approaches 5-8 Flashcards
What is the cognitive approach?
Where behaviour is influenced by conscious and unconscious thoughts
How do you study the cognitive approach?
Scientifically, where inferences are made as mental processes can’t be directly observed
::Mistakes can happen
What’s the theoretical model in the cognitive approach?
The information processing approach
Where information flows through the multi store model
(input, storage, retrieval)
What is the computer model in the cognitive approach?
We are processing happens in the mind similar to a computer
Central processing unit: brain
Coding
Stores
What is schema?
Beliefs/expectations that develops experiences
What is the schema that babies are born with?
Simple motor schema that is innate
Sucking/grasping
What happens to schema as you grow older?
It becomes more detailed
This mental shortcut prevents shock but can lead to perpetual errors
Who studied the cognitive approach in 1932?
Bartlett
What was the method of Bartlet study?
English participants read Native American folk tale called:’ the war of the ghost’
- it was unfamiliar and strange due to a different culture
- required to recall after different periods of time
What was the result of Bartletts study?
-Participants changed it to fit the schema
-more English and the ghosts were left out
-Canoes-> cars
-bows/arrows-> guns
The longer the periods of time the less information is retained
What is the conclusion of Bartlett study?
People use schemas to help interpret and remember information
It’s a little bit dependent on culture
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Study of influence on mental processes
What’s the other word for brain mapping?
Brain fingerprinting
What are fMRI and PET scans used for?
Observe and describe neurological basis of mental processes
Help find the basis of mental disorders
Describe Maguires aim
Study taxi driver brains to see whether brain anatomy is premeditated/susceptible to plastic changes
What is Maguires method?
Two groups, 16 male taxi drivers (for at least 18 months), 16 miles she had never driven taxis
-average of 44 years old
MRIs were taken
What were Maguires results?
Right posterior hippocampus and the taxi driver was larger
It was proportional to the time they had the job
What is the right posterior hippocampus responsible for?
Strong visual representations of the environment—> lead to physical changes
What is the conclusion of Maguires study?
MRIs are important,
Help understand for navigation and brain damaged people
What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?
+ Scientific and objective methods, high control, biological and cognitive psychology combine that lead to a credible scientific basis
+ real life application, could revolutionise how we live in the future
+ less determinist (soft determinism and free will)
::interactionist
What are the weaknesses of the cognitive approach?
- Machine reductionism, ignores motivation and emotion and compares humans to a computer
- lack of application to every day life as it’s theoretical and abstract
- idea of inferences isn’t enough and it’s not reliable
What is the biological approach?
Suggest everything begins on a biological basis
What are genes?
Mechanism of heredity
passing characteristics from generation to generation
What do you genes carry?
Instructions for a particular characteristic
What does gene development depend on?
- Interaction with other genes
- influence of environment
What do behaviour geneticist study?
Whether behavioural characteristics are inherited in the same way as physical characteristics
What is used to compare in the biological approach?
Concordance rate in twin studies
What is the difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins?
Monozygotic twins have a higher concordance compare to dizygotic.
100%: M
50%: D
What is genotype?
Actual genetic make up
What is phenotype?
How genes are expressed
What influences phenotype?
Environmental factors
What is another word for natural selection?
Survival of the fittest
What is natural selection?
Genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individual survival
What are synaptic neurotransmitters?
Chemical messenger that balances or boosts or carry signals between neurons
What are psychoactive drugs?
Drugs that affect neurotransmitters
What does brain mapping do?
It maps relationship between various parts of the brain and functions
What is the benefit of modern brain scanning methods?
- Help map the brain
- identify the functions
What are the strengths of the biological approach?
+ Scientific methods of investigation that to give miserable variables:: reliable
+ real life application
Lead to development of psychoactive drugs
Allows people to live a normal life and not need hospitalisation
What are the weaknesses of the biological approach?
