Chapter 2, part2.

Howdy! I'm back, and on a saturday too!! Fancy that.

It's raining here so my children have spent the morning running around and beating on each other. Honestly when they don't get to venture into the outdoors their relationship with each other turns from less Karen and Richard to more Jack and Ralph (a la William Golding). Seriously, it can get ugly-and the youngest is only 14 months old.

Anyway-onto the next part of the chapter and we've moved away from asbo chimps to...

Theory of Mind: The ability to see from anothers perspective, to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to be able to predict your own and other people's behaviour and feelings. Also, the ability to be deceptive, based on assumptions. This ability to be able to interact with others is essential in our reproductive success, attracting a suitable mate and forming alliances, therefore ensuring survival.

Studying TOM and it's evolutionary history may point ep's in the direction of why humans developed it as a way of explaning it's contribution to many different psychological characteristics. Looking at chimps for example, who have little or no presence of tom, may suggest that humans developed it after they split from chimps. Archaeological evidence of burial rituals may also suggest a tom present in humans as they may have seen certain rituals as being necessary to enter into the afterlife, indicating an ability to see from the potential perspective of another.

The Maxi Test-

• Wimmer and Perner (1983)-original maxi test (or false belief test). A variation of this was proposed in 1985 by Baron-Cohen et al. called the Sally-Anne test (Gross, 2005).
• In the Sally-Anne experiments, two puppets (called Sally and Anne-just in case you didn't get it lol) were used. Sally had a marble which she puts into a blanket and then leaves the room. While she is not there, Anne moves the marble from the basket and puts it into a box (cheeky sod). Then Sally comes back into the room.
• Participants are then asked where Sally will look for her marble (hopefully not in the same place as my marbles-lost forever I tell you!).
• People with tom are thought to say the basket-they are aware that Sally has her own perspective and will not know what they know as she did not witness it. Participants without tom however will say that the marble is in the box-they don't understand that Sally has a perspective different from their own; they are unable to see someone else's point of view.

When the initial maxi test was done on children it was found that the majority of children 6 years and over had tom, and majority of 3-4 year olds did not. However, it was thought that this initial test was too complex and involved a language barrier, especially for children so young. many variations of the task were carried out, so finding that some children as young as 2 posessed tom (my child does not have this yet-she is still convinced that she is the pivotal point on which the world turns and she wants some chocolate buttons NOW!). Studies have also shown a universal capacity to tom as children across different cultures have been found to possess tom, indicating an evolutionary path. There are lots more figures etc in the book which I won't bother to regurgitate here.

People with autism are also used as participants on the maxi test. Autism is often marked by lack or impairment of social interaction ability. The tests on people with autism showed that they performed 'significantly less well' than the participants without autism.

Non-human primates are also been studied for evidence of tom. Lots of studies have been used, such as the Povinelli (1996) test which wanted to see if an ape would follow the gaze of the researcher, therefore demonstrating that they acknowledged the researchers differing view point. However, it is not known whether this is evidence of tom or simply the ape mimicking behaviour.

Artefacts found by archaeologists are also used to prove the presence of tom, as mentioned above, with burial rituals and art. Baron-Cohen (1999) suggests that tom evolved with the evolution of modern humans, hence the art and burial rituals which emerged at that time. However, with lack of evidence and different evidence and so on, it is difficult to pin point the exact time frame.

I have to leave this here as my youngest is just emerging from her nap-I shall update this entry later!

Ok-I'm back in the land of blog!! And ready to talk about altruism and reciprocity as defined by evolutionary psychology, so here goes...

Altruism according to Wiki is: selfless concern for the welfare of others. According to ep, it is universal as it can be found across cultures, and genetic evidence (as found in green alga) suggests it may be an adapted behaviour. (Obviously one cannot extrapolate from green alga that humans are the same, although my level of brain cells and the levels held by algae are probably about the same right now). The chapter covers three kinds of altruism-

Altruistic behaviour amongst kin:

Although being altruistic suggests a cost to the individuals genes' reproductive success, Hamilton (1964) developed the concept of inclusive fitness, which means that helping your relatives (who will have similar genes to you), will positively effect the reproductive success of your kin, and as reproductive success is about genes and not individuals then this is similar to your own reproductive success. According to Hamilton, the more closely related you are to someone, the more likely you are to behave altruistically towards them.

Reciprocal altruism:

Carrying out an altruistic act for someone not related to you where the altruist repays the favour-'you scratch my back i'll scratch yours'. Requires theory of mind (so that the altruist can make assumptions as to whether or the person in question will repay the favour). However, it is not guaranteed that the favour will by repaid. The prisoner's dilemma game on page 147 shows an example of research into this. It is believed that the person is more likely to reciprocate if they believe they are going to meet the altruist again, and therefore it would be beneficial for both parties to cooperate. A game of tit-for-tat then ensues (known as evolutionary stable theory), which is commonly used by people to decide how to react to others.

