Approaches Flashcards
What are the 4 goals of psychology?
- Description = tells us “what” occurred
- Explanation = tells us “why” a behaviour or a mental process occurred
- Prediction = identifies conditions under which a future behaviour or mental process is likely to occur
- Change = applies psychological knowledge to prevent unwanted behaviour and to bring out desired change
What factors make psychology a science?
- Objectivity = scientific observations should be recorded without bias and not influenced by other factors or other people
- Control = should take place under controlled conditions
- Predictability = results should be able to predict future behaviours
- Hypothesis testing = theories should be tested to support or disprove a theory
- Replication = if something is replicated and they find the same results - this shows confidence in the study
How did Rene Descartes (1596-1650) have an early influence to psychology?
Through his concept of Cartesian dualism, which simply means that the mind and body are separate entities.
What did the work of John Locke include?
He had a concept of empiricism, the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience and can be studied using the scientific method.
He also had an influence on the emergence of psychology as a science
How did Charles Darwin aid psychology?
His evolutionary theories set the stage for the emergence of psychology as we know it today (through a biological approach).
Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920) - ‘the father of psychology’
In 1873, Wundt published the first book on psychology to establish the subject as an independent branch of science. In 1879, opened the first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany. It was designated to the scientific study of psychological enquiry under controlled conditions. His main focus was on trying to understand psychological processes of perception and sensations, rather than biological processes. Later on, he recognised higher mental processes were difficult to study using introspection and encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods like scanning. Leading to the development of cultural psychology, based on general trends in behaviour of groups of people.
What is structuralism? And what’s it used for?
Structuralism is a theory of consciousness that seeks to analyse the elements of mental experiences, such as sensations, mental images and feelings and how these elements combine to form more complex experiences. It’s used to break down consciousness to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole.
Evaluation against Introspection - Difficult to study
- Introspection relies primarily on non-observable responses and although participants can report conscious experiences, they are unable to comment on unconscious factors relating their behaviour.
- Introspection produced data is subjective, so it became very difficult to establish general principles. Meaning that introspective experimental results aren’t reliable reproduced by other researchers.
Evaluation against introspection: subjectivity of Wundt’s methods
It’s difficult for modern psychologists to objectively study unobservable matter. This is a contrast to the scientific methods. These methods are therefore difficult to replicate. It also questions the methods validity of- many aspects of our minds are outside of our conscious awareness (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977)
HOWEVER, these methods are still used in modern scientific psychological research (Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003)
Contrasting research for introspection and the origins of psychology - Nisbett and Wilson (1977) - staged interviews
Nisbett and Wilson staged two different interviews either the same individual- a lecturer who spoke English with a European accent - one condition was warm and friendly, the other cold and distant. 118 undergraduates were asked to evaluate him - those who heard the warm interview rated his appearance, mannerisms and accent as appealing. They rated the ‘other instructor with dislike: Results indicate that global evaluations of a person can induce altered evaluations of the person’s attributes, even when there’s sufficient information to allow for independent assessments of them. Furthermore, participants were unaware of this influence of global evaluations on rating of attributes. PPTs who saw the cold instructor actually believed that the direction of influence was opposite to the true direction. They reported that their dislike of the instructor has no effect on their rating of his attributes but that their dislike of his attributes had lowered their global evaluations of him.
Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter (2003) - Environmental factors - introspection and origins of psychology
- American youths were asked to rate environmental factors and personal happiness; reported happiness varied significantly both by the day of the week and the time of day. School was rated below average and social, active and passive leisure activities were associated with varying degrees of happiness.
- Alone vs being around friends - lowest to highest
- Higher socioeconomic status and age correlated with lower levels of happiness but not gender or sex - younger people who spend more time at school and social activities were the happiest.
Assumptions of the behavioural approach:
- Behaviourism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour - as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion. Observable behaviour can be objectively and scientifically measured.
- Psychology is a science - so behaviour must be measured in highly controlled environments to establish cause and effect.
- When born our mind is a blank slate.
- There’s little different between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals. Therefore research can be carried out on animals as well as humans.
- Behaviour is the result of stimulus - response (i.e. all behaviour, no matter how complex, can be reduced to a simple stimulus - response association).
- All behaviour is learnt from the environment - we learn new behaviour through classical and operant conditioning.
What is a stimulus?
Anything, internal or external, that brings about a response
What is a response?
Any reaction in the presence of the stimulus
What is reinforcement?