-Casual conclusions
Cause and affect?:: Based off of assumptions
-deterministic view
We are governed by internal biological causes
Criminal gene: suggests criminals aren’t legally/morally responsible
-problems with evolutionary approach
Hard to separate genes from culture
Evolutionary approach has limited explanatory power
What is the psychodynamic approach?
Behaviour is caused by drives inside the person such as the unconscious mind
Who founded psychodynamic approach?
Sigmund Freud
What did Freud say?
The child is the father of man
What does the psychodynamic approach emphasise the importance of?
Childhood
What is the role of the unconscious?
It has threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or forgotten in order to protect the conscious
What is the preconscious?
Thoughts or ideas that come apparent during sleep/slips of the tongue
What’s the synonym for slips of the tongue?
Paraphraxes
What did Freud say about how to get into unconscious thoughts?
Only way to get this through interpretation of dreams
What was the issue with Anna O?
Severe paralysis on the right side
Nausea
Difficulty drinking
What did Freud demonstrate in relation to Anna O?
Her physical symptoms have a psychological cause
What did Anna mention during the discussions?
A dog she hated drunk from her glass
She developed the fear of drinking
Her severe paralysis stemmed from her caring for a sick father where she couldn’t express her anxiety and when he died she broke down
What happened once she mentioned a difficulty in drinking?
Her fear and difficult to disappeared
What happened once she made her unconscious thoughts conscious?
Her paralysis disappeared
Why did her paralysis disappear?
She got to relive her nasty experiences and express her emotions
During psychoanalysis
What is hypnosis?
Trance like condition
It’s used to study the unconscious mind as it is revealed and the conscious mind is suppressed
What are the two drives that we have?
Eros
Thanatos
What is eros?
Life instinct
Sex/vital for reproduction
Own source of psychic energy
Libido
What is Thanatos?
Death instinct
Procreate and eliminate enemies at the same time
What determines personality?
The dynamic interaction between: ID, EGO, SUPEREGO
When does ID happen?
After birth
What is ID?
The pleasure principle
WANT
Immediate satisfaction
When does EGO happen?
After one
What is EGO?
Reality principle
MIDDLE MAN
Considers constraints if reality
When does SUPEREGO happen?
3yrs +
What is SUPEREGO?
Morality principle
CANT HAVE
because it is wrong
What are ego defence mechanisms used for?
To reduce anxiety from unacceptable ID and push them into the unconscious mind
What are the three types of defence mechanisms?
Repression, displacement, denial
What is denial?
Refuse to believe/admit emotions that provoke anxiety
What is displacement?
Diverting emotions onto someone or something else
What is repression?
Prevent unacceptable desires motivation emotions and making them unconscious
They still influence behaviour in ways we are aware so it can cause emotional difficulties
What are the psychosexual stages?
Single parts of the body are sensitive to sexual stimulation
A child’s libido is focused on primary erogenous zone that have needs and demands
The method of obtaining satisfaction that categorise that stage will dominate the adult personality
What are the five psychosexual stages?
Oral Anal Phallic Latent Genital
What is the oral stage?
Nursing and mouthing objects
What happens to a child who is frustrated or overindulged during the oral stage?
Frustrated: pessimism, envy, suspicion
Overindulged: gullible, full of admiration
What may the oral personality end up with?
Addiction for smoking or drinking
What is the anal stage?
Eliminating and retaining faeces
ID gets pleasure from expulsion of faeces
EGO gets pressures to control bodily functions
What happens when parents are too lenient during the anal stage?
Leads to anal expulsive character
Disorganised/reckless/defiant
What happens if they opt to retain faeces during the anal stage?
Anal retentive character
Neat, stingy, obstinate
What happens during the phallic stage?
Boys get unconscious sexual desires for their mum and become rivals with their dads
Girls get the same attraction to the Dad
What is the Oedipus complex?
During the phallic stage boys develop masculine characteristics and repressed their sexual feelings towards her mum
What is the electra complex?
