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Psychology revision > Approaches > Flashcards

Approaches Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 5 main approaches?

A

Behaviourists, Cognitive, Biological, Psychodynamic, Humanistic

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2
Q

Explain the features of Wundt’s approach - introspection and structuralism

A

-Structuralism: isolating structure of consciousness with scientific methods studying structure of sensation/perception.

  • Introspection means “looking into” in Latin.
    Using introspection to investigate human mind by asking participants to reflect in own cognitive processes and describe them.
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3
Q

What did Wundt discover?

A
  • Higher mental processes difficult to study using introspection.
  • Encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods paving way for other approaches.
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4
Q

What are the negatives of Wundt’s approach: introspection?

A
  • Relies on non-observable responses and participants unable to comment on unconscious factors relating to behaviour.
  • Introspection produced subjective data so it was hard to establish general principles.
  • Means introspective experimental results not reliably reproduced by other researchers.
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5
Q

What are the positives for introspection?

A

-still used today and to gain access to cognitive processes
-used in areas like therapy

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6
Q

Explain the 4 goals of psychology

A
  • Description: tells us what occurred.
  • Explanation: tells us “why” a behaviour or a mental process occurred.
  • Prediction: identifies conditions under which a future behaviour or mental process is likely to occur.
  • Change: Applies psychological knowledge to prevent unwanted behaviour and to bring about desired change.
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7
Q

Explain the focus of the behaviourist approach

A
  • Concerned with observable behaviour, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion.
  • Can be objectively and scientifically measured.
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8
Q

State the assumptions of the behaviourist approach

A
  • Psych is science so behaviour must be measured in controlled environments to establish cause and effect.
  • When born mind is blank slate.
  • No difference in learning in humans compared to animals. Research can be carried out on animals.
  • Behaviour learnt from environment. Learn through classical or operant conditioning.
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9
Q

Explain how Pavlov used classical conditioning on his dogs

A
  • Presented a tone (bell) immediately before presenting the food multiple times.
  • Eventually the dogs had an unconditioned response (salivation) to the sound of the conditioned stimulus (bell).
  • Unconditioned stimulus (food) + conditioned stimulus (bell) = unconditioned response (saliva).
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10
Q

Explain BF Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

A
  • All behaviour learnt as result of consequences in environment - operant conditioning.
  • Involved learning through consequences (positive + negative) of behavioural responses.
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11
Q

Explain positive reinforcement

A
  • Increases likelihood of response occurring as it involves a reward for the behaviour.
  • E.g. getting a dessert for eating vegetables, a worker gets paid a bonus for working hard.
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12
Q

Explain negative reinforcement

A
  • Increases likelihood of a response occurring because it involves the removal of, or escaping from, unpleasant consequences (e.g. it leads to stopping or avoiding an electric shock).
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13
Q

Explain punishment

A
  • The consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated (e.g. the behaviour leads to an electric shock or a smack).
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14
Q

Give 2 examples of operant conditioning being applied to the treatment of behaviour

A
  • Examples:
    1. Social skills training for offenders
    2. Token economy systems used in institutions whereby tokens are given as a secondary reinforcement for good behaviour
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15
Q

Positives of behaviourist approach

A

-strength of the approach
-research support
-real life application

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16
Q

Positive evaluation of the behaviourist approach

A
  • Theories testable and supported by experimental research (experimental method) helps establish cause and effect, objective.
  • influences all areas of psychology.
  • replicable - can be repeated due to high control so has reliability
  • mainly quantitative data - easy to analyse
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17
Q

Negatives of the behaviourist approach

A

-mechanistic view of behaviour
-environmental determinism
-ethical and practical issues

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18
Q

What is the social learning theory?

A
  • Way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.
  • Learning can occur simply through observing others -> also known as MODELS in our environment.
  • Part of the behaviourist approach.
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19
Q

Explain Albert Bandura’s take on the Social Learning Theory (cognitive processes)

A
  • Learning occurs from observing others.
  • Mind, behaviour and the environment all play a role in learning behaviour.
  • Deals with the major criticism of behaviourist approach, which ignores mental processes, by taking account of cognitive processes.
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20
Q

What is vicarious reinforcement? (Modelling)

A
  • We learn through modelling -> involves learning through observation of other people (models), may lead to imitation (repetition) of the behaviour.
  • Only occurs if behaviour is seen to be rewarded.
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21
Q

What are the 4 conditions for social learning?

A
  • Attention (learning of behaviour)
  • Retention (learning of behaviour)
  • Motor reproduction (performance of behaviour)
  • Motivation (performance of behaviour)
22
Q

What is the attention condition for social learning?

A
  • The extent to which we notice certain behaviour.
23
Q

What is the retention condition for social learning?

A
  • The individual remembers what they have observed.
24
Q

What is the motor reproduction condition of social learning?