The process by which a response is strengthened
Describe Pavlov’s Dogs experiment
Before Conditioning
- Pavlov placed a dog in a room with food. This caused the dog to salivate. Food = Unconditioned stimulus. Salivating = Unconditioned response.
- The food was replaced with a bell. Bell = Neutral stimulus. No salivating = Unconditioned response.
During Conditioning
- The bell ringing occurs simultaneously with the placement of the food in the room with the dog. Which causes the dog to salivate.
After conditioning
- The food is removed and so it is just the bell ringing. This causes the dog to salivate. Bell = Conditioned stimulus. Salivating = Conditioned response.
What is operant conditioning?
a method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behaviour.
Why is positive reinforcement used?
It increases the likelihood of a response occurring because it involves a reward for the behaviour.
Why is negative reinforcement used?
It increases the likelihood of a response occurring because it involves the removal of, or escaping from, unpleasant consequences (e.g. leading to stopping or avoiding an electric shock)
Why is punishment used?
The consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated
How has operant conditioning been applied to real life?
Operant conditioning has been applied to the treatment of behaviour. Examples being: social skills training for offenders, and token economy systems used in institutions whereby tokens are given as a secondary reinforcement for good behaviour.
Strengths of the behavioural approach:
- Behaviourism is very scientific. Theories are testable and supported by rigorous experimental research - uses the experimental method which helps to establish cause and effect.
- It influences all areas of psychology
- Replicable so it can be repeated due to high control so has reliability
- Mainly quantitative data so it’s easy to analyse
- Behaviourist explanations can be applied to the real world to explain everyday behaviour such as phobias and has produced many practical applications
- Useful applications to education, child rearing (super nanny)
- Provides strong counter-arguments to the nature side of the ‘nature-nurture’ debate.
Limitations of the behavioural approach:
- Many forms of learning cannot be satisfactorily explained by classical and operant conditioning e.g. insight learning.
- Approach ignores important mental processes involved learning
- Reductionist so it only takes into account nurture, rules out influence of anything else
- Deterministic so it ignores free will
- Lack of ecological validity due to highly controlled experiments so there’s issues with generalisability
- Ethical issues so not all research meets ethical guidelines
- Lack of quantitative data so no thoughts or feeling known
- Much data has been obtained from species like rats, dogs and pigeons but the relevance of these findings to human behaviour is dubious
How is SLT different to conditioning?
SLT is not just about learning, it involves cognitive processes such as watching, paying attention, remembering, choice of role models.
What is SLT?
It’s a way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.
Assumptions of SLT:
- Learning occurs from observing others
- The mind, behaviour and the environment all play a role in learning behaviour
- This deals with the major criticism of Behaviourist approach, which ignores mental processes, by taking account of cognitive processes.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
The belief that we learn through modelling - modelling involves learning through the observation of other people (models),, which may lead to imitation of the behaviour. It’s only repeated if the behaviour is seen to be rewarded.
Describe the four conditions for social learning:
Learning of behaviour:
- Attention: The extent to which we notice certain behaviours.
- Retention: The individual remembers what they have observed
Performance of behaviour:
- Motor reproduction: The individual replicates the behaviour shown by the model.
- Motivation: the individual seeks to demonstrate the behaviour that they have observed.
What are live models?
Physical representations present in our environment e.g. parents, friends, teachers
What are symbolic models?
People we see in film, books and the media
Do live models or symbolic models have more of an effect on society?
Live models have more of an effect to those in areas where media isn’t widely available, whereas, symbolic models have more of an effect on cultures where media is widely available.
Cumberbatch (2001) - Video nasties
Video nasties are more likely to tighten children to make them more aggressive towards others. This is because it introduces social deprivation, child abuse and early exposure to violence at home.
Positive Evaluation of SLT - Real world application
Akers (1998) suggested that the probability of someone engaging in criminal activity increases when they are exposed to models who commit crime and identify with them and develop the expectation of positive consequences of criminal behaviour.
Positive Evaluation of SLT - The importance of cognitive factors in learning
- Neither classical nor operant conditioning can offer an adequate account of learning on their own.
- Humans and many animals store information about the behaviour of others and use this to make judgements about when its appropriate to perform certain actions.
- It’s a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of meditational processes.
Negative Evaluation of SLT - Over-reliance from lab studies
- Behaviours of children were observed in lab setting
- Demand characteristics (occur when the participants try to make sense of the research and act accordingly to support the aim of the research)
- Bobo doll: were they behaving true to themselves?
