Evaluate Schema Theory

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Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies. (22 marks) Memory has used to be studied by asking people to remember random syllables however this was changed as it was said that ‘repetition habits’ don’t have much to do with actually day-to-day life. Bartlett then argued that it was possible to experiment with meaningful material and he coined the term ‘schema theory’. This is a ‘mental structure that holds past experiences and expectations in a situation. Bartlett’s study in 1932 was for group of people to almost play ‘Chinese whispers’ with a story called ‘The War of the Ghosts’. This study showed that we shorten and omit details but also make the story more coherent. The story was distorted to fit the person’s schema and cultures but however much it changed it was still a story. This research’s strength is that it is replicable, even today. However it was done a long time ago and so the weakness is therefore that it is a lot less relevant to todays society, for reasons such as the medium of written stories are a lot less used than they were in 1932, a clip if a story would be a lot more relevant. Allport and Postman then came along and want to test Bartlett’s schema theory on a picture. They took a picture of a white man, in scruffy clothes holding a cut-throat razor in his hand and pointing it towards a black man in a smart, clean suit. The results of the experiment fitted with schema theory as in 1947 there was a lot of racism and the story changed to fit peoples perceptions of black people. It changed to the black man holding the knife and arguing with the white man who was well-dressed. This study has a lot of ethical issues mainly the fact that this experiment could further reinforce the stereotype of black people in that society. A weakness however is that this experiment was done during a very different time and racism isn’t as

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