Approaches Flashcards
Who created introspection?
Wundt.
Who is ‘The father of psychology’?
Wundt.
What is structuralism?
Breaking things down to study their component parts.
What is introspection?
Breaking down consciousness into component parts.
How did Wundt study introspection?
In a controlled lab environment
Using standardised procedure.
What did Wundt train researchers to do?
To describe their mental experiences of events through standardised stimulus.
What are limitations of Wundt?
Wundt only produced subjective unobservable results.
What are some strengths of Wundt?
His research has led to modern psychotherapy using introspection.
When was the first psych lab opened and where?
By Wundt in Leipzig, Germany in 1879.
What are assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
We cannot generalise animal research to humans.
Our personality is due to nature.
We have free will.
What does the psychodynamic approach claim?
We have an unconscious thought that influences our behaviour.
What makes up our unconscious thoughts?
Fears, unacceptable sexual desires, violent motives, irrational wishes, selfish needs.
Freud argued our psyche is split into 3 parts, what are these 3 parts called?
The id, the ego, the superego.
What is the id?
Works on the ‘pleasure principle’.
Is in the unconscious mind.
What is the ego?
Works on the ‘reality principle’.
Is in the conscious mind.
Balances the id and superego.
What is the superego?
Works on the ‘morality principle’.
Is in the unconscious mind.
What are the three different defence mechanisms?
Repression, denial and displacement.
What is repression?
Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind.
What is denial?
Refusing to acknowledge some aspects of reality.
What is displacement?
Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target.
What is a positive evaluation of defence mechanisms?
Brewin & Andrew conducted a meta analysis and found that tween 20-60% of sexual abuse survivors had period of their lived when they could not remember the abuse.
What is a negative evaluation of defence mechanisms?
Lack of testability since defence mechanisms are unconscious processes they cannot be studied directly.
What are the 5 different psychosexual stages?
Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital.
How long does the oral stage last?
0-18 months.
What is the focus of libido in the oral stage?
The mouth.
What causes a fixation in the oral stage?
Too much breastfeeding or too little.
What negative personality traits can present if a child was fixated in the oral stage?
Overeating, smoking, clingy, dependent.
How long does the anal stage last?
18 months-3.5 years.
What is the focus of libido in the anal stage?
The anus.
What causes a fixation in the anal stage?
Being too strict about potty training or being too lenient.
What are the two different types of anal fixation?
Anal expulsive or anal retentive.
What are the characteristics of anal expulsive?
Messy, disorganised, won’t listen to authority.
What are the characteristics of anal retentive?
Enjoys order, fear of authority, retentive.
How long does the phallic stage last?
3-6 years.
What is the focus of libido in the phallic stage?
The genitals.
What happens due to a fixation in the phallic stage?
Oedipus complex - Boys
Electra complex - Girls
What is the Oedipus complex?
Boys have unconscious sexual feelings for their mother
This leads them to fear their father - castration anxiety.
What is the Electra complex?
Girls realise they don’t have a penis so get penis envy
Girls blame their mother for her lack of penis
Girls replace their penis envy with a desire for a baby.
What is the latency stage?
Sexual energy is repressed or dormant
Energy is supplied to intellectual pursuits and social interactions.
How long does the latency stage last?
6 years - puberty.
What happens due to a fixation in the latency stage?
Children grow up to be immature
Have an inability to form fulfilling relationships.
What is the genital stage?
Where an individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex.
How long is the genital stage?
Puberty-Adolescence.
What are positive evaluations of the psychosexual stages?
Fischer and Greenberg found evidence of Freud’s oral and anal personality types. Identified them through standardised questionnaires.
Little Hans - fear of horses.
What are negative evaluations of the psychosexual stages?
Horney disputed Freuds theory of penis envy. Horney claimed the theory is demeaning to women and suggested men feel inferior because they cant birth children.
What are strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
It had practical applications - psychotherapy
Supporting studies
What are limitations of the psychodynamic approach?
Doesn’t generate observable behaviour.
Freud wasn’t objective.
It wasn’t a falsifiable theory.
What are the assumptions of behaviourism?
All people are born slates.
