Approaches Flashcards
Specification
Learning approaches: i) the behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research; ii) social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research.
The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour.
The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is Id, Ego and Superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.
Humanistic Psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling Psychology.
Comparison of approaches.
Humanistic psychology: approach
Approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person’s capacity for self determination
The free will one
Humans are active agents in their development
What is self actualisation?
The desire to grow psychologically and fulfill one’s full potential
Become what you are capable of
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
5 levelled hierarchical sequence
5) Self actualisation - achieve full potential
4) Esteem needs - feeling of accomplishment
3) Belongingness and love needs - intimate, relationships
2) Safety needs - security, safety
1) Physiological needs - food, water, warmth
What is Self?
The ideas and values that characterise I and me and includes perception and valuing of what i am and what i can do
What is congruence?
The aim of Rogerian therapy
When the self concept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match
conditions of worth
When a parent places limits or boundaries on their love for their children
Roger’s therapy
To get the self to have congruence with the ideal self
Client centred therapy to close the gap
Issues have roots in childhood and can be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard or conditions of worth
Humanistic is not reductionist
Holistic approach
Subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person
Means more validity, as it considers context
BUT
It’s less scientific
Can’t break concepts down
no empirical evidence
Humanistic is a positive approach
It’s optimistic
See’s people as good and in control of their lives
Humanistic has Cultural bias
Ideas of individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth are more associated with individualist culture than collectivists
Self actualisationis nit as important as the needs of the group
Psychodynamic approach idea
A perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience
The unconscious
The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which directs much of our behaviour
Id
Entirely unconscious
Made of of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification
pleasure principle
Ego
Reality principle
Balances the conflicting demands of the Id and the superego
Mediator
Superego
The moralistic part of our personality
Represents the ideal self
Formed at the end of the phallic stage (5yrs old)
Represents the moral standards of the child’s same sex parents
Defence mechanisms
Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the Id and the superego
Repression - force distressing memory out of conscious
Denial - refusing to acknowledge some aspect reality
Displacement - transfer feelings from true source of emotion onto a substitute target
Psychosexual stages
5 developmental stages that all children pass through
At each stage stage there is a different conflict and outcome if they’re unresolved (UR)
Oral (0-1) -pleasure from mouth, desire mother’s breast
-UR = oral fixation (smoking, sarcastic, nail bite)
Anal (1-3) -pleasure from anus + withhold or expel faeces
-UR = anal retentive (perfectionist, obsessive)
= anal expulsive (messy, thoughtless)
Phallic (3-6) - pleasure from genital area
-UR = phallic personality (narcissist, reckless)
Latency - earlier conflicts are repressed
Genital - sexual desires become conscious
-UR = difficulty forming hetero relationships
Psychodynamic has real world application
Introduced the idea of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis
Treated mental disorders psychologically rather than physically, dream analysis
Helps deal with repressed emotions
Forerunner to counselling
BUT
Psychoanalysis is regarded as inappropriate for serious mental disorders
Psychodynamic has explanator power
Can explain human behaviours
It’s had a huge influence on psychology and can explain phenomena like personality development and origin if psychological disorders
Drew attention to link between childhood experiences and later development
Psychodynamic has untestable concepts
It’s not open to empirical testing so doesnt fit Popper’s criteria of falsification
unconcious is very difficult to test
Little Hans is a subjective case study, generalisability?
Pseudoscientific
Oedipus complex
In the phallic stage boys develop incestous feelings for their mother and hatred for their father as he is their rival
Fearing their father will castrate that, they repress their feelings ad indentify with their father
Electra complex
In the phallic stage girls experience penis envy
They desire their father and hate their mother
Penis is the primary love object
they are taught to give up these desires and replace this with a desire for a baby (identifying with their mother in the process)
Little Hans
Supports Oedipus complex
Developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street
Freud suggested this phobia was a form of dislacement in which his repressed fear of his father was displaced on to horses
Horse is a symbolic representation of real unconcious fear of castration
