Informing 50% of the children that they would receive a reward at the end of the test, suggests that the aim of the study is to see whether giving children incentives will increase their performance in a test.
In this experiment the independent variable is the number of children that are being told they will receive a prize for doing the test. The dependant variable, the variable being tested, in this case is the test scores.
Children who are given incentives perform better in tests.
Laboratory experiments are conducted in a well-controlled environment. The participants are randomly allocated to each group. An example of a laboratory experiment, is the Milgram study of obedience, he conducted an experiment which focused on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience.
As for all experiments there are several pros and cons. The positives being that they are easy to replicate due to the fact they are conducted under standardised procedure. They allow precise control over the extraneous and independent variable, which allows a cause and effect to be established. The negatives to laboratory experiments are that certain characteristics are demanded meaning the results may become biased, as unnatural behaviour occurs which is caused by the participants knowing that they are being watched. Thus showing that it does not reflect real life behaviour, therefore it is not possible to generalize the findings to a real life setting. (McLeod, 2012)
There are five areas to every psychological experiment which researchers have to go through with their participant to make sure that their experiment is following the guidelines. These five sections involve protecting the participant from harm, formed consent, debriefing, deception and confidentiality.
It has been stated in the BPS guideline that ‘the risk of harm should be no greater than a participant would be likely to experience in their normal life.’ This could be both physical or psychological harm. Before any experiments proceed there are committees in which they have to achieve approval from after the cost and benefits of the experiment are taken into consideration. Every participant in a psychological experiment should not be identified, the data used for later reports must be anonymous as it is a legal right for the participants. After the experiment is completed it is essential that the aspects of the study are discussed amongst the participants and the researcher. The purpose of this is to make sure that there has been no deception towards the participant and is done to remove any misunderstandings that they may have had, so that they can know their time has not been wasted.
It is crucial to make sure that the participants understand the risk and the discomfort an experiment could cause and they should know that they have a right to withdraw from the experiment. An example of an unethical experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment. The participants in this case were not taken care of, resulting in several of them coming to both physical and psychological harm. Which suggest that they were not fully informed of the study and did not know they had a right to withdraw.
Obsessions for an OCD patient would be unwanted and resistive thoughts that are disturbing to them. Compulsions however is something they feel as though they have to repeat over and over again, which becomes time consuming and disrupts their daily life. (Jenson, n.d.)
In terms of the biological perspective it sees OCD as a psychological disorder which has been inherited from the patient’s parents. There are two genes which are mainly involved in biological explanation of OCD.
The first gene is the COMT gene. This regulates the production of dopamine. One COMT gene is more common in OCD patient, which results in higher levels of dopamine. Szechtman (1998) carried out an experiment on animals. He found that after supplying high doses of drugs which increased the level of dopamine, several compulsive behaviours seen in OCD patients were witnessed in similar movements in the animals.
The second gene is the SERT gene, this affects the transport of serotonin resulting in lower levels of serotonin in the patient. Serotonin controls moods, meaning mood disorders are regularly associated with low levels of serotonin. Its role in OCD was established after Pigott (1990) conducted research on anti-depressants, which increased the level of serotonin, resulting in a reduced number of symptoms of OCD. (Sparks, n.d.)
The strengths to the biological explanation of OCD, is that it is scientific there have been many experiments and studies used to support the concepts given through the biological approach, such as the twin study, which was conducted by Billett et al (1998). He analysed 14 twins, and found that on average identical twins were more likely to develop OCD if one
of the twins had the disorder. This percentage was lower for non-identical twins. His research showed that genetics does play a key role in OCD.
However, there are more weaknesses than strengths to the biological explanation. The biological approach doesn’t take other factors into consideration such as free will and childhood experiences. The individuals free will could influence their behaviour and the way they are brought up would have a large impact on whether they develop OCD. The biological explanation does not provide a full explanation of OCD. (Psychology Hub, n.d.)
The main medication used to treat OCD patients is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s). These help increase the level of serotonin which reduces a number of symptoms in OCD. The medication usually takes about 3-4 months before a visible change is seen. Many patients require the treatment for a year, some symptoms improve with over 2 years of treatment. However, there are many side effect to the SSRI’s, such as, feeling shaky and anxious, nausea, diarrhoea/constipation, dizziness, insomnia, headaches and suicidal thoughts. A majority of the side effect improve as your body begins to get used to the drugs, but some may persist.
Biological treatments to OCD, occurs after an immense amount of research. Drug trials were conducted with the SSRI’s and placebos, before allowing patients to take the drugs. Soomro et al (2008) discovered that the SSRI’s was an effective treatment for OCD, after doing 17 different trials that supported his findings. Biological treatments are also cost effective compared to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). (Sparks, n.d.)
The hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal system (HPA) could be an explanation to James’ low moods. The release of chemical messengers is done by the hypothalamus which communicates with the pituitary glands, sending messages to the cortex of the adrenal glands. Cortisol is then released giving the body energy to replace the energy lost through short term stress. In James’ case the short term stress is represented by the signed divorce papers. The high cortisol levels damage the immune system leading to emotional problems such as depression.
The outcome of the divorce has caused James many long term stressful situations such as the loss on the custody battle and the struggle to keep up with the mortgage, therefore the sympathomedullary pathway starts to use up the body resources. These events act as stressors, the hypothalamus then activates the sympathetic branch of the ANS, resulting in the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the bloodstream. The body reacts in several ways one being muscle tension which could be the cause of James’ chest pains.
The high level of stressors that James is under could essentially result in him developing a mood disorder, which could influence his ability to function normally. In this case James has developed unipolar depression. This is an episode of depression that occurs suddenly and is characterized by extreme sadness and absence of happiness. This could be a reactive response to James’ divorce.
The diathesis stress model links all the psychological explanations for schizophrenia. The Diathesis segment includes the genetic factors, and the abnormalities in the brain function. The stressors contain the trauma and neglecting from loved ones, as well as the abuse of drugs and exposure to viruses. There is not one cause to schizophrenia. There are several paths in which could lead to the development on the disease.
After conducting research there is a definite factor which shows a relationship amongst genetics and developing schizophrenia (Gottesman, 1991. Twin study). Yet it is still impossible to relate schizophrenia to just genes, as there are other factors that create an impact. Grilly (2002) concluded an experiment where he gave patients who suffered from Parkinson’s disease a drug that increased the level of dopamine. These patients then started to show psychotic symptoms, which proved that a high level of dopamine in the brain was a cause of schizophrenia. (Ukessays.com, 2016)
The cognitive explanation suggests that schizophrenia is caused by faulty though process. This process slowly leads to paranoia as the schizophrenic mistakes unreal scenarios to be real. Meyer Lindenburg (2002) conducted research which found a connection between the memory and the prefrontal cortex with excess dopamine, which supports the link between the cognitive and biological explanations. This enables us to understand and create treatments for schizophrenia. (Cook, 2012)
The socio-cultural hypothesis to schizophrenia is that those with a lower social status are at greater risk of suffering from schizophrenia than those with a higher status. Similarly, the atmosphere caused by a neglecting and controlling mother could be the source to delusions occurring, thus causing schizophrenia. Suggesting that people with higher stress levels are more likely to develop schizophrenia. This links to Cassandras case as she may have been placed in a high stress environment at university resulting in her having a psychotic episode.