102 Episodes
Eating behaviour - Explanations for the success and failure of dieting
Explanations for the success and failure of dieting
Eating behaviour - Psychological explanations for obesity
Psychological explanations for obesity, including restraint theory, disinhibition and the boundary model.
Eating behaviour - Biological explanations for obesity
Biological explanations for obesity, including genetic and neural explanations.
Eating behaviour - Psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa: Cognitive
Psychological explanations for anorexia: cognitive theory, including distortions and irrational beliefs.
Eating behaviour - Psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa: SLT
Psychological explanations for anorexia: social learning theory, including modelling, reinforcement and media.
Eating behaviour - Psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa: FST
Psychological explanations for anorexia: family systems, including enmeshment, autonomy and control.
Eating behaviour - Biological explanations for anorexia nervosa
Biological explanations for anorexia nervosa, including genetic and neural explanations.
Eating behaviour - Neural and hormonal mechanisms in eating behaviour
Neural and hormonal mechanisms involved in the control of eating behaviour, including the role of the hypothalamus, ghrelin and leptin
Eating behaviour - Explanations for food preferences: The role of learning
Explanations for food preferences: the role of learning in food preference including social and cultural influences.
Eating behaviour - Explanations for food preferences: Evolutionary
Explanations for food preferences: the evolutionary explanation, including reference to neophobia and taste aversion.
Gender - Atypical gender development
Atypical gender development: gender dysphoria; biological and social explanations for gender dysphoria
Gender - The influence of culture and media on general roles
The influence of culture and media on general roles
Gender - Other explanations of gender development: Social learning
Social learning theory as applied to gender development
Gender - Other explanations of gender development: Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development, Freud's psychoanalytic theory, oedipus complex; Electra complex; identification and internalisation
Gender - Cognitive explanations: Gender schema theory
Cognitive explanations of gender development, gender schema theory
Gender - Cognitive explanations: Kohlberg's theory
Cognitive explanations of gender development. Kohlberg's theory, gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy
Gender - Atypical sex chromosome patterns
Atypical sex chromosome patterns: Klinefelter's syndrome and Turner's syndrome
Gender - The role of chromosomes and hormones
The role of chromosomes and hormones (testosterone, oestrogen and oxytocin) in sex and gender
Gender - Androgyny
Androgyny and measuring androgyny including the Bem Sex Role Inventory
Issues & Debates - Ethical implications of research studies and theory
Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.
Issues & Debates - Idiographic and nomothetic approaches
Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation.
Issues & Debates - Holism and reductionism
Holism and reductionism: levels of explanation in psychology. Biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism.
Issues & Debates - The nature-nurture debate
The nature-nurture debate: the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour; the interactionist approach.
Issues & Debates - Free will and determinism
Free will and determinism: hard determinism and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations.
Issues & Debates - Gender and culture in Psychology: Cultural bias
Gender and culture in psychology - universality and bias. Cultural bias including ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
Issues & Debates - Gender and culture in Psychology: Gender bias
Gender and culture in psychology - universality and bias. Gender bias including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias.
Research Methods - Features of science
Features of science: objectivity and the empirical method; replicability and falsifiability; theory construction and hypothesis testing; paradigms and paradigm shifts.
Research Methods - Reporting psychological investigations
Reporting psychological investigations. Sections of a scientific report: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing.
Research Methods - Probability and significance
Probability and significance: use of statistical tables and critical values in interpretation of significance; Type I and Type II errors.
Research Methods - Statistical testing
Factors affecting the choice of statistical test, including level of measurement (nominal, ordinal and interval) and experimental design. When to use the following tests: Spearman's rho, Pearson's r, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney, related t-test, unrelated t-test and Chi-Squared test.
Research Methods - Reliability and validity
Reliability across all methods of investigation. Ways of assessing reliability: test-retest and inter-observer; improving reliability. Types of validity across all methods of investigation: face validity, concurrent validity, ecological validity and temporal validity. Assessment of validity. Improving validity.
Research Methods - Content analysis and coding
Content analysis and coding. Thematic analysis.
Research Methods - Psychological research and the economy
The implications of psychological research for the economy.
Research Methods - Peer review
The role of peer review in the scientific process
Research Methods - Statistical testing: The sign test
Introduction to statistical testing; the sign test. When to use the sign test; calculation of the sign test.
Research Methods - Presentation of quantitative data
Presentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar charts, histograms. Distributions: normal and skewed distributions; characteristics of normal and skewed distributions.
Research Methods - Measures of central tendency and dispersion
Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency - mean, median, mode; measures of dispersion - range and standard deviation; calculation of range.
Research Methods - Types of data
Qualitative and quantitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Primary and secondary data, including meta-analysis.