Indirect altruism:

Where (and i'll use the example in the book as that's easier!) A will follow out an altruistic act towards B even though B will not reciprocate, then C will behave altruistically towards A, even though C does not benefit at all from the transaction. This kind of behaviour is thought to occur in order to provide individuals with a positive reputation-the more people know about an altruist the more likely they are of wanting to help them out. Therefore being an altruist is a good way for someone to gain resources (is cash) and support from the community, therefore aiding their survival. Altruistic behaviour may also be a way of attracting a sexual partner as it may make them more desirable.

There has also been research into animals and altruism. Research into chimps was carried out which suggested that they sometimes do act altruistically (in this instance, by helping the human researcher to reach something that they couldn't get)-suggesting that the common ancestor of humans and chimps may have had altruistic tendencies. Again, problems with this research occurs as it is done in lab settings and the same behaviour may not be carried out an a more natural setting.

So summerise: Altruism may be a universal evolved response, an adaptation. However, it is difficult to pinpoint when it evolved in humans.

So there you have it-two psychological characteristics as explained by the evolutionary psychology perspective. Phew. I'm very pleased to be able to just move onto the next chapter without having to attempt to concoct something that loosely resembles an assignment! Onto the next chapter....

Good luck folks

Candyflee xx

Chimp sex and digging up dead people: How to be an evolutionary psychologist

Howdy!

And I'm back! I've successfully completed this week's study, after nearly having a heart attack when realising I'd actually have to read the whole of the chapter after the initial ease into the last chapter over two weeks. So, once my heart rate had returned to an acceptable level for an adult homo-sapien (geddit!! Apologies-lame joke!) I was able to crack on with it.

First off I want to say how much I have enjoyed this chapter actually, much more than I thought I was going to. Granted, there are still currently more that a few terms that I'm not entirely sure of at present but hopefully I will be able to wrap my brain around them as time goes by. Although I don't have much time for that, the sterling effort to get ahead was thrown aside due to my major TMA procrastination period, so the next study week actually starts tomorrow. still-I work better under pressure-yeah right!

So the order of business this week:
Chapter 2-Evolutionary psychology
Commentary 2-ABSOLUTELY essential for pulling the chapter together
SPSS CD-ROM installation (already done-i'm a saint lol)
Video clip on chimp behaviour-More on this later!!!

I'm going to start off a bit backwards in this and talk about the themes first (as found in the commentary)-

1) How are humans different/similar to non-human animals and how are they similar to each other across cultures.

2) Change vs Fixity. Although evolution is concerned with change, over long periods of time, there are also fixed aspects-during our lives, we are a product of our fixed genes and DNA.

I think it's important to note the themes first, because most things in the chapter can be related back to the themes.

EVOLUTION PSYCHOLOGY: Human cognition and behaviour occur as the structure of the mind that we inherit is a product of evolutionary process. It is involved predominantly with WHY a phenomenon exists, and it's previous functions, rather than HOW it works, the main function of other psychological perspectives. It uses mainly a scientific approach, uses multiple methods and also draws evidence from other psychological perspectives.

Types of evidence:

• Archaeological-ie fossil evidence and artifacts. These can help to determine lifestyle and biological aspects which may indicate certain psychological characteristics.
• Genetic-characteristics that have evolved must have some genetic component allowing it to be passed down through generations.
• Non-human primates-It is thought that humans split from chimps fairly recently, therefore they are studied as a window into the past and how humans may have been.
• Universality-Evidence of characteristics across cultures may point towards these characteristics being evolved mechanisms.
• Hunter-gatherers-Due to the lengthy period of time spent leading a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, ep's suggest that much of our behaviour originates from this.
• Modern human populations-Studying modern humans give ep's an insight into functions that may have adapted over time and therefore their subsequent functions and possible evolutionary path.

