One handout per topic, in plain English. Read the handout before the textbook, not after it — each one takes about five minutes and is designed to make the idea land first, so the formal version has somewhere to stick.
10 handoutsCambridge AS & A LevelPrintableFree to copy and share
The biological approach explains behaviour by looking at the brain, the hormones and the genes that produce it.
Picture itSomeone becomes aggressive after a head injury. Their personality has changed, and nothing about their upbringing or their beliefs has altered. Something physical did. That observation — that damaging tissue changes behaviour — is the foundation of the whole approach.
The core assumptions
Behaviour has a physical cause: brain structure, neurotransmitters, hormones, genetics and evolution. Because these can be measured, biological research tends to be highly objective and replicable. Its weakness is the same as its strength — it can be reductionist, explaining complex behaviour purely in physical terms.
Localisation of function
Different brain regions have different specialisms — language areas, the visual cortex, the amygdala in emotion. Evidence comes from brain damage cases, from scanning studies, and from split-brain research on patients whose hemispheres were surgically separated.
Neurotransmitters and hormones
Chemical messengers across synapses affect mood, arousal and attention. Dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline recur throughout the syllabus. Hormones such as cortisol and testosterone act more slowly and more widely, which is why their behavioural effects are broad rather than specific.
Research methods used
Brain scanning (MRI, fMRI, PET), case studies of brain-damaged patients, animal studies, twin and adoption studies. Each has particular strengths — scans are objective, case studies are rich — and particular limits, especially generalisability from single cases and from animals.
Evaluating the approach
Strengths: scientific, objective, has produced effective drug treatments. Weaknesses: reductionist, can be deterministic, often ignores social and cultural context, and correlational brain findings are frequently reported as if they were causal.
The bit that catches people outA brain area being active during a behaviour does not mean it causes that behaviour. Scanning studies are correlational: the activity could be a consequence, or both could follow from something else. Reading a scan as proof of cause is the standard error in this approach.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Explaining complex behaviour in simple physical terms
reductionism
A common criticism
Specific brain areas having specific jobs
localisation of function
Evidence from damage and scans
Chemical messenger across a synapse
neurotransmitter
e.g. dopamine, serotonin
Chemical messenger carried in the blood
hormone
Slower, more widespread
Comparing identical and non-identical twins
twin study
Separates genes from environment
View that behaviour is caused, not chosen
determinism
Raises questions about responsibility
Check you have got it
Why are twin studies used to investigate genetic influence?
Identical twins share 100% of their genes and non-identical twins about 50%. If identical twins are more similar on a behaviour, that difference suggests a genetic contribution — although shared environment is a confounding factor.
Give one strength and one weakness of using brain scans in psychology.
Strength: they give objective, quantifiable data about a living brain without surgery. Weakness: they show correlation between activity and behaviour, not causation, and are expensive with limited sample sizes.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 1 — free to copy and share
Topic 2
The cognitive approach
The cognitive approach treats the mind as an information processor: input goes in, something happens to it, and behaviour comes out.
Picture itYou cannot see memory. But you can give someone a list of words, vary how they are presented, and measure what they recall. From the pattern of what is remembered and forgotten, you can infer the structure of a system you never observed directly — which is exactly how the approach works.
The core assumptions
Mental processes — attention, perception, memory, language, thinking — can be studied scientifically by inference from behaviour. The mind is often compared to a computer, with encoding, storage and retrieval, though the analogy has limits.
Memory models
The multi-store model proposes sensory, short-term and long-term stores differing in capacity, duration and encoding. The working memory model subdivides short-term memory into a central executive, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad, explaining why two tasks using the same component interfere.
Schema theory
A schema is an organised packet of prior knowledge. Schemas help us interpret ambiguous information quickly, but they also distort memory — we reconstruct events to fit expectations, which is why eyewitness testimony can be confidently wrong.
Attention and perception
Selective attention explains how we filter an overwhelming input. Perception is active: the brain constructs an interpretation using both the sensory data and existing expectations. Visual illusions are the clearest demonstration that perception is inference, not recording.
Research methods and evaluation
Mostly laboratory experiments, giving high control and replicability. The trade-off is ecological validity — recalling nonsense syllables in a lab is not remembering where you left your keys. The approach is also criticised as mechanistic, downplaying emotion and motivation.