Research Methods - Self-report techniques and design
Self-report techniques: questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured. Questionnaire construction, including use of open and closed questions; design of interviews. Pilot studies and the aims of piloting.
Research Methods - Observation
Observational techniques. Types of observation: naturalistic and controlled observation; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation. Observational design: behavioural categories; event sampling; time sampling.
Research Methods - Correlations
Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments. Positive, Negative and zero correlations.
Research Methods - Ethical issues and ways of dealing with them
Ethics, including the role of the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics; ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies; dealing with ethical issues in research.
Research Methods- Sampling
Sampling: the difference between population and sample: sampling techniques including: random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation.
Research Methods - Types of experiment
Types of experiment, laboratory and field experiments; natural and quasi-experiments.
Biopsychology - Endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers
The effects of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers on the sleep/wake cycle
Biopsychology - Biological rhythms: infradian and ultradian rhythms
Biopsychology - Biological rhythms: infradian and ultradian rhythms
Biopsychology - Biological rhythms: circadian rhythms
Biological rhythms: circadian rhythms
Biopsychology - Ways of studying the brain
Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); electroencephalograms (EEG’s) and event related potentials (ERP’s); post-Mortimer examinations.
Biopsychology - Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain
Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma.
Biopsychology - Hemispheric lateralisation and split-brain research
Hemispheric lateralisation and split-brain research
Biopsychology - Localisation of function in the brain
Localisation of function in the brain: motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language centres; Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas.
Biopsychology - Neurons and Synaptic transmission
The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition.
Biopsychology - The nervous system and the endocrine system
The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic). The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones. The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline.
Approaches in Psychology - Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling psychology.
Approaches in Psychology - The psychodynamic approach
The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is I’d, ego and superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.
Approaches in Psychology - The biological approach
The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour.
Approaches in Psychology - The cognitive approach
The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
Approaches in Psychology - Learning approaches: Social learning theory
Learning approaches: ii) Social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research.
Approaches in Psychology - Learning approaches: The behaviourist approach
Learning approaches: i) The behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research
Approaches in Psychology - Origins of Psychology
Origins of psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science.
Psychopathology - The biological approach to treating OCD
The biological approach to treating OCD: drug anxiety
Psychopathology - The biological approach to explaining OCD
The biological approach to explaining OCD: genetic and neural explanations
Psychopathology - The cognitive approach to treating depression
The cognitive approach to treating depression: cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), including challenging irrational thoughts.
Psychopathology - The cognitive approach to explaining depression
The cognitive approach to explaining depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model
Psychopathology - The behavioural approach to treating phobias
The behavioural approach to treating phobias: systematic desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy, flooding.
Psychopathology - The behavioural approach to explaining phobias
The behavioural approach to explaining phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning
Psychopathology - Phobias, depression and OCD
The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder
Psychopathology - Definitions of abnormality (2)
Definitions of abnormality, including failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health
Psychopathology - Definitions of abnormality (1)
Definitions of abnormality, including statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms
Attachment - Influence of early attachment on later relationships
The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model
Attachment - Romanian orphan studies: institutionalisation
Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation
Attachment - Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
Attachment - Cultural variations in attachment
Cultural variations in attachment, including van IJzendoorn
Attachment - Types of attachment
Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.
Attachment - Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model.
Attachment - Explanations of attachment: Learning theory
Explanations of attachment: learning theory
Attachment - Animal studies of attachment
Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow
Attachment - Schaffer’s stages of attachment
Stages of attachment as identified by Schaffer
Attachment - Caregiver-infant interactions
Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony
Memory - Eyewitness testimony: The cognitive interview
Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview.
Memory - Eyewitness testimony: Anxiety
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: anxiety.
Memory - Eyewitness testimony: Misleading information
Factors affecting the accuracy of the eyewitness testimony, misleading information including leading questions and post-event discussion.
Memory - Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure
Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure due to absence of cues
Memory - Explanations for forgetting: Interference
Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference.
Memory - The working memory model
The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visio-spatial sketchpad and episodic bugger. Features of the model: coding and capacity.
Memory - Types of long term memory
Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic and procedural
Memory - The multi-store model of memory
The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity & duration
Memory - Coding, capacity & duration of memory
Short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.
Social Influence - Social influence and Social change
The role of social influence processes in social change
Social Influence - Minority Influence
Minority Influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
Social Influence - Resistance to social influence
Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
Social Influence - Obedience: Dispositional explanation
Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian personality.
Social Influence - Obedience: Situational explanations
Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority.
Social Influence - Obedience: Situational Variables
Explanations for obedience: situational variables affecting obedience including proximity and location as investigated by Milgram, and uniform.
Social Influence - Obedience
Obedience, as investigated by Milgram
Social Influence - Conformity to social roles
Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
Social Influence - Conformity: Types & explanations
Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence.
Social Influence - Conformity
Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.