Negative Evolution of SLT - Underestimates the influence of biological factors
- Boys were more aggressive in the Bobo doll experiments than girls
- Hormonal factors - boys have higher levels of testosterone
- Van Goozen et al. (1994) - aggression in PPTs who were transitioning to another gender
- 35 female-to-male and 15 male-to-female people completed questionnaires to assess proneness to aggression
- Before and after receiving hormone treatment to change gender
- Female-to-male reported increased aggressive proneness.
- Flanagan (2000) testosterone as a primary cause of aggression
- Serotonin and MAOA gene
Positive Evaluation of SLT - Cultural differences in behaviour
- Margaret Mead (1935) found The Arapesh is an example of a non-aggressive culture in which aggression isn’t admired or modelled by adults
- The Mundugmor (Biwat tribe) show the opposite pattern, in which violence is the norm and status is determined by the amount of aggression shown.
- Tchambuil - women were impersonal and dominant and men were less responsible and emotionally dependent
- Children understood their role in society and by gender
Positive Evaluation of SLT - Less determinist than the behavioural approach
- Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism
- We are influenced by our external environment and we exert influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform
Describe the method of the Bobo doll experiment by Bandura et al. (1961)
- 6 boys and girls with a mean age of 52 months took part in the study. The study has a match participant design (children were matched on ratings of aggressive behaviour shown at their nursery) and had three conditions.
- In the first condition, children observed aggressive adult models playing with a Bobo doll - e.g. kicking and hitting it
- In the second condition, children observed non-aggressive models playing with other toys and ignoring the Bobo doll.
- The third condition was a control condition in which children had no exposure to the models. The children’s behaviour was observed for 20 minutes in a room containing aggressive toys (like mallets etc.) and non-aggressive toys (like crayons etc.)
Describe the results of the Bobo doll experiment by Bandura et al. (1961)
- Children exposed to aggressive models imitated a lot of their aggressive behaviour.
- Children in the non-aggressive and controlled condition showed barely any aggressive behaviour.
- Aggressive behaviour was slightly higher in the control condition than in the non-aggressive condition.
Evaluate the Bobo doll experiment by Bandura et al. (1961)
It provides evidence for SLT. There was strict control of the variable, meaning that the results are likely to be reliable and the study can be replicated. However, it has a low ecological validity because the PPTs were not in a natural situation. It’s also difficult to generalise the results because a limited sample was studied - the children were all from the same school. The study encouraged aggression in children - this could be an ethical issue.
What is physiology?
The study of the body and its parts and how they function
Assumptions of the biological approach:
- Everything psychological is at first biological
- The approach investigates how biological structures and processes within the body impacts on behaviour.
- Much of human behaviour has a physiological cause which may be genetically or environmentally altered
- Psychologists should study the brain, nervous system and other biological systems e.g. hormones, chemicals acting on the brain
- The mind lives in the brain (in contrast to the cognitive approach sees mental processes of the mind as being separate from the physical brain)
Describe why psychologists are interested in twin studies and explain monozygotic and dizygotic fertilised eggs:
Psychologists are interested in studying twins in order to investigate the genetic basis of behaviour.
- Monozygotic - One zygote - these twins are formed when a fertilised cell splits into two and forms two separate embryos
- Dizygotic - Two zygotes - these twins are formed when two separate eggs both become fertilised by different sperm cells
What are concordance rates?
- an agreement between
This refers to the extent to which a pair of twins share similar traits of characteristics
How do concordance rates differ between the two types of twins?
There should be 100% concordance rates between monozygotic twins if a particular characteristic is a genetic one. Dizygotic twins will show lower concordance rates. Comparisons can be made between twins raised together and twins raised apart.
Describe facility studies (Francis Galton - 1869) ‘..all natural abilities are inherited’
This is a simplistic viewpoint - Galton later had to agree that any resemblance between family relatives could be a result of both genes and shared environment. However, with alcoholism for example there’s a suggestion of a biological predisposition to the addiction.
What are adoption studies?
These studies compare a trait or characteristic between adopted children and their biological or adoptive parents.
What is selective breeding?
A method that involves artificially selecting male and female animals for a particular trait. These animals are then put together in order to breed and produce offspring. Selective breeding has been used to demonstrate how a number of behavioural characteristics may have a genetic basis e.g. ‘maze bright’ mice
What is a phenotype?
