approaches

Question 1

who was the ‘founder of psychology’ and what did he do

Answer 1

wilhelm wundt, seperated psych from philisophy, opened the first psychology-only lab, this marked the beginning of psychology as a science

Question 2

what was wundts aim

Answer 2

to analyse human consciousness
he wanted to attempt to systematically study the mind, under controlled conditions

Question 3

how did wundt develop his theories about our mental processes (what did he and his co-workers do)

Answer 3

they recorded their experiences of various stimuli they were presented with (objects, sounds eg a ticking metronome) and try to catergorise their observations into thoughts, images and sensations.

Question 4

what is one strength and one weakness of wundts research

Answer 4

strength - he used systematic, well-controlled methods, using lab studies and standardising procedures
alt strength - wundt formed the foundations of psych meaning he made huge contributions to the field
weakness - the data collected is subjective and would be considered unscientific today, self reporting has validity issues etc

Question 5

briefly outline the emergence of psychology as a science

Answer 5

1900s behaviourism (inc SLT), introspections scientificness is qustioned, observable, objective, measurable behaviour is the new focus

1950s cognitivists, the digital revolution lead to computer models as a new metaphor for the mind

1980s biologists, this allowed for huge scientific advances, scanning techniques allowed for the genetic - behaviour relationship to be researched. (the biologist approach was uncovered long before but took off in the 80’s as technology developed)

Question 6

what is classical conditioning

Answer 6

learning through association

Question 7

who researched classical conditioning and how

Answer 7

pavlov - got dogs to salavate when a bell played by assosiating the bell with food

Question 8

how did pavlov get dogs to associate the bell with the food (outline the diagram)

Answer 8

before conditioning:
food (unconditioned stimulus UCS) - salavation (unconditioned response UCR)
bell (neutral stimulus NS) - no response

during conditioning:
food UCS + bell NS - salavation UCR

after conditioning:
bell (conditioned stimulus CS) - salavation (conditioned response CR)

Question 9

what is operant conditioning

Answer 9

learning through consequence

Question 10

who researched operant conditioning and how

Answer 10

skinner - put rats in boxes and trained them to 1. push a lever by giving them a treat whenever they did it and 2. push a lever to stop a mild but ongoing electric shock

Question 11

what application does conditioning have in real life

Answer 11

operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems which are proven effective in prisons and psych wards
classical conditioning is used to help cure phobias

Question 12

what isues does skinners research have

Answer 12

ethical - his rats were kept perminently underweight to ensure they were always hungry, aswell as being housed in cramped conditions

Question 13

what is a general strength of the behaviourist approach

Answer 13

they used very controlled conditions with lab studies and working to eliminate extranuous variables

Question 14

summarise the behaviourists viewpoints (comparisons)

Answer 14

interested in measurable and observable behaviour

nurture: we’re a blank slate and everything is learned

environmental determinism: all deternimed by enviro

reductionist: reduced to stimulus response

nomothetic: general laws

scientific: lab studies

Question 15

what is vicarious reinforcement

Answer 15

indirectly learning through observing others behaviour

Question 16

what are the mediational processes

Answer 16

• attention: noticing a behaviour
• retention: remembering it
• motor reproduction: being physically able to perform it
• motivation: the want to replicate (eg. it was praised)

Question 17

what is the role of identification

Answer 17

people are more likely to imitate those they identify with (identification) they’re usually a role model, someone who looks simular, has simular charicteristics, behaves like them, are attractive and/or have high status

Question 18

what study did bandura do

Answer 18

bobo doll - children wtched videos of adults acting aggressively to dolls then were obsevrved in a room with toys and dolls

Question 19

summarise the SLT viewpoints (comparisons)

Answer 19

they mainly agreed with behaviourists that things are learned directly but proposed indirect aswell, learning through observations (socially)

nurture: learn through reinforcement

soft determinist: controlled by external factors just like behaviourists but we have some influence

part reductionist: shares behaviourists and cognitive viewpoints

nomothetic: general laws

mostly scientific: pretty good but has theoretical mediational proccesses

Question 20

what are schema

Answer 20

internal packages of information, they can be developed through experience or innate eg babies knowing how to suckle

Question 21

why do we have schemas

Answer 21

so we can process lots of information very quickly without getting overwhelmed

Question 22

whats one problem with having schema

Answer 22

they can lead to perceptual errors, if we expect something and its not that way we might miss it and and just assume its normal

Question 23

what are theoretical models

Answer 23

theoretical representations of our internal processes that help us understand how we work. for example information processing approach suggests that info flows through in stages

Question 24

what are computer models

Answer 24

another way of helping us understand our brains, suggests our brain is like a computer with the CPU as a brain etc which affects for ‘thinking machines’ in artificial intelligence

