approaches Flashcards
founding father of psychology
•Wilhelm Wundt (1879)
•opened the first psychology lab
•in Leipzig German
•published first book on psychology (principles of physiological psychology)
how did psychology emerge as a science
•Wundt attempted to use objective methods.
•separated psychology from philosophy by using standardised procedures.
eg. ticking metronome
introspection
•wundt used introspection to investigate the human mind. p’s were asked to reflect on their own cognitive processes and describe them
•people were trained to report in detail on their inner experiences when presented with a stimuli such as a problem to solve or sometimes be memorised
structuralism
this is identifying consciousness by breaking down behaviours into basic elements of thoughts, images, sensations.
what is meant by the behaviourist approach
a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning
classical conditioning
learning by association
operant conditioning
learning by reinforcement
reinforcement
a consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated.
assumptions of behaviourism
•observable events - primarily concerned with observable and measurable behaviour.
•scientific - psych is a science so behaviour must be measured in high controlled environments to establish cause and effect.
•blank slate - when born our mind is a blank slate and all behaviour is learnt.
•value of animal research - little different between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals.
•behaviour S-R response - behaviour is the result of S-R, all behaviour can be reduced to a simple S-R association.
pavlov’s dogs - classical conditioning
pavlov predicted the dogs would salivate in response to the food places in front of them, but noticed the dogs would begin salivating whenever they heard footsteps of his assistant who was bringing them the food
process of classical conditioning
UCS —> UCR
UCR + NS —> UCR
CS —> CR
positive reinforcement
is receiving a reward when certain behaviour is performed.
negative reinforcement
occurs when an animal/human avoids something unpleasant so continues doing a certain behaviour.
punishment
unpleasant consequences given to stop a certain behaviour
skinners box’s
created skinners box to examine operant conditioning in rats and pigeons. the animal would move around the cage, and when it was pressed the lever it was rewarded. the animal would learn though positive reinforcement, that each time it pressed the lever it would be rewarded with food, therefore learning a new voluntary behaviour which is repeated to receive the reward again
development of behaviourism - bandura
•bandura agreed with the behaviourists that much of our behaviour is learned from experience but he argued that people learn through observation, and imitation of others.
• classical & operant conditioning does not account for all behaviour.
•bridge between behaviourism and cognitive factors.
learning through others
observation, imitating and modelling
importance of environment and cognitive factors
•SLT considers how both environmental (behavioural) and cognitive factors interact to influence human behaviour and learning.
• important mental processes between the stimulus - response.
Role models
• learning occurs through the observation of role models
•more likely to imitate a role model if you identify with them
•modelling is a process that occurs during SLT. modelling can occur when an observer imitates a role model
vicarious reinforcement
• involves learning through observation of the consequences of actions of other people.
•when a learner observes someone they identify with and the role model receives reinforcement the learner is motivated to imitate the behaviour as if they have been reinforced themselves.
mediational processes
we do not automatically observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it there is prior to imitation and it occurs between observing the behaviour and imitating it or not.
•Attention
•Retention
•Motor reproduction
•Motivation
Bobo doll experiment
Aim: To investigate whether aggression can be learned through social learning theory principles.
Method: 72 children (36 male and 36 female) aged between 3 and 6 years old were put into one of three groups for 10 minutes:
1) Aggressive model- the child played in a room while an adult hit and shouted at a “Bobo doll”: a plastic inflatable toy doll which was heavy at the bottom and wobbled when hit. This group was further subdivided by the gender of the child and the adult model, creating four conditions (see below).
2) Non-aggressive model’- the child played in a room while an adult played quietly with a construction set.
This group was further sub-divided once again by the gender of the child and the adult model, creating another four conditions (see below).
3) Control group - the child did not see a model.
The children were deliberately frustrated by being taken into another room where they were told that they could not play with any toys. Then, they were placed alone in a room with a range of aggressive toys (mallet, gun) and non-aggressive toys (dolls, crayons) and the Bobo doll for twenty minutes whilst being observed.
Results: Children who saw the aggressive model produced more aggressive acts than those in either of the other two groups. Boys imitated same-sex models more than girls. Girls imitated more physical aggression if they saw male models, and more verbal aggression if they saw female models.
Conclusion: Aggressive behaviour can be learned, in children, through observation and imitation of a model.
cognitive approach
•concerned with how thinking shapes behaviour
•was developed as a reaction against the behaviourist S-R approach
the importance of inference for cognitive approach
• mental internal processes are private and cannot be observed so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences
•what is going on inside peoples minds on the basis of their behaviour eg the stroop test
computer analogy
mind works like a computer in that it has an input from our senses which it then processes and produces output such as language or specific.
input —> process —> output
the role of theoretical models (cognitive)
one way cognitive psychologists study internal processes is through the use of theoretical models such as the information processing model
the role of schemas (cognitive)
a schema is a cognitive framework of ideas and information developed through experience. they act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system. these schemas help organise and interpret information in the brain
cognitive neuroscience
the scientific field concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental processes
what are genes
genetic information carried by DNA in chromosomes, found within a cells nucleus and are passed on through generations of species.
how do genes affect behaviour
•genes are inherited in the same way as physical characteristics eg eye colour
•individuals can only inherit a gene that gives you a pre-disposition, for certain behaviours.
how do we study the genetic basis of behaviour
•twin studies, using concordance crates the which refer to the extent to which both share the same characteristic.
•we compare concordance rates with monozygotic (identical) to dizygotic (non-identical).
•-if Mz twins are found to have higher concordance rates then DZ for depression, IQ ect this would suggest a genetic basis for that behaviour because
the behaviour is more commonly shared when the siblings are more genetically
similar.
evolutionary explanation
-characteristics that are not suited to
a species’ environment will die out as it struggles to survive.
- over time characteristics will evolve over generations so that only adaptive characteristics remain in future offspring.
