Approaches Flashcards
Falsifiable definition
proposed theory/hypothesis can be found to be false if it is false. Being able to observe and measure variables is key to being scientific. If isn’t possible to test theory, can’t be validated.
Topic link of falsifiability
Authoritarian personality - Milgram disproved it
Objective definition
Something perceived without distortion of personal feelings or interpretation - diminish unconscious bias
How to increase objectivity
Standardised instructions, operationalised definitions of observed variables and physically defined measurements of performance, such as double-blind techniques
Objective topic link
Good objectivity - Milgram
Bad objectivity - Zimbardo
Reliable definition
investigations into theory/hypothesis are replicable under same conditions and when repeated create similar results
Reliable topic link
Strange situation, Milgram
Empirical definition
Controlled measurements/observations based on sensory experiences not thoughts/beliefs. Data collected without bias or expectation from researcher.
Empirical topic link
Jacob’s digit span test
Asch
Milgram
What are the 4 features of science
Falsifiable, objective, reliable, empirical
Wundt’s role in development of psychology
- ‘Father of psychology’ set up first psychology lab in Liepzig, Germany 1870s
- moved psychology towards more controlled research
- promoted use of introspection as way of studying mental processes
- analysed experiences using structuralism
What happened in Wundt’s lab
highly trained observers
presented with carefully controlled and standardised sensory events
asked to describe mental experiences and physical effects of these events
Wundt believed they needed to be in state of high attention and in control of situation
repeated multiple times
introspection definition
the systematic examination or observation of one’s own present and conscious mental or emotional processes
structuralism definition
analysing experience in terms of its two main component parts; physical sensations and emotional feelings. Isolating the structure of consciousness
Wundt strengths
Standardised sensory events
Controlled environment
Repeated multiple times
Only focus on present thoughts as memories aren’t reliable
Trained observers
Led to development of cognitive approach
Wundt weaknesses
Mental experiences ‘non-observable’ lack of empiricism
Subjectivity, depend on person and mood on day
Results varied lots so hard to make general laws - lack of reliability
General assumptions of behaviourism
- All behaviour learnt from environment/upbringing
- Nothing is innate
- Learn via operant and classical conditioning
- What is learnt can be unlearnt
- Same laws apply to animal and human behaviour
Classical conditioning
Learning through association
eg. Pavlov’s dogs / Little Albert
Outline Pavlov’s dogs
Classically conditioned dogs to salivate to sound of bell
Give bone –> dog salivate
Ring bell –> nothing
Ring bell + give bone –> dog salivate
Eventually - Ring bell –> dog salivate
Operant conditioning
Learning via consequences of reinforcement and punishment
Positive reinforcement - give reward for desired behaviour
Negative reinforcement - take away something bad for desired behaviour
eg. Skinner’s rats
Outline Skinner
Skinner box
Rats placed in box with electrified floor, rats had to press lever to get food and turn off electric floor (positive and negative reinforcement)
Rats learnt to pull lever
Found reinforcement more effective than punishment
4 general points for evaluating approaches
ASDA
Approaches to treatment
Scientific merit
Debates
Applications/implications
Behaviourist approach to treatment
Counterconditioning of phobias (classical)
Behaviourist scientific merit
One of most scientific approaches
Focus on observable behaviour and objectivity
Tend to only do lab experiments
Behaviourist debate example
Reductionist - stimulus response, environmental reductionism
simplistic + doesn’t take into account cumulative effect of many complex factors
Isolated variables - easier to test, increase scientific merit
Behaviourist practical application
Token economy systems in schools/prisons
Operant conditioning
Ethical concerns - if reward is basic right should just have it
Others may feel inferior if not rewarded
Staff actually benefit, way to control people easier
Relies on staff sticking to same rules
Psychodynamic key assumptions
- Behaviour determined by internal psychological factors, less biological or environmental
- Born with basic instincts and needs which are sexual and aggressive in nature (Id)
- To function in society, resolve conflicts to develop appreciation of reality (ego) and morals (superego)
- Determined by unconscious mind and early childhood experiences (psychosexual stages)
- Unconscious conflicts in mind dealt with by ‘defence mechanisms’
What is unconscious mind
Majority, basic drives and instincts and unresolved conflicts or unpleasant events/memories
Significant influence on behaviour/personality