The observable characteristics of an individual which depend on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors.
What is a genotype?
A persons unique genetic make-up that is coded in their chromosomes and fixed at conception.
What is a recessive gene?
A recessive gene only shows if the individual has two copies of the
recessive gene.
What’s a dominant gene?
A dominant gene always shows, even if the individual only has one
copy of the gene.
Define heterozygous:
the genotype consists of two different genes, for example Bb
Define homozygous:
the genotype consists of two genes that are the same, for example BB
Define evolution:
the changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations
What were Charles Darwin’s two main concepts in evolutionary theory?
- Sexual selection
- Natural selection
What is natural selection?
Animals with particular traits that provide them with an advantage are more likely to survive and reproduce thereby passing on their ‘adaptive traits’ to their offspring. These behaviours need to adapt to the environment that the animal is living in which is dependent on three principles.
What are the three principles that animals are dependent on in their environment?
- the principle of diversity - variety within a species
- the principle of interaction -how this variety of species adapt and fit in with the environment
- the principle of differential amplification - those who adapt to their environment will reproduce and those that don’t will die out.
What is sexual selection?
Males have an abundance of sperm and can reproduce as many females as they want. Females however, are limited by the amount of eggs produced and the fact she has to carry the baby for 9 months and then raise it till the age of 18. Females therefore will be more particular
about who fathers their children due to
the investment they have to make.
What research methods are used in the biological approach?
- Laboratory experiments
- Observations
- Objective brain recording and scanning techniques
What types of brain scans are there and what do they do?
- PET Scans: position emission tomography- shows which patterns of the brain are active during a task.
- CAT scans: detects damaged parts of the brain, tumours and blood clots.
- MRI: detects small tumours and provide detailed information about the structure.
- fMRI: structural and functional information.
- SQUID magnetometry: produces accurate images of brain activity by measuring the magnetic fields generated when neurones are activated.
Strengths of biological approach:
- It’s a scientific approach. Highly scientific methods e.g. fMRIs, EEGs and twin studies lead to reliable data.
- Scientific approach lends credence to study of psychology - establishes psychology as a respectable science
- Impact of biology on behaviour can lead to treatment and intervention to those suffering e.g. anti-depressants
- Understanding how an abnormal brain works can shed light on normal brain functioning
- Measurements can be objective as it can be performed by machines which have no vested interest in the outcome e.g. PET scans, EEGs etc. Use of complex machinery allows accurate and precise measurements.
Limitations of biological approach:
- It is a deterministic approach as it believes that we are
determined by our physiological, genetic or evolutionary make- up. Thus stating that there is no free will. - This approach is reductionist by stating that all human behaviour
can be explained through biological processes and we are therefore not unique as individuals. It is also dehumanising to present humans as ‘biological machines’ - Biological approach ignores the role of the environment etc. It should be used in combination which is known as the biopsychosocial approach.
- Research may focus on rare conditions that have little impact on the everyday lives of most people
- Complex machinery operated by humans and therefore
measurements could be subject to human error - Correlations frequently employed – cannot determine cause and effect
- Small or restricted samples make findings difficult to generalise
- Laboratory experiments lack ecological validity
- Cannot separate nature from nurture
Describe the method of skinner’s box:
- Skinner created a ‘Skinner box’ in which he placed one rat at a time.
- Each Skinner box included a variety of different stimuli - a speaker, lights, a floor which gave an electric shock and a food dispenser which dispensed food when a lever was pressed.
- A hungry rat was put in the box
- The time taken for the rats to learn that pressing the lever would release food was recorded.
Skinner also tested negative reinforcement: he showed that rats could learn to prevent an electric shock by pressing the lever when a light came on.
Describe the results and a conclusion of Skinner’s box experiment:
Results: Initially, the rats would run around the cage until it accidentally pressed the lever and it was rewarded with food. the more the rat was put back in the box, the quicker they got at learning where the lever was.
Conclusion: Rats can learn behaviour through operant conditioning. A behaviour such as pressing a lever can be positively reinforced by receiving food.
Evaluate Skinner’s experiment:
Skinner’s experiment has been hugely influential in promoting the idea of behavioural psychology.
However, his experiment did use animals, which means results might not be generalisable to humans. His sample size was also small, reducing reliability of his results.