The bit that catches people outMemory is reconstructive, not a recording. Every recall rebuilds the event from fragments plus expectations, which is why confidence and accuracy are only weakly related — a witness can be certain and mistaken at the same time.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Organised package of prior knowledge
schema
Aids interpretation, distorts memory
Sensory, short-term and long-term stores
multi-store model
Differ in capacity and duration
Central executive, phonological loop, sketchpad
working memory model
Explains dual-task interference
Rebuilding a memory rather than replaying it
reconstructive memory
Source of eyewitness error
Degree to which findings apply to real life
ecological validity
Often low in lab studies
Treating the mind like a machine
mechanistic
Criticism of the approach
Check you have got it
Why can two tasks be performed at once if they use different working memory components?
Each component has its own limited capacity. Tasks using different components — one verbal, one visual — do not compete for the same resource, so performance is largely preserved.
Give one reason laboratory memory experiments may lack ecological validity.
The materials and setting are artificial — recalling word lists under instruction bears little resemblance to everyday remembering, which is emotionally significant and cued by context.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 2 — free to copy and share
Topic 3
The learning approach
The learning approach says behaviour is acquired from the environment — through association, through consequences, and through watching others.
Picture itA child who has never touched a hot stove learns to avoid it after once seeing a sibling burnt. No conditioning happened to that child at all. Bandura's insight was that we learn from other people's consequences as well as our own, which massively expands what learning can explain.
Classical conditioning
Learning by association. A neutral stimulus paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response. Also: generalisation to similar stimuli, discrimination between them, extinction when the pairing stops, and spontaneous recovery.
Operant conditioning
Learning by consequence. Positive reinforcement adds something desirable; negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant — both increase behaviour. Punishment decreases it. Schedules of reinforcement matter: variable ratio schedules produce the most persistent behaviour, which is why gambling is so hard to stop.
Social learning theory
Learning by observation and imitation. Bandura's four processes: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. Vicarious reinforcement — seeing someone else rewarded — increases imitation, and models who are similar, admired or powerful are imitated more.
Applications
Systematic desensitisation and flooding for phobias, token economies in institutions, behaviour modification in classrooms, and understanding media influence on aggression. The approach's practical usefulness is one of its strongest arguments.
Evaluating the approach
Strengths: testable, well supported experimentally, highly applicable. Weaknesses: much evidence comes from animals, it largely ignores biological and cognitive factors, and it can be criticised as environmentally deterministic — treating people as passive products of their history.
The bit that catches people outNegative reinforcement is not punishment. Both involve something unpleasant, but negative reinforcement removes it and therefore increases the behaviour, while punishment adds something aversive to decrease it. This distinction is examined constantly and confused constantly.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Learning by association
classical conditioning
Pavlov's dogs
Learning by consequences
operant conditioning
Skinner's work
Removing something unpleasant to increase behaviour
negative reinforcement
Not punishment
Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses
variable ratio schedule
Most resistant to extinction
Learning by watching others
social learning theory
Bandura
Seeing another person rewarded
vicarious reinforcement
Increases imitation
Behaviour fading when reinforcement stops
extinction
Can spontaneously recover
Check you have got it
A child stops whining when their parent gives in. What is being reinforced, and how?
The parent's giving-in is negatively reinforced — the unpleasant whining stops — making them more likely to give in next time. The child's whining is positively reinforced by getting what they wanted.
Why is a variable ratio schedule so resistant to extinction?
Because reinforcement is unpredictable, the absence of a reward is indistinguishable from a normal gap between rewards, so the behaviour continues for a long time before the person concludes it has stopped paying off.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 3 — free to copy and share
Topic 4
The social approach
The social approach explains behaviour by the situation people find themselves in rather than by the kind of person they are.
Picture itOrdinary people did extraordinary things in Milgram's laboratory not because they were cruel but because of where they were standing, who was giving the instructions and how the responsibility appeared to be distributed. The situation, not the disposition, did most of the work.
Core assumptions
Behaviour is strongly shaped by other people, real or imagined, and by the roles and norms of the situation. The fundamental attribution error is our tendency to explain others' behaviour by their character while explaining our own by our circumstances.
Obedience and authority
Obedience rises with the perceived legitimacy and proximity of the authority, the physical distance from the victim, the presence of a uniform, and the availability of an agentic state in which people see themselves as the instrument of another's will rather than as responsible actors.