Can’t look into own unconscious - access through psychoanalysis with professional
What is pre-conscious mind
In-between conscious and unconscious
Only get glimpses of if focus very hard
Role of the unconscious
- store socially unacceptable basic drives which would interfere with us fitting into society
- hide unresolved conflicts or unpleasant memories to protect our ego/sense of reality
- source of dreams and automatic thoughts
- influences personality
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalyst tries to decode symbols of unconscious mind through techniques like dream analysis or free-association
They can then tell patient what is buried and patient must come to terms with this and accept it to be able to recover and move on
The Id
innate, basic drives, sexual desires
The ego
Reality principle
Conscious perception of reality
Developed in psychosexual stages, formed between 18 months and 3 years (during anal stage)
The superego
Morality principle
Responsible for our morals, across all states of consciousness
Developed in psychosexual stages, formed between 3-6 years
(phallic stage)
What are psychosexual stages of development
- Child development occurs in 5 stages
- Must resolve conflict of each stage in order to progress successfully to next one
- Unresolved conflict leads to fixation, child carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage into adulthood
- Unresolved conflicts mean you can’t develop healthy 3 part personality
5 psychosexual stages
Oral (0-1)
Anal (1-3)
Phallic (3-6)
Latent (7-12)
Genital (12+)
Oral stage
0-1
Libido focused on mouth, put things in mouth to experience - major development is solid food
Consequence - becoming smoker or compulsive eater
Anal stage
1-3 years
Libido focused on bum and personal hygiene - major development potty training
Consequence - extreme orderliness/uptight or extreme messiness
Phallic stage
3-6
Libido focused on gender, love and morality
Phallic stage
3-6
Libido focused on gender, love and morality - obsession with opposite sex parent eventually leads to identification with with same sex parent (Oedipus/Electra complex)
Consequence - deviance from ‘social norm’, sexual dysfunction, criminality, transgender
Latent stage
7-12
Calm, stable period - development of defence mechanisms, sense of self, skills and values
No consequences
Genital stage
12+
Libido focused on developing sexual interest in people outside of the family
Consequence - homosexuality
Defence mechanisms definition
Ego must be protected from unpleasant or threatening experiences which can include unresolved conflicts, trauma and disagreements between ID and superego. Defence mechanisms help hide these things from ego and protect it.
Eventually will still cause problems like mental health issues
What are the three defence mechanisms
Repression
Denial
Displacement
Repression definition
Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
eg. forgetting about little clues that your partner is cheating
Denial definition
Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
eg. An addict refusing to admit they have a problem
Displacement definition
Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
eg. Teacher makes you angry so you take it out on friend because you can’t say it to your teacher
Little Hans outline
- 5 year old wealthy Hans
- horse phobia
- dad wrote to Freud, told to ask about dreams, wrote them up
- Freud only met once
- dream 1: imagined children whose mum was his his mum, dad was their grandad (Oedipus complex)
- dream 2: plumber removed his penis then given new one but larger (castration anxiety)
- dad talked to son to reassure wouldn’t be castrated and resolve conflict and his fear of horses went
Psychodynamic approach to treatment
Psychodynamic therapy - modern version less crazy
Psychodynamic scientific merit
Bad
Highly subjective
Lack of empirical data
Not falsifiable
Psychodynamic debates
Hard psychic determinism
Unconscious controls us, everyone born with sexually aggressive desires and depends on upbringing so not in your control
- problems for justice system, can’t hold people accountable for actions
- socially sensitive as blames parents and can’t help yourself, need professional help from psychoanalyst
Psychodynamic applications/implications
+ Bowlby maternal deprivation theory is psychodynamic
Better social care for orphans, longer hospital visiting hours, every child in day care has to have key worker
- Homophobic, anti-feminist
Assumptions of cognitive approach
- mind actively processes info from senses
- between stimulus and response are complex internal mental processes, which can be scientifically studied
- humans can be seen as data processing systems
- human mind similar to computer, encode and store information, input leads to output
Inference definition
To go beyond the immediate evidence and to make assumptions about mental processes that can’t be directly observed
What are internal mental processes
Processes that aren’t observable such as memory, perception and thinking.
