approaches Flashcards
what is psychology?
scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience
what is science?
acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation, with the aim being to establish general laws
who opened the first lab dedicated to psychological research?
Wundt
what was Wundt’s aim?
to analyse the nature of human consciousness, by studying the mind under controlled conditions
what is introspection?
studying the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
how did Wundt use standardised procedures?
he and his co workers recorded their experiences with stimuli they were presented, and divided their observations into thoughts, images and sensations
what did philosopher Kuhn say about science?
must have a paradigm- general set of principles, assumptions and methods that people who work in a subject agree on
what were the order of approaches in psychology?
psychodynamic approach, humanistic approach, cognitive approach, social learning theory, biological approach, cognitive neuroscience
what is the behaviourist approach?
explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and learning
what are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
studies mental behaviours which can be observed/measured, ignores mental processes of the mind, used objective lab studies, mind is a blank slate
what is classical conditioning?
learning by association
what is operant conditioning?
learning where behaviour is maintained by its consequences
what is positive reinforcement?
receiving a reward for when a behaviour is performed correctly
what is negative reinforcement?
an action avoids something that is unpleasant, with the outcome being a positive experience
what is punishment?
an unpleasant consequence of behaviour
what happened in Pavlov’s research into classical conditioning?
food was an unconditioned stimulus resulting in an unconditioned response of salivation from the dog
bell was a neutral stimulus resulting in no conditioned response
bell and food together resulted in salivation during conditioning
until the bell alone (conditioned stimulus) caused a conditioned response of salivation
who investigated classical conditioning?
Pavlov
who investigated operant conditioning?
Skinner
who proposed social learning theory?
Bandura
what are the assumptions of social learning theory?
behaviour is learned from experience
people learn through observation and imitation of others
learning can be direct through classical and operant conditioning but can also be indirect
what is vicarious reinforcement?
reinforcement not directly experienced but occurring by observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour
what are meditational processes?
cognitive factors that influence learning
come between stimulus and response
what are the four meditational processes?
attention
retention
motor reproduction
motivation
what is attention?
the extent to which we notice certain behaviours
what is retention?
how well the behaviour is remembered
what is motor reproduction?
the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour
what is motivation?
the will to perform the behaviour, often influenced by if the behaviour was previously rewarded or punished
what is identification?
a desire to be associated with a person/group due to the desirable characteristics they possess
what is modelling?
imitating the behaviour of a role model or demonstrating a specific behaviour for another person to imitate
what happened in Bandura’s research?
recorded the behaviour of young children who observed an adult behaving violently towards a Bobo doll
what are the assumptions for the cognitive approach?
The mind actively processes information from our senses (touch, taste etc.).
Between stimulus and response are complex mental processes, which can be studied scientifically.
Humans can be seen as data processing systems.
The workings of a computer and the human mind are alike – they encode and store information, and they have outputs.
what is a schema?
key concept of the cognitive approach:
internal ‘script’ for how to act or what to expect from a given situation based off experience
how do cognitive psychologists study internal mental processes?
Using experimental methods, the cognitive approach studies internal mental processes such as attention, memory and decision-making
Makes inferences to form theoretical and computer models
what are theoretical models and computer models?
Theoretical and computer models are proposed to attempt to explain and infer information about mental processes. For example, the Information-Processing Model describes the mind as if a computer.
what are theoretical models?
what are computer models?
models to demonstrate abstract things
models to demonstrate concrete things
what is cognitive neuroscience?
scientific study of biological structures which underpin cognitive processes
what are the assumptions of the biological approach?
to understand human behaviour we need to look at biological structures
mind lives in the brain so thoughts, feelings and behaviour have a physical basis
what are examples of advances in brain technology?
fMRI scans
PET scans
brain fingerprinting
what do genes do?
make up chromosomes
consist of DNA
code physical and psychological features of an organism
inherited from parents
what is neurochemistry?
the actions of chemicals in the brain that regulate biological and psychological functioning