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AQA Psychology A-level > Approaches > Flashcards

Approaches Flashcards

1
Q

Structuralism

A

Breaks down human thoughts and experiences into basic components.

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2
Q

Wundt 1879

A

Opened first psych lab in Germany. He separated psychology from philosophy and focused on studying the mind in a more structured and scientific way.

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3
Q

Introspection

A

Analysing own thoughts and feelings internally. Wundt used introspection to study sensation and perception. Ppts were asked to describe their experiences when presented with stimuli.

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4
Q

Problems with introspection

A
  • it doesn’t explain how the mind works. It relies on people describing their thoughts and feelings, which isn’t objective.
  • it doesn’t provide data that can be used reliably. Because people are reporting their experiences, their accounts can’t be confirmed.
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5
Q

Reductionism

A

The idea that things can be reduced to simple cause and effect processes. Wundt came from a biological background, and so believed that the underlying structure of human experience could be broken into smaller measurable parts. He used introspection to measure these parts.

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6
Q

The 5 features of science

A

ROCETF
Replication
Objectivity
Control
Empirical method
Theories
Falsifiability.

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7
Q

Arguments for psychology as a science

A
  • Allport (1947) said psychology has the same aims a science - to predict, understand and control.
  • behaviourist, cognitive and biological approaches to psychology all use scientific procedures to investigate theories. They are usually controlled and unbiased.
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8
Q

Arguments against psychology as a science

A
  • There are other approaches in psychology that don’t use objective methods to study behaviour. They use unreliable methods - e.g. interview techniques which can be biased and interpreted by different researchers.
  • it’s hard to get representative sample of the population for a study, so findings can’t reliably be generalised.
  • psychological experiments are also open to extraneous variables, such as demand characteristics, which can be hard to control.
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9
Q

3 main assumptions of behaviourism

A

1) Nearly all behaviour is learnt - only exceptions are inborn reflexes and instincts
2) animals and humans learn in the same way - humans can do more complex things but the principles by which we learn are the same - stimulus-response associations.
3) the ‘mind’ is irrelevant. We can’t directly observe and measure a persons thinking, we can only obtain measurable data by studying behaviour.

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10
Q

Classical conditioning

A

the process in which an automatic, conditioned response is paired with specific stimuli.

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11
Q

Ivan Pavlov studied classical conditioning with dogs

A

When Pavlov gave his dogs some food he would also ring a bell. After repeating this procedure several times, Pavlov then tried ringing the bell without food. The bell alone caused salivation. When dogs see food they salivate - UCR. The bell becomes CS and salivation becomes a CR.

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12
Q

Operant conditioning

A

Learning from consequences of behaviour, through negative/positive reinforcement and punishment.

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13
Q

Skinner (1938) - ‘skinner box’

A

Rats were out in the box, and learnt to press the lever to release food over time = positive reinforcement
He also showed that a rat could learn to prevent an electric shock by pressing the lever when a light came on = negative reinforcement.

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14
Q

Evaluation of conditioning

A
  • most research into conditioning involves animals. This makes generalising to humans difficult. Also unethical as animals weren’t well looked after.
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15
Q

Watson & Rayner (1920) - Little Albert

A

11 month boy called ‘Little Albert’ initially showed no feral to white fluffy objects (rats). A white rat was put in front of Little Albert and was paired with a loud unexpected noise. This was repeated. When Albert was shown a rat he would cry, and was also extended to other white fluffy objects.
- unethical, can’t be repeated.
- not everyone goes on to develop fear after negative situation, so learning theory can’t be full story.
- lab study, lacks ecological validity, artificial.

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16
Q

Social learning theory

A

Developed by Bandura 1960s. It agrees with the idea that people can learn by conditioning but also claims that they learnt a lot from role models. Mediational processes are also involved between stimulus and response.

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17
Q

Mediational processes

A

ARRM - Attention, retention, reproduction and motivation

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18
Q

Modelling

A

Observing and imitating another person (model). Requires identification with model.

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19
Q

Reinforcement

A

Positive and negative reinforcement makes behaviour more likely to happen again.