Conformity
Normative influence is conforming to be accepted; informational influence is conforming because you believe others know better. Group size, unanimity and task difficulty all affect conformity rates — and a single dissenter dramatically reduces it.
Social identity and prejudice
Categorising people into in-groups and out-groups is enough by itself to produce favouritism and discrimination. Realistic conflict theory adds competition for scarce resources; contact under cooperative, equal-status conditions towards a shared goal reduces prejudice.
Ethics in social research
This approach raises the sharpest ethical questions in psychology: deception, lack of informed consent, psychological harm, and the right to withdraw. Modern research uses ethics committees, debriefing and role-play alternatives — which increase protection and reduce realism at the same time.
The bit that catches people outSituational explanations do not excuse behaviour, and the exam does not expect them to. They explain how ordinary people come to do harmful things, which is a different claim from saying they were not responsible — and being clear about that distinction is worth marks.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Attributing others' behaviour to their character
fundamental attribution error
We excuse ourselves situationally
Seeing oneself as an instrument of authority
agentic state
Reduces felt responsibility
Conforming to be liked or accepted
normative influence
Public compliance
Conforming because others seem to know better
informational influence
Often genuine belief change
Group a person identifies with
in-group
Out-group favouritism follows
Explaining a debriefed participant what really happened
debriefing
Required after deception
Check you have got it
Why does the presence of one dissenter sharply reduce conformity?
It breaks the group's unanimity, which reduces normative pressure and shows that disagreement is possible without total isolation — so the participant no longer faces the whole group alone.
Give one reason a social psychology study might use deception despite the ethical cost.
If participants knew the true aim, they would alter their behaviour and the study would measure nothing real. The researcher must weigh that necessity against the harm, and debrief fully afterwards.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 4 — free to copy and share
Topic 5
Research methodology
Method is not a preliminary to psychology — it is what makes a psychological claim worth believing rather than just interesting.
Picture itTwo studies reach opposite conclusions about the same question. Deciding which to believe means examining how each was done: who was studied, what was controlled, how variables were measured. Method is where the argument actually happens.
Experimental designs
Laboratory experiments give high control and easy replication but low ecological validity. Field experiments are more realistic with less control. Natural and quasi experiments study naturally occurring conditions where manipulation is impossible or unethical.
Design and variables
Independent measures avoids order effects but risks participant differences. Repeated measures controls those differences but introduces order effects, dealt with by counterbalancing. Matched pairs tries for both. An operational definition states exactly how each variable is measured.
Non-experimental methods
Observation (naturalistic or controlled, participant or non-participant, covert or overt), self-report (questionnaires and interviews), case studies, and correlational studies. Each fits particular questions, and none can establish causation except an experiment.
Sampling and reliability
Random, opportunity, volunteer, snowball and stratified sampling differ in representativeness and practicality. Reliability is consistency — test-retest, inter-rater. Validity is whether you are measuring what you claim: internal, external, ecological, construct.
Data and ethics
Quantitative data is easy to analyse and compare but can lose meaning; qualitative data is rich but harder to summarise objectively. Ethical requirements: informed consent, no deception without justification, protection from harm, right to withdraw, confidentiality, and debriefing.
The bit that catches people outA correlation cannot establish cause. Two variables can move together because one causes the other, because the causation runs the other way, or because a third variable causes both. Every correlational finding needs that sentence somewhere in its evaluation.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Precisely how a variable is measured
operational definition
Makes replication possible
Same participants in every condition
repeated measures
Risks order effects
Varying the order of conditions between participants
counterbalancing
Controls order effects
Consistency of a measure
reliability
Test-retest, inter-rater
Whether it measures what it claims
validity
Internal and external
Participants who put themselves forward
volunteer sample
Often unrepresentative
Explaining the true purpose afterwards
debriefing
Ethical requirement
Check you have got it
Why does a repeated measures design need counterbalancing?
Because doing one condition first can affect performance in the second through practice or fatigue. Varying the order across participants means these order effects cancel out rather than favouring one condition.
A study finds ice cream sales correlate with drowning deaths. What is the likely explanation?
A third variable — hot weather — causes both. This is why correlation cannot establish causation.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 5 — free to copy and share
Topic 6
Issues and debates
The same behaviour can be explained several ways, and choosing between explanations is itself a psychological argument.
