Approaches Flashcards
Who is wundt and what did he do for psychology?
he established the first lab dedictaed to psychology
separated psych from philosophy
came up with introspection and structuralism
‘father of psych’
what is introspection?
the process of a person looking into their own mental experiences and reporting their own conscious experience
What is structuralism?
breaking down mental processes into simple components like the senses
What was wundt’s study for introspection?
highly trained assistants given a stimulus - ticking metronome
they would reflect on experience - thoughts, feelings, senses
this was standardised
What is the behaviourist approach?
a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning
who rejected introspection in the behaviourist approach?
watson
why did watson reject introspection?
it involved too many vague and immeasurable concepts
What do behaviourists assume about learning?
learning takes place due to stimulus-response reactions
occurs due to classical conditioning or operant conditioning
it occurs the same way in all species - generalise from animal studies
What do behaviourists assume about behaviour?
only behaviour that is obsvered and measured should be studied - mental processes are not important
behaviour should be studied in a scientific way
What does the behaviourist approach say we are born as?
a blank state - all behaviour is learned
Who researched classical conditioning?
pavlov
what was pavlov’s dog study?
conditioned dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was presented with food repeatedly
What are the 2 parts of the learning approach?
the behaviourist approach
socail learning theory
What was the unconditioned stimulus in pavlovs study?
the food
what was the unconditioned response in pavlovs study?
salivation
What was rhe neurtal stimulus and conditioned stimulus in pavlovs study?
the bell
who researched operant conditioning?
skinner
in the behaviourist approach is the learning an active or passive process?
passive
What was skinner’s box study?
placed a hungry rat in a box - skinner box
press a lever = food
or press a lever = stops electric shocks
rats learned to press the lever for these consequences and would repeat the action
What is the scientific credibility of the behaviourist approach?
it was able to bring the methods of natural sciences into psychology
focuses on the measurement of obsvervale behaviour in a highly controlled lab setting
What is the real-life application of the behaviourist approach?
the token economy in institutions = rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privilages
it is a way of maintaing phobias, addictions and OCD = developed therapies and research
What does environmental determinism mean in the behaviourist approach?
behaviour is determined by the environment
we do not have free will and no conscious insight of our behaviours
How is the behaviourist approach oversimplified?
it reduces the behaviour to simple components so it may have ignored on important influence on learning
it ignored thoughts and mind-processing
learning is more complex
What does mechanistic view mean?
behaviour is a passive process and ignores free will
What are the strengths of Wundt’s research?
used controlled methods - replicable
psychology wouldn’t be where it is = recognised it as a science
helped develop lab experiments
What are the issues with Wundt’s reseach?
introspection = subjective
qualatative data = self-report methods, bias, cannot verify results, can be distorded
structionalist = behaviour cannot be obsvered
findings are not replicable so not reliable
there is a delay with the concisous experience and the reporting = forgetting, interference
Who proposed the social learning theory?
Bandura
What does the social learning theory assume about learning?
it takes place in a social context
occurs via observation of a model and the rewatds/punishment they recieve
other people act as models - characteristics increase the likelihood of imitation
learning and performance are not the same - mediational factors produce behaviour
What is imitation?
copying the behaviour of others
What is identification?
when an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the model
What is modelling?
the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer
What is vicarious reinforcement?
reinforcemtn is not directly experinced but is obsvered being given to someone else
What characteristics of a model increase the likelihood of imitation and identification?
same sex
fame
status
What are mediational factors?
mental factors that mediate in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired
What are the 4 mediating factors?
Attention
Retention
reproduction (imitation)
motivation
What two mediating factors are part of learning?
attention and retention
What two mediating factors are part of performance?
reproduction and motivation
What is attention mediating factor?
someone can only reproduce behaviour accurately if they notice the model’s behaviour
What is retention mediating factor?
to imitate (model) the behaviour it be remembered and transferred into the LTM, this enables the behaviour to be retrieved
What is reproduction in the mediating factors?
the observer must process the physical capabilities required to reproduce the modelled behaviour
refered to as ‘motor reproduction’
What is motivation mediating factor?
the motivation to carry out the imitation is determined by whether the behaviour is rewarded or punished
What study supports the social learning theory?
