approaches Flashcards
Wundt
-the first person to become a psychologist and believed the human mind can be explained by science
-wanted to break things down into basic parts
the body is a structure that supports your mind
- oral stage
- 0-1 years old
-children like to put things into their mouths
- anal stage
- 2-3 years old
-begin potty training
- phallic stage
- 3-6 years old
-bys more attached to their mothers and girls are more attached to their farthers
- latency stage
- 6-puberty
-children spend more time and interest mostly with the same sex peers
- genital
- beyond puberty
-individuals are attached to opposite-sex peers
what happens if the 5 staged go wrong
Oral stage: you become criminal/ abusive
Anal stage: you become anxious and gullible
Phallic stage: depression/ identity disorders
Latency stage: become schizophrenic/ bipolar
Gentital stage: you become resentful
evaluation of the origins of psychology and scientific approach
-Wundt’s methods were unreliable
strengths:
-Due to its reliance on objective and systematic methods, knowledge acquired is more than just the passive acceptance of facts
-If scientific theories no longer fit the fact they can be refined or abandoned, meaning that scientific knowledge is self-corrective. Theories that are incorrect won’t last very long!
weaknesses:
-By concentrating on objectivity and control in observations, scientific psychologists create contrived situations that tell us little about how people react in natural environments
-Much of the subject matter of psychology is unobservable and, therefore cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy
pavlov
Classical conditioning
Noticed that dogs always get excited around food meaning they salivated whn they smelt food
IV: food
DV:amount of saliva
Neutral stimulus: bell begins, then becomes conditioned stimulus and saliva is conditinoed response
food (UCS) = no response (UCR)
bell (NS) = no salvation
food + bell = dog salivating (UCR)
bell (CS) = salivation (CR)
skinner
Operant conditioning
Put rats in a box without food
If they pressed a button they got food introducing positive reinforcement
Next time, his box gave electric shock
If they pressed the button the shocks stopped and called it negative reinforcement
evaluation of the behaviorist approach
-good application (successful for child behavior management)
-oversimplified ( discounts conscious thought processes)
-scientific methods used (we can replicate the experiment to test and add validity to our findings.)
bandura
Modelling
Imitation
Identification
Vicarious reinforcement
Attention
Retention
Reproductive
Motivation
BOBO doll study
-Aim: To see if what children observe reflects the actions that they do on the doll
-Procedure: Children are split and different groups watch a different interaction between the bobo doll and the model. Half the group watched an actor acting aggressively towards the doll, the other confederate used non-aggressive behavior.
-Findings: Children who watched an aggressive situation towards that bobo doll then acted in an aggressive way towards it. Children who watched a nonaggressive approach used much less aggression. About 1/3 of the children who observed the aggressive model repeated the aggressive verbal responses, while none of the children who watched the non aggressive model used violent remarks
evaluation of SLT
-real-world application (this study has high ecological validity, as it can accurately be applied to real world scenarios and increase our knowledge of why such events occur)
-scientific methods used (Bandura’s procedure can be easily replicated with differing variables, such as the ages of the participants, to obtain a wider range of results and reduce anomalous data skewing the findings)
-improves behaviorist approach (This means that the study can be more accurately applied to humans as animals have been proved to act differently depending on the circumstance.)
brain is like a computer
input process output
RAM = short term memory
Hard Drive = Long term memory
Encoding = memorising
Input from peripherals = stimuli
schema
A mental plan used to organise and interpret information (we use it to make decisions and to make sense of the world)
Schemas are important as they allow us to take shortcuts when interpreting that large amounts of information we deal with on a daily basis.
They help us to fill the gaps in the absence of full information about a person, event or thing
They also exclude any information that does not conform to our established ideas about the world, instead choosing to focus on things that coincide with our pre-existing beliefs.
becks negative triad
negative view on the world
negative view negative views
on self on future
evaluation on cognitive approach
-application (This has led to the successful treatment of illnesses such as OCD and depression, demonstrating the positive impact of the research.