The unconscious sexual attraction towards a dad
What is penis envy?
Girls believe that their mum Castrated them
Negative feelings towards mum
Their wish for a penis is replaced with a wish for a baby
What happens once a child overcomes the conflict during a phallic stage?
They identify with same sex parent
What happens if a child is fixated in the phallic stage?
Issues with sexuality
homosexual/narcissistic
What happens during the latent stage?
Sexual drive is dormant
Girls more feminine/boys more muscular
What happens in the genital stage?
Sexual urges or a weekend
The less energy a child has still invested in unresolved conflicts in earlier stages, the greater their capacity will be to develop normal relationships with the opposite sex
When is the oral stage?
0-18 months
When is the anal stage?
18m-3yrs
When is the phallic stage?
3-6yrs
When is the latent stage?
6yrs- puberty
When is the genital stage?
Puberty onwards
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?
+ case study rich in detail: of Anna O, Little Hans(issues at phallic stage)
+ childhood is important in determining adult behaviour
+ unique so helps understand complexity of human behaviour
+ made psychoanalysis, very successful compared to other treatments as it helps understand underlying causes
What is psychoanalysis?
Therapy for neurosis
What are three types of psychoanalysis?
Hypnosis
Dream therapy
Free association
What are the weaknesses of psychodynamic approach?
- abstract concepts cant be tested as they are unconscious
- sexist- more detail and emphasis suggesting girls aren’t as guilty as guys and boys are morally superior
- lacks falsifiability therefore not scientific and there’s less research evidence
- determinism suggests no free will as everything is driven by unconscious conflicts
Whats falsifiability?
It can’t be proven wrong
What is the humanistic approach?
Humans are self determining and have free will
Humans are described as active agents
What does this mean?
Ability to determine own development but are still affected by external and internal influences
What’s another name for the humanistic approach?
Person centred approach
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Physiological needs Safety needs Love and belongingness Esteem needs Self actualisation
What is physiological needs?
Needs that are fundamental and if they are not met it’s unlikely that anything above will be met
What are safety needs?
From environmental disasters
Physiological safety
What is meant by love and belongingness?
acceptance from loved ones
What is esteem needs?
To feel good about oneself
What are the first four needs known as?
Deficiency needs
If they are not met then it feels like something is missing
How did Maslow develop his hierarchy of needs?
Reading famous biographies of people he believed reached self actualisation
He gathered that important characteristics
What is the self?
Concept of you and how you perceive yourself
How much self-worth you think you have
What is congruence?
Comparability between actual and ideal self
What are conditions of worth?
Conditions on what to do in order to receive love or acceptance
What did Rogers argued that is needed for personal growth?
Actual Self needs to have congruency with ideal self
What happens if the gap between actual and ideal self is too big?
Incongruency
Self actualisation will be impossible
Negative feelings of self-worth
What did Rogers developed to reduce the gap?
Client centred therapy
What is person centred counselling?
Client talks as openly as possible and the counsellor just listens and reflects to check their understanding
What does the counsellor then have to do it in person centred counselling?
Except the clients feelings and offer unconditional positive regard with no conditions of worth
Client can clarify and accept own feelings that replace inner conflict
What are three core conditions of person centred counselling?
- Empathetic understanding
- unconditional positive regard
- congruent therapist in touch with their own feelings
What are the strengths of the humanistic approach?
+It’s not a reductionist approach
Considers the whole person and meaningful human behaviour
Real life context
+ allows for personal development unlike psychodynamic that says childhood dictates destiny
+ research support, teenagers that feel like they need to fulfil certain conditions to get parents to approve
Get lower self-esteem by pretending to be who their parents want them to be leading to depression and losing touch with 3 self (Harter)
What are weaknesses of the humanistic approach?
- Untestable, abstract variables, anti-scientific
- limited application as it is just a loose set of abstract concepts so it lacks discipline
-cultural bias, West
May not be accepted cross culturally as collectivist cultures May do things differently
