Religion: what it is and what it does

Religion and Beliefs: Ask a hundred people what they think religion is and you’ll probably get a hundred different answers. However, to study religion we have to bring together more general ideas about what religion is and what it does. This film, featuring Professor Eileen Barker of the London School of Economics, explains and illustrates […]

Hate Crime in Everyday Life

Crime and Deviance: Hate Crime is high profile now. But the cases of violent hate crime we see in the media are just the tip of the iceberg: things like verbal abuse, bullying, threats, and damage to property have become just another part of everyday life for many people. This film, featuring one of the […]

Durkheim and the Functions of Crime

Crime and Deviance: It seems obvious to most people that crime and social order are opposites. But more than a century ago French sociologist Emile Durkheim suggested that it wasn’t that simple. This film looks at the introduction of Zero Tolerance Policing in New York, the imprisonment of Dr Jack Kevorkian for assisting terminally-ill patients […]

Variables

Research Methods: Although the idea of variables can seem dull and uninspiring, they are crucial because they’re everywhere in psychology. This film provides a clear introduction to this concept, explaining and illustrating the key questions of: definition types of variables reliability validity and application.

Reliability and Validity

Research Methods: Psychologists have told us a lot about human behaviour, but can we trust the findings? This film looks at the part played by reliability and validity in helping to answer this question.  Reliability and external and internal validity are explained and the key tests of face, concurrent and ecological validity are illustrated with […]

Sampling

Research Methods: Sampling is crucial in psychology but can be difficult to understand. This film offers a helping hand with a series of visual images that take students through conceopts like: target population, types of samples, representativeness and generalisability.    It then looks at how sampling is actually carried-out, illustrating differences between probability and non-probability […]

Correlations

Research Methods: Correlations are relationships and this film begins by illustrating how the strength and direction of those relationships is measured. It then uses real research studies to illustrate: the uses of correlations, their limitations and how easily correlation data can be misused. 

Case Study Research

Research Methods: This film uses the well-known case of Genie, a girl kept in solitary confinement from infancy until she was 13, to illustrate the use of case studies in psychology: why they are used, how they are used, what they can offer researchers, their limitations and some of the ethical issues that can often […]

Self-Report Methods

Research Methods: Self-report methods gather data directly from the participants and this short film illustrates and compares questionnaire and interview methods. The film also identifies some of the problems and limitations common to all self-report methods and show how they may be avoided or overcome.

Naturalistic Observation

Research Methods: Some research questions in psychology involve getting out and seeing how people actually behave in real life situations. This is called naturalistic observation. Using several key studies, this film illustrates: different techniques of naturalistic observation why psychologists use this method some of the difficulties involved and the limitations of the method.

Experimental Design

Research Methods: What is the most effective time of day for students to learn new material? We begin with this research question to give practical illustrations of the strengths and possible limitations of repeated measures, independent measures and matched pairs experimental designs. We then look at three classic experimental studies in psychology, the Stroop Effect, […]

Relighting the Streets: A Study of Situational Crime Prevention

Crime and Deviance: Does situational crime prevention actually work, or is crime simply displaced to a neighbouring area? This film tells the story of an experiment in situational crime prevention by the Cambridge Institute of Criminology conducted in Stoke-on-Trent, a medium sized British city. The streets of an experimental area were re-lit with more powerful […]

Crime and the Night-Time Economy

Crime and Deviance: The concept of social control is an important one in the sociology of crime and deviance and this short film, featuring contributions from Phil Hadfield and Simon Winlow, co-authors of “Bouncers“, looks at how social control in the Night-Time Economy is increasingly created and maintained by professional Bouncers rather than the police. […]

Crimes of the Powerful

Crime and Deviance: This short film illustrates how crimes committed by powerful social actors differ in terms of both: type – the distinction between white-collar, corporate and state crime for example – and extent; how and why such criminality differs from the criminal behaviour of the relatively powerless. The film also features David Whyte talking […]

Moral Panics

Crime and Deviance: This film examines the concepts of moral panic and deviancy amplification through both a classic – Stan Cohen talking about the origins and implications of his concept in the context of Mods and Rockers in the early 1960’s – and contemporary lens: Adrian Beck looks at an example of a recent moral […]