-scientific methods used (Cognitive neuroscience uses advanced technology to produce clear, detailed and valid images of the brain, meaning that the results are far more trustworthy than those of non-objective studies which can be affected by both confounding and extraneous variables)
-lacks ecological validity (Although brain scans give valid images of the brain, many studies of cognitive psychology tend to use tasks that have little in common with participants’ everyday experiences. For example, experiments in memory typically use artificial test materials (such as random lists of words) that mean nothing outside of the experimental context)
genotype
information in DNA
phenotype
traits expressed as a result of gene expression in the environment
evaluation of the biological approach
-real world application ( Illustrative of this, it provides clear predictions, for example, about the effects of neurotransmitters and the behaviour of people who are genetically related.)
-scientific methods used (Experimental studies take place in highly controlled environments, meaning that other researchers are able to replicate the results, under the same conditions. This then adds to the validity of the original findings if the same results are obtained)
-reductionist (Criticised for its belief that complex behaviour can be broken down into the action of genes neurochemicals and hormones)
free will
All of the other approaches are mostly deterministic → they suggests that your behaviour is a result of external forces
The humanistic approach rejects this - they say we are “active agents” in our own destiny and have the power to determine our own development
Maslow and Rogers pioneered a “person centred” approach to psychology
→ our experiences are more important than general laws because we’re all individuals (they reject the scientific approach)
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
self actualisation
(acceptance, creativity)
esteem
(confidence, achievement)
love and belonging
(friendship, family, love)
safety
(employment, house)
physiological
(food, water, sleep)
congruence
High congruence → high self esteem
Low congruence → low self esteem
sets of beliefs
The self concept: beliefs about who you are right now (how others see you)
The ideal self: if you achieved self actualisation (how you want others to see you)
evaluation of humanistic approach
-application (Hagerty (1999) looked at the relationship between economic growth and measures of Maslow’s need levels in 88 countries over a 34 year period. He found that countries in the early stages of economic development were characterised by lower level needs.)
-research methods involved (Rogers in particular was an advocate of non-experimental research methods, arguing that the requirements of experimental methods make it impossible to verify the results of counselling. Some studies have shown personal growth as a result of receiving humanistic counselling, but these do not show that the therapy caused the changes.)
-cultural differences ( In a later development of his theory Maslow did acknowledge that, for some people, needs may appear in a different order or may even be absent altogether. For example, a study carried out in China (1983) found that belongingness needs were seen as more fundamental than physiological needs and that self-actualisation was defined more in terms of contributions to the community than in terms of individual development.)
unconscious mind
Freud believed that part of your mind
is inaccessible to conscious thought
He called the bits that you cannot
interact with preconscious/ unconscious
He used an iceberg metaphor to
illustrate this idea
ID
Present at birth
The fememine drive (pleasure, selfish, fear, anger, lust)
Ego
Develops around 2-3 years (anal stage)
Control of the Id (reality, logic, balance, compromise, reason)
Superego
Develops around 4-7 years (phallic stage)
The masculine drive (morality, guilt, conscience)
defense mechanisms
Repression: the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts and impulses
Denial: the refusal to accept reality so as to avoid having to deal with any painful feelings that may be associated with that event
Displacement: the redirecting of thoughts or feelings (usually hostile) in situations where the person feels unable to express them in the presence of the person they should be directed towards.
evaluation of the psychodynamic approach
-real world application (For example, Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (Bowlby, 1944) is based on Freud’s oral and anal conflicts, where infants should learn to wait for gratification and accept rules-based discipline. The “Critical” and later “sensitive” period concept inspired improved health care significantly.)
-generalisability (The first psychodynamic theorist, Freud, carried out no experiments or studies; instead using notes from his clinical practice, insights from medicine and philosophy, and case studies from colleagues to formulate his theories.)
-scientific support ( Critics of psychoanalysis often claim that there is no scientific evidence for the approach and that its claims are not testable or falsifiable. To contradict this, many of the claims of psychoanalysis have been tested and many of them have been confirmed using scientific methodology.)