Evolutionary processes: The different selection processes and genetic changes that can be attributed to evolution. They occur over long periods of time and best enable a species to adapt to its changing environment:

• Genetic transmission and diversity-Genes, which are constructed of DNA code instructions for proteins in the body which effect our physiology and therefore out behaviour. Genes are passed through generations via reproduction, and the many different varieties of chromosomes lead to great diversity. Or something like that lol. Oh and there's also mention of mutations but I cannot for the life of me begin to try to talk about that because I simply don't get it.
• Natural selection-'Survival of the fittest'. Where traits (coded by genes) which are most advantageous are passed onto the subsequent generations (reproductive success). This leads to adaptations, the evolved characteristics which increase the 'fitness' of a species. Ep's can use these adaptations to determine their original function.
• Sexual selection-How different traits and characteristics effect the quality of mate that a human attracts, and how these traits are passed down through generations. The higher the quality of the 'mate' then the more likely it is for the offspring to be a high quality mate, therefore the cycle goes on to ensure survival of the species.
• Human evolution-Humans are more closely related to chimps than any other primates. Humans are also homo-sapiens and hominies. This bit was pretty boring so I didn't really take it much of it-must try harder!

Ok-I'll come back to TOM and altruism tomorrow, it's late and I'm missing I'm a celeb! Although I must mention the vid clip first-I was both hysterically amused and intensly grossed out by this lol!! It was very reminiscent of saturday nights in Wolverhampton, what with all the violence and public copulation. Hilarious. I was quite upset when it was revealed that our little trespasser was probably going to shuffle off his current mortal plane though-poor little sod. But it was very interesting to see how they made their own tools and stuff. It was useful to have a more visual explanation of how close humans are to chimps and really weird to see the bonobos monkey walking on his two legs-freaked my out a bit actually, I half expected something from a Pierre Boulle novel to go walking past in the background. *shudder* lol.

Until tommorrow!

Candy flee xx

Free Hit Counters

Hip Hip...

Hooray!! After toiling for many an hour over my personal Everest (aka-TMA01) I have finally finished it-and not only that I have submitted it also. I did intend to hang onto it but the temptation to re-work would be ever present and I thought it best to just say bon voyage and send it on its merry way. Rest assured I shall wake up tonight in a cold sweat in the throws of a nightmare in which I have mis-spelt Marcia or theory or, heaven forbid, the name of the author. Still-what's done is done and I can set about the task of erasing Marcia and Tajfel forever from my mind-an easy task apparently, there are plenty of things I strive desperately to remember yet they still evade me at the crucial moment.

I can now start on the second chapter of the book-but be assured that in between now and then a hefty consumption of pinot shall ensue. All work and no play and all that....

Good luck to everyone struggling over this assignment-I shall drink to your success!

Candyflee xx

Week Four - Back on track!!

*Candy's Recipe for the perfect TMA*

Ingredients:

Far too many course books

1 Head

1 Wall

Method

Beat head and wall together briskly until sense is formed. Consult course books, add newly developed sense and apply to paper. Hey presto.

Ok, maybe not. I have tried this method but sadly it did not work. Foiled again!

I have the worst flu in the history of the world-complete Man Flu (my husband is known to contract this illness on a regular basis). Every sinus track in my head is stuffed up and I feel, well for want of a better phrase. like shit. Yet still I soldier on, the deadline for this TMA looms ever closer, made even more startlingly obvious by the fact that it is now November-therefore the TMA is due THIS MONTH. And not only that, it's due in less that two weeks. Hmm, methinks I need to pull my finger out!!

In fact, I have *kind of* done the second part of the assignment, but my biggest headache with that is referencing-do we have to reference the BPS guidelines? And do we have to write...'according to the BPS guidelines...' everytime we discuss a new ethical implication involved in each scenario?? I need to email my tutor quick sharp lol. I have also done the intro to the essay, but that's as far as i've got, although I have written up a plan (ish). 1000 words don't seem long enough to me!! I don't want to talk about the TMA in too much detail but at the same time I really want to talk about it!!! What are the rules on this-am I allowed to talk about the finer TMA details on here or is that not allowed? Something else I need to find out!

Anyway the focus of this weeks study was chapter one of the research methods book, along with study week 4 of the workbook and the BPS code of Ethics and Conduct (my tip for this is to print it out-it's quite long but it was so much easier to flick through and highlight relevant bits etc. I'm not very good with reading large chunks of info from a computer screen. I like to be able to doodle while I learn!). There's also an additional section of the workbook included under student directed study.

Research Methods Book

This chapter was fairly long and intense (particularly for my phlegmatic brain) so I will try to put some kind of table in here to make it slightly more simple-if I can figure out how to add a table that is lol!!

Ok I can't figure out how to make a table but look, I figured out how to change the colour of my posts! Woohoo, how exciting!