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20
Q

Vicarious reinforcement

A

Seeing others be rewarded for a behaviour influences someone in whether they choose to imitate the behaviour.

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21
Q

SLT is reductionist

A

Explains things through basic cause-and-effect mechanisms. E.g. it explains all behaviour as a result of learning from others, ignoring biological explanations.

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22
Q

Bandura (1961) - imitation of aggressive models

A

Matched ppts design where children were matched on ratings of aggressive behaviour. 3 conditions - children observed aggressive adult models playing with bobo doll, non-aggressive models, ignoring bobo doll, control condition with no models.
Children exposed to aggressive models imitated aggressive behaviour. Children in non aggressive and control showed barely any aggressive behaviour.
Aggressive behaviour is learnt through imitation of other behaving aggressively.

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23
Q

Evaluation of Bandura bobo doll study

A

+ strict control of variables - reliable results and study can be replicated.
- low ecological validity - ppts in artificial situation. Difficult to generalise - small, unvaried sample.
- ethics - they encouraged aggression in children.

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24
Q

Cognitive approach

A

Looks at internal workings of the mind and explain behaviour through cognitive processes. Cognitive psychologists try to explain behaviour by looking at our perception, language, attention and memory.

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25
Q

The cognitive approach is reductionist because…

A

the mind can be compared to a computer. p.g.141 CGP

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26
Q

Computers and computer models are often used to explain how we think and behave.

A

Humans are treated as information processors (computers) and behaviour is explained in terms of information processing (how computers deal with information). Computer and theoretical models are. used to explain and make inferences about the mental processes that lead to particular behaviours, since they can’t be observed directly.

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27
Q

Inference

A

The process of drawing conclusions about general patterns of behaviour from specific observations.

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28
Q

Theoretical models

A

A pictorial representation of a particular mental process such as the MSM.

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29
Q

The principles of the Cognitive Approach

A
  • our mental systems have a limited capacity - amount of information that can be processed is influenced by how demanding the task it.
  • there is a 2 way flow of information - we take in information from the world, process it, and react to it.
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30
Q

Cognitive psychologists use 3 main research methods

A
  1. laboratory experiments - scientific and reliable, low eco validity.
  2. field experiments - take place in a natural situation, so have more eco validity but less control of variables.
  3. natural experiments - observations of naturally occurring situations. High eco validity but not massively reliable as confounding variables can affect results.
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31
Q

There are differences between humans and computers that make computer models less useful

A
  • Humans are often influenced by emotional and motivational factors
  • Humans have an unlimited but unreliable memory, whereas computers have a limited but reliable memory
  • Humans have free will which computers don’t.
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32
Q

Schema

A

Cognitive frameworks that help us to organise and interpret information. They are developed through experience and can affect our cognitive processing.

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33
Q

Role schema

A

Ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation.

34
Q

Event schema

A

Contain information about what happens in a situation.

35
Q

Self schemas

A

Information about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values. Self schema can affect how you act.

36
Q

Problems with schemas

A

They can stop people from learning new information
- prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas. A schema which holds expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people may bias the way we process incoming information.

37
Q

Cognitive neuroscience emergence

A

This related field became prevalent over the latter half of the twentieth century, incorporating neuroscience techniques such as brain scanning to study the impact of brain structures on cognitive processes.

38
Q

Strengths of the cognitive approach

A
  • Models have presented a useful means to help explain internal mental processes
  • the approach provides a strong focus on internal mental processes, which behaviourists before did not.
  • the experimental methods used by the approach are scientific = more reliable
39
Q

Weaknesses of the cognitive approach

A
  • Cognitive models over-simplify explanations for complex mental processes.
  • the data supporting cognitive theories often come from unrealistic tasks used in lab experiments, which puts the ecological validity of theories into questions.
  • comparing a human mind to a machine or computer is an unsophisticated analogy and reductionist. Machine reductionism.
40
Q

Biological approach

A

believes behaviour is a consequence of our genetics and physiology.

