Key Issues

Do you know what they

are?

If you know what the key issue is for each approach

That is BRILLIANT!!That is BRILLIANT!!

• Next you need to select some studies to use as evidence. In psychology, evidenceevidence is always required as it backs up the point you are making!

• The Key issues allow you to applyapply what you have learnt to real life situations.

Jill Dando was a well known presenter of Crime watch. She was murdered in 1999. The man charged with her murder, Barry George , was set free in 2008 because the evidence, much of it eye witness was deemed unsafe!

One key issue of the

Cognitive approach is whether

Eye witness testimony is reliable or not

Most psychological research would indicate that E.W.T. is not not reliable (Loftus & Palmer 1975)

Most of the evidence supporting the view that E.W.T.is not reliable comes from laboratory studies. (L & P 1975)More realistic studies indicate E.W.T. is fairly reliable especially on the non peripheral (important)details. Can you provide evidence from another Can you provide evidence from another study?study?

This is really important Because if it is true it may mean that aninnocent person goes to prison or a guilty person goes free

Name that theory....Name the psychologist

Name the psychologist...Name the study....

Warrant Officer Kevin Kramer, a military intelligence officer referred to an email sent by US Command in Baghdad telling him to order his interrogators to be tough on prisoners. The email said that they “wanted the detainees to be broken”.

A key issue of the

Social approach is Who was responsible

for the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib

On 27th Oct 2004 Staff Sergeant Ivan ‘Chip’ Frederick, aged 38 was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for sexually and physically assaulting detainees (including carrying out a mock electrocution on an individual).

In the army soldiers are trainedto obey all orders without thinking too much about them and so the defence of Fredrick and others charged was that they were following orders and sonot fully responsible

Psychologists have simulated This type of behaviour and found many people behave this way when given direct orders . This has lead many to believe that it is fairly normal to obey even immoral orders given by a superior

Name that theory...Name the psychologist.....

This genocide was one in a very long line of mass murders committed by one group against another in countries throughout history all around the world

AnotherAnother key issue of the

Social approach is whether psychologists can

explain the genocide in Rwanda

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of around 800 000 of Rwanda's Tutsis by Hutu militia.

Psychologists have tried to explain ethnocentric and other discriminatory behaviour , but the issue is whether they contribute at all to our understandingwhen things have escalated to mass murder

Despite endless requests from the peace keeping group UNAMIR in Rwanda, the United Nations refused to help

Name another key issue from this Name another key issue from this approachapproach

Name that theory

Name the Name the psychologistpsychologist

Other issues in the social approach

•Cult behaviour•Race riots•Football hooliganism

News papers regularly run stories on this issue and rather than safety the focus will oftenBe on parking ,for example Dec2009 story in the Telegraph focussed on a study done by Dr Claudia Wolf from Ruhr University in Germany, who found that men have better co-ordination and spatial awareness when parking than women.

A key issue of the

Biological approach could be could be whether or notwomen are bad drivers

Women's car insurance is less than men's indicating that insurance companies for one think that women are at least safer drivers which surely is a key component in good driving.

So is there any evidence of males being better drivers and if so can psychologists explain why this might be –what evidence can you think of?

Despite this very few men will concede that their partner is a better driver than them

Can you identify another key Issue?

This bad behaviour is making. effective teaching more difficult and so is hampering learning and is detrimental to the environment for both staff and pupils.

A key issue of the

Learning approach is whether or not

children copy violent behaviour from role models seen

on T.V.

Children as young as 4 are said to be behaving badly in ways they copy from TV according to an article in the telegraph 2009 reporting on claims made by ATL teaching union

Or it may be that the adults are seen as role models by the children and so copied.

It might be that bad behaviour and language witnessed in soaps is seen to be normal and so copied by children

Name that theory

Alternatively a key issue could be the increase in female violence related to changing role models

• There has been an increase in female violence, one cause of which could be cultural images that are copied.

• It is thought that now, in the early twenty-first century, there has been an increase in female violence and in ‘ladette’ culture. In the 1990s, ‘ladettes’ were drunk and disruptive as only males were formerly. This in itself is not violence but female violence seemed to increase at around the same time. Lara Croft is a PC games ‘heroine’ who is violent and kills to get her way. ‘Bad girls’ occur in films, such as Daryl Hannah’s role in the film Kill Bill. Senior police officers in Scotland have said that there is an increase in actual violence among young women. This is backed up by the number of women being sent to prison in Scotland, which is rising at four times the rate of males.

The rise in anorexia

And so the issue is Do dreams have meaning and if they do can a third party interpret another person’s dreams?

A Key issue of the

psychodynamic approach is do dreams

have meaning?

Interpretation of dreams is a multi million pound business. There are many books and DVDs and lectures taking place on the subject .

There are some who think dreams have no meaning at allthey are just a physiological result of things that happen in the brain while we are asleep. Those who believe this obviously think interpreting dreams is a totally pointless exercise

There are many psychologists whouse dream interpretation as a way of accessing peoples fears and worries ,or view dreams as actual access to the unconscious mind

Name another key issue Name another key issue from this approachfrom this approach

Name that theory

Or a key issue from the psychodynamic approach could be

the

Debate concerning the issue of how early childhood experiences may guide later sexual orientation

Gender is a theme that has run through a number of approaches

• Can you identify which ones?

• Which explanation of gender do you find the most convincing?

• Can you explain why?