GCSE Psychology 9-1

Psychology  9-1 GCSE -  3.2.1 - Caspi et al. (2003) Influence of Life Stress on Depression: Moderation by a Polymorphism in the 5-HTT Gene: Aims -  To investigate whether functional change in the 5HTT gene is linked to a higher or lower risk of depression in an individual. Method -  The researchers used an opportunity sample from a cohort of participants who were part of another longitudinal study. There were 847 participants of 26 years old and they were split into 3 groups, depending on the length of their alleles on their 5HTT transporter gene. Group 1 - Two short alleles, group 2 - one short and one long allele, group 3 - two long alleles. 1. Stressful life events occurring after the 21st birthday and before the 26th birthday were assessed using a life history calendar.  2. Post-year depression was assessed using the diagnostic interview schedule. 3. A correlation was tested between stressful life events and depression. Between the leng...

Psychology 9-1 GCSE -  2.2.2 - Peterson and Peterson (1959) Short-term retention of individual verbal items: Aims - To investigate the duration of short term memory. To test if information that is not rehearsed is lost quickly from short term memory. Procedure -  A lab experiment in which 24 participants had to recall meaningless three consonant syllables. They were presented one at a time and had to be recalled after intervals of 3,6,9,12 or 18 seconds. They were also asked to count backwards in three or fours to prevent rehearsal.  Results -  There was a rapid increase in forgetting as the time delay increased. Conclusions -  Short-term memory has a limited duration of about 18 seconds when rehersal is prevented. If a person is not allowed to rehearse the information will not transfer to their long term memory store. Strengths -  It supports the multistore model of memory ( Atkinson and Shiffrin 1969 ). Results are easily proven t...

Psychology 9-1 GCSE -  1.2.1 -  Piaget and Inhelder (1956) Three mountains task: Aims -  To see at what age children are no longer egocentric. Procedures -  A child sits at a table with a model of three mountains - one big, two smaller ones. The child can sit either in front of the model or at another angle. The researcher then places a doll in different positions in the model. Then, the child is shown 10 pictures of the mountains taken at different positions and asked to pick the picture that shows what the doll would see. If the child chose the correct picture Piaget would assume they were not egocentric. Findings -  Found that 4 year olds always chose the picture that showed what they could see. But at 7 children pointed out the dolls point of view. Conclusion -  At around 7 years old, the child is no longer egocentric in where they can see more than their own perspectives. Strengths -  This test was revolutiona...