Langer and Rodin
Core study 5
Context
 What is control? What things do you
have control over?
 How much control do you have over
your life?
 Is control important?
 Can too much or too little control be
bad?
Context
 Old age
 Loss of health and psychological function.
 Are these losses as part of a biological
process, or the environment and social
factors?
 For example, as a person gets older,
they may experience a loss of roles and a
decreased sense of responsibility.
 For example…
Context
 Old people may feel a lack of control
 Neugarten and Gutman (1958) old
person is in a position of lessened
mastery, seeing himself as a passive
object to be manipulated by the
environment
Context
 If old people have a lessened feeing
of control, how could this lead to the
physical and psychological problems
associated with old age?
 Relationship between an individual’s
perceived control over a situation,
and the stress or pain that they
experience.
Context
 Langer, Janis & Wolfer (1975)
 Perceived control leads to less pain relief
and less anxiety
 How can we sum up this relationship?
Context
 Seligman (1975) linked a
lack of control to
depression.
 Dogs that had learned that
there was no escape from
painful electric shocks
showed signs of listlessness
and apathy similar to
depression.
 Even when the dogs were
given the option to escape
the shocks, they did not.
 Learned helplessness
Context
 Ferrare (1962)
 Old people who had no
choice about the nursing
home they moved to had a
higher morality rate than
those who had the choice.
 What does this evidence
suggest about control and
health?
 Could there have been
other factors that caused
the high death rate for
the “no choice” group?
Context
 Stotland and Blumenthal
(1964)
 Students all had to take a test.
Some where allowed to choose
the order of the tests
 What do you think happened?
 They found that subjects not
given the choice were more
anxious, as measured by palm
sweating
Aims
 Previous research suggests a link between
control and mental/physical health.
 L&R’s aim was to assess directly the effects
of enhanced personal responsibility and
choice in a nursing home environment.
 Specific effects.
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Physical and mental alertness
Activity levels
General level of satisfaction
Sociability
 Would the effects be
generalised?
Procedures
 Using textbook, complete the missing
parts of the procedures
 Leave the first box until the end
Procedures
 Two groups
 Experimental Group (EG
 Comparison/control group (CG)
 Both groups given a talk by an
administrator at the home
 Read both speeches and identify
which group the statements refer
to.
 Three days later, the message
was reiterated.
Procedures
 Dependent variables: 2 questionnaires
used, both used before the experiment,
and three weeks later
 Qst 1: For residents. Assessed their sense
of control, happiness and activeness
 Qst 2: For nurses. Assessed happiness,
alertness, dependency, sociability and
activity.
 Resident’s behaviour was also
recorded.
Findings
 What can we conclude from the
comparison between the two groups
before the study?
 Read through the results, and come
to your own conclusions
Findings
 Questionnaire 1: self report
 EG: greater happiness
 EG: more active
 Perceived control: no difference
 Questionnaire 2: interviewer rating
 EG: more alert
Findings
 Questionnaire 2: Nurses ratings
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EG: more time in active activities
CG: more time in passive activities
EG: 93% showed improvement
CG: 21% showed improvement
 Behaviour
 EG: higher attendance at film night
 EG: higher attendance at competetion
Conclusions
Inducing a greater sense of personal
responsibility in people who may have
virtually relinquished decision making either
by choice or necessity produces
improvement.
 Choose three of the findings and
state how they support this
conclusion.
Conclusions
 Negative effects of aging are not
necessarily physical
 Possible to reverse or slow down aging
 Control leading to improvement? Or
happiness?
 Changes were small but significant.
Bigger improvements may be possible
Evaluation
 5 Evaluation points
 Make one point, pass on etc
 If the previous person did a strength,
you do a weakness and vice versa
Marking
A. Are there strengths and weaknesses?
B. Is each point contextualised?
C. Is each point clearly explained?
D. Is it factually accurate, and/or any
repetition?
Alternative Evidence
 In pairs, you will be given a piece of
alternative evidence.
1. Firstly you need to decide what this
piece of research is telling us about
control and it’s effects.
2. Secondly you need to assess this
evidence, referring back to L&R and to
say if it supports, contradicts or
develops their research.
Model answer
 Read the alternative evidence model
answer from Gibson and Walk
 Highlight
 A criticism of G&W
 Procedure of the alternative evidence
 Findings/conclusions of the alternative
evidence
 What the alternative evidence suggests
about G&W
BREAKING NEWS!!!
 Stop the front page! There has been a
shocking development in psychological
research!
 You have to inform the world about
your research. It can be in any form
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Newspaper/magazine article
TV/Radio news report
Interview
Website ect…