Picture itWhy is someone anxious? Genes, learned associations, distorted thinking, and social circumstances are all plausible answers, and all are supported by evidence. The debates in this topic are about how to hold several true explanations at once without pretending one is the whole story.
Nature versus nurture
Almost no behaviour is purely one or the other. The modern position is interactionist: genetic predispositions are expressed differently in different environments. The diathesis-stress model captures this — a vulnerability plus a trigger.
Reductionism and holism
Reductionism explains behaviour at the simplest level — neurotransmitters, stimulus-response. It is scientific and testable but can lose the phenomenon being explained. Holism considers the whole person in context: more complete, harder to test.
Determinism and free will
Determinism holds that behaviour is caused by factors outside our control, whether biological, environmental or psychic. Free will holds that people choose. This matters practically — for legal responsibility, and for whether therapy assumes people can change.
Individual and situational explanations
Is behaviour caused by the kind of person or the kind of situation? Social psychology consistently shows the situation is more powerful than intuition suggests, while the fundamental attribution error means we consistently underestimate it.
Cultural and gender bias
Ethnocentrism judges other cultures by one's own standards. Much classic research used Western, educated, industrialised samples and generalised universally. Alpha bias exaggerates gender differences; beta bias minimises or ignores them; androcentrism treats male behaviour as the norm.
The bit that catches people outThe nature-nurture debate is not a question to be answered but a false dichotomy to be dissolved. The productive question is how genes and environment interact, not which one wins — and answers that pick a side score less than those that explain the interaction.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Genes and environment working together
interactionism
The modern position
Vulnerability plus a triggering stressor
diathesis-stress model
Explains why not everyone develops a disorder
Explaining behaviour at the simplest level
reductionism
Scientific but can oversimplify
Behaviour caused by factors beyond control
determinism
Raises responsibility questions
Judging other cultures by your own standards
ethnocentrism
A bias in much classic research
Exaggerating differences between genders
alpha bias
Beta bias minimises them
Treating male behaviour as the standard
androcentrism
A form of gender bias
Check you have got it
Explain the diathesis-stress model using an example.
A person may inherit a vulnerability to depression, but it only develops if a sufficient environmental stressor — bereavement, unemployment — occurs. Neither factor alone is sufficient, which explains why identical twins are not always concordant.
Why is a determinist position problematic for the legal system?
If behaviour is entirely caused by factors outside a person's control, the basis for holding them morally and legally responsible is weakened — yet legal systems require the assumption that people could have chosen otherwise.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 6 — free to copy and share
Topic 7
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology studies how psychological disorders are defined, explained and treated — and every one of those three steps is contested.
Picture itDeciding that a set of behaviours constitutes a disorder is a judgement, not a measurement. The line between eccentricity and illness moves between cultures and across decades. That does not make the distress unreal — it means the categories must be handled carefully.
Defining abnormality
Statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health. Each captures something and misses something: statistical rarity would classify exceptional intelligence as abnormal, and social norms vary by culture and change over time.
Diagnosis and its problems
Classification systems provide shared criteria and enable research and treatment. The difficulties are reliability (do two clinicians agree?), validity (does the category describe something real?), comorbidity, cultural bias, and the effects of labelling on how a person is treated and sees themselves.
Explanations of disorders
Biological: genetics, neurotransmitter imbalance, brain structure. Cognitive: negative automatic thoughts, faulty attributions, cognitive triad. Behavioural: conditioned associations and reinforcement. Psychodynamic and social factors add further layers. Most disorders are best understood as interactions of several.
Treatments
Biological: drug therapy — effective and accessible, but with side effects and treating symptoms rather than causes. Psychological: CBT, systematic desensitisation, flooding, token economies. Effectiveness varies by disorder, and combined treatment often outperforms either alone.
Evaluating treatment
Consider effectiveness (compared to what?), appropriateness for the disorder and the person, cost, availability, side effects, relapse rate, and how outcome was measured. A treatment that works in a trial with selected participants may work less well in practice.
The bit that catches people outA drug that relieves symptoms does not prove the disorder was caused by the thing that drug affects. Paracetamol relieves headache without headaches being caused by a paracetamol deficiency — and the same logic applies to neurotransmitter theories.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Behaviour rare in the population
statistical infrequency
Would classify genius as abnormal
Inability to cope with everyday demands
failure to function adequately
A definition of abnormality
Two clinicians reaching the same diagnosis
reliability of diagnosis
Often problematic
Having more than one disorder at once
comorbidity
Complicates diagnosis
Effects of being given a diagnostic label
labelling
Can be self-fulfilling
Gradual exposure paired with relaxation
systematic desensitisation
Treatment for phobias
Challenging and restructuring unhelpful thoughts
cognitive behavioural therapy
Widely used
Check you have got it
Give one limitation of defining abnormality by deviation from social norms.