41
Q

3 assumptions of the biological approach

A
  1. human behaviour can be explained by looking at biological stuff such as hormones, genetics, evolution and the nervous system
  2. in theory, if we can explain all behaviour using biological causes, unwanted behaviour could be modified or removed using biological treatments such as medication for mental illness.
    - experimental research conducted using animals can inform us about human behaviour and biological influences, because we share a lot of biological similarities.
42
Q

Darwin’s theory of evolution

A

Individuals who are vbetter adapted to their environment through having better genes are more likely to survive and reproduce to pass on their useful genes. Less well adapted will be less likely to survive and reproduce and pass of their genes = Natural selection -> early humans became better adapted to their environments.
- Behaviours such as phobias and aggression may have evolved because of the survival advantage they gave.

43
Q

Genotype

A

genetic makeup

44
Q

Phenotype

A

Observable characteristics their genes produce e.g. hair/eye colour.

45
Q

Twin studies

A

Used to determine the likelihood that certain traits have a genetic basis by comparing concordance rates between pairs of twins.

46
Q

Gottesman (1991) - meta-analysis of twin studies.

A

It was found that having an identical twin with schizophrenia gave you a 48% chance of developing the condition. This reduced to 17% in non-identical twins.
- Schizophrenia has a strong genetic basis.

47
Q

Evaluation of Gottesman

A

+ The meta-analysis was carried out on field studies, giving the research high ecological validity
- Because the identical twins share 100% of their genes, it might be expected that both twins would always suffer from the same conditions. The facts that both twins had developed schizophrenia in only about half of the cases means that another factor must also be involved -> identical twins tend to be treated similarly than non-identical twins, and so family environment might play large role.

48
Q

Brain scans can help examine patterns of brain activity and anatomy. There are 5 basic techniques used:

A
  1. PET scans - shows active part of brain during different tasks.
  2. CAT scans - detect damaged parts of the brain, tumours and blood clots.
  3. MRI - detect small tumours and provide detailed info about structure
  4. fMRI - provide structural and functional info
  5. SQUID magnetometry - accurate images of brain activity by measuring magnetic fields generated when neurone are activated.
49
Q

Evidence from MRI scans to show changes in brain structure - Maguire et al. (2000) - a study of taxi drivers’ brains

A

Natural experiment, MRI scans from 16 licensed male London taxi drivers were compared with a control group. All taxi drivers had been working for at least 18 months, and were in good general health.
- the average size of the right posterior hippocampus was significantly larger in the taxi drivers. The increased size was relative to the length of time they had been working.
- the hippocampus is responsible for storing a spatial representation of the environment - the specific navigational demands on the taxi drivers resulted in physical change.

50
Q

Evaluation of Maguire et al. (2000)

A

+ the findings can be used to help those with brain injuries as it shows that the size of structures within the brain can be influenced through cognitive activity. This means rehabilitation could be tailored to the specific needs of individuals and their injuries.
+ good level of control and can be replicated, increasing reliability.
- small sample size - can only be generalised to male taxi drivers in London.

51
Q

Neurochemistry

A

chemical processes occurring in the nervous system. e.g. actions of neurotransmitters within the brain

52
Q

Strengths of the biological approach

A
  • can provide evidence to support or disprove theory - it’s a very scientific approach
  • if a biological cause can be found for mental health problems or for unwanted behaviour such as aggression, then biological treatments can be developed to help individuals.
53
Q

Weaknesses of the biological approach

A
  • doesn’t take into account the influence of people’s environment, their family, childhood experiences or their social situation.
  • using biological explanation for negative behaviour can lead to individuals or groups avoiding taking personal or social responsibility for their behaviour.
54
Q

Psychodynamic approach

A

focuses on the unconscious mind and its influence on behaviour.

55
Q

Assumptions of the psychodynamic approach

A
  1. unconscious activity is the key determinate of how we behave
  2. we possess innate ‘drives’ that ‘energise’ our minds to motivate behaviour as we develop through our lives.
  3. our personality - the psych - is comprised on the ID, ego and superego
  4. childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when we reach adulthood.
56
Q

ID

A

driving us to satisfy selfish urges (pleasure principle)

57
Q

Ego

A

acts rationally, balancing the ID and the superego (reality principle)

58
Q

Superego

A

concerned with keeping to moral norms (morality principle), and attempts to control a powerful ID with feelings of guilt.