Bandura’s bobo doll
What was bandura’s bobo doll study?
72 nursery school children, 3 conditions:
1. saw an adult hitting, punching and kicking a bobo doll
2. saw an adult playing non-aggressively with a bobo doll
3. control saw nothing
those in 1 was aggressive
imitation was more likely if adult was the same sex
What was bandura’s second study for vicarious reinforcement?
saw adult behaving aggressively towards bobo doll
1. saw adult model being rewarded
2. saw adult model being punished
3. control - no consequence
group 1 children showed a lot more aggression
What is patterson et al study on role models?
role models are important in the development of anti-social behaviour
parents are most important role models
through questionaires and surveys
found that very aggressive children were raised in homes of high aggression, little affection and little postitive feedback
What is the scientific crediblity of the social learning approach?
it used experimental and standardiesed methods in lab settings
What are the practical applications of the social learning theory?
patterson
parents are trained to model appropriate behaviour to their children and reward good behaviour = aggression drops
has wider academic credibility for the important role parents play in modelling
How does the social learning theory account for cultural differences in behaviour?
behaviours are learnt due to our social context
in some cultures, aggression is not valued and rarely displayed
different behaviours emerged over time from culture to culture
How is the social learning theory less deterministic than the behaviourist approach?
we are not merely influenced by our envrionment, we also exert an influence upon it
What are the issues with the social learning theory?
ignored bio factors
mediating cognitive factors are hard to measure
over-relaince on lab studies
ethical issues
supporting evidence is artifical
What was found on a biological factor influencing aggression?
boys were more aggressive due to higher levels of testosterone
How is the social learning theory different from behaviourism?
learner has an active role in learning
theres a difference between acquisition and performance
behaviours can become fixed
reinforcement is an indirect process
SLT only involves the measurement of natural behaviour - uses humans
What does bandura call fixed behaviours?
internalised
How does a behaviour become fixed?
if they have been imitated and reinforced enough
What are all the assumptions of the cognitive approach?
the mind actively processes information that comes in through different senses
cognitive processes mediate between stimulus and response
can understand why people behave the way they do
processing is similar to a computer
mental processes can be studied objectively and scientifically
What are internal mental processes?
private operations of the mind like attention and memory that mediate between stimulus and response
What is inference?
the process where cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour
how can cognitive psychologists study cognitive processes?
experiments
cognitive neuropsychology
cognitive neuroscience
computer cognitive science
What is computer cognitive science?
developing computer models to model human processing
What is a schema?
packages of ideas and information developed through experience
What schema are babies born with?
simple motor schema - for innate behaviours like sucking or grasping
What is the function of a shcema?
enables us to process info quicky and facilitate a short-cut to processing
What do schema’s prevent?
from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
What is an issue with schemas?
they can distort our interpretation of snesory info and cause preceptual errors
What is the information processing approach?
information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage and retrevial
What application do models have in psych?
useful in the development of ‘thinking machines’ or artificial intelligence
What is cognitive neuroscience?
the scientific study of brain structures that influence cognitive processes
What did Broca find on the frontal lobe?
damage to an area of the frontal lobe could permenently impair speech production - known as broca’s area
What did Tulving find on different brain areas and memory?
different types of LTM were likely located on opposite sides of the pre-frontal lobe
What are some applications of cognitive neuroscience?
court-cases
origins of mental disorders
brain imaging techs - fMRI and PET scans
how has cognitive neuroscience been useful in courts?
when people feel guilty, several brain regions are active and they can scan brains to see if people are lying
What is the advantage of models in psych?
can use scientific procedures and test theories
helps us understand mental processes
development of AI and robots
What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?
can understand mental processes that are not directly observable
brain imaging development
models
cognitive neuroscience discoveries
soft determinism
What is soft determinism?
a flexible approach - we have free will but not complete free will, there is still another factor in control
What does the cognitive approach ignore?
biology and the influence of genes
induvidual and personality differences
the influence of human characteristics - emotion and motivation