Approaches

Question 1

Give the definition of science

Answer 1

Discovering the physical and natural world systematically and objectively using empirical methods such as observation and experimentation

Question 2

What does systematic mean?

Answer 2

Fixed or controlled method

Question 3

What does objectivity mean?

Answer 3

Absence of bias (personal beliefs) in research

Question 4

Who is Wundt?

Answer 4

Wundt, aka “the father of psychology”
Before Wundt the study of the mind was limited to philosophy and medicine
He set up the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany (1870s)
Want produced one of the first books on psychology

Question 5

What is Introspection not?

Answer 5

Introspection is not a direct observation of mental processes; Wundt made inferences

Question 6

Give the first stage of Wundt’s procedure on Introspection

Answer 6

Participants are trained to report conscious experiences as objectively as possible

Question 7

Give the second stage of Wundt’s procedure on Introspection

Answer 7

Participants would be asked to focus on a sensory object, often a ticking metronome

Question 8

Give the third stage of Wundt’s procedure on Introspection

Answer 8

Participants would systematically report their experience of the object by breaking their thoughts into separate elements; participants would focus inward and report sensations, feelings and images

Question 9

Give an advantage of Wundt’s work

Answer 9

For his time, Wundt was highly scientific, primarily because of his controlled experiments and large sample sizes.

Question 10

Give a disadvantage of Wundt’s work

Answer 10

His introspective methods are considered subjective and not truly scientific. Participants cannot be relied on to accurately report their mental states and self reports may be biased or influenced by demand characteristics.

Question 11

What do behaviourists say about behaviour?

Answer 11

Behaviourists say that behaviour is learned through experiences and interactions with the environment

Question 12

Which psychologist is associated with classical conditioning?

Answer 12

Pavlov

Question 13

Which psychologist is associated with operant conditioning?

Answer 13

BF Skinner

Question 14

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 14

Associative learning

Question 15

Outline classical conditioning in Pavlov’s dog experiment

Answer 15

Dog produced saliva before seeing or smelling food (unconditioned response) suggesting they had formed a temporal association between the sound of the researcher’s walking down the hall (neutral stimulus) and food

Question 16

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 16

Adding a pleasant stimulus to encourage desired behaviour

Question 17

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 17

Removing an unpleasant stimulus to encourage the behaviour

Question 18

What does a punishment do?

Answer 18

Discourages a behaviour

Question 19

What is a positive punishment?

Answer 19

Adding an unpleasant stimulus following an undesired behaviour

Question 20

What is a negative punishment?

Answer 20

Removing a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behaviour

Question 21

Give one comparison between classical and operant conditioning

Answer 21

Classical conditioning is an involuntary response and operant conditioning is a voluntary response

Question 22

State the advantage of research into behaviourism

Answer 22

It is scientific as it studies objectively observable and measurable stimulus response mechanisms. They establish cause and effect relationships through controlled lab experiments that manipulate variables systematically.

Question 23

State the disadvantage of research into behaviourism

Answer 23

Pavlov and Skinner’s use of animal subjects means that their findings may not be generalisable to human behaviour.

Question 24

Give the procedure of Skinner’s research into operant conditioning

Answer 24

Animals were placed in the Skinner box without prior training. Skinner then observed how animals learned to operate levers to receive a reward (food) or avoid punishment

Question 25

Which psychologist is associated with social learning theory (SLT)?

Answer 25

Albert Bandura

Question 26

What did social learning theorists argue?

Answer 26

They argued that human behaviour could not be fully understood without including the role of cognitive processes that happen between stimuli and responses

Question 27

Give an example of the process of vicarious reinforcement

Answer 27

When seeing an individual being rewarded for a behaviour, we are more likely to mimic it

Question 28

What are models?

Answer 28

People we observe and emulate (imitate)

Question 29

Give an example of live models

Answer 29

Parents, friends and family

Question 30

Give an example of symbolic models

Answer 30

Characters from books and movies

Question 31

What are the four meditational processes?

Answer 31

The four meditational processes are:

Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation

Question 32

When must meditational processes occur?

