Approaches Flashcards
Who was Wundt?
He was the first to call himself a psychologist, and paved the way for psychology as a science.
He studied introspection, he wanted to know the structure of the brain and believed the best way was to break down behaviours such as sensation and perception into their basic elements.
What is introspection?
Is the way a person gains knowledge about their own mental and emotional states.
Participants were provided with controlled stimuli and asked to provide a description of their inner processes. After comparing responses, theories could be made about perception.
The emergence of psychology as a science
Scientific psychology uses empirical methods. Methods are objective, systematic and replicable, meaning results are accepted as true.
Includes development of theories that can explain results.
The origins of psychology evaluation
Wundt’s methods are unreliable due to non observable data.
Not all psychologists believe human behaviour can be explored with scientific methods, some is unobservable and relies on inferences from data.
Introspection is still useful in psychology - Hunter used introspective methods to make happiness measurable.
What is classical conditioning?
Pavlov - brought food to a dog (UCS) which elicited a UCR (salivation). After many pairings of NS (bell) and UCS (food), the NS is CS and it produces CR. The bell on its own will now produce CR.
Important features of classical conditioning
Timing - NS must be shortly after UCS.
Extinction - CS loses its ability to produce CR after a few trials if no reinforcement.
Spontaneous recovery - CS and UCS paired again and link is made much more quickly.
Stimulus generalisation - CR to stimuli that are similar to CS.
What is operant conditioning?
Pos and neg reinforcement make a behaviour more likely to occur.
pleasant consequences = pos rein.
removal of unpleasant stimulus = neg rein.
Skinner’s box
Important features of operant conditioning
continuous rein. for establishing a behaviour and partial rein. for maintaining it.
adding unpleasant consequnce orr removing pleasant stimulus = punsihment
Behaviourist evaluation
Classical conditioning used in therapy for phobias.
Operant conditioning relies mainly on animal studies and ignores the possibility of free will.
Limited perspective - doesn’t take into account cognitive and emotional factors.
Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis
Unconscious mind controls many of our activities.
Defence mechanisms prevent traumatic memories from the unconscious reaching conscious awareness.
Id operates according to pleasure principle; Ego mediates between demands of id and reality; Superego divided into conscience and ego-ideal.
Defence mechanisms
Defence mechanisms distort reality to reduce anxiety.
Repression - the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts.
Denial - the refusal to accept reality
Displacement - redirecting thoughts and feelings from original target onto innocent object.
Psychosexual stages
Oral - expresses early sexual energy through sucking and biting.
Anal - beginnings of ego development, aware of demands of reality and need to conform to others.
Phallic - sexual energy focused in genitals, oedipus complex.
Latent - develops mastery of world around them, represses memory of previous stages.
Genital - fixation of sexual energy in genitals, leads to intercourse and adult life.
Psychodynamic evaluation
Psychoanalysis is gender biased - focused on male rather than female sexuality.
Little reference from non-western cultures.
Pioneering research for treatment, psychoanalysis produced improvemnt in symptoms maintained years after treatment.
Humanistic approach
Stresses importance of free will and conscious control over our own destiny.
Maslow interested in what could go right with people.
Hierarchy of needs:
Self actualisation through peak experiences; fully functioning person.
Self worth developed in childhood from interaction with parents.
State of congruence exists when similarity between ideal self and perceived self exists.
Conditions of worth occur when people experience conditional positive regard.
Therapists give unconditional positive regard to help person self actualise.
Humanistic evaluation
Unrealistic - does not acknowledge pessimism and self destructive behaviour. The idea for growth is oversimplified.
Cultural differences - China, self actualisation defined by contributions to community rather than individual development.
Conditions of worth - false self behaviour, doing things to meet others expectations when they clash with own values to gain approval of others. More likely do develop depression.