A
  • The individual replicates the behaviour shown by the model.
25
Q

What is the motivation condition of social learning?

A
  • The individual seeks to demonstrate the behaviour that they have observed.
26
Q

What are the types of models in social learning?

A
  • Live models
  • Symbolic models
27
Q

What are live models (social learning)?

A

A
- Physically present in our environment, e.g. mother, teacher, pop star etc.

28
Q

What are symbolic models (social learning)?

A
  • E.g. people in films, books, cartoons etc.
29
Q

What is symbolic modelling (social learning)?

A
  • is considered to have a greater effect on cultures where media is widely available.
30
Q

What are the evaluations of the social learning theory?

A

Positive:
- Real World application
- Importance of cognitive factors in learning

Negative:
- Over-reliance on ev from lab studies (Bobo Doll experiment)
- Underestimates influence of biological factors

31
Q

Explain how the SLT relies too much on evidence from lab studies

A
  • Behaviours of children were observed in lab settings - Demand characteristics
  • Bobo doll: were they behaving in the right way?
  • What does it tell us about every day life (is it representative)
32
Q

What is the cognitive approach?

A
  • How our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour.
33
Q

What is the key assumption of the cognitive approach?

A
  • Cognitive pychologists study processes indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds, based on their behaviour (reductionist approach)
34
Q

What are the key principles of the cognitive approach?

A
  • mental systems have limited capacity.
  • Control mechanisms oversees all mental processes.
  • 2 way flow of info
35
Q

Explain the principle of mental systems having a limited capacity (cognitive approach)?

A
  • The amount of info that can be processed will be influenced by how demanding the task is and how much other info is processed.
36
Q

Explain the principle of control mechanisms overseeing all mental processes (cognitive approach)

A
  • This will require more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else
37
Q

Explain the principle of the 2 way of flow of info (cognitive approach)

A
  • we take in information from the World, process it and react to it.
  • We also use our knowledge and experiences to understand the World.
38
Q

What are the 3 different types of schema (cognitive approach)?

A
  • Role schemas
  • Event schemas
  • Self schemas
39
Q

What are role schemas (cognitive approach)?

A
  • These are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation.
40
Q

What are event schemas (cognitive approach)?

A
  • These are also called scripts. They contain info about what happens in a situation.
41
Q

What are self schemas (cognitive approach)?

A
  • These contain info about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values.
  • These schemas can affect how you act.
42
Q

What is the role of a schema (cognitive approach)?

A
  • A ‘package’ of ideas and info developed through exp, helps organise and interpret info and experiences.
  • When info is consistent with a schema, is assimilated into the schema -> exp is assimilated and schema is strengthened.
  • when the info is inconsistent -> accommodation occurs and the schema has to change in order to resolve the problem.
43
Q

What are the problems with schemas (cognitive approach)?

A
  • Can stop people from learning new info:
  • Prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas.
  • Schemas which hold expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people may bias the way we process incoming info.
  • Can lead to faulty conclusions and unhelpful behaviour.
  • Can lead to perception errors.
44
Q

What are the methods involved in brain scanning (cognitive approach)?

A
  • Lesion studies
  • electrophysiology
  • Neuroimaging
45
Q

What are lesion studies (methods involved in brain scanning)?

A
  • They see if brain damage changes behaviour.
46
Q

What is electrophysiology (methods of brain scanning)?

A
  • Using electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity and brain waves.
47
Q

What is neuroimaging (methods of brain scanning)?

A
  • Pinpointing areas of the brain which are active when a task if performed.
48
Q

Explain Tulving et al’s (1985) study on the cognitive approach

A
  • Using PET and fMRI scans, Tulving systematically observed neurological basis in mental processes.
  • Tasks involving episodic (personal memory store) and semantic (knowledge of the World store) memory may be located at different sides of the pre-frontal cortex.
  • Left side: involved in recalling semantic memories.
  • Right side: involved in recalling episodic memories.
49
Q

List the strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive approach

A

Positive:
- Use of scientific and objective methods
- Less determinist than other approaches

Negative:
- Machine reductionism
- lack of application to everyday life

50
Q

Explain how the use of scientific and objective methods is a strength of the cognitive approach

A
  • Research employs highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work.
  • Lab experiments -> reliable, objective data produced.
  • Results in credible scientific basis.
51
Q

Explain how machine reductionism is a weakness of research on cognitive approach

A
  • Ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect our ability to process info.
  • Humans have an unreliable and unlimited memory -> computers have a limit but it is reliable.
52
Q

Explain how lack of applicability is a weakness of the cognitive approach?

A
  • Only able to infer mental processes from behaviours observed.
  • too abstract and theoretical in nature.
  • Use of artificial stimuli may not represent everyday memory exp.
  • May lack external validity.

Psychology revision (5 decks)

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