Answer 32

They must happen between observing a model perform a behaviour and imitating that behaviour

Question 33

What happens if any of the meditational processes are missing?

Answer 33

If any of them are missing the behaviour will not be imitated.

Question 34

What did Bandura (1961) investigate?

Answer 34

Bandura conducted an experiment to see if children would copy aggressive behaviour demonstrated by an adult towards an inflatable toy (aka a Bobo doll)

Question 35

Who were the participants in Bandura’s experiment?

Answer 35

Children age 3-6 split into 2 groups

Question 36

What did each of the groups see in Bandura’s experiment?

Answer 36

One group saw an adult demonstrating physical aggression towards the doll in a room filled with toys and the other group saw an adult acting non-aggressively with different toys.

Question 37

What were the findings of Bandura (1961)?

Answer 37

Children exposed to an aggressive model were more likely to be aggressive themselves

Question 38

Give an advantage of social learning theory

Answer 38

SLT is supported by robust evidence, for example the Bobo doll study has high internal validity because of its lab setting. Participants would follow the same procedure in the same room with access to identical toys.

Question 39

Give a disadvantage of social learning theory

Answer 39

In Bandura’s research it only demonstrated short-term social learning; aggression may not be imitated weeks or months after observation.

Question 40

Describe what happens during attention (SLT)

Answer 40

In order to learn from a model, individuals must pay attention to the model by focusing on specific behaviours

Question 41

Describe what happens during retention (SLT)

Answer 41

The ability to remember the observed behaviours

Question 42

Describe what happens during reproduction (SLT)

Answer 42

The individual’s belief in their ability to replicate the behaviour that the model demonstrated

Question 43

Describe what happens during motivation (SLT)

Answer 43

The willingness to perform the behaviour, which is influenced by the expected outcomes

Question 44

What are Internal mental processes?

Answer 44

Internal mental processes are how information is stored in the mind, including all conscious and unconscious thoughts

Question 45

What are the typical areas of research for cognitive psychologists?

Answer 45

Attention, perception and memory

Question 46

Give an advantage of the cognitive approach

Answer 46

The cognitive approach is a scientific approach, this is due to the use of highly controlled experiments for example, many of the studies supporting the models of memory were conducted in a lab setting.

Question 47

Give a disadvantage of the cognitive approach

Answer 47

The cognitive approach relies on inferences, which are essentially educated guesses that could be wrong. Cognitive psychology is seen as less scientific compared to biological psychology, which bases its theories on directly observable behaviours and physical processes.

Question 48

What is a schema?

Answer 48

Schemas are mental frameworks, collections of connected basic knowledge about a concept or object built from previous experience with the world

Question 49

What is the role of schemas?

Answer 49

Schemas work as mental shortcuts, we use them to quickly understand and navigate the world and interact with people and objects, this means it doesn’t take too much mental energy to decide how to respond to a range of situations

Question 50

Give two ways in which schemas help us

Answer 50

Processing environmental information - Schemas allow us to engage with the world without being overwhelmed by sensory information

Predict the future - As schemas are based on previous experiences, they allow us to make assumptions about what objects and people will do in similar situations

Question 51

Give two ways in which schemas cause problems

Answer 51

Leads to inaccurate recall - assumptions due to schemas can influence memory, a particular problem for eyewitness testimony

Negative schemas can lead to poor mental health - Beck argues people with depression have faulty schemas that bias their thinking about themselves, others and the future

Question 52

What is the computer model?

Answer 52

The computer model is an analogy of a computer’s central processing unit running software programmes and the human brain conducting internal mental processes. This comparison suggests both systems receive inputs and generate outputs. They both process information through a sequence of programmed steps.

Question 53

Give a limitation of the computer model

Answer 53

The computer model is overly simplistic. Critics argue that the human brain is more complex than any computer and the human brain is capable of consciousness and emotions, which can lead to irrational behaviours.

Question 54

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 54

Cognitive neuroscience aims to scientifically identify and examine the neurological structures and chemical processes in the brain that are linked to internal mental processes.