Münchauser’s syndrome is a syndrome wherein individuals afflicted attempt to either make themselves ill or pretend to be ill in order gain attention and sympathy from others.
Münchauser’s syndrome is also referred to as Hospital addiction syndrome. Another form called Münchauser’s by proxy.
This study is also referred to as:
Fisher et al., (1986) focuses on police interviews of witnesses.
What is an interview?
An interview is simply trying to elicit information from a person or witness, while keeping the information valid. This is easier said than done. You may remember two studies from AS: Loftus et al., (1974) and Samuel and Bryant (1984), which demonstrate this. Firstly, Loftus showed the impact that leading questions could have upon participant recall and she concluded that an actual change in memory had occurred. Memory is easily malleable, changing how a question is asked can change the memory itself. Secondly, Samuel and Bryant showed the impact of repeating the same question. Repeating the same question to children will cause them to completely change their answer, even if their answers were perfectly correct.
Continue reading Fisher et al., (1986)
This is the second study we look at from the ‘Interviewing Witnesses’ section of ‘Making a case’. As part of your OCR A2 Psychology Exam. It is further categorised into ‘Weapons Focus and Factors Affecting Reconstruction.’
“‘Weapon Focus’ refers to the concentration of a crime witness’s attention on a weapon, and the resultant reduction in ability to remember other details of the crime.”
When a weapon such as a gun is present during a crime. Witness recall of the offender is significantly reduced. The reason behind this is witnesses tend to focus on the weapon, not the offender. This is due to attentional narrowing, which Loftus believed is present due to evolution.
Good news! There is not a background study for this study!
Continue reading Loftus et al., (1987)
Think your pregnant?
Pseudocyesis, also known as Phantom Pregnancy and False Pregnancy is a condition wherein a female displays all the symptoms of a pregnancy, but without actually being pregnant!