Social norms vary between cultures and change over time, so the same behaviour could be classed as disordered in one place or era and normal in another — which makes the definition relative rather than objective.
Why might combined drug and psychological treatment outperform either alone?
Medication can reduce symptoms enough for the person to engage with therapy, while therapy addresses the thinking and behaviour patterns that medication does not, reducing relapse when the drug is stopped.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 7 — free to copy and share
Topic 8
Consumer psychology
Consumer psychology applies psychological principles to how people choose, buy and use products — and to how environments are designed to influence them.
Picture itSupermarkets put staples at the back, play slow music, and place high-margin items at eye level. None of this is accidental, and none of it is announced. Consumer psychology is the study of those influences, from both sides — how they work, and how consumers might resist them.
The physical environment
Store layout, atmospherics (music, lighting, scent, colour), crowding and queue design all affect how long people stay and how much they spend. Slower music and pleasant scents increase dwell time; crowding reduces satisfaction and increases the chance of leaving without buying.
The psychological environment
Menu design and pricing psychology — removing currency symbols, decoy options, price endings. Anchoring makes a subsequent price seem reasonable relative to a first one. Sound and colour affect perceived quality and speed of eating.
Consumer decision making
Models describe stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase, post-purchase evaluation. In practice people use heuristics — rules of thumb — rather than full evaluation, and cognitive dissonance after purchase drives them to justify what they bought.
Product design and packaging
Attention is drawn by contrast, movement, faces and novelty. Packaging communicates quality, portion size and brand identity before any information is read. Eye-tracking and attention research are used extensively in testing designs.
Advertising and brand awareness
Types of appeal (fear, humour, celebrity, testimonial), the elaboration likelihood model's central and peripheral routes to persuasion, and brand recognition and loyalty. Effectiveness is measured by recall, attitude change and sales — which do not always agree.
The bit that catches people outThis topic sits closest to real-world persuasion, so its ethics matter. Techniques that work by exploiting known biases — anchoring, artificial scarcity, deliberately confusing pricing — raise a genuine question about consumer autonomy that the exam is happy for you to raise.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Music, lighting, scent and colour in a store
atmospherics
Affects dwell time and spending
First price shaping how later prices seem
anchoring
A pricing technique
Mental shortcut used instead of full analysis
heuristic
Fast but biased
Discomfort after a decision, driving justification
cognitive dissonance
Post-purchase
Central versus peripheral persuasion
elaboration likelihood model
Depends on involvement
Recognising and preferring a particular brand
brand loyalty
Reduces price sensitivity
Check you have got it
Why do supermarkets often place bread and milk at the back of the store?
Most customers come for these staples, so placing them furthest from the entrance means shoppers walk past many other products, increasing exposure and unplanned purchases.
How does anchoring affect a customer looking at a discounted item?
The displayed original price acts as an anchor, so the reduced price is judged relative to it and seems a better deal than it would if seen alone.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 8 — free to copy and share
Topic 9
Health psychology
Health psychology studies why people behave in ways that damage their health, and what actually changes that behaviour.
Picture itAlmost every smoker knows smoking is harmful. Information alone therefore cannot be the answer, or nobody would smoke. Health psychology exists because the gap between knowing and doing is where the real problem sits.
Adherence to medical advice
Non-adherence is common and expensive. It may be intentional (deciding not to, because of side effects or beliefs about the illness) or unintentional (forgetting, misunderstanding). Measurement is difficult: self-report is unreliable, pill counts can be gamed, biological measures are costly.
Pain
Types: acute, chronic, phantom limb. Measured by self-report scales, behavioural observation and psychometric questionnaires. Managed biologically (analgesics) and psychologically (attention diversion, imagery, cognitive redefinition, biofeedback, hypnosis).
Stress
Sources: work, life events, daily hassles, lack of control. Measured physiologically (cortisol, heart rate), by self-report scales, and by combinations. Managed by biological means, by cognitive approaches such as stress inoculation training, and by increasing perceived control and social support.