59
Q

Psychosexual stages

A
  1. Oral - sucking behaviour (0-18mths)
  2. Anal - holding or discarding faeces (18mths - 3.5yrs)
  3. Phallic - fiction of genitals (3.5 - 6yrs)
  4. Latency - repressed sexual urges (6yrs - puberty)
  5. Gential - awakened sexual urges (puberty onwards)
60
Q

Freud said there are 3 levels of consciousness

A
  1. conscious - what we’re aware of at any given time
  2. preconscious - made up of memories that we can recall when we want to
  3. unconscious - made up of memories, desires and fears which cause sun extreme anxiety and have therefore been ‘repressed’ or forced out of conscious awareness. Unconscious still influences behaviour - ‘Freudian slips’ and influences the context of our dreams.
61
Q

Ego defence mechanisms - ego balances potential conflict between ID and superego and tries to reduce anxiety

A
  • repression - burying an unpleasant thought or desire in the unconscious
  • displacement - emotions are directed away from their source or target, towards other things
  • denial - a threatening thought is ignored or treated as if it were not true.
62
Q

Freud’s psychoanalytical theory was based on case studies, which gather large amounts of detailed info about individuals.

A

He used psychoanalysis (talking cures), the aim of which to bring unconscious mental activity to the unconscious to release anxiety. Techniques to do this include:
- Free association - expressing immediate unconscious thoughts as they happen
- dream interpretation - analysing the latent content of manifest content.

63
Q

Freud (1909) - The case study of Little Hans

A

Freud carried out a case study of a child called Hans who had a phobia of horses. Hans was observed by his father, who made a note of Han’s dreams and things he said and passes them onto Freud for analysis.
- Hans was afraid of horses because he thought they might bite him or fall on him. During the study he developed an interest in his ‘widdler’. His mum told him not to play with it or shed cut it off. Hans told his dad about a dream where he married his mum and his dad was not his grandfather.
- Freuds interpretation was that Hans had reached the phallic stage of development and showed evidence of the ‘Oedipus complex’ - he wanted to have an exclusive relationship with his mother and was jealous of his father. The horse symbolised Han’s father because to him they both had big penises. His fear of horses is an example of displacement, protecting him from his real fear of his father. Hans suffered from castration anxiety.

64
Q

Evaluation of Little Hans

A
  • case study so provided lots of detailed date, but doesn’t mean results can be generalised. The findings provided evidence to support Freud’s theories. However, the results were based entirely on observation and interpretation. This means a cause and effect relationship can’t be established.
  • there could be other explanations - his anxiety may have come from his mother threatening to cut his penis off. Also, before the study Hans had been frightened by a horse falling down in the street, which would explain his fear of them.
  • freud analysed information from his father so the results could be biased.
65
Q

Strengths of the psychodynamic approach

A
  • Freud highlighted a widely accepted link between childhood experience and adult characteristics.
  • case study methodology embraces our complex behaviour by gathering rich information, and on an individual basis - an idiographic approach - when conducting research
  • Some evidence supports the existence of ego defence mechanisms such as repression e.g. adults can forget traumatic child sexual abuse.
  • modern day psychiatry still utilises Freudian psychoanalytic techniques.
66
Q

Weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach

A
  • Freuds approach overemphasises childhood experience as the source of abnormality.
  • by using case studies to support theories, the approach doesn’t use controlled experiments to collect empirical evidence, so is considered far less scientific than other approaches.
  • case study evident is difficult to generalise to wider populations
  • many of Freuds ideas are considered non-falsifiable - theories may appear to reflect evidence, but you can’t observe relevant contracts directly to test them scientifically, such that they could be proved wrong.
67
Q

Humanistic approach

A

emphasises the study of the whole person and sees people as being active in their own development. Person-centred approach (idiographic), views individual as unique and regards personal growth and fulfilment in life as a basic human motive.

