IB Psychology
  • IB Psychology
    • IB Psychology Products
    • IB Psychology Blog
  • Biological
  • Cognitive
  • Social
  • Abnormal
  • Relationships
  • Model Essay Answers
  • Research Methods
  • The IA
    • Ultimate Guide to the IA
  • Syllabus Guide
  • Command Terms
  • Textbooks and Resources

Placebos and Nocebos

30/11/2015

 
Picture
Any IB Psychology taking the Abnormal option knows about placebos, do you also know about nocebos?
Placebos are weird​ (do you know that branded placebos work better than unbranded ones?), nocebos are weirder. Take for example the man who was on a clinical trial for a depression medication. He presented to Accident and Emergency one night after swallowing a whole bottle of the meds he had been prescribed exhibiting all of the signs and symptoms of an overdose of antidepressants. It was serious, he was hyperventilating, his blood pressure plummeted and he collapsed at reception. No trace of the drug could be found in his system and it was only hours later that another doctor arrived and was able to inform everyone that the man was overdosing on sugar pills - he had been assigned to the placebo condition on the clinical trial. His recovery was swift! Welcome to the strange world of the nocebo.


A nocebo (Latin for "I will harm") is something that should be ineffective but which causes symptoms of ill health. A nocebo effect is an ill effect caused by the suggestion or belief that something is harmful. Examples include:
  • More than two thirds of college students who were told that a nonexistent electrical current passing between two electrodes on their head would cause headaches, subsequently reported a headache. 
  • Japanese researchers tested boys who reported being allergic to a particular plant. One arm of each boy was brushed with the allergenic plant and boys were informed that it was an innocuous plant. Simultaneously, the other arm wa brushed with an innocuous plant and the boys were informed that it was the allergenic plant. Within minutes, the arms brushed with the innocuous plant (which the boys believed they were allergic to) developed rashes and blisters,
  • In one of the largest and most prestigious longitudinal studies, women who believed that they were at risk of developing heart trouble were up to four times as likely to die of a heart attack then women with matched risk factors, but who didn't believe they were at risk.
  • Could it also account for those individuals who believe they are wifi sensitive or report that wind turbines, that nobody hear, are causing health problems?; i.e., if you think you are being negatively by something, then your brain makes sure that you are!

Picture

PictureRemember, we take the hard work out of IB Psychology - with complete sets of model examination answers!
"Okay Mr Burton, all very interesting I guess, but how do we use it in our IB Psychology exams?", I hear you ask. Well, apart from the fact that that it makes a fascinating topic to explore in the IB Psychology extended essay, it also fits in very well with the IB Psychology Abnormal option in at least three learning outcomes:
  • Describe symptoms and prevalence of one disorder
  • Analyse etiologies  of one disorder
  • Examine biomedical, individual and group approaches to treatment.
It could also wow your IB Psychology examiner in your IB Psychology Paper 1 examination - when  you are answering the Biological Level of Analysis (BLOA) ERQ: "Using one or more examples, explain effects of neurotransmission on human behaviour." Here, when you discuss the placebo effect in relation to the neurotransmitter serotonin, why not amaze you marker with your knowledge of how the mysterious human brain works and use the nocebo effect as additional support for your argument (just keep it short!).

We could imagine it going something like this: "... Just as the placebo effect is said to account for much of the efficacy of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in many patients, so too could the nocebo effect cause the drug not to work in certain individuals. For example, if a patient prescribed an antidepressant such as Prozac believed that they did not really work and that that they had lots of harmful side effects, then that belief itself, would cause a detriment to the individual - the nocebo effect."

There is no examiner in the history of IB Psychology who wouldn't stop and read those few sentences twice and think to themselves that this student not only knows her stuff, but is a top notch critical thinker too.

Author: Derek Burton – Passionate about IB Psychology

Smart IB Psychology Short Answer Questions

1/11/2015

 
Picture
Helping IB Psychology students nail their three IB Psychology examination short answer response questions
Writing the 8 out of 8 IB Psychology SAQ response is challenging and opinions differ as to how it is best achieved. Though a standard introduction, conclusion or evaluation is not an absolute requirement the response does need to be focused.
Find below my personal list of handy hints that I share with my  IB Psychology students:
  • Make sure you understand the command term and know the difference between explain or discuss or whatever you might be asked to demonstrate your understanding of the  IB Psychology learning outcome
  • Define the keywords in the  IB Psychology SAQ and integrate the definitions into a “In other words…” sentence.
  • Make sure you use the words from the question in your answer at least two or three times. If the  IB Psychology SAQ is about physiology use this word rather than brain or body.
  • Use studies to support your explanations. Give a brief summary of the study and then explain why this is relevant.
  • Take every opportunity to evaluate the study but do not just outline every strength and limitation, only the relevant ones. For example there is no need to discuss ethical considerations with the Davidson meditation study from the BLOA but the small sample size is relevant as it makes generalising his finding that cognition can change brain physiology more limited.
  • Aim for a short introduction and conclusion. These can be just one sentence in length. If you are asked about two hormones or two studies or two neurotransmitters make sure you have two body paragraphs. 

