Psychology

Proposed by Tajfel & Turner (1979). SIT states that part of our self-concept comes from membership of social groups (in-groups). Key processes: 1. Social categorisation — classifying people into groups 2. Social identification — adopting the identity of the group 3. Social comparison — favouring the in-group over out-groups to maintain self-esteem Leads to in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination.

Participants watched car crash films and were asked 'How fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?' with different verbs (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted). The verb 'smashed' produced the highest speed estimates. A week later, 'smashed' participants were more likely to falsely recall broken glass. Conclusion: leading questions can alter memory — memory is reconstructive, not reproductive.

Reliability: consistency of a measure. If repeated under the same conditions, it gives the same result. Types: test-retest, inter-rater. Validity: whether a study/measure actually measures what it claims to. Types: • Internal validity: was the change in DV due to IV? • External/ecological validity: can findings be generalised to real life? A study can be reliable without being valid.

Proposes memory consists of three stores: 1. Sensory register — brief, large capacity, modality-specific (iconic/echoic) 2. Short-term memory (STM) — 7±2 items, ~30 seconds, mainly acoustic 3. Long-term memory (LTM) — unlimited capacity and duration, mainly semantic Information moves via attention (SR→STM) and rehearsal (STM→LTM). Supported by the serial position effect and HM case study.