Only observable behaviour should be studied.
We can generalise from animal studies to humans.
What are the two sub theories of behavioursim?
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
What is the process of classical conditioning?
UCS->UCR
UCS+NS->UCR
CS->CR
What study supports classical conditioning?
Pavlov’s dogs & Little Albert
What are the strengths of Pavlov’s study?
High control-high internal validity.
Less extraneous variables-Pavlov controlled when the dogs ate.
Reliable results, study can be reconducted and get the same results.
What are the limitations of Pavlov’s study?
Wasn’t ethical, animals cant give consent, protection from harm.
Animals and humans are different, animals can be unpredictable.
What was the study on Little Albert?
Watson and Raynor presented Albert with a white rat, there was no fear.
They associated loud bangs (that scared Albert) with the white rat only.
Albert would cry when he saw the white rat or an animal with similar characteristics regardless if there was a bang.
Why did Albert become afraid of the similar looking animals?
Stimulus generalisation.
What are the strengths of the classical conditioning theory?
Supporting evidence.
Practical applications: aversion therapy.
Scientific theory: studies observable behaviour, increased objectivity and reduced bias.
What are the limitations of the classical conditioning theory?
Support is based on animal research.
Limited explanation of behaviour.
What is operant conditioning?
We learn through positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment.
What does reinforcement do?
Increases the likelihood of behaviour occurring again.
What study supports operant conditioning?
Skinners Box.
Give a description of skinners box.
Skinner used rats.
The rat was positively reinforced to press the lever to get food.
Rat would be negatively reinforced to press the lever to turn the electric floor off.
What are the strengths of Skinners box?
Replicable-Reliable
High internal validity.
What are the limitations of Skinners box?
Unethical-Animals cant give consent. Protection from harm.
Can be generalised to humans-Low external validity.
What is a real life application of Operant conditioning theory?
Token economies.
What is a token economy?
Where behaviours such as self-care of kindness is rewarded with tokens.
This can then be used to buy sweets, days out ect.
What are the strengths of operant conditoning?
Supporting evidence=Skinners box
Practical applications
Scientific-supported by observable data.
What are the limitations of operant conditioning?
Based on animal research
Doesn’t consider:
Social learning
Unconscious thinking
Cognition-think before we act.
What are assumptions of the humanistic approach?
Humans are unique
Humans strive toward self-actualisation
Humans have free will
To be psychologically healthy we have to be congruent.
What was Carl Rogers humanistic theory?
To be mentally well be have to be congruent
When your self-image and ideal self are different you are incongruent
Being incongruent can lead to anxiety and depression
Conditions of worth for feeling love.
What do you need to grow a positive self-image?
Unconditional positive regard.
What are conditions of worth?
Criteria that we feel we have to meet in order to be worthy of love and approval from others.
What is a study that supports conditions of worth?
Harter-Teenagers create a ‘false self’ so that their parents will love them. This makes them more likely to develop depression.
What is a study that supports congruence?
Paul-People who have a strong work ethic and value being employed were more likely to be depressed when unemployed. He concluded this was from incongruence.
What is a practical application of Rogers theory?
Client centred therapy.
What was Maslow’s humanistic theory?
We all want to reach self-actualisation but first we have to meet our other needs first for it to happen.
What is self-actualisation?
A state of personal fulfilment where we are the best person we can be.
In order what are the need we have to meet before self-actualisation?
1-Physiological
2-Saftey
3-Belongingness and love
4-Esteem
5-Self-actualisation
What supports Maslow’s theory?
Sheffield carried out a study on 185 students to measure self-actualisation and psychological health. Found a positive correlation.
What are practical applications of Maslow’s hierarchy?
Managers learned what can can be done to better motivate staff.
What are the strengths of the Humanistic approach?
Satisfies most peoples idea of what being human means
Qualitative date gives an insight to behaviour.
Shifted focus of behaviour to the individual rather unconscious mind, genes etc.
What are the limitations of the Humanistic approach?
Unscientific-subjective data
Ethnocentric (biased toward western culture)
Rejects determinism.
What are assumptions of the Cognitive approach?
The mind actively processes information
Humans can be seen as data processing systems.
