approaches Flashcards
Put in order the original psychologists when it first became a subject. Explain what they discovered.
- Descarte (early 1600s)
- saw the body and mind as separate parts that could be studied individually - Locke (late 1600s)
- experience contributes to our behaviour
- we are all born as blank slates (tabula rasa)
- Darwin (1800s)
- evolution - behaviour evolves through generations to ensure survival
- many behaviours are innate
-most influential in biological psychology - 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)
- Skinner (early 1900s)
- founding father of behaviourism
- behaviour can be explained through stimulus/response + rewards/punishment - Rogers + Maslow (1950s)
- self actualisation - try to be the best we can be
- criticise Freud - too unscientific
- criticise Skinner - reductionism
Explain what the decades 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 21st century were focusing on in Psychology
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
Evaluate the origins of psychology/scientific approach to psychology
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
Outline the Behaviouristic approach and what the assumptions are
-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)
Explain the principles of Classical Conditioning (behaviourist approach)
-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
Outline the principles of operant conditioning (behaviourist approach)
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.
Evaluate the behaviourist approach
behaviourism brought methods of science into psychology by focusing on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings
- behaviourism was influential in the development of scientific discipline in psychology, giving it better credibility and status
Principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and problems - e.g. phobia treatment e.g. Systematic Desensitisation . Shows the approach has led to efficient treatments and therefore has high value. High ecological validity - as the approach can be generalised to explain real life behaviours
Humans and animals seen as passive and machine-like responders to the environment (ignores emotions). The approach is very simplistic and implies we have no control over our behaviour and that our thought processes are not important.
- other approaches e.g. social learning theory has emphasised the importance of mental events in behaviour.
Outline the key concepts of the learning theory
-A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement
-Most behaviour learnt from experience
-People learn through observation and imitation of others
Key Concepts:
Imitation - an indv observes a behaviour from a role model and copies it
Identification - people more likely to imitate others’ behaviours if they identify with them (role models).A person becomes a role model if they are seen to possess similar characteristics to the observer and have high status
Modelling - if the individual imitates a person’s behaviour it is called modelling the behaviour
Vicarious Reinforcement - describes the reinforcement the observer sees the model receiving (indirect)
If they see someone get a reward for their behaviour they are likely to imitate the behaviour to also receive the reward
Vicarious means the observer learns by observing the consequences of others’ behaviour.
Outline the role of mediated processes in the social learning theory
Focuses on how mental processes are involved in learning
-There is thought between observation to imitation and this considers whether the behaviour is worth imitating or not (called the mediational processes)
Proposed by Bandura:
Attention - to imitate a behaviour you must pay attention to it
Retention - a memory of the behaviour must be formed so the observer does not forget it
Reproduction - can only imitate if we have opportunity - limited by our physical ability - influences our decision of whether or not we imitate the behaviour
Motivation - rewards and punishments that follow a behaviour will be considered - if the perceived rewards outweigh the costs then the behaviour is more likely to be imitated