Describe the method and results for the Little Albert experiment:
Method: The participant was an 11-month old boy called ‘little Albert’. he showed no fear of white fluffy objects like rats or rabbits. The researchers tried to create a conditioned response to these objects. A white rat was placed in front of little Albert. As he reached out for it, a metal bar was struck loudly behind his head. This was repeated twice at first, then 5 times the week after.
Results: When little Albert was shown a rat, he would start to cry. This also extended to other white fluffy objects, such as a white Santa Claus beard.
Give a conclusion and the evaluations of the little Albert experiment
Conclusion: A fear response to white fluffy objects has been conditioned in little Albert, showing that abnormal behaviour can be learned.
Evaluation: The experiment was very unethical - such an experiment could not be repeated today. Not everyone goes on to develop a fear or phobia after a negative situation, so learning theory cannot be the full story. It was a laboratory study, so it lacks ecological validity as the situation was artificial. However, the results support Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning.
Define the cognitive approach:
How our mental processes (for example, thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour.
What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach:
- Our mental systems have a limited capacity: the amount of information that can be processed will be influenced by how demanding the task is and how much other information is processed.
- A control mechanisms oversees all mental processes: This will require more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else.
- There is a two way flow of information: We take in information from the world, process it and react to it. We also use our knowledge and experiences to understand the world.
What are the three main research methods used in the cognitive approach?
- Laboratory experiments - very scientific and reliable
- Field experiments - takes place in a natural situation
- Natural experiments - making observations in a naturally occurring situation
What is the information processing model and what is it used for?
Input —> Processing —> Output
Its used to explain mental processes
Used to make inferences about mental processes
Compares a human to a computer
What is a schema?
A ‘package’ of ideas and information developed through experience. Helps you to organise and interpret information and experiences. Schema affects behaviour.
What are the three types of schema and what do they do?
- Role schemas - these are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation.
- Event schemas - these are also called scripts. They contain information about what happens in a situation.
- Self schemas - these contain information about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values. Self schemas can affect how you act.
Problems with the schema:
Schemas can stop people from learning new information
- Prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas
- Schema which hold expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people may bias the way we process incoming information
This can lead to faulty conclusions and unhelpful behaviour which leads to perception errors.
Describe the method and results of Bartlett’s The war of the ghosts experiment
English participants were asked to read a Native American folk tale, called ‘the war of the ghosts’.
It was an unfamiliar story, full of strange and unusual names, ideas and objects. It also had a different structure to an average English story.
The participants were asked to recall the story after different lengths of time.
All of the participants changed the story to fit their own schemas. The details in the story became more ‘English’, the story started to contain elements of English culture and details and emotions were added. As the length of time between hearing and recalling the story increased, the amount of information remembered decreased.
Give a conclusion and the evaluation from Bartlett’s The war of the Ghosts experiment:
Conclusion: People use their own schema’s to help interpret and remember the world around them.
Evaluation: This study was conducted in a lab, so it lacks ecological validity. But it was highly influential at the time as it paved the way for further cognitive research.
Show the history of cognitive neuroscience:
- 1860s Paul Broca identified damage to the frontal lobe could permanently affect speech
- 1956 MIT Formation of ‘Cognitive Science’
- 1970s Formation of ‘Cognitive Neuroscience’ (Miller) - Aims to study biological structures that influence mental processes
- Last 20 years - fMRI & PET scan use had developed to look at the living brain e.g. episodic & semantic memory may be located at different sides of the pre-frontal cortex , e.g. hunger may be controlled by the hypothalamus, e.g. empathy may be developed by the mirror neuron system
What are the methods involved in brain scanning?
- Lesion studies - see if brain damage changes behaviour, by removing parts of the brain (normally rats and mice)
- Electrophysiology - using electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity and brain waves
- Neuroimaging - pinpointing areas of the brain which are active when a task is performed
What does the corpus callosum do?
It forms a bridge between the two sides of the brain. Integrates motor, sensory and cognitive performance.
What does the thalamus do?
Controls the senses except smell
What does the cerebellum control?
It controls co-ordination and balance
What does the pituitary gland do?
It produces and releases hormones
What does the medulla oblongata and brain stem do?
It withholds the unconscious brain and controls the heart rate, breathing, swallowing
What does the frontal lobe control?
It controls behaviour, language and personality
What does the hypothalamus do?
It is where homeostasis takes place
What does the hippocampus do?
It regulates emotions, learning and memory
What does the amygdala do?
It processes emotions
What did Paul Broca conclude about the brain?