68
Q

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

A

Shows how human needs are categorised and prioritised.
- physiological needs related to survival
- need for dafety
- need for love and belonging
need for esteem
- self-actualisation

69
Q

Self-actualised people have certain characteristics

A
  1. strong sense of self-awareness
  2. full accepting view of themselves and others for who they are
  3. ability to deal with uncertainty and unknown
  4. a strong sense of creativity
70
Q

Limited evidence for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

A

Maslow supported his hierarchy with biographical evidence of famous ‘self-actualisers’. However, the hierarchy doesn’t explain why some people with the characteristics of self-actualised person deprive themselves of basic needs such as ofd and shelter.

71
Q

Aranoff (1967) - job demands and the hierarchy of needs

A

Aranoff compared people in 2 jobs in British West Indies - fisherman and cane cutters. Cane cutters got paid according to how much cane was cut by whole group, even when they were off sick. So they had high job security, although wages were low. Fisherman worked alone, doing more challenging work. So they were less secure in their job, although they earned more overall. Both groups of people were assessed to see which level they were on.
- more cane cutters were at lower levels of hierarchy, still trying to achieve safety and security than fisherman.
- only those men who had satisfied lower levels of hierarchy would chose to become fisherman, allowing them to develop high self esteem. Suggests people can’t reach higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy until they have satisfied lower levels.

72
Q

Evaluation of Aronoff (1967)

A

Study supports Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, and it has ecological validity as it studied people in their natural environment. However, it only studied people from one culture, so the results can’t be generalised to wider population

73
Q

Rogers believed that all people tried to achieve self-actualisation. He also claimed that all people are…

A

inherently good and motivated to achieve fullest potential

74
Q

Rogers didn’t believe the route to self-actualisation was as strict as Maslow described.

A

Rogers thought that people move towards self-actualisation deadening on their own thoughts about themselves and the way that they’re treated by others.

75
Q

Rogers outlined the differences between how someone sees themselves (self concept) and how they would like to be (ideal self). Mismatch between these is called…

A

Incongruence.

76
Q

unconditional positive regard

A

where the person gets affection and support no matter what their behaviour is like. we need unconditional positive regard to have a positive self concept.

77
Q

conditions of worth

A

approval and affection is given as a results of behaving in a certain way. Although this treatment can help someone learn to fit in with rules of social life, ROgers believed that it could stop them from reaching self actualisation.

78
Q

Rogers developed his ideas into therapy

A

He believed many peoples psychological problems were caused by incongruence. His therapy aimed to remove incongruence by making it possible for a person to become their ideal self.
- Client-centred therapy
- client is in charge of what is talked about and its their responsibility to eventually solve own problems.
- Therapists job is to make client aware of thoughts, actions and behaviours, by rephrasing clients sentences and repeating them back

79
Q

Gibbard and Hanley (2008) studied impact of person-centred therapy on a group of patients suffering from common mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression.

A

They studied almost 700 people over 5 years. A questionnaire was used to measure extent of their conditions before and after rtherapy. It was found 70% of ppts showed a significant improvement in their mental health after taking part in person-centred therapy.

80
Q

Strengths of humanistic approach

A
  • positive approach, people striving to be better
  • free will - less restrictive than more deterministic approaches. Humanistic psychologists believe deterministic approach is no good for undersigning complex nature of human behaviour.
  • treats people as indivudlas and takes whole person into account rather than reducing individual behaviours to cause and effect responses.
  • qualitative data - rich in detail. Recorded therapy sessions so analysed - observe success as result of therapy.
  • counselling techniques have come from approach have shown to be effective.
81
Q

Weaknesses of humanist approach

A
  • less emphasis on factors such as role of genes etc than biological approach
  • lacks objectiviy- largely based on feelings and subjective reports so hard to test in scientific way. Features things that are hard to measure such as self-actualisation.
  • Idiographic - doesn’t create generalised laws which can be applied to anyone - less scientific approach

AQA Psychology A-level (6 decks)

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