Approaches Flashcards
Define psychology
- the scientific study of the mind and behaviour
Define science
- the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence
Which philosophers have contributed to the emergence of psychology
- Rena Descartes
- John Locke
- Charles Darwin
Who is Wilhem Wundt
- “father of psychology”
- first person to call himself a psychologist
- ideas stemmed from philosophical roots
- opened first experimental psychological lab which helped shape psychology as a science
- wanted to focus on the psychological processes of perception and structuralism
Give details about the lab opened by Wilhem Wundt
- opened in 1879
- Leipzig, Germany
- designated to aid the scientific study of psychological inquiry using controlled conditions that could facilitate the replication of results
- Wundt devised introspection as a way of studying internal mental events
What is introspection
- the first systematic and experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations
What is the psychological process of structuralism
- theory of consciousness developed by Wundt
- involves use of introspection, self reports of sensations/views/feelings/emotions
- he wanted to document and describe the structure of human consciousness (introspection)
How was structuralism tested
- involved Wundt and his workers recording their conscious thoughts and breaking them down into their constituent parts
- he wanted to investigate psychology the same as traditional sciences
- used scientific methods to investigate introspection
- paved way for psychology to be seen as a science and develop cognitive psychology
How was introspection tested
- strictly controlled conditions in lab using same stimuli, same reaction times and same instructions
- individuals focused on present experiences
- involves person saying everything in their mind while doing activity
- must keep talking even if ideas are not clear
- must not hesitate => can use fragmented sentences and do not have to justify thoughts
- made research into introspection reliable so it could be replicated
- made psychology different from philosophical roots
- later realised mental processes difficult to study using introspection and encouraged a search for alternative methods
Who questioned the emergence of psychology as a science
- Watson (1913)
- Skinner (1953)
How did Watson (1913) question the emergence of psychology as a science
- argued process of introspection produced subject data
- varied person to person
- made it difficult to establish general principles
- proposed a truly scientific psych should restrict itself only to studying phenomena that could be observed and measured
- thus behaviourist approach was born
How did Skinner (1953) question the emergence of psychology as a science
- brought methods of natural sciences into psych
- behaviour approach => controlled lab experiments
- following cognitive revolution, study of mental processes seen as scientific through inferences
- biological approach also makes use of experimental data => researchers take advantage of recent advances in tech to investigate physiological processes as they happen
- even though the scientific method is still to be fully embedded in psych, it has come a long way
What is the timeline of psychology emerging as its own subject
- 17-19th century, psychology is a branch of philosophy known as experimental philosophy
- 1879, Wundt opens lab
- 1900s, Freud introduced psychodynamic approach
- 1913, Watson and Skinner establish behaviourist approach
- 1950s, Rogers and Maslow establish humanistic approach
- 1960s, cognitive approach reintroduced, SLT proposed by Bandura
- 1980s, biological approach
What are positive evaluation points for introspection
- helped develop other approached in psych (behaviourism/cognitive), very useful phenomena used in psych that based formed basis of other approaches
- scientific sharing same qualities as traditional sciences such as making hypotheses, high level of control of variables as conducted in lab
- causality can be established allowing future behaviour to be predicted
- still used today in areas of therapy showing application to contemporary therapy used in modern society
- Wundt supports reductionism, consciousness could be broken down to basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole
What are negative evaluation points for introspection
- Watson (1913) criticised introspection, it produces subjective data varying from individual to individual meaning it is not objective nor reliable
- not scientific or accurate, Wilson claims psychologists have little knowledge about some behaviour that may exist outside of conscious awareness
- fails to explain how the mind works and the processes involved in thinking about a particular topic, psychologists cannot see how thoughts are generated so cannot be properly observed
What are the different approaches
- behaviourist approach
- learning approach
- cognitive approach
- biological approach
- psychodynamic approach
- humanistic approach
How is the behaviourist approach split
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning
What are key assumptions of the behaviourist approach
- concerned with observable behaviour that can be objectively and scientifically measured
- all behaviour is learned from environment and can be reduced to stimulus-response association
- little difference between learning that takes place in humans and non human animals allowing research to be carried out on animals as well as humans
What is classical conditioning
- all behaviour is learnt rather than being innate or inherited
- learning through association
- stimulus produces same response as another stimulus because they have been consistently presented at the same time
What are examples of classical conditioning
- Pavlov (1927) => salivating dogs
- Watson and Rayner (1928) => little Albert
What was Pavlov (1927)
- investigated salivating reflex in dogs
- noticed dogs would not only salivate when food was placed in their mouths but also when certain stimuli appeared
- e.g. dog bowl or person who usually feeds them
- he explored how dogs had learnt that these stimuli meant food was on the way
- decided to see if he could teach dogs to salivate when he rang a bell
What happened before conditioning for Pavlov (1927)
- food was unconditioned stimulus producing reflex of salivating which is an unconditioned response
- bell was a neutral stimulus producing no conditioned response
What happened during conditioning for Pavlov (1927)
- the unconditioned stimulus of food was repeatedly paired with the neutral stimulus of the bell
- eventually the dog associated the bell with food
What happened after conditioning for Pavlov (1927)
- bell was a conditioned stimulus producing salivating in the dogs as a conditioned response