Question 25

what is cognitive neuroscience

Answer 25

the scientific study of how our brain structure imapcts our mental processes

Question 26

what is brain mapping

Answer 26

connecting spesific areas of the brain to functions eg Broca’s area

Question 27

how has brain imaging impacted cognitive neuroscience

Answer 27

its allowed us to identify how things like our memories work, we can also work out the neurlogical basis of some disorders like in alzhimers we can see the reduced activity

Question 28

summarise cognitivists viewpoints (comparisons)

Answer 28

not a learning approach, focus on scienitfically studying internal mental processes

nature and nurture: affected by environment but mostly brain structures

soft determinist: we can chose behaviours wthin the limits of out brain/experiences

reductionist: machine reductionism - over comparrison to PC’s

nomothetic and idographic: trys to establish general laws but uses case studies

mostly scientific: use of scientific methids but still uses theoretical models

Question 29

what are genotypes and phenotypes

Answer 29

genotype: out genetic makeup/DNA
phenotype: how our genetics are expressed through out charicteristics, eg hair colour, which can change

Question 30

what is natural selection

Answer 30

some characteristics are favourable for survival, these genes are then passed down more (those iwhtout them die or arent chosen to reprocuce with) until the species is better as a whole

Question 31

how are twin studies useful

Answer 31

they show us how much of a genetic basis something has through concordence rates

Question 32

what are monozygotic and dizygotic twins

Answer 32

identical and non-identical, mono meaning one and di meaning two

Question 33

summarise biologists viewpoints (comparisons)

Answer 33

everything psychological is first biological

nature: due to biology

biological determinist: controlled by genes

biological reductionism: reduced to bio structures

nomothetic : trys to establish general laws

scientific: scientific methods like brain imaging

Question 34

what three conciousnesses does freud outline and what does he compare them to

Answer 34

the concious, preconcious and unconcious

an iceburg, the concious being just the tip, with the majority being under the surface

Question 35

what is a freudian slip

Answer 35

a mistake like calling a teacher ‘mum’ its a reflection of our unconcious mind, stemming from a forgetten or repressed memory

Question 36

what three parts does our personality split into according to freud

Answer 36

ID: pleasure principle - based on drives and instincts

ego: reality principle - the mediator

superego: morality principle - sense of right/wrong, punished the ego with guilt

Question 37

what did freud say about the psychosexual stages

Answer 37

there were the five stages to childhood development, each stage is where pleasure is derived from and they have to be resolved before moving to the next stage, if not resolved we fixate on that stage which leads to issues in later life

Question 38

what are the five psychosexual stages, and what happens if you fixate on the stage

Answer 38

oral - 0-1 - smoking, biting nails
anal - 1-3 - holding in - perfectionist, out - messy
phallic - 3-6 - narcasistic
latency - 7+ - earlier stages are repressed (dont remember)
genital - sexual desire becomes concious

Question 39

what are defence mechanisms

Answer 39

methods to help us deal with draumas, or to protect the ego from the superego. theres:
repression - forgetting
denial - refusing to admit
displacement - putting it onto someone/thing else

Question 40

what type of therapy did freud develop

Answer 40

psychotherapy, the first method of talking therapy to help people psychologically, now known as counselling

Question 41

summarise the psychodynamic approaches viewpoints (comparisons)

Answer 41

mostly nature: unconcious drives but also the affects of childhood

psychic determinism: unconcious drives and early childhood

reductionist and holistic: reduced to innate drives but takes alot into account aswell

nomothetic and idiographic: use of case studies

pseudo scientific: unfalsifiable, cannot be tested, all theoretical etc

Question 42

what are the 5 sections in maslows heirarchy of needs

Answer 42

in highest to lowest order:
physiological needs (water, shelter)
safety and security (health, employment)
love and belonging (friendship, intimacy)
self esteem (respect, status)
self actualisation (reaching full potential)

Question 43

what is self actualisation

Answer 43

the desire to meet your full potential which is, according to them, essential to being a human

Question 44

what is the self, the ideal self and congruence

Answer 44

the self is how we see ourselves, the ideal self is the person we want to be and congruence is how much these two things overlap
if they dont overlap, were incongruent and cant self actualise until they mean the same thing

Question 45

how can we reduce the gap between the self and the ideal self

Answer 45

client centered therapy (counsiling)
this helps people with the problems of everyday life and bridges the gap between the slef and ideal.
low self esteem is seen as a product of conditional love in childhood so the therapist needs to show unconditional positive regard (love)

Question 46

summarise the humanists viewpoints (comparisons)

Answer 46

nurture: shaped by environment
free will: we are capable of change and can choose
holistic: focus on all aspects of behaviour
idiographic: everyones unique we cant have general laws
not scientific: cannot test its theorys, actively rejects scientific methods