Studied by making inferences about what is going on inside person’s mind based on their observable behaviour
Inference example
Linton - remembers most events from 7 years so infers LTM capacity is unlimited
What is a schema
Mental representation of experience and knowledge and understanding
Person’s beliefs or expectations which affect cognitive processing
Acts as framework, fills in gaps
eg. factors effecting EWT, Bowlby’s internal working model
Where do schemas come from?
Our past experiences + learning or info given to us
Problems with schemas
- can cause bias/prejudice/discrimination
- can fill in gaps in memory inaccurately so recollection of events may be wrong (bad for EWT)
- can make incorrect prediction
Theoretical models explanation
Visual representations of internal mental processes used to help simplify and study complex processes.
Typically diagrams or flow charts to show how info is passed between the different systems that manipulate it
eg. the multi-store model / working memory model
Computer model explanation
- mind compared to computer
- input from environment reaches central processing unit (brain)
- processing occurring: concept of coding (turning info into useable format) and use of ‘stores’ to hold info
- final resulting output of behaviour
- theory would be programmed into computer to see if would produce similar outputs to humans
Cognitive approach to treatment
CBT
+ cheaper and less time consuming than psycho if through NHS
+ 8-10 1 hour sessions vs multiple sessions a week for potentially years
+ has set structure so can be replicated and evidence gathered for large sample of people
- however requires motivation and commitment, hard for people with mental health issues like depression
Cognitive scientific merit
+ mostly uses controlled lab experiments and brain scans
- makes inferences
Cognitive applications/implications
Development of cognitive neuroscience
- use of scanning/imaging techniques to locate memory areas and lead to treatment for memory problems
- computer simulations/modelling to test theories about mental processes
- brain fingerprinting: computer scans brain and can pick up certain thoughts - could be used as lie detector in future
Humanistic assumptions
- people have free will and can direct their own lives towards self-chosen goals and fulfilment
- a person can only be understood as a whole; thoughts, behaviour and experiences should not be reduced to smaller component elements
- laws and generalisations can’t be made as everyone is unique
- focus should be on self and conscious experience rather than on behaviour, and on discussion of experience rather than on use of experiments
Who came up with humanistic approach
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
Self-actualisation definition
A person reaching their full potential and becoming the best they possible can be
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Self-actualisation
Esteem (confident, respect, achievement)
Love/belonging (friends, family, intimacy)
Safety (security)
Physiological (breathing, food, sleep, sex)
P.S. Love Equals Sex
Congruence explanation
For personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self must be broadly equivalent to their ideal version of themselves.
If too big of a gap exists then incongruent and self-actualisation is impossible due to negative feelings of self-worth
Incongruence causes
Low self esteem due to lack of unconditional positive regard from parents during upbringing. Feel like boundaries/limits to their love - conditions of worth.
eg. parents only fully love you if get good exam results
How can you reduce incongruence?
- Develop a more healthy view of ourselves
- Have a more achievable and realistic ideal self
- Receive unconditional positive regard (from counsellor or parent)
Counselling psychology
Humanistic approach to treatment
Counselling
- doesn’t judge, 1-on-1 sessions, acceptance
- not appropriate for severe conditions
vs psycho
- focus on present/future not past
- focus on person as whole
- believe everyone’s good
- client expert not therapist
Humanistic scientific merit
Free will - rejects scientific models of general laws, subjective experience, qualitative, lacks empirical evidence due to abstract concepts + can’t test or make relationships
Holism - can’t isolate variables so can’t test IV
Bias due to Maslow’s schemas and opinions and based on historical claims which may not be accurate
Humanistic debate
Holism
Free will
Idiographic
Culture bias - Maslow US based on Western culture doesn’t take into account other cultures (collectivist cultures focus on ‘greater good’ not reaching individual goals)
People in poor countries can only focus on surviving, insensitive
Humanistic applications/implications
Very little as can’t make general laws
Jahoda’s deviation from ideal mental health
Hierarchy of needs used to help explain motivation, help support children to achieve their best in school
Assumptions of SLT
Bandura
- combination of learning theory with cognitive factors
- direct and indirect reinforcement
- individual decides if they want to enact behaviour based on evaluation of potential rewards
- learned from environment but with some awareness and thought
- learn through observation and imitation of others
SLT process
- IDENTIFICATION
(more likely to imitate someone view as role model, doesn’t have to be physically present hence affect of media) - MODELLING
(if individual imitates role model later then called modelling) - VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT
(observer sees reinforcement received by role model and indirectly reinforces observer) - IMITATION
(term used to describe when an individual observes behaviour and copies it)
What are the 4 mediational processes
ARRM
ATTENTION - behaviour must grab our attention in order to be imitated
RETENTION - observed behaviour stored in memory to be later reproduced
REPRODUCTION - determine if we are actually physically capable of imitating behaviour
MOTIVATION - if potential rewards outweigh costs of behaviour more likely to imitate as will seem worth it
Outline Bandura bobo doll experiment
- 36 boys 36 girls (3-6y/o)
- matched pairs based on aggression levels
- put in room one by one and exposed to adult role model behaviour
- 3 conditions: aggressive, non-aggressive, no model
- put in play room and observed for 20mins by multiple observers
- Results: observed aggressive, played more aggressive. Boys more aggressive. More likely to imitate if same gender role model.