Broca founded ‘Broca’s area’ in the brain and identified damage to the frontal lobe could permanently affect speech in the 1860s.
What did Tulving et al. (1985) conclude about the brain with their use of PET and fMRI scans?
Using PET and fMRI scans, Tulving et al. (1994) systematically observed neurological basis in mental processing.
Tasks involving episodic (personal memory store) and semantic (knowledge of the world store) memory may be located at different sides of the prefrontal cortex.
What did Tulving et al. conclude about the left and right side of the brain?
Left side - Involved in recalling semantic memories
Right side - Involved in recalling episodic memories
What does the pineal gland do?
It controls the sleep and wake cycle by releasing melatonin
What does the left Parahippocampal gyrus do and how does it link to OCD?
It plays a role in processing unpleasant emotions and links with OCD and impairment to frontal lobes (controlling logical thinking).
What did Braver et al. (1997) conclude about the brain?
- Participants were given tasks that involved the central executive whilst having their brain scanned.
- Greater activity in the left pre-frontal cortex - the activity increased as the task became harder
- Working memory model - as demands on the CE increase, it has to work harder to fulfil its function.
Supporting evaluation for the cognitive approach - Scientific and objective methods
- Employs highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work.
- Lab experiments - reliable, objective data produced
- Biology and cognitive psychology now work together
- Credible scientific basis
Evaluation against the cognitive approach - Machine reductionism
- Ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect our ability to process information
- Humans have an unreliable and unlimited memory - computers have a limit but its reliable
- Humans also have free will
Evaluation against the cognitive approach - Application to everyday life
- Only able to infer mental processes from behaviours observed
- Too abstract and theoretical in nature
- Use artificial stimuli that may not represent everyday memory experience. This may lack external validity.
Supporting evaluation for the cognitive approach - Treatment for mental health
- Cognitive behavioural theory:
- Patients learn how to notice negative/faulty thought cognitions and test how accurate they are
- Goals are set to think positively/adapt thoughts
Supporting evaluation for the cognitive approach - Real-life application
- Cognitive psychology has made important contributions to the study of AI and the development of thinking machines.
Supporting evaluation for the cognitive approach - Less deterministic than other approaches
- Determinism - all physical events occur in cause and effect relationships
- All determined by past events and causes
- Used to predict future behaviour
- CA - soft determinism: recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus
- This is a reasonable ‘interactionist’ position
Define psychodynamic approach:
A perspective that describes the different forces (dynamics), most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.
What are the assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
- The psychodynamic approach states that unconscious forces in our mind, determine our thoughts, feeling and behaviour (the term dynamic refers to the ongoing movement of these forces).
- Our behaviour as adults is strongly influenced by our childhood experiences.
- Abnormal behaviour is the result of mental conflict
- The mind can be divided into three levels of consciousness, which can be illustrated by the iceberg analogy. The unconscious mind, which is hidden below the surface, has the most influence on our personality.
Our mind is split into three. What are these parts called and what is withheld in each?
- The conscious: The small amount of mental activity we know about. Withholding thoughts and perceptions.
- The preconscious: Things we could be aware of if we wanted or tried. Withholding memories and stored knowledge
- The unconscious: Things we are unaware of and can not become aware of. Withholding fears, unacceptable sexual desires, violent motives, irrational wishes, immoral urges, selfish needs, shameful experiences, traumatic experiences
What is the ID?
The ID (the ‘it’) is part of the tripartite model of the mind made by Freud. It is the primitive part of our personality. Operates on the pleasure principle (gets what it wants), ID is a mass of unconscious drives and instincts, only the ID is present at birth.
What is the Ego?
The Ego (the ‘i’) is part of the tripartite model of the mind made by Freud. It develops around the age of two years, works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the ID and Superego, it makes the person aware of other people’s feelings and that it can’t always have its own way, it’s role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the ID & the superego, it manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms
What is the Superego?
The Superego (the other ‘i’) is part of the tripartite model of the mind made by Freud. It forms around the age of 5, it is our internalised sense of right and wrong, represents the moral standards the the child’s same-sex parent, punishes the ego for wrongdoing (through guilt).
What happens if the ID, Ego and Superego do not work together?
- The ego is too weak - allows ID and superego to dominate
- ID is too strong - selfish, out of control, could become psychopathic
- Superego is too strong - strict, anxious, obsessive - depression, anxiety, OCD
What does Freud believe about the psychosexual stages?