Schemas are from birth
What are schemas?
Schemas are a mental framework that sorts and organises information.
Schemas change and adapts past schemas when receiving new information.
What study supports shcemas?
Bugelski and Alampay-Participants saw either a rat or human due when looking at an ambiguous line drawing due to their cognitive expectation.
What are limitations of schemas?
Lack sufficient empirical evidence
Oversimplify human cognition.
What do cognitive psychologists use to study mental processes?
Theoretical and computer models.
What is an example of an theoretical model?
The information processing model.
What is the information processing model?
Encoding of sensory information->Information manipulation-Output
What is the computer analogy?
There are similarities in the way information is processed.
The brain=CPU
Coding=Stores to hold information
What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?
Theoretical models are visual and easy to understand.
There are application to therapy - CBT
What are the limitations of the cognitive approach?
It is reductionist-doesn’t give a lot of detail
We can’t directly observe mental processes.
What is selective attention?
When we pay attention to some details and not others.
What is confirmation bias?
When we only remember/believe the information which confirms the schemas we already have.
What is perceptual errors?
Mistaking a stimulus and perceiving it wrong.
What is cognitive distortion?
Irrational or exaggerated thought pattern.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The study of the influence of brain structured on mental processes.
What is a study that supports cognitive neuroscience?
Tulving et al was able to show how different types of long term memory may be located in different areas of the brain due to Pet and fMRI scans.
What are the strengths of cognitive neuroscience?
Supporting evidence
Use eye tracking to study visual word processing Use scanning techniques to locate different types of memory.
What are the limitations of cognitive neuroscience?
Scanning techniques such as fMRI can only tell us the relationship not causation.
What are the assumptions of Social learning theory?
Human learning is explained through observational learning
Majority of the research is lab experiments with observational results
Vicarious reinforcement can motivate learners to observe role models.
What are the mediational processes?
Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation
What is vicarious reinforcement?
We are reinforced when we see others being reinforced.
What is a supporting study of social learning theory?
Bandura’s Bobo Dolls.
What did Bandura do?
Showed one condition of an adult aggressively attacking the bobo doll.
The condition of kids that saw the video replicated that anger whilst the other condition didn’t.
What are other examples of observational learning?
Teachers use modelling when demonstrating how to behave in class/how to answer questions.
What are the strengths of Banduras study?
Cause and effect can be established
High internal validity
Standardised procedure-replicable
What are the limitations of Banduras study?
Has low ecological validity
Cannot see if exposure had long-term effects
Cumberbatch-Found children were more likely to be aggressive if they had never played with the bobo doll before.
What are the strengths of Social learning theory?
A lot of supporting research
Explains how humans can learn complex behaviours quickly.
What are the limitations of Social learning theory?
Most of the research is done on children or animals
It involves cognitions - an unobservable behaviour
Doesn’t take into account genetics affecting learning
What are some differences of social learning theory and behaviourism?
SLT recognises that behaviours can become fixed
SLT recognises reinforcement is an indirect process
SLT research only involves measurement of observable behaviour.
What is the Biological approach?
Everything can be explained through biology.
What are the assumptions of the biological approach?
The brain and the mind are identical
Brain physiology and biochemical imbalances can affect behaviours.
What is a genotype?
Our genetic makeup.
What is a phenotype?
Behaviours we display. They can also be affected by the envirmonment.
What is Wernicke’s area?
Left hemisphere of the brain that processes language comprehension.
What is evolution?
The gradual change of inherited traits over generations.
What is the difference between adaptive behaviour and maladaptive?
Adaptive behaviour adjusts to the environment, maladaptive is the opposite.
What are the strengths of the biological approach?
There are practical applications-drug therapy to correct neurotransmitters.
Scientific research methods
What are the limitations of the biological approach?
Minimises the affect of environment
It is very deterministic.
When was introspection created?
1879
When was the psychodynamic approach created?
1900
When was the behaviourism approach created?
1920
When was the humanism approach created?
1950
When was the early cognitive approach created?
1950-1960
When was the early social learning theory created?
1980s
When was the biological approach created?
1980s
When was cognitive neuroscience created?
1990s
