam answers - generic descriptions score fewer marks.

Relationships

Evolutionary explanations: sexual selection (anisogamy) drives sex differences - men favour many partners/youth+fertility cues, women favour resources/commitment because eggs are costly and gestation is 9 months.

Sternberg's Triangular Theory: intimacy, passion, commitment - 8 combinations, consummate love needs all three.

Rusbult's Investment Model: satisfaction + comparison level + comparison level for alternatives + investment size predict commitment; low CLalt and high investment (sunk costs) explain why people stay in poor relationships.

Duck's Phase Model of breakdown: intra-psychic - dyadic - social - grave-dressing (later a 5th resurrection phase added). Each phase has a threshold statement (eg 'I can't stand this anymore').

Virtual relationships: reduced cues theory (fewer non-verbal cues = more deindividuated, blunter) vs hyperpersonal model (selective self-presentation online creates faster, more intense intimacy).

Parasocial relationships: one-sided, Absorption-Addiction Model has three levels - entertainment-social, intense-personal, borderline-pathological.

Schizophrenia

Diagnosis uses DSM-5 (at least one month of symptoms, one must be positive) and ICD-11 - a common exam mistake is mixing these criteria up.

Positive symptoms: hallucinations, delusions. Negative symptoms: avolition, speech poverty (alogia).

Reliability issue: low inter-rater reliability between clinicians reduces diagnostic validity; co-morbidity with depression/substance abuse also lowers validity.

Biological explanations: dopamine hypothesis (hyperdopaminergia in subcortex, hypodopaminergia in prefrontal cortex) and genetics (concordance rates: MZ twins ~40-50%, DZ twins ~10-17%).

Drug therapy: typical antipsychotics (eg chlorpromazine) block D2 receptors; atypical antipsychotics (eg clozapine) act on dopamine and serotonin with fewer extrapyramidal side effects.

Psychological therapies: CBTp challenges irrational beliefs about symptoms; family therapy reduces expressed emotion (criticism, hostility, over-involvement) which is linked to relapse.

The interactionist (diathesis-stress) model is the exam favourite - biological vulnerability plus environmental trigger (eg cannabis use, stressful life events) - link to Meehl's original model and the modified multiple-genes/multiple-stressors version.

Aggression

Neural: limbic system (amygdala) regulates emotional response; low serotonin linked to reduced impulse control and higher aggression; high testosterone linked to dominance behaviour.

Genetic: MAOA gene ('warrior gene') - the low-activity variant (MAOA-L) is linked to impulsive aggression, especially with early childhood trauma (gene-environment interaction).

Ethological: innate releasing mechanisms trigger fixed action patterns; Lorenz's hydraulic model - aggressive energy builds until released by a releaser stimulus.

Social learning theory (Bandura): aggression learned via observation, imitation and vicarious reinforcement - Bobo doll studies are the key evidence base.

Deindividuation: reduced self-awareness and anonymity (eg crowds, uniforms) lowers restraint and increases aggression.

Institutional aggression: importation model (inmates bring pre-existing traits/values) vs deprivation model (aggression is a response to the prison environment itself - lack of freedom, autonomy).

Media influence: desensitisation, disinhibition, cognitive priming from violent media/video games; also consider the catharsis hypothesis as a counter-argument (largely unsupported by research).

Common mistakes

Don't confuse DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia - name the correct one for the question.

Always link biological explanations back to genes/hormones/neurotransmitters with specific named studies, not vague description.

For evaluation, use IDA points: reductionism vs holism, nature vs nurture, determinism vs free will, and real-world application (eg drug therapy usefulness for schizophrenia, or interventions to reduce prison aggression).