Approaches Flashcards
Talk about the history of Psychology
Psychology used to be known as experimental philosophy
Psychology is dated around 1880 when the first lab was opened
Talk about Wilhelm Wundt
Opened the first lab in 1879 in Leipzing Germany allowing psychology to branch away into scientific methods.
What did Wundt measure?
Analyse the nature of human consciousness and the mind in a method called introspection
Talk about introspection.
Used to study sensations by asking them to describe their thoughts and feelings in response to stimuli like lightbulbs or metronomes.
What did introspection become known as?
Structuralism- structure of the mind as a thinking process
Support for Wundts research?
Due to the fact Wundts methods were systematic and well- controlled allows extrenuous variables to be controlled. This means they Wundts research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches in psychology such as the behaviourist approach
Against Wundt’s research
some ascpects of his research could be seen as being unscientific today due to the fact he relied on participants self- reporting their mental processes. such data is subjective and they could’ve hidden their real thoughts so it’s hard to come to truthful conclusions. This suggests some of his work is flawed
Talk about Psychology as a science
Science involves building knowledge and though systematic and objective measurement in controlled conditions. experiments have to be replicable and controlled. Hypothesis have to be made which are either supported or disproved
For and against psychology being a science
For- shares some sims as science and scientific procedures to investigate and predict theories
Against- not all use scientific procedures for example interviews. These can also be uncontrolled.
Talk about the importance of the unconscious mind.
according to the psychodynamic theory, we have an unconscious mind influencing our behaviour which is unaware of what thoughts and emotions. This is a key theme known as psychic determinism
Talk about the unconscius mind as an iceburg
Conscious- what we are aware of at any given time.
Pre-Conscious- thoughts that may become conscious for example through dreams. This is usually disguised in symbols
unconscious- The part we are unaware of.
What are the two methods of accessing the unconscious mind
- Dream Analysis
- Free Association
Talk about Dream Analysis
Manifest content: dream as it appears to the dreamer- dream symbols are used to disguise unacceptable ideas
Latent content: hidden meaning behind dreams. A therapist interprets the dreams in order to provide insight about what the dream really represents
Talk about free assosiation
a form of therapy where the patient is encouraged to relax, then the therapist needs a list of words and the patient immediately responds with the first word that comes to mind. It is hoped that fragments of repressed memories will emerge in the course of free association.
What are the three parts of personality according to Freud
ID- operates our pleasure principle and is the selfish section of our mind meaning it gets what it wants
The SuperEgo- Formed at the end of the phallic stage. It’s our internalised sense of right and wrong based on the morality principle.
The Ego- works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the two. if manages them via defence mechanisms
What are the three defence mechanisms
Repression- forcing a distressing memory from the conscious mind to unconscious
Denial- refusing to believe something because it is too painful to acknowledge the reality
Displacement- transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion to a substitute target.
What does Freud say about defense mechanisms
Everyone uses them from time to time, if overused, the ego becomes unattached from reality and in time, can cause a psychological disorder
Talk about the psychosexual stages
Freud believes that childhood events are ables to shape our adulthood personality. Events can remain unconscious and can cause problems as adults. He proposed that all children go through the same 5 stages of development which are age dependant stages during development with destihioshed ‘pleasure zones’. Each stage requires resolution of a particular conflict or task. faliure to successfully navigate stages is known as fixation and leaves some ‘energy’ in a stage and this could come out in adult personality’s
Talk about Oral Stage
0-1 years:
Focus on pleasure of mouth
Consequence- oral fixation, smoking, biting nails
Talk about Anal stage
1-3 years,
Focus on pleasure in the anus
Consequence- anal rententive- obsessive, expulsive- thoughtless, messy
Talk about Phallic stage
3-6 years,
Focus of pleasure in the genital area- Oedipus Complex
Consequences- reckless, narcissistic.
Talk about Latency stage
Earlier conflicts are repressed
Talk about Genital stage
Sexual desires become conscious- puberty
Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
Talk about the psychodynamic approach as a real world application
The psychodynamic approach introduced the idea of psychotherapy. Freud brought into the world psychoanalysis which was the first attempt to treat mental disorders phychologically. It claims to help clients by bringing their repressed emotions into their conscious mind so they can be dealt with. It’s the forerunner into many therapy’s like counselling. This shows the value of the approach.