- Freud believed that children are born with a libido - a sexual urge
- There are a number of stages of childhood, during which the child seeks pleasure from a different ‘object’
- To be psychologically healthy, we must successfully complete each stage
- Mental abnormality can occur if a stage is not completed successfully - the person becomes ‘fixated’
What occurs during the oral stage - from birth to 18 months?
- The mouth is the main focus of pleasure during this stage
- The child enjoys tasting and sucking
- The mother’s breast is the object of desire
- Successful completion of this stage is demonstrated by weaning - eating independently
What are the consequences of unresolved conflict during the oral stage?
- Oral fixation - sarcastic, critical, sensitive to rejection - overeats and drinks, bites nails, may smoke.
What occurs during the anal stage - 18 months to 3 years?
- Defecation is the main source of pleasure
- Successful completion marked by potty training
What are the consequences of unresolved conflict during the anal stage?
- Anally retentive - very tidy, stubborn, likes order and being in control, perfectionist, obsessive
- Anally expulsive - thoughtless, messy
What occurs during the phallic stage - 3-5 years?
- Form of pleasure is the genital area
- Oedipus complex - boy wants his mother as his ‘primary love object’ and wants his father out the way
- Electra complex - girls experience penis envy; they desire their father, as the penis is the primary love object and hate their mother
What are the consequences of unresolved conflict during the phallic stage?
Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless, possibly homosexual
What occurs during the latency stage - Age 5 to puberty?
- Earlier conflicts are repressed
- Sexual urges sublimated into sports and other hobbies
- Focus on developing same sex friendships
- No particular requirements for successful completion
- Calm before the storm of puberty
What occurs during the genital stage - puberty to adulthood?
- Focus on genitals but not to same extent as phallic stage
- Task is to develop healthy adult relationships
- This should happen if earlier stages have been negotiated successfully
What are the consequences of unresolved conflict during the genital stage?
- Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
There are three types of defence mechanisms. What is meant by denial?
You completely reject the thought or feeling and completely refuse to acknowledge some aspect of reality. Unwanted reality is ignored and blocked from conscious awareness.
There are three types of defence mechanisms. What is meant by repression?
Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind. The ego stops unwanted and painful thoughts from becoming conscious.
There are three types of defence mechanisms. What is meant by displacement?
You transfer feelings from true sources of distressing emotion onto a substitute target. Negative impulse is redirected.
What is a freudian slip?
A freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought.
Supporting research for the psychodynamic approach - explanatory power
- Freud has had a huge influence on psychology.
- personality disorders
- development
- abnormalities
- moral development
- gender
- attachment - experiences as children and our parents and later development
Negative evaluation against the psychodynamic approach - the case study method
- Can we make universal claims about human nature based on studies about individuals with psychological abnormalities?
- Highly subjective
- Lacks scientific rigour
Negative evaluation against the psychodynamic approach - untestable concepts
- Karl Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification as it is not open to empirical testing and the possibility of disproval
- Unconscious is difficult to test
- Pseudoscience
Supporting research for the psychodynamic approach - practical application
- Psychoanalysis - range of techniques used to access the unconscious
- Dream analysis
- Useful therapeutic tool for neuroses
- However unable to treat more severe mental health disorders such as schizophrenia
Negative evaluation against the psychodynamic approach - psychic determinism
- No such thing as an accident
- Slip of the tongue is driven by the unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning
- Free will is an illusion - conflict from childhood
Negative evaluation against the psychodynamic approach - Gender bias
- Gender bias - alpha bias
- Femininity was failed masculinity and that we can never believe that the 2 sexes are equal in position or worth
- Horney broke away from Freudian theory and criticised the approach
- Dismissing women and their sexuality in such a way is problematic because psychoanalysis is still influential today and many female patients are treated by it
- With such a clear bias it is inappropriate for the approach to be applied to both sexes
What are the basic assumptions of the humanistic approach?
- Every individual is unique: Humanists believe that we are all different and that we should be treated as such. This way of viewing people as unique individuals is called idiographic.
- Free will: The humanist approach is based on the core assumption that we have free will. Humans are self-determining - we are not affected by external or internal influences “active agents”. If we want to do something we have the ability to choose to do it as there are constraints on it: social rules, laws and morals. An implication of the belief in free will is that this means that a person is responsible for their own behaviour, social or anti-social.