Health promotion
Fear appeals work only when combined with a clear, achievable action — otherwise people avoid the message. The health belief model (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action) and the theory of planned behaviour predict who acts on health advice.
Health-risk behaviours
Substance use, unhealthy eating, inactivity, unsafe practices. Explained biologically (dependence, reward pathways), by learning (conditioned cues, reinforcement) and socially (peers, norms, availability). Effective interventions usually address more than one level.
The bit that catches people outFear appeals can backfire. If a message raises fear without providing a manageable action, people reduce the discomfort by rejecting or avoiding the message instead of changing the behaviour — which is why graphic campaigns sometimes achieve nothing.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Following medical advice as prescribed
adherence
Intentional or unintentional non-adherence
Pain felt in a limb that is no longer there
phantom limb pain
Challenges purely physical models
Learning to control a physiological response
biofeedback
Used for pain and stress
Susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers
health belief model
Predicts health behaviour
Training to cope with anticipated stress
stress inoculation training
Cognitive approach
Persuasion by arousing anxiety
fear appeal
Needs an achievable action
Check you have got it
Why might a patient intentionally stop taking prescribed medication?
Because of unpleasant side effects, a belief that the illness has passed once symptoms improve, doubts about the medication's necessity, cost, or a poor relationship with the prescriber.
Why is self-report a weak measure of adherence?
Patients under-report non-adherence because of social desirability — they know what the doctor wants to hear — and may also genuinely misremember what they took.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 9 — free to copy and share
Topic 10
Organisational psychology
Organisational psychology asks what makes people effective and satisfied at work, and how leadership and group structure affect both.
Picture itTwo teams with the same skills, the same resources and the same task produce very different results. The difference is in how they are led, how the work is designed, and how decisions are made. Organisational psychology is the study of that difference.
Motivation at work
Need theories: Maslow's hierarchy, Alderfer's ERG. Cognitive theories: equity theory (people compare their input-output ratio to others'), expectancy theory (effort leads to performance leads to a valued reward). Goal-setting theory: specific, difficult, accepted goals with feedback outperform 'do your best'.
Leadership and management
Trait, behavioural, contingency and transformational approaches. Transformational leaders raise motivation through vision and individual attention; transactional leaders exchange reward for performance. Contingency theories argue the effective style depends on the situation, not the leader.
Group behaviour and decision making
Groupthink occurs when cohesive groups suppress dissent to preserve harmony, producing poor decisions. Group polarisation pushes group decisions towards the extreme of the initial leaning. Social loafing reduces individual effort when contributions are not identifiable.
Job satisfaction and the working environment
Measured by questionnaires and interviews. Affected by pay, autonomy, task variety, feedback, relationships and physical conditions. Related to absenteeism, turnover and sabotage — though the link with productivity is weaker than intuition suggests.
Organisational work conditions
Shift patterns and circadian disruption, temperature, noise, lighting, open-plan design, and ergonomics. Errors and accidents rise on night shifts and after long hours — a finding with direct implications for safety-critical industries.
The bit that catches people outSatisfied workers are not automatically more productive. The correlation is real but modest, and causation may run either way — success at work can create satisfaction as easily as satisfaction creates success. Assuming the simple version is a standard evaluation error.
The grown-up words
What it means
What it is called
Note
Comparing your input-output ratio to others'
equity theory
Perceived unfairness demotivates
Effort to performance to valued reward
expectancy theory
All three links must hold
Specific difficult goals with feedback
goal-setting theory
Beats 'do your best'
Leader raising motivation through vision
transformational leadership
Contrasted with transactional
Cohesive group suppressing dissent
groupthink
Produces poor decisions
Reduced effort when contributions are anonymous
social loafing
Identifiability reduces it
Disruption of the body clock by shift work
circadian disruption
Raises error rates
Check you have got it
Give two conditions that make groupthink more likely.
High group cohesiveness, a directive leader who states a preference early, insulation from outside opinion, high stress, and the absence of a formal procedure for considering alternatives.
Why does making individual contributions identifiable reduce social loafing?
When effort can be traced to a person, they are accountable for it, so the incentive to coast on the group's output disappears.
Edvia Free Resources · Psychology 9990 · Topic 10 — free to copy and share
Like how this is taught?
Every handout starts with the idea in plain English and only then the formal version. That is how every class at Edvia College works — for two full years of Cambridge A Levels.