Talk about the supporting evidence for the psychodynamic approach
LITTLE HANS, Freud supported his concept of the oedipus complex- the believe in the phallic stage, children develop incestuous feelings toward their mother and hatred to their fathers. He supported this complex with his case study of little hans. Hans was a five year old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street. Freud suggested that hans’ phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred onto horses. This they were merely a symbolic representation of hans’ real fear.
Talk about the untestable concepts of the psychodynamic approach
Karl popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criteria. Irs not able to be scientifically tested and is therefore impossible to disprove. This suggests that Freuds theory was pseudoscientific rather than an established fact
Talk about the belief that we are born a blank slate in the behavioural approach
Behaviorism emphasizes the role of experience and environmental factors in shaping our behaviour. It close to exults the role of innate or biological factors. According to behaviorists, we are born a blank slate- ‘tabula rosa’ with no innate ideas.
Talk about the assumption behviour is learnt through conditioning.
Behaviorists believe that all behaviour is learnt through either: classical conditioning- learning through association, and operant conditioning- learning through reinforcement.
Talk about Pavlovs experiment
Pavlov showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food. Gradually Pavlov’s dogs learnt to associate the stimulus (bell) with the food (stimulus) and would salivate every time they hear the sound. Thus, Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus, in this case a bell, can come the elict a new learned response (conditioned response) through association.
Talk about what skinner suggested
Skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment shaped on their environment by consequence.
What’s the difference between positive and negative reinforcement
Positive reinforcement- receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed, for example, praise from a teacher
Negative Reinforcement- occurs when an animal or human avoids something unpleasant and the outcome is positive.
Talk about the skinner box
skinner conducted experiments with rats in specially designed boxes that every time the rat activated a lever it was rewarded with a food pellet. From then on, the rat continued this behaviour.
He also showed how rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid unpleasant stimulus for example an electric shock
Talk about the methods used by behaviourists
Psychologists should only study observable, quantifiable behaviour. In order to do this, the behaviorists tried to maintain control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab experiments to do this.
Talk about behaviourists assumption about animals
Humans are no different to Animals-They also shouldn’t be regarded as more complex. Therefore research on animal behaviour is directly relevant to humans
Talk about behaviourism as a well- controlled research
one strength of the behaviourist approach is that it is based on well-controlled research due to the fact they focus on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab experiments. By breaking down to the simple stimulus response units, all possible extreneous variables are eliminated. This increases internal validity and allows the experiments to have scientific credibility.
Talk about behaviourism being environmental determinism
According to behaviourists approach, everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcment history. When something happens we may think ‘i made the decision to do that’ but accprding to skinner, our past conditioning history determined the outcome. This removes the possibility of free will’s influence.
Talk about behaviourism as artificial conditions
many of the study’s were done under un-realistic conditions compared to real life. For example, skinners box study. This makes it less généralisable to everyday life thus reducing the ecological validity of the study
Talk about the basis of social learning theory
Alfred Bandura agreed with behaviorists that behaviour is learned from experience. However, his social learning theory proposed a different way in which people learn which is through watching and imitating people around us. Bandura said this was through classical and operant conditioning and also indirectly.
What’s the difference between imitation and identification
Imitation- This term is used to describe when an individual observes a behaviour from a role model and copys it.
Identification- People are more likely to imitate people they identify with. We call these people role models and the process of imitating these people is modelling. A person becoms a role model if they are seen to possess similar charactistics to the observer and/or are attractive and have a higher status.
What is vicarious reinforcement
This describes the reinforcement the learner sees the model recieving. They dont recieve the reward themselves, but if they see a model recieving a reward, it increases their probability of immitation their behaviour and vice versa.
What are mediational processes?
These are cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.
- Attention
- Retention
- Reproduction
- Motivation
Define each mediational process
ATTENTION- The extent to which we notice certain behaviour
RETENTION- How well the behaviour is remembered
REPRODUCTION- the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour
MOTIVATION- The reason to repeate due to admiration or reward.