SLT approach to treatment
Preventing and explaining criminal behaviour - mix with pro-crime views more likely to share them, lead to interventions with at risk groups to prevent this
SLT scientific merit
SLT debate
Nurture
doesn’t take into account bio factors eg. testosterone as reason why boys more aggressive in bobo doll experiment
SLT applications/implications
No culture bias, behaviour learnt in social context so can account for cultural differences in behaviour
Difficult to show cause and effect as time passed between possible past observation and behaviour itself
Assumptions biological approach
- everything psychological is initially biological
- to understand behaviour must look at biological processes and structures
- all thoughts, feelings and behaviour have physical basis
Genes definition
code/instructions for making a person
how many chromasones in person
23 pairs made up of 2 long DNA molecules
How many genes approx in person
20,000
Twin studies
If purely biological - 100% concordance for mz and 50% for dz
No behaviour has been found to match this criteria so can’t be fully genetic
However often higher concordance for mz compared to dz which suggests is important factor
Supports diathesis-stress model
What is diathesis-stress model
genes make you pre-disposed but need environmental trigger
Twin study example
OCD
68% mz concordance
31% dz concordance
Genotype definition
pair of alleles for a trait/behaviour - actual genetic code
Phenotype definition
Expression of trait/behaviour from genotype as result of interaction with environment - combined effect of inheritance and environment
CNS + topic link
brain and spinal cord
Automatic brain function
eg, limbic system - memory, hippocampus convert STM to LTM to store in cortex (HM)
Neurotransmission + topic link
Neurotransmitter inhibitory or excitatory
eg, serotonin - mood regulation where imbalances can lead to OCD, depression and other mental health conditions
Evolution + example behaviour link
Process of adapting to environment over many thousands of years to survive, adapt with more successful behaviours becoming encoded in genes due to natural selection
eg. 70k years ago hunter gatherer lifestyle + had to adapt + evolve as environment difficult. Mum had to be primary caregiver but now formula milk so dad can too
Define natural selection
Where a behaviour enables survival, eg. enabling access to food and safety from predators
Define sexual selection
Where one biological sex chooses perceived best mates of other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), it also includes competition between members of the same sex for access to members of opposite sex (intrasexual selection)
What is selective advantage
Any genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individual’s survival and reproduction will continue into future generations
Biological approach to treatment
Drug treatment, anti-psychotics/anti-depressants.
Before these many mentally ill people couldn’t lead normal life and often hospitalised for life.
Don’t cure but control symptoms by correcting imbalances in neurotransmitter levels
eg. OCD take SSRIs to block re-uptake channels to increase serotonin levels
+ good for economy, people can work, money for selling drugs, full institutionalisation expensive, cheaper than therapy
- side effects, dependant
Biological scientific merit
+ lab experiments, controlled environment, empirical, observable data, good objectivity, replicable so can increase reliability
- often correlations not cause and effect, evolution takes thousands of years so relying on old info may not be accurate, not empirical, inferences
Animal studies: + test more things, more controlled as less ethical guidelines, shorter life spans
- lack of extrapolation
Biological debates
Nature - everything genetical, innate, based on biology not learnt from environment
Hard determinism
+ easier to develop medical treatment
- drugs only way to get better, socially sensitive
Biological applications/implications
+ future treatments like gene therapy, selective embryo implantation
- eugenics, tech for rich, could wipe out variance and differences between people which has benefits, Nazis
