approaches

Question 1

Put in order the original psychologists when it first became a subject. Explain what they discovered.

Answer 1

1. Descarte (early 1600s)
   - saw the body and mind as separate parts that could be studied individually
2. Locke (late 1600s)
   
   • experience contributes to our behaviour
   • we are all born as blank slates (tabula rasa)
3. Darwin (1800s)
   - evolution - behaviour evolves through generations to ensure survival
   - many behaviours are innate
   -most influential in biological psychology
4. Wundt (late 1800s)
   - founding father of psychology
   - first to carry out a lab experiment to study the mind
   - Introspection - used conscious thoughts to find explanations for behaviour

5.Freud (1900s)
-focuses on unconscious mind + the influence on behaviour (e.g. id, ego, superego)
- tries to explain external behaviours by analysing internal processes ( e.g. psychosexual stages)

6. Skinner (early 1900s)
   - founding father of behaviourism
   - behaviour can be explained through stimulus/response + rewards/punishment
7. Rogers + Maslow (1950s)
   - self actualisation - try to be the best we can be
   - criticise Freud - too unscientific
   - criticise Skinner - reductionism

Question 2

Explain what the decades 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 21st century were focusing on in Psychology

Answer 2

1960s
- Cognitive revolution
- Brain-computer analogy
= mind is like a computer where experiences are the input and behaviour is the output (mechanistic reductionism - reduces humans down to be like machines)

1970s
- Social revolution
- number of research studies increased to understand human behaviour e.g. obedience, conformity - Milgram/Zimbardo/Asch
-influential to understand today but due to ethical guidelines cannot be repeated

1980s
- Biological growth
- growth in science + technology
- psychologists could start to link external behaviours to internal processes e.g. depression linked to low neurotransmitters

21st century
- neuroscience draws on the idea of cognitive psychology from the 60s and biological theories of the 80s to develop further understandings of brain function + links to behaviours
e.g. growth of brain scanning techniques e.g MRI/PET scans

Question 3

Evaluate the origins of psychology/scientific approach to psychology

Answer 3

Wundt’s methods were unreliable - relied on non-observable responses/introspection experimental results non reproducible by other researchers
- low ecological validity (cannot be generalised to explain behaviour)

Introspection is not accurate
- behaviours are complex and are developed through unconscious processes that are not observable, therefore self-reports through introspection would not cover them

Strengths of scientific approach
- reliant on objective + systematic methods
- scientific theories are abandoned if they no longer fit the facts

Limitations of scientific approach
- concentration of observable behaviours is not entirely accurate as lots of psychology is unobservable, so is not entirely effective

Question 4

Outline the Behaviouristic approach and what the assumptions are

Answer 4

-surroundings and environment make up of behaviour
-born as blank slates (tabula rasa)
-relies on reinforcement/punishment = reward
-only studies observable behaviour, not concerned with mental processes of the mind
-developed the scientific discipline - relied on lab experiments to maintain control and objectivity and establish cause and effect
- learning in animals/humans = very similar, so animals can be researched to explain humans (anthropromorphism)

Question 5

Explain the principles of Classical Conditioning (behaviourist approach)

Answer 5

-learning is done through association
-association is done by associating a new thing with something else which naturally causes a response, the new thing will eventually cause the response by itself

Pavlov discovered he could condition dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell before he gave them food

Before conditioning:
- Food (UCS) leads to a response of salivation (UCR)
-The bell causes no response (NS)

During conditioning:
- bell + food together (UCS) causes salivation response

After conditioning:
- bell (CS) = salivation response (CR)
The dog has learned to associate the bell with the food

UCS = unconditioned stimulus
UCR = unconditioned response
NS = neutral stimulus
CS = conditioned stimulus
CR = conditioned response

Question 6

Outline the principles of operant conditioning (behaviourist approach)

Answer 6

Learning occurs through rewards/punishment
- if you receive a reward you are more likely to repeat the behaviour
- if you receive a punishment you are less likely to repeat the behaviour

Skinner investigated operant conditioning using rats in Skinner boxes
- rat discovers pressing a lever releases food (positive reinforcement - the food is the reward, behaviour is repeated)

The rat was standing on a plate which could deliver electric shocks - the rat learns to avoid the plate (negative reinforcement - behaviour occurs in order to avoid something unpleasant)

Punishment = makes behaviour less likely to occur due to receiving negative consequences as a result of behaviour.