Method of the Bobo Doll Study
36 girls and 36 boys aged 3-6 from Stanford Nursery were split into 3 groups:
1. Aggressive model- 24
2. Non-Aggressive model- 24
3. No model- 24
They were put in a room one at a time and observed the adult role models in a room with a hammer, Bobo doll, other toys and watched their actions for 10 mins. They were then taken into a room and told not to play with anything (aggression arousal stage). Then they were taken into another room and told they could play and were observed for 20 mins and rated on imitation.
Results of the Bobo Doll Study
Children who observed aggressive behaviour were more aggressive. Boys were more aggressive than girls. Greater imitation if they were the same gender.
Talk about the cognitive factors of social learning theory
One strength of SLT is it recognises the importance of cognitive factors in learning and acknowledges the role they play in deciding if a behaviour is to be imitated or not. This suggests that SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational factors
Counter the cognitive factors of social learning theory
It has been criticised for making too little reference to the biological factors on social learning. Although Bandura claimed natural biological differences influenced our learning potential, he thought that learning itself was determined by the environment. However research says that some of banduras research may be down to a neuron in the brain.
Talk about Social Learning theorys lab studies
Most of banduras research was gathered through lab studies. They are often criticised for their contrived nature where participants may respond with demand characteristics. For example with the Bobo dolls being made with the main purpose of being struck, maybe the children only behaved in a way they thought was expected.
Talk about the real world applications for social learning theory
SLT is used to explain cultural differences in behaviour. Principles such as modelling can be account for how children learn from others including the media and this can explain how cultural norms can be transferred through societies. This increases the value of the approach.
What is the humanistic approach
The Humanistic Approach is an approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experiences and each persons capacity for self-determination.
Talk about free will in the humanistic approach
Free will is the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by internal biological or external forces. The humanistic approach claims that although we could still be affected by external and internal influences, all humans are self determine and are ‘active agents’ who can choose who to become. Humanistic psychologists reject more scientific models and claim psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience which is referred as the person-centered approach.
Talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow was one of the founders of the humanistic movement. He described a hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour. In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of other needs need to be achieved in order to work up the hierarchy.
Talk about self-actualisation
Humanism states that everyone has an innate desire to grow as a person and fulfill ones potential. Human psychologists regard this as the most essential part of what it is to be human and is concerned with developing to be fulfilled.
Talk about the humanistics focus on self
Carl Rogeers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self must be broadly equivelent to their ideal self. If there is a a too big of a gap between these two concepts, the person will experience in-congruence and negative feelings of seld worth and self-actualisation wont be able to be achieved.
What are conditions of worth
Conditions of worth is when a parent puts limits or boundaries on their love of their children, it stores physilogical problems for that child in the future
Talk about humanistics- influence of councelling
Rogers developed person- centered therapy to help people recover from childhood and later damage to their self-esteem and worth. The therapy is non-directive with individuals exerting their own condition. They provide: empathy, genuineness and unconditional- positive regard. This enables clients to increase their self worth and subsequently reduce incongruence.
Talk about the humanistic approuch not being reductionist
The humanistic approach rejects the attempts to reduce behaviour down to smaller components alike the biological approach does into genes and neurons. It advocates holism meaning human behaviour should be studied by looking at the whole person. This makes the approach more meaningful and realistic all while increasing validity by considering more human behaviour withing real-world context.
Talk about the humanistic approach being a more optomistic approach
Humanistic psychologists have been praised for promoting a positive image of the human condition compared to other approaches. Like the psychodynamic approach saw humans as slaves to their past selves while humanistic psychologists see all people as good and able to control our own lives. This offers a refreshing, optimistic alternative.
Talk about humanistic western culture bias
Many of the ideas central to humanistic psychology alike freedom and autonomy are largely associated with the western, individualistic cultures which emphasise the role of independance. However, non-western cultures alike the collectivist ones in areas like China and India encourage the role of community and interdependence and therefore may not be able to identify with the ideas and values of humanistic psychology alike self-actualisation. This may suggest the approach cannot be applied universally.
Talk about the humanistic approach being hard to measure
This is due to the fact the ideals are very subjective and down to individual experience and self-thinking. This makes it hard to formulate general laws of behaviour and so isn’t considered a comprehensive approach and rather a group of abstract ideas.