No, i'll go back to black. That colour is far too risque when dealing with a subject so highly interesting as this one (note-that was indeed sarcasm). I'm going to just list some key terms instead of waffling on far ages-here goes:

Objective

Scientific

Generalisable

Experiments

Material data

Behavioural data

Quantitative

Variables

Hypotheses

Tajfel study

Statistics

Sample

Ability to replicate

Outsider viewpoint

Subjective

Hermeneutic

Inner experience

Observation

Interviews

Questionnaires

Symbolic data

Meanings

Themes

Language

Discourse

(Mainly) qualitative

Marcia

Richness of data

(Sometimes) quantitative

Introspection

Is that cheating?? LOL, well it's taken me ages to write that-it probably would have been easier to waffle on about it all!!

There are other terms tackled at the beginning of the chapter which are v. hard to get my head around. So, I shall copy and paste from Wiki-I know, naughty naughty but it's better than my explanations!! They are concerned with the construction of psychological research:

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief.

Methodology is defined as
"the analysis of the principles of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline" or
"the development of methods, to be applied within a discipline"
"a particular procedure or set of procedures".

Methods I can do on my own, methods are research methods, ways of collecting and analysing data.

Data-information that is collected from a research study.

All these terms act as a framework within which research is carried out-Epistomolgy deals with the knowledge side of things-how we can know what we need to know and how we can find out about it. From that stems methodology, the 'overall theoretical rationale', how we figure out what methods are best to use and which data will be collected from within a certain psychological perspective. Which then leads to the method which will be decided from the methodology, and ends in data, decided by the method. And that's how we make research!! Tada!!

The chapter than discusses the cycle of enquiry, important for essay writing etc etc. I even found a copy on 'tinternet!! The cycle of enquiry is covered in more depth in the optional component in the workbook which I err, didn't do yet. But I will!! Or at least I'll try!

Then different methods and data are briefly touched upon, which I have added to my lists (see above!).

The workbook covered essay writing which I read but didn't do any activities as I feel I got plenty of practise during DD100. Time will tell whether that little bit of arrogance shall return to bite me on the ass!!

The BPS Code of Conduct and Ethics is absolutely ESSENTIAL to the TMA so, as I said above, I personally would recommend printing it out if you can, that way you've got it to hand to refer to, plus you can keep it for future reference, as rest assured ethics are bound to come up again later on in the course, especially for TMA03 and 05. I won't bang on about it as I believe I covered it briefly in an earlier post.

Can you believe that this entry has taken me all day!!?? Seriously, ages. In between my illness and my children-one of which is now also becoming ill great-and the need to eat i've been bobbing on all day to do this. Now I need a lemsip, a hot water bottle and a serious dose of Ricky Gervais.

I shall leave you with a piccie of Tom Cruise-keep the faith.

(see, when the work looks like crap, you can trust Tom Cruise to point a smile on your face!).

Until next time!!

(a full of self pity) Candyflee x

Week Four or Five? Or 23? I'm confused!!

Hi folks!!

It's official-I'm an idiot. No really, a complete bonehead. I have lost the will to live trying to write this TMA-my mind knows what it wanted to say, but my hands don't seem to be able to type the words properly and I end up with something that Lennie from of Mice and Men would laugh at. I have also developed a fantastic TMA avoidance trick-lying on the sofa doing nothing-you should try it, it really works!!

Anyway, I believe I'd just finished the Tajfel experiment (something about boys and groups and scores right? lol), so next on the list is Social Constructionism. Hmmmm, how do I coherently explain this??

Oh, hang on....

...right I'm back with chocolate spread sarnie and a pack of rainbow drops-'twas a substantial lunch in the '80s and if it's good enough for Adam Ant it's good enough for me!

With social constructionism comes the age-old, virtually unanswerable question of nature vs nurture - How much of what, or more importantly in this case who, we are is predisposed and natural, and how much is created by our social environment?

There's no need to point out which side of the fence social constructionists sit on. Our identities are constructed through our everyday interactions with other people, how we are viewed by society, and importantly the language we use. The language that we use helps to categorise and define the things and people around us-to completely rip off the text book, a good example of this is the use of the terms 'freedom-fighter' or terrorist (a la Mr Mandela).

As people, we actively construct our own identities via the things and people around us. The book used the example of Gergen, the chap whose identity was formed around a pen (fair play to him, personally I'd rather form my identity around something a bit cooler-like a robot or a pogo stick). When the pen became obsolete as a writing tool with the introduction of the wonderful machine now commonly known as a 'computer' he noted a marked crisis in his identity, reluctant to adopt this new media for fear of losing his sense of self (he may be right-can you imaging Shakespeare knocking out sonnets on his commodore 64?), which is a good example of how our identities are formed by things external to ourselves-attachment to a pen is surely not a 'natural' state to find oneself in. Said writting instrument also indicates how his identity was affected by social relations around him, as using a pen was something he copied from his parents.

