Approaches

Question 1

Wundt (1879)

Answer 1

First attempt at making psychology scientific. Asked particiapnt to report the most basic and instinctual conscious processes, called introspection. Despite not being properly scientific it played a cruical role in the breakthrough of making psychology a science.

Question 2

Watson (1913)

Answer 2

Proposed behaviourism as a theory to scientifically study psychology. Criticised introspection as a scientific method of study as it was subjective.

Question 3

Watson and Rayner (1920)

Answer 3

Conditioned Little Albert with classic conditioning to have a phobia of white rabbits and other white fluffy things. Support for classical conditioning as a cause of behaviour.

Question 4

Pavlov

Answer 4

Used classical conditioning of a bell at the same time as feeding to create an association between food and the bell in dogs. Caused them to salivate at the sound of the bell.

Question 5

Skinner (1953, 1948)

Answer 5

Used operant conditioning (the skinner box) to test postive and negative punishment and reinforcement. Showed operant conditioning as a cause of behaviour.

Question 6

Bandura (1961)

Answer 6

The Bobo Doll experiment. Showed children of adults interacting with a bobo doll, either aggressively or peacefully. They were then put in a room witha bobo doll themselves, and interacted in a simialr way to the that of the adult they watched. Shows behaviour is learnt through watching others.

Question 7

Little Hans Case Study (Freud, 1909)

Answer 7

A boy with a phobia of horses after seeing one fall down and die was studied by Freud. Freud argued this was because he saw his father in the horse, he repressed his fear of his father and projected it onto the horses, due to castration anxiety in the phallic stage (the Oedipus complex). This supports Freud’s psychosexual stages.