What is the cognitive approach
The cognitive approach is the focus on our mental processes and how they affect behaviour. It was the paradigm which shifted the behaviorist approach by saying some processses need more in detail theories.
Talk about internal mental processing of the cognitive approach
The cognitive approach says that internal mental processes should be studied scientifically such as memory, perception and thinking. These processes cannot be observed, so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences on the basis of their behaviour. These are also known as mediation processes and occur between stimulus and response
Talk about the cognitive approach’s theoretical and computer models
This is a way to study internal processes. One example is with the information processing approach, which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages including input, output and storage alike the multi-store model of memory.
The approach also uses computer models where the mind is compared to a computer. These models use the concepts of central processing units (brains) in the concept of coding and the use of stores to hold information.
What is a Schema
Cognition can be affected by a persons belief’s or expectations, often refered to as schemas. They are packets of information often develop through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming info which helps you to respond to the object appropriately.
Talk about how the cognitive approach is studied scientifically
They reflect introspection and suggest that internal processes should be investigated scientifically. Cognitive psychologists follow the example of behaviourists in preferring objective, scientific methods. This means they have high internal validity and free from bias.
Talk about the cognitive approach having mundane realism
The data supporting cognitive theories come from unrealistic tasks in lab settings which questions weather or not they are representing cognitive patterns and don’t reflect real-life situations.
Talk about HM as a supporting evidence for the cognitive approach
The case study of HM supports the cognitive approach in the terms of theoretical models such as the multi-store model as it shows there were seperate short and long term memory
Talk about the cognitive approach being machine reductionist
There is a narrow focus on mental processes like the computer model analogy meaning information processing research focuses mainly on the logical aspects and less on emotional and social aspects.
What is the biological approach
The Biological approach is a perspective which emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural functions
Talk about biological structures
The Biological approach suggests that everything psychological must first be biological, so to fully understand human behaviour, we must look at biological structures and processes in the body such as genes, neurochemistry and the nervous system. Understanding these can explain our thoughts and behaviour. From a biological percpective, the mind lives my the brain meaning that thoughts, feelings and behaviour ultimately have a physical basis.
Talk about the genetic basis
This is the study of behavioural characteristics such as intellegence are inherited in the same way as physical characteristics like height and eye colour. Twin studies are used to determine the likelyhood that certain traits have a genetic basis by comparing the concordence rates between pairs of twins. Identical twins, monozygotic, are found to have higher concordence rates sharing 100% of traits while non-identical twins have 50%. Concordence relates to the extent to which a pair of twins share traits.
Talk about Genotypes and Phenotypes
A persons genotype refers to their actual genetic makeup whereas a phenotype is the expressed characteristics. The expressed characteristic is inevitably influenced by environmental factors for instance some twins look different if they have done different things alike dyed hair or exercised more.
Talk about Evolution and Behaviour
According to evolutionary psychologists, patterns of behaviour have evolved through natural selection, in the same way physical characteristics have evolved. Natural selection is when animals with advantageous characteristics are more likely to survive and pass the characteristics onto their offspring increasing the abundence of that trait.
Talk about the neurochemical basis
This refers to the action of chemicals in the brain. An imbalance of these neurochemicals has been implicated as a possible cause of some mental illnesses alike low levels of seretonin is linked to depression and OCD
Talk about the biological approach being a scientific method
Behaviour can be explained in terms of the brain, neurotransmitters and brain functions. Biological explanations have clear variables which can be scientifically measured and examined. This can therefore enable psychologists to conduct scientific research. It also adds credebility to the study as its based on reliable data.
Talk about the practical applications of the biological approach
Increased understanding of biochemical processes in the brain has led to the development of psychoactive drugs that treat serious mental illnesses such as depression. Although, these drugs aren’t effective of all patients, they are impactful for some an examples are SSRI’s to treat OCD.
Talk about the biological approach being reductionist
The biological approach states that all human behaviour can be explained in terms of biological approaches. This rules out the possibility that we arent unique as individuals and dont have control over our own behaviours, It focuses on the role of bature and ignores the role of environment.
Talk about the biological approach being deterministic
This approach suggests were determined by our own physilogical, genetic or evolutionary makeup. Therefore stating we have no free will over the choices we make
