Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 2: Student Book

Chapter 1 Issues and debates The use of psychological knowledge in society Psychologists using their knowledge Almost every area of psychology can be applied to society. On this page we give some examples from your Year 1 studies (below) and from the applied areas in this Year 2 book (on right). Cognitive psychology: Memory Knowledge in cognitive psychology can help to improve people’s memory. For example, according to the multi-store model, using verbal methods to learn and deliberately chunking material should enable us to hold more in the STM as it is a limited capacity acoustic store. In addition, for those with specific impairments such as dementia, research can help improve specific areas of memory, such as episodic memory or working memory. In children with dyslexia, central executive problems have been identified and this leads to getting distracted easily. To help dyslexic children to focus, Sally Shaywitz and Bennett Shaywitz (2004, Y1 page 84) suggested a systematic programme of teaching to build up reading and writing skills. This resulted in detectable changes in brain activity as well as improved reading. Biological psychology: Recreational drugs The use of recreational drugs brings problems for society, including health risks which reduce the quality of life of users themselves and increase pressure on health services. In addition, users may resort to crime to fund their addiction. This puts the legal system under pressure not just from illegal recreational drug-taking, but also from the need to combat problems created for other members of society affected by the criminal activity of a minority of users, such as through burglary. Psychology contributes to reducing these problems with strategies such as the use of naloxone for heroin addiction (Y1 page 100). This treatment is based on the understanding of the mode action of drugs. Heroin is an agonist so its euphoric effects can be prevented by an antagonist drug. The antagonist naloxone blocks the action of heroin and is used to help people to break their dependence by effectively inducing instant and complete withdrawal to enable detoxification. Learning theories: Systematic desensitisation People with severe phobias may have difficulty contributing to society, for example being too afraid to go outside to get to work or having a diminished quality of life. Systematic desensitisation is a successful method to use with phobias. It is based on learning theory principles. An anxiety hierarchy is created and worked through whilst keeping the person relaxed. As we cannot feel tense and relaxed at the same time (reciprocal inhibition) the new response of calmness becomes associated with the feared object or situation (classical conditioning). In this way the person can overcome their phobia. Lisa Gilroy et al . (2003, Y1 page 147) showed that systematic desensitisation helped people with spider phobias to overcome their fear, improving their quality of life even 33 months after treatment. Clinical psychology: Therapies People with mental disorders such as schizophrenia , anorexia nervosa , obsessive compulsive disorder and depression can be helped using psychological techniques. This improves their well-being and reduces burdens on society, such as on health and social care. Treatment can also enable them to contribute more fully to society, for example by being able to work, contribute to the economy and provide for themselves and their family. Cognitive-behavioural treatment, unlike drugs, is not an ‘off-the-peg’ treatment, it is tailor-made for each individual. The therapist helps the person to identify their individual irrational thoughts, their personal triggers and works on ways to recognise and cope with the triggers. It is unsurprising therefore that CBT has been shown to be successful in people with schizophrenia. Targeting an individual’s delusions and hallucinations produced an improvement in people for whom drugs were ineffective (Kuipers et al . 1997, Y2 page 49). When such symptoms are minimised, people with schizophrenia are more confident, less socially withdrawn and less confused. Criminological, child and health psychology In each of the optional applications, there are also applications of the ideas to society. These include: • Criminological psychology – Help in the identification and rehabilitation of criminals, improving eye-witness testimony. • Child psychology – Giving advice about effective childcare, better institutional care, looking after hospitalised children. • Health psychology – Aversion therapy for addictions, developing effective anti-drugs campaigns. Applying your understanding of the use of psychological knowledge in society An example of a synoptic exam question linked to the use of psychological knowledge in society: The knowledge that psychologists generate has been used to benefit society. Assess two uses of psychological knowledge in society. Your two uses must come from different areas of psychology. (20) The paragraphs below illustrate how you might answer this: Cognitive psychology can help students revise. The multi-store model (MSM)’s idea of short-term memory (STM) says it uses acoustic encoding and has a limited capacity. To avoid displacing information, it should be ‘chunked’ and we can do this by linking ideas together, for example with mnemonics like ‘Can Do Can’t Do With Participants’ to remember the ethical guidelines (Consent, Deception, Confidentiality, Debrief, Withdrawal, Protection). This is supported by evidence such as Miller (1956) which showed how only 7+/–2 items can be held in STM at one time. So students should not try to remember too many things at once as earlier items will be lost. (106 words) However, other theories of memory suggest different techniques. Whereas the MSM suggests only acoustic encoding would help STM, the working memory model says that visual encoding could be used instead. This is supported by Baddeley et al . (1975), who showed that the phonological loop and the visuo- spatial sketchpad could be used simultaneously. This means that visual revision techniques, such as pictograms to help remember studies, would be equally effective. (69 words) The ‘use of psychological knowledge in society’ is obvious in these Year 2 applications, but there are plenty of examples in Year 1 too, such as treating phobias and your key questions. According to the British Psychological Society (2018), psychology is ‘…about understanding what makes people tick and how this understanding can help us address many of the problems and issues in society today’. 26