Approaches Flashcards
why is wundt described as the father of psychology
- he wrote the first textbook of psychology
- he set up the first laboratory of experimental psychology
- he pioneered the use of the scientific method in psychology to study perception and sensation
- also pioneered the use of introspection as a method to study mental states
describe introspection
- a method used to understand internal mental processes, sensations and feelings
- trained observers were presented with a controlled stimuli such as a ticking metronome
- participants were then asked to describe how the stimuli made them think and feel
- the same stimulus and physical surroundings were given to each person, and researchers took as long as 20 minutes to report on their inner experiences.
what are the strengths of wundts contribution to psychology?
- introspection is still used today to gain access to cognitive processes. for example, one researcher used introspection to study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers. therefore process has practical applications to todays society
- wundt applied the scientific method to studying the mind, and now psychology is considered a scientific discipline. without wundt setting up a scientific lab and using the scientific method, psychology may never have gained the status it has today.
what is a weakness of wundts contribution to psychology
- although wundt was attempting to be scientific, behaviourists have criticised his approach, as internal experiences are not observable and are therefore difficult to measure - making the reports of the participants subjective. this is a weakness as it undermines the objectivity of wundts work
what do behaviourists believe?
that all humans are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and that all our behaviours are learnt from the environment, and through learning (by classical and operant conditioning)
what is classical conditioning ?
learning by association
occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together (an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus). the neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that the unconditioned stimulus produced alone.
give 2 methods used by the behaviourist approach
the scientific method (labs)
animal studies
who was ivan pavlov? what did he develop?
a russian physiologist that was studying the digestive systems of dogs by collecting their saliva
he developed classical conditioning
what did pavlov notice during his studies?
that the dogs began to salivate before the food was brought to them
describe the process of classical conditioning in pavlovs dogs
- before conditioning, the food is the unconditioned stimulus, the bell is the neutral stimulus, and the salivation is the unconditioned response
the bell ringing on its own produces no response. - during conditioning, the bell (neutral stimulus) is rung each time the dogs are presented with the food (unconditioned stimulus) to create an association between the bell and the food. this stage was repeated each time the dog was fed.
- after conditioning, the bell is now the conditioned stimulus, which produces the conditioned response of salivation on its own.
what three variables did pavlov find influenced classical conditioning?
timing - the association only occurs if the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus are presented at the same time as eachother. if the time between presentations is too great then no association is made
stimulus generalisation - once an animal has been conditioned, they would also respond to other stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus
extinction - if the bell was repeatedly sounded without the food, salivation slowly disappears and the association is extinguished.
who conducted the little albert study?
watson and rayner
what was the aim of the little albert study?
to demonstrate that phobias can be learnt through classical conditioning
describe the procedure of the little albert study
- 9 month old boy called little albert was presented with a white rat, and his reaction was noted
- then, every time he was presented with the white rat, a loud noise was made by striking a steel bar with a hammer. this process was repeated
- eventually, little albert was presented with the white rat without the loud noise, and he was afraid of the rat (when he was not afraid of the rat before conditioning)
- watson and rayner also found that little albert had generalised his fear to all small white objects
who was the researcher that investigated operant conditioning? what did he develop?
skinner
skinner box
describe the procedure of skinners research
- a hungry rat was placed inside the skinner box
- the box contained a lever, and when the rat ran around it would accidentally knock the lever
- when this happened, a food pellet would drop into a container
- after a few trials, the rats learned to press the lever to gain the food reward.
what three types of reinforcement did skinner identify
positive reinforcement
negative reinforcement
punishment
what is positive reinforcement?
the act of rewarding a behaviour to encourage it to happen again (eg. getting a pellet of food to encourage the rats to keep pressing the lever)
what is punishment?
the opposite of reinforcement, as it eliminates a certain behaviour, rather than increasing it. eg. in a variation of skinner box, when the lever was pressed, the mice would receive an electric shock, so the mice stopped pressing the lever
what is negative reinforcement?
when a behaviour is repeated in order to avoid a negative outcome. (eg. feeding a baby to avoid it crying)
how do we evaluate the approaches?
DREAMS
deterministic
reductionist
evidence
application
method
scientific?
what is determinism?
the concept that all behaviour is determined by factors out of our control (the opposite of free will)
how is the behaviourist approach deterministic?
believes that all behaviour is determined by our past experiences and is as a result of conditioning.
- this is a weakness as it suggests that people are not responsible for their own behaviour
what is reductionism?
when complex behaviour is reduced down to a singular cause or explanation.
how is the behaviourist approach reductionist?
behaviourist approach reduces the complexity of human behaviour down to the single explanation of conditioning
- this is a weakness because it ignores the other contributions to human behaviour, such as our cognitive processes.
what are the other weaknesses of the behaviourist approach?
- most experiments carried out on animals, so it is questionable whether the findings can be applied to humans.
- ethical issues: animals kept hungry in skinner box, and electrocuted in the other variation - causing physical harm, and going against the ethical guidelines
what is it called when researchers give animals human characteristics?
anthropomorphism
what is the social learning theory?
concept that theorises we learn indirectly through observing others and imitating their behaviours that are rewarded
who created the social learning theory?
albert bandura
what is imitation?
the action of using someone or something as a model and copying that behaviour
what is identification?
the extent to which an individual relates to a model and wants to be like them
what is modelling?
imitating the behaviour of a role model
when is identification most likely to occur?
if the individual feels they are similar to the model, eg. if they are the same gender, or if the individual is friendly, older than them, likeable, and of a higher status
what is an easy way to remember when identification is most likely to occur?
FLAGS
Friendly
Likeable
Age (older)
Gender (same)
Status (higher)
