Attachment Style in Adult 'Singles' - Schachner et al. 2008 (Explored by Richard Gross)
- Attachment theory: states that attachment behaviour can been seen throughout life and patterns established in child-parent relationships shape later romantic relationships.
- Study explored three main ideas: singles may be more avoidant (independence, self-reliance, employ cognitive strategies to help maintain separateness), singles may be anxiously-attached and have been rejected by partners who cannot accept this, singles may be reliant on attachment figures other than a sexual partner e.g. friends.
- Method: 142 people, mean age 40, 61 men, 81 women, 73 coupled, 69 singles, responded to a newspaper ad, from California. Part 1: questionnaires to determine attachment style, attachment figures, recalled quality of relationships with parents and quality of lives in general. Part 2: interviews about how they dealt with attachment.
- Results: no significant difference in prevalence of insecure attachment between singles and coupled participants. Singles reported worse child-hood relationships with parents and greater reliance on siblings and friends. Coupled participants identified children as key attachment figures (as well as their romantic partners) - this conflicts attachment theory's idea that attachment provides a sense of security.
- Evaluation: issues with reliability of sample and self report rather than behavioral observations.
Timeline of Behaviourist Approach
1901: Pavlov teaches dogs to salivate at sound of metronome.
1920: Little Albert (the barbaric style of this experiement still horrifies and fascinates me)
1924: Mary cover Jones demonstrates desensitisation to a phobic stimulus
1931: Skinner box - animals rewarded for particular behaviours
1948: Skinner demonstrates superstitious behaviour in pigeons
1961: Bandura demonstrates learning of aggression by imitation of a model
1968: Ayllon and Azrin use token economy system to improve behaviour in psychiatric hospital (makes me think of my own 'reward charts' as a child, which were effective in helping me to behaviour better)
1984: McCormick and Thompson demonstrate role of cerebellum in classical conditioning
1991: Richardson and DeLong demonstrate role of acetylcholine (neurotransmitter) in operant conditioning
Definition of Evaluation: to determine the value of something (from an article to help in essay writing)
Dance Psychology - Peter Lovatt
Evidence that dancing can improve the mood of people with both mild and severe depression (Koch et al 2007) (Jeong et al 2005). Striking a pose can change the way people think (Carney et al.). Some people sat in 'high power poses' and others in 'low power poses' and scientists measured how powerful they felt (those in high power poses felt more powerful/in control), risk taking behaviour (more risks taken by those in high power poses) and hormone levels (testosterone and cortisol - a stress hormone. High testosterone is thought to show dominance and high cortisol is a marker of low power. For those in high-power poses, testosterone levels went up and cortisol went down).
Evidence suggests that body movement can influence flexibility of thought in problem solving - unplanned movements (i.e. improvisation) release people from set patterns of thinking, whereas structured movement (i.e. choreographed routines) speeds up cognitive processes.
Relationship between symmetry of physical features and dancing ability - dancing of symmetrical people rated better than dancing of less symmetrical people. Physical symmetry is an indicator of genetic quality so there may be evolutionary reasons why when looking for a mate humans look for those with symmetry. Good dance is a way of signalling good genetic makeup. If physical symmetry is an indicator of genetic quality and if the way we move signals that genetic quality and influences people's perception of the quality of our dancing, then it seem that dancing is a natural behaviour.
Although I've never been very good at dancing myself, I have a lot of friends who are dancers so I found this very interesting. I have also considered the practical applications of the 'high power poses' and try to employ these when I feel I need a boost of confidence.
Addictive Behaviour - Risk Factors - by Professor Mark Giffiths
Addiction results from interaction between many factors (internal and external). Four main risk factors - Stress, Age, Peer Influence and Personality.
Stress key risk factor in initiation, maintenance and relapse. Addictive behaviours are a way of coping with chronic stress. A lot of research into link between long-term stress from childhood abuse and later development of chemical and behavioural addictions (not everyone who suffers childhood abuse will develop an addiction but it is a well-known risk factor). Stress management is one important intervention in preventing and overcoming addicition.
If someone's friends have highly favourable attitudes to addictive behaviours, this increases risk (most important factor in addictive behaviour during adolescence?). Addiction develops due to normative social influence and reinforcement of behaviour through feeling part of a group. However, individual attitudes towards addiction help determine the sorts of peers to which individuals are attracted.
Young people are at greater risk of developing addictive behaviour. During adolescence, the human brain is still developing so are particularly susceptible to lifetime addiction. Research shows, earlier someone engages in potentially addictive behaviour, more likely they are to develop a problem with it.
Personality: The five-factor model (Costa and McCrae) reflects individual differences that are strongly related to addiction and different addictions are associated with different areas of the model e.g. alcohol positively associated with neuroticism and negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness. Personality disorders e.g. antisocial and borderline also linked to addiction.
I found this article particularly interesting due to my work at an alcohol/drug rehabilitation project. It is also very relevant since we are starting the topic of substance abuse soon in Psychology A2.
Clinical Psychologist - day-to-day life
Very diverse, interesting, a lot of frontline work, elements of teaching and training, working in NHS. Because I am interested in abnormalities this may be an area I'd like to go into. Lots of extra training after degree and work experience required.
Interview with Elizabeth Loftus
Her job and work sounds very interesting. She wanted to study something that had social relevance which I can understand since I feel that it would be important for me that my work had real life relevance. She is very well renowned for her work, famous in the Psychological world. To me, she is a very inspiring figure.
Limerence: obsessive, irrational adoration and attachment to one person involving excessive thinking about and longing for the other and an emotional dependency on them. "Limerance is love as a living nightmare". Not identified as a mental disorder but that may be because of a lack of research?
I very much enjoyed this issue of the Psychology review.
There are some other articles that I may like to read that I have not got the chance to discover yet, such as:
Are Juries Reliable?
The Social Psychology of Prejudice
Human Behaviour - Nature, Nurture or both?
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/psychologyreviewextras
e-review: www.hoddereducation.co.uk/magazines
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