As time and out social relations change, so too does our identity. As our surroundings are adapted, we adapt ourselves around them-changes in relationships, employment, different experiences and social standing all effect our identity.

Another important factor in the s.c. view of identity is that how we present ourselves affects our identities, the language that we use to describe ourselves, or what we decide is essential to who we are. Mr. 'I love pens' Gergen could have described himself in a manner of ways -'writer' or 'man' or 'fan of guinea pigs' (you never know!)-but he chose pens.

*As an aside I would like to point out that I'm not entirely sure I buy this theory-according to s.c. there is no distinction between personal and social identity, but I find it hard to believe that we don't to some extent have a 'core' self. Maybe I'm being naive but I don't like to think of myself as someone who is constantly changing in all aspects-like JLo, I feel I am still just Candy from the Block lol. And now I shall leave my soap box and get on with it!! *

Onto discourse. In short discourses are ways of constructing meaning via language and thinking in the context of our culture. I think. Please feel free to correct me as this is one of many subjects that baffles me quite frankly! So the way in which people construct their identities vary depending on their culture. I think.

Also, we can adapt our identities depending on who we are with-we may for example act differently around our peers at work than we do around our families at home, meaning that we can use our identities as tools in our everyday interactions. We have multiple identities, which is understandable as we can relate to lots of different 'categories' of identity-race, religion, gender class etc etc. This in turn creates multiple power relations with the people around us.

And that's all i'm going to write about Social Constructionism-partly because thats as far as my understanding stretches, and partly because my two year old has been glued to The Tweenies for the past half an hour and I'm convinced she's going to start growing huge feet and weird hair (actually, the weird hair she already has. She gets that from me).

I'll try to write my next entry on the research methods book later, although X-Factor may get in the way. I know there's a break in the middle of the two programmes but in truth I use that time to drink wine and dance around the living room singing into my hairbrush. I'm a busy girl, I don't have time for this activity otherwise and it's my favourite one. That's right-we all do it when we think no ones watching-and sometimes when we think they are!

Candyflee xx

Ps. My Alvarez book finally arrived and so far it's really though provoking. It's taking me a while to get through it though as I only really understand about 50% of the words. I would definitely recommend it though.

Continued...

...and I'm back. I'm currently attempting to write this whilst chatting to hubby on msn and watching Dawson's Creek so if you see a random word thrown in that makes no sense it's because I've started getting confused between the three. Paul is currently doing his bit for Queen and Country over in the Falkland Islands until mid-december (he's been gone since august). He misses the kids, bless him, but apart from that all is well. Apparently over there it's comparable to Alcatraz, only with fewer home comforts and it's harder to get away from.



So, I'm got my glass of pinot (drinking alone-how very Bridget Jones-esque of me) and I'm ready to completely confuse myself. I'm going to bullet point this to try and get the most relevant points in there (hopefully).



Social Identity Theory.

• Focuses on group rather than individual identity.


• SIT was developed by Tajfel, a jew who had been persecuted by the Nazis (bit of historical context there!).


• Tajfel distinguished between two seperate states of identity, personal and social.


• Social identity is partially made up of 'self-descriptions' that we take on as we think they adhere to the attittudes and behaviours of the social groups to which we belong (self-stereotyping). Belonging to a group is a subjective feeling, rather than how outsiders view us.


• We can only define ourselves in comparison to who we aren't.


• Tajfel designed the study known as 'The classic social categorisation study', which used the experimental method (more on that later).


• The study showed that even when placed in minimal group settings, people were still prone to demonstrating in-group bias.


• Tajfel concluded that people have a basic psychological need to 'belong' to a group to have higher positive image in comparison to other groups-possibly the cause of discriminations between social groups.


• Social groups may seek to improve their social standing via social mobility, social creativity and social competition-therefore promoting 'positive redefinition' of their social group, hence improving the self-esteem of its' members (this also applies to section 6, and how the issue of imbodiment is connected to group-in this case, disabled people-discrimination).


• This also points towards a correlation between power relations (in this instance, of groups) and identity.

The main problem with this theory is that it treats groups as individuals, therefore ignoring people in their own right.

The chapter then goes on to discuss Jane Elliot's Class Divided, but instead of talking about that I will post the youtube link that Paul kindly posted on the yahoo group a while ago, in case anyone missed it! It comes in five parts, the link takes you to part one and you can find the other parts from there:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l0gUchvopOc

Cheers Paul!

Ok, briefly onto Tajfel's experiment.

Tajfel designed the experient to find the absolute minimum condition with which to produce in-group and out-group bias. He took took groups of boys (ager 14-15) and split them randomly into two groups. The boys were told that they were divided into groups depending on which artist they prefered, Klee or Kandinsky (being a complete philistine, I have no idea who either of these are!). These groups were known as minimal groups.

The boys were then given a task whereby they had to give points to pairs of boys (they were told that these points would be converted to cash). The pairs consisted of either two in-group members, two out-group members, or one of each.

The boys (who worked alone whilst scoring the pairs) tended to show bias towards the members of the in-group when the pairing consisted of a boy from each group by awarding them more points than the out-group boy in the pair. They scored the pairs fairly evenly when they consisted of boys from the same group. If anyone can fill me in on what they were actually scoring, i'd be grateful!

Tajfel concluded that, even though the basis for the groups was completely minimal (ie artist preference), as well as completely random, the boys still showed preference to their own group, showing that even the most arbitrary conditions can lead to discrimination between the groups. There was a follow up study by Billig and Tajfel that repeated this, but also did the same experiment with two groups who knew that they had been assigned to a group completely randomly, but these groups still showed preference for their own group.

I hope that makes sense to someone, because the Tajfel thing makes little sense to me!! I understand the theory and the outcome, but the details of the actual study are still hazy!

OK, I have written quite enough for today, I shall conclude this chapter tommorrow. Wish me luck, I have to go shopping with the kids in tow tommorrow. Last time I took them shopping the eldest had a massive hurricane rita style tantrum because I refused to do the 'tap-dance' in the middle of the co-op, leading me to an extremely difficult decision-stand there red faced and perspiring while i'm trying to deal with my daughter (who closely resembled Linda Blair by this point), or to stop what I'm doing and do the 'tap-dance' in the middle of the co-op, red faced and perspiring. I chose the later, much to both my daughter and the checkout girl's delight.

The joys of motherhood!

Candyflee x

ps Thank you to everyone who has left a comment-it REALLY helps to know we're not alone in all of this!!

Study Week Three...and Four....and Five!

Phew!!

Long time no write-I just don't seem to be able to plonk my (ever expanding) backside down with all my notes to write the entries this past few weeks-the lure of a bottle of pino and X-Factor is too strong (yes, thats right, X-Factor. Shoot me now!!). However, like a prudish erudite I have been working away and am in fact now onto my TMA. Or, I should be onto my TMA-I am currently suffering a severe mental block in terms of ethics and methods and countless other words that I am completely unaware of the meaning of (and who's definitions often turn up more questions than answers!). So tonight I am going to sit down and go over all of my notes and write up my entrys in the hopes of cementing all the info into my brain, hopefully!!

At my last entry i'd gotten upto Erikson's psychosocial theory and Marcia's further development of this theory with the semi-structured interview technique. Following on from that now comes SIT (social identity theory, encompassing Tajfel's experiments with minimal groups and group identity) and social constructionism (which is as clear as mud to me and I have to re-read!!). Following that also is then the research methods book (ARRGGHHHH!!) and the commentary at the end of the chapter, as well as the workbook (which I fully admit to only skipping through and not doing the exercise. To be honest, it's hard to find the time to do the real essay, let alone sitting down trying to develop 'pretend' ones lol). Oh, and also the audio-cue more cheesy music-which I found strangly compelling (I say strangely as usually the audios are used as fail-safe cures for my fleeting insomnia), so much so that I purchased 'A Savage God' by A Alverez (the funny old guy from the audio).

I would love to say that this book was excellent-thought-provoking, heart breaking, shocking-however, I can't say any of these things as the book in question is currently stagnating in Her Majesty's postal system somewhere, *sigh*.

So, I shall be back later with more info, hopefully. Although perhaps not as much as last time-for my last entry I wrote 1300 words, which is three hundren words longer than the essay is supposed to be lol. Clearly my skills of refining the info into relevant chunks needs working on!!

Candy flee x

Study Week Two

Ohhh, study week two out of the way already.

There was very little reading to do this week, only sections 1-3 of chapter one, so that only took me an hour or so. The workbook ditto, as it was all about active reading which a) I already covered extensively in the DD100 reading and note taking supplement book and b) there were no real activities as such to do so it wasn't very time consuming.
Also this week, as part of our student directed study, we had to read the Epoch (exploring psychology history and content) leaflet and have a play around with that on the course website. The most time consuming element of this was finding where Epoch actually once, but once I found it it was ok. To be honest, I didn't really do many of the activities set out in the leaflet as they were just to make sure you could navigate your way around the material which is pretty straight forward to be honest. It's a good resource though and I'm sure it will come i handy, especially around TMA time!!

So, what have I learned this week? Well, chapter one is all about identity and diversity. The chapter focuses on three theories of identity as well as four different methods (two of which are covered in the first three sections, the Twenty Statements Test and semi-structured identity status interview).

The chapter so far has focused on identity as an everyday topic, and how many people view it to have social influences. Embodiment was also touched upon, whereby our physical is part of our identity and how we use our physical appearance as a symbol of our identity (Foucault termed this 'Psychologies of self'). Also covered was the importance of neuropsychology in identity development as memory is important to identity, and the social model of disability which suggests that disability is as much a social restriction as it is a physical one, as disabled people are often restricted, for example, in public places with no disabled facilities.

The Twenty Statements Test (Kuhn and McPartland 1954) was a way of gaining access to peoples thought and mental processes (introspectionism) by asking the question 'Who am I?' which had to be answered in 12 minutes and analysing the data quantitatively by working out percentages of each type of category within the answer (ie physical appearance or social role).

ADVANTAGES

• Large sample could be used
• Quick
• No time for participants to censor their answers.

DISADVANTAGES

• Divided answers into categories provided by the researcher.
• Didn't leave enough time for the participant to really thing about their answer in a detailed way.
• Doesn't take on board the reasoning behind each choice.

The next part of the chapter goes on to talk about the Psychosocial theory of identity, focusing on Erik Erikson and James Marcia. This theory believes that identity is a combination of our own personal identity (our 'core' identity) and the social context which we are surrounded by.

Erikson thought of identity as a sense of who we are are striving to fit in with our community, and stressed the importance of the continuity of our identity over time. Erikson believed that identity of most important when we are involved in an identity crisis, as if we are only really aware of our identity when it becomes an issue. Erikson thought that identity was a lifelong process developed through 'normative crises'. He believe there to be 8 stages of identity development, beginning with age birth-1 year (trust vs mistrust crisis)through to late adulthood (integrity vs despair). However, he believed the most important stage to be stage 5, adolescence (identity achievement vs role diffusion).

There endth the lesson for today lol, my youngest has just woken up so we're off out for a stroll-to be continued!

Right-I'm back! The kids are in bed and I can finish my entry.

Where was I? Oh yes, Erikson...

Stage 5 was the time during a person's life where they have to undergo the most life changes and face the most decisions, and at the end of this period Erikson thought it was important for a person to achieve ego identity, a secure knowledge of who they are. He also termed this stage psychosocial moratorium, a period in their lives during which they can experiment with different choices and life decisions without making any firm commitments, in order to find their own paths in like and to progress into adulthood and achieve their own ego identity. Erikson also highlight the possible difficulties faced by adolescents during this time, and how many experience identity crises as they have problems forming a coherent vision of who they are and have difficulty commiting to roles corresponding with adulthood-the inability to form an ego identity was coined role diffusion. He also thought that this concept of role diffusion is the reason why many young people form strong bonds with social groups and participant in 'clannish' behaviour, being hostile to outsiders and becoming intolerant to anyone different to their social group-the need to identity with a group of people in order to try to find some identity.

Erikson's work influenced James Marcia, a psychotherapist. Marcia devised the semi-structured identity status interview method of exploring Erikson's 5th stage theory. The interview consists of questions which cover a particular theme (ie identity!) but the questions are structured in order to allow more flexibility, by focusing more on the participants words. Also, the researcher can get a richer view of participants as the interview allows researchers to ask follow up questions based on the participants answers. The interview has a conversational feel and is often recorded so that the researcher can listen back in order to analyse the interview, which can be assessed either quantitatively by researchers coding the answers into various categories, or qualitatively.

ADVANTAGES

• More, richer data can be gathered.
• More scope for analysis.

DISADVANTAGES

• Time consuming.
• Only a small sample can be gathered at a time.

The questions asked in the interview relate to the various crises faced by 18-25 year old college students in relation to, for example, religious, occupational and political preferences. Marcia's main focus was the amount of exploration of life choices by the participants as well as their commitment to those life choices. Marcia categorised four identity statuses:

1. Identity diffusion-consisting of low exploration and low commitment, where participants answers indicated that they had no real interest in exploring choices of committing to anything. These participants were often unhappy and easily lead (much like the adolescents in Erikson's role diffusion theory and the 'clannish' behaviour).
2. Identity Foreclosure-participants with low levels of exploration and high levels of commitment. Participants in this category often have a single set of values which originate from their parents.
3. Moratorium-High expectation, low commitment. Keen to explor all options but find it difficult to commitment, and are often insecure. According to Marcia, an essential stage to go through before the next stage....
4. Identity achievement-Thats right, you've guessed it... both high exploration and acheivement. People who have gone through moratorium and have then commited to an identity. These people are thoughtful, good in relationships and cope well under stress.

Phew, so there we go, this weeks material in a nutshell. I thought I had understood everything this week as I was going through the book, but when it came to writting this summary and going back over the material I realised i'd got the majority of it mixed up lol! However, having now gone over it I know that a) I've got this week's material covered and b) I need to read more actively!

Hopefully by the weekend I will have finished the reading for next week which means I'll have to make a start on the assignment, which I've read through and seems fairly simple but I always get mega writting block when it comes to assignments so we shall have to see how we get on!

Until next time!

Candyflee

Study week one

Howdy!

After finally finishing the bottle of pinot that was knocking about in the back of the fridge (because, lets face it, I couldn't leave it unfinished) I managed to knuckle down and get stuck into study week one, which didn't actually take me that much time. The first week is basically just guiding you through the structure of the course and what topics are being covered and why. There's a lot to take in, as the course material points out (rather repetitiously!!) psychology is extremely broad and multi-faceted (a course buzzword I think!), meaning there is an extensive range of topics to cover, as well as the different approaches and perspectives (am I right in thinking that approaches and perspectives are the same thing??) to each topic, as well as the range of different methods than can be used within each perspective. So yes, a lot to get your head around and my mind is already whirling-and I haven't even started the main body of the course yet!

The materials are, as always with the OU, excellent and well put together. The examples offered by the course are really interesting-the Milgram experiment was fascinating, i've already covered this experiment briefly when I was doing A-Level psych, but the DVD rom clip of the experiment really helped to bring it to life. The introduction to the chapter was short and sweet, albeit slightly repetitive, and the audio complimented the chapter by going into the course structure a little deeper (I shall refrain from passing comment on the dodgy elevator music used on the audio-whatever floats you boat! But I think a little Tears for Fears may have been more appropriate).

The chapter touched lightly upon the different types of data used in research-behaviour, inner-experience, material data and symbolic data-and general info about hypotheses (or claims) and how/when they are formed and brief info on participants for research studies, a 'sample' which can then be divided into control group and experimental group, as well as inroducing variables. I'm hoping that variables get more mention later on the course as I found it hard to get my head around them!! Also different methods were looked at, distinguishing between quantitative and qualitative data, and different methods of gaining this data such as interviewing, observations and psychological testing, meaning and language content analysis and brain imaging.

The most important part of the chapter is on ethics, which features in TMA01 (noooo, TMA mention already!). The chapter contains an abridged version of the BPS' ethics code, and suggested that the general gist of ethics was to ensure that the benefit of research findings outweighs any potential risk to participants (like the Murray experiment, which was a tad on the harsh side and led to one of his participants letter bombing scientist's houses as the thought they were trying to brainwash people. Nice).

Four ethical principles outlines were:

• respect
• competence
• responsibilty
• integrity

each with their own subsection on how psychologists can adhere to these outlines which I shall go into in more detail as it gets closer to the TMA.

Another theme running through the chapter was a brief history of psychology, conveying the message that, even now, people are still adopting and building upon previous knowledge in psychology, enforcing the view that psychology is fast paced and ever changing, and that no one perspective is 'right', but the perspectives blend together to enforce/oppose each others work, sometimes banging heads along the way.

Right, thats all for these weeks entry. Writting this has enable me to go back over my notes and the material to try to cement it in my brain. Only time will tell is it works!

Until next time!!

Candy flee

Day One

Yawn. Why is it that children insist on waking up before mid day? Seriously, given the chance I can easily stay in bed into the afternoon, but my children don't see the appeal in this. I can't wait until they are teenagers.

Anyway-onto the course. I'd completed the prep pack and gone through the ssps package (which still makes absolutely no sense to me, but I am mathmatically dyslexic) and the intro to the methods book so am poised to start the actual work today. Introduction to book one. I'm really excited about getting stuck in but also terrified in case I don't get it and get completely stuck. I still haven't been assigned a tutor so there's no one at the moment to turn to if it all goes pear-shaped-thank god for the various study groups that have been set up for the course! I have people on firstclass, yahoo, msn and facebook who I can attempt to glean info from-hopefully I shall be able to return the favour to them all!!

I sent my last TMA for DD100 the other week and it's showing up on my student homepage as being received so I can relax and wait for the results now, although according to the assessment calculator I only need the 30% pass rate as I did quite well on all my other assignments (90% for TMA05, thank you very much!!) so I'm not too worried about having passed it. I know TMA06 wasn't brill but I think I've done enough to pass-famous last words!!

Right-I shall do another entry once I have finished the reading and watched the appropriate clips/listened to the audio. I really hope the reading doesn't bog me down as there is so much!!

Until next time!!

Candyflee




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