1.3 Approaches to the Science of Psychology

Question 1

What is the biological approach?

Answer 1

The view is that behaviour is the result of physical processes, especially those relating to the brain, hormones, genes, and activity of the nervous system.

Question 2

What is natural selection?

Answer 2

The evolutionary mechanism through which Darwin said the fittest individuals survive to reproduce.

Question 3

What is the evolutionary approach?

Answer 3

Psychology assumes that the behaviour and mental processes of animals and humans today are also the result of evolution through natural selection.

Question 4

Who developed the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 4

Sigmund Freud

Question 5

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 5

Emphasises the interplay of unconscious mental processes in determining human thought, feelings and behaviour.

Question 6

What is the behavioural approach?

Answer 6

The assumption that human behaviours are determined mainly by what a person has learnt in life, especially through rewards and punishment.

Question 7

Three approaches

What does the behavioural approach to psychology contract with?

Answer 7

1. psychodynamic
2. biological
3. evolutionary

Question 8

__________-__________ or __________-_________ approach explores how learning affects the development of thoughts, attitudes and beliefs and, in turn, how these learnt cognitive patterns affect overt behaviour.

Answer 8

cognitive-behavioural
social-cognitive

Question 9

What approach looks at human behaviour that emphasises research on how the brain takes in information, creates perceptions, forms and retrieves memories, processes information and generates integrated patterns of action?

Answer 9

The cognitive approach

Question 10

What is the humanistic approach?

Answer 10

The view that personality develops through an actualising tendency that unfolds in accordance with each person’s unique perceptions of the world.

Question 11

What is the humanistic approach also known as?

Answer 11

The phenomenological approach

Question 12

Humanistic psychologists try to understand how each individual’s experiences guide what?

Answer 12

A person’s thoughts and actions

Question 13

in 1940 Carl Rogers trained in but later rejected what approach?

Answer 13

The psychodynamic approach

Question 14

Abraham Maslow shaped and promoted the humanistic approach through what famous theory of motivation?

Answer 14

Hierarchy-of-needs

Question 15

The __________ _________ focuses on how physiological processes shape behaviour and mental processes.

Answer 15

Biological approach

Question 16

Psychologists who take the __________ view behaviour as determined primarily by learning, based on experiences with rewards and punishments.

Answer 16

Behavioural approach

Question 17

Psychologists who prefer the __________ _________ emphasise the inherited, adaptive aspects of behaviour and mental processes.

Answer 17

Evolutionary approach

Question 18

In the _________ _________, behaviour and mental processes are seen as reflecting struggles to resole conflicts between raw impulses and the social rules that limit the expression of those impulses.

Answer 18

Psychodynamic approach

Question 19

The _________ ________ assumes that behaviour can be understood through analysis of basic mental processes that underlie it.

Answer 19

Cognitive approach

Question 20

To those adopting the _________ ________, behaviour is controlled by the decisions that people make about their lives based on their perceptions of the world.

Answer 20

Humanistic approach

Question 21

What is the goal of science?

Answer 21

To create reasonable explanations to describe reality.

Question 22

Scientific theory must be based on what?

Answer 22

Empirical evidence

Question 23

Evidence is gathered and evaluated according to what?

Answer 23

Rigid rules which are systematically applied

Question 24

Three points

What are the principles of science?

Answer 24

1. To discover new knowledge
2. To make informed decisions
3. Improve methods for research

Question 25

What are the five fundamental norms of science?

Answer 25

1. Universalism - Different researchers should reach the same conclusion
2. Communialism - Scientific informtion must be shared
   3.Disinterestedness - Scientists must place aside all personal beliefs
   4.Organised Scepticism - Science is subject to peer review and replication
   5.Novelty - Science should not be repetition

Question 26

What is converging evidence also known as?

Answer 26

The connectivity principle

Question 27

Three points to consider.

What is the connectivity principle?

Answer 27

That scientific knowledge is cumulative
Any new theory must account for new things as well as old ones.
True science shows a progressive development of theories overtime.

Question 28

Science is convergent when a series of __________ consistently __________ a given theory while collectively __________ competing __________ (Stanovich, 2012)

Answer 28

experiments
supports
eliminating
explanations

Question 29

Two points

Convergence in psychology is what?

Answer 29

1. Phsychological phenomena are complex
2. Discoveries in psychology are conceptualised as parts of a puzzle that gradually stat to fit together

Each study is a puzzle piece, that fit together as part of a puzzle, form a compete picture of the spychological phenomenon - there might be many different things explaining why one phenomenon may be occurring.

Question 30

What is the Scientist-Practitioner Model?

Answer 30

Based on the premise that science and practice should continually inform one another.

Question 31

Rather than being fixed and prescribed psychology is what?

Answer 31

Dynamic and experimental

Question 32

What two components of psychology practice need a constant effort to increase?

Answer 32

Scientific principles and evidence

Question 33

What four components of psychology practice need to be decreased?

Answer 33

1. Unsubstantiated speculation
2. Unanalysed experience
3. Intuition
4. Art

Question 34

8 Points

When is the Scientist-Practitioner Model applied?

Answer 34

1. Mastery of the knowledge, principles and methods of the discipline.
2. Training int he conceptual skills required to apply basic knowledge principles and methods
3. Acquisition of specific skills in the use of relevant procedures, technologies and techniques.
4. Use of validated methods of assessment and treatment.
5. Keeping up to date with the latest research in your specialist field
6. Applying the findings and methods of research to clinical practice
7. Performing empirical evaluation of those findings/ relevant to clinical practice.
8. Evaluation of client progress, treatment and intervention efficacy.

Question 35

What are the four Scientist-Practitioner Model difficulties?

Answer 35

1. Practitioners tend to be time-poor
2. Practitioners may not have engaged with the scientific method since their tertiary studies (may compromise their capacity to discern good quality research).
3. May require specific membership to access.
4. Difficulty identifying current research insights about specific concerns with which a practitioner is working.