Of course, IB Psychology has taken all of the hard work and guesswork out of writing the perfect IB Psychology examination answers, both SAQs and ERQs. Have a look at our two key IB Psychology resources.
Picture
Picture

A perfect IB Psychology SAQ exam anser


Explain how emotion may affect one cognitive process
​A flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard. The ‘flashbulb’ terminology indicates the event will be registered like a photograph; i.e., it will be accurate in detail. The defining feature an FBM is not the memory of the event, but memory of its reception context – the circumstances of the news’ reception.

It is assumed that they are highly resistant to forgetting; i.e., the details of the memory will remain intact and accurate because of the emotional arousal at the moment of coding. For example, some individuals can report in exceptional exactly when and how they heard the news of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA in 2001, as well as exactly what they were doing at the time and their exact feeling and reactions in response to the news – i.e., an exceptionally detailed and vivid memory almost twenty years after the fact. There is a posited relationship between strong emotion at the time of encoding and the exceptional details of these memories.

Brown and Kulik (1977) – research on FBM

Aim
: To investigate whether shocking events are recalled more vividly and accurately than other events.

Procedure
: 80 US participants were asked questions about 10 events. Nine of the events were mostly assassinations or attempted assassinations of well-known American personalities (e.g., JF Kennedy, Martin Luther King). The tenth was a self-selected event of personal relevance and involving unexpected shock. Examples included the death of a friend or relative or a serious accident.
Participants were asked to recall the circumstances they found themselves in when they first heard the news about the 10 events. They were also asked to indicate how often they had rehearsed (overtly or covertly) information about each event.

Results and conclusion:
  • Participants had vivid memories of where they were, what they did, and what they felt when they first heard about a shocking public event
  • The participants also said they had FBMs of shocking personal events
  • The results indicated that FBM is more likely for unexpected and personally relevant events. This lead the researchers to suggest ‘the photographic nature of FBM’
  • Brown & Kulik suggest that FBM is caused by the physiological emotional arousal (e.g., activity in the amygdala).
Evaluation: The reliance on retrospective data questions the reliability of this study. People tend to interpret an event from their current perspective. Research indicates that although FBM is emotionally vivid it is not necessarily accurate in regard to details. Neisser is particularly critical towards the idea of FBMs, as certain memories are very vivid precisely because they are rehearsed and discussed after the event. Any piece of information that is repeatedly reviewed and rehearsed is going to be remembered in much better detail – which most models of memory predict.

​However, findings from this study are clearly consistent with Brown & Kulik’s theory. Additional support comes from a study by Conway et al. (1994) who studied FBMs of both UK and non-UK citizens of the unexpected resignation of a famous (or infamous) British Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher. Data was collected at several points including a few days after the resignation and after 11 months. They found that 85% of UK citizens and considerably fewer non-UK citizens had an FBM at 11 months.
Author: Derek Burton – Passionate about IB Psychology

    IB DipLOMA PsychologY:

    The IB Psychology Blog. A place to share research and teaching and learning ideas for those studying and teaching Psychology for the IB Diploma Programme.

    Archives

    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014


    Categories

    All
    Abnormality
    Abnormal Psychology
    Antidepressants
    Anxiety Disorders
    Attraction
    Attributions
    Biological Level Of Analysis
    Biological Psychology
    BLOA
    Bystander Effect
    Bystanderism
    Classroom Experiments
    CLOA
    Cognition
    Cognitive Level Of Analysis
    Cognitive Psychology
    Command Terms
    Communication
    Decision Making
    Decision-making
    Depression
    Diagnosis
    Discrimination
    ERQ
    Errors In Attribution
    Essay Questions
    Ethics
    Evolutionary Psychology
    Examinations
    Exams
    Experiment
    Extended Response Question
    Getting A 7
    Getting An IB Psychology 7
    HL
    Human Relationships
    IA
    IB Psychology
    IB Psychology 7
    Learning Outcomes
    Long Answer Questions
    Mental Illness
    Model Answers
    Paper 1 Examinantion
    Paper 2 Examination
    Paper 3 Examination
    Paper 3 HL Exam
    Placebo
    QRM
    Qualitative Research Methods
    Realtionships
    Relationships
    Revision
    SAQ
    SCLOA
    Short Answer Questions
    SL
    Socio Cultural Psychology
    Socio-Cultural Psychology
    Stereotypes
    Study
    Syllabus
    Teaching
    Teaching Ideas
    Teaching Tips
    Treatment
    Treatment Of Depression

    RSS Feed

© Burton Inc. and VIBE Education Ltd.  2012-2021. All rights reserved.