- People should be viewed holistically: Humanists don’t believe in focusing on childhood during therapy - they believe the whole life should be considered
- The scientific method is not appropriate to measure behaviour: Humanistic psychology does not describe itself as scientific. It argues the scientific method tries to be too objective and yet humans are subjective in the way they think and behave.
Define self-actualisation:
Everyone has an innate drive to achieve their full potential. The achievement of that full potential is called self-actualisation. ‘a growth need’ - personal growth is essential part of being human as it makes us fulfilled, satisfied and goal-orientated.
What did Malslow’s theory of motivation state?
- We are motivated to use free will to reach our fullest potential
- Some needs are shared and some are individual
- Human needs are categorised and prioritised
What did Maslow’s hierarchy of needs state?
Top of pyramid: Self-actualisation
Esteem
Love/Belonging
Safety
Bottom of pyramid: Physiological
What are some qualities of self-actualised people?
- A strong sense of self-awareness
- A fully accepting view of themselves and others for who they are
- The ability to deal with uncertainty and the unknown
- A strong sense of creativity
What did Maslow believe about the hierarchy of needs?
- Maslow believed that we spend out lives trying to get to the top
- Until the lower levels are met, you cannot attempt to satisfy higher level needs
How can people make self-actualisation more attainable?
An outward, more positive attitude means self-actualisation is more attainable. If someone experiences a negative event, and adopts a negative attitude about it this will affect their self-concept and prevent personal growth.
What did Carl Rogers’ work consist of?
- Carl Rogers’ work focuses on the self, or rather ‘selves’, of the individual.
- He suggested that we have three selves which need to integrate to achieve self-actualisation: the self-concept, the ideal self, the real self.
Rogers believed we had three selves, one is the self-concept, what is this part of our self?
This is the self that can be described as the self you feel you are.
It is similar to self-esteem and is affected by it. So, if someone has low self-esteem, their self-concept will be poor and they will have a distorted view of how capable they are.
Rogers believed we had three selves, one is the ideal self, what is this part of our self?
This is the self you wish to be. It is who you are aiming towards becoming. Or, it is possible you are already there.
A typical way of knowing whether someone is still working towards their ideal self is when you hear someone say “I wish I was more…” etc.
This differs from the self-concept in that it is not who you think you are, it is who you wish you were.
Rogers believed we had three selves, one is the real self, what is this part of our self?
The third self is the real self, the person you actually are, not who you think you are or who you wish you were.
Why was congruence so important to Carl Rogers?
He believed that to achieve self-actualisation it is necessary for a person to be congruent.
How does someone achieve congruence?
An important part of achieving congruence is ‘unconditional positive regard’. This means that at some point in their lives someone has to be loved for who they are by someone else. The need to be accepted unconditionally.
What is the role of conditions of worth>
Conditions of worth are requirements that the individuals feel they need to meet to be loved. This is also called conditional positive regard. Conditions of worth can be either real or perceived by the individual.
What is Client-centred therapy (CCT)?
- Person centred therapy is a form of psychotherapy
- ‘clients’ not ‘patients’ - expert of their own condition
- Non-directive
- Warm, supportive and non-judgemental
- Therapist provides three things: genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
- Increase self-worth, reduces incongruence and become a fully functioning person.
Gibbard and Hanley (2008) Research on person-centred therapy
- Studied the impact of person-centred therapy on a group of patients suffering from anxiety and depression
- 700 people over 5 years
- Questionnaire was used to measure the extent of their condition before and after therapy
- 70% showed a significant improvement in their mental health
Supporting evaluation for the humanistic approach - not reductionist
- Advocates holism - we must consider the whole person
- Validity as it considers meaningful human behaviour within a real life context
Negative evaluation against the humanistic approach- Limited real world application
- Person-centred therapy did revolutionise counselling techniques and hierarchy of needs does explain motivation in the work place. But…
- Little impact in psychology until recently … positive psychology is a small but emerging field.
- Lacks scientific evidence
- Abstract concepts
Negative evaluation against humanistic approach - Untestable concepts
- Can we test self-actualisation and congruence in an experiment?
- Rogers ‘Q-sort technique’ - given to clients before therapy and after. Too see if situations have improved through psychotherapy
- Anti-scientific and lacks empirical evidence
Negative evaluation against humanistic approach - Cultural bias
- Individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth are associated with individualistic cultures
- Collectivist cultures emphasis the need for group, community and interdependence
Positive research for humanistic approach - positive approach
- ‘bringing the person back into psychology’
- Optimistic alternative to Freud - people are basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives
