Approaches Flashcards
Outline and evaluate the behaviourist approach in psychology.
A01
Assumptions:
Only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed
Rejects introspection as it includes many concepts that are vague
Rely on lab experiments as the best way to maintain control and objectivity
Animals can replace humans in experiments as the basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species
Classical conditioning - Pavlov
Before conditioning: Food = UCS, Salivation = UCR, the NS is the bell which produced no UCR
During conditioning: the bell is rung whenever the dog receives food. This was done multiple times and gradually the dogs started to associate the bell with the food
After conditioning: Bell = CS
Salivation = CR
Operant conditioning - Skinner
Learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment.
Positive reinforcement:receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
Negative reinforcement: Occurs when we avoid something unpleasant
Punishment: An unpleasant consequence of behaviour
Skinner’s box
Every time the rat activated the lever within the box it was rewarded with a food pellet. From then on the animal would continue to perform the behaviour.
A02
Real-life applications:
Operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions such as prisons
Rewarding certain behaviours with tokens which can then be exchanged for certain privileges
Classical conditioning has influenced the ways we treat phobias
These treatments have the advantage of requiring less effort from a patient because a patient doesn’t have to think about their problems.
Mechanistic view of behaviour:
Animals are seen as passive and machine like responders to the environment - no conscious insight into their behaviour
Other approaches like SLT or the cognitive approach have emphasised the importance of mental events during learning
Limitation: These processes suggest that humans have a much more active role in their learning and so learning theory (behaviourist approach) may apply more to animals than humans.
Outline and evaluate the social learning theory approach.
A01
Assumptions:
Much of our behaviour is learned from experience
People learn through observation and imitation of others within a social context
Suggests learning occurs directly through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly.
Vicarious reinforcement
An individual observes the behaviour of others.
In general, imitation only occurs if the behaviour is seen to be rewarded rather than punished.
Observes consequences of behaviour
The role of mediational processes:
SLT is the bridge between the behaviourist approach and the cognitive approach
These processes determine whether a new response is acquired.
Attention - the extent to which we notice certain behaviours
Retention - the extent to which we remember the behaviour
Motor reproduction
Motivation
Learning and performance of behaviour need to occur together
Identification
People are more likely to imitate the behaviour of people with whom they identify - role models
A person becomes a role model if they are seen to possess similar characteristics and/or are attractive and have a high status
A02
Over-reliance on evidence from lab studies:
Lab studies are often criticised for their contrived nature of participants just responding to demand characteristics
In Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment children watched a video clip of an adult acting aggressively towards the doll The children were then put in a room with many toys and the researchers observed that they acted very aggressively towards the doll
It is suggested that because the main purpose of the doll is to strike it, they were just behaving in a way they thought was expected.
Limitation: Research may tell us little about how children actually learn aggression in everyday life:
Underestimates the influence of biological factors
One consistent finding was that boys were often more aggressive than girls, regardless of the experimental conditions.
This can be explained by hormonal factors such as testosterone levels.
Limitation: This important influence on behaviour is not accounted for in SLT
(Less determinist than the behaviourist approach
We are not merely influenced by our external environment, but we also exert an influence upon it, through the behaviours we choose to perform.
Determinist = all behaviour is determined by our environment and ignores the factor of free will
In SLT we choose whether or not to imitate - we have free will)
Describe and evaluate the cognitive approach in psychology.
A01
Assumptions:
Studies internal mental processes
Studies memory, perception and thinking
These processes are ‘private’ and cannot be observed and so psychologists have to study them indirectly and make inferences
Theoretical and computer models:
One important theoretical model is the information processing approach -> information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage and retrieval.
The mind is also compared to a computer by suggesting there are similarities in the way information is processed
Use the concepts of a central processing unit (brain), the concept of coding and the use of stores to hold information
These have proved useful in artificial intelligence
The role of schema:
Processing can often be affected by a person’s beliefs or expectations
‘packages’ of information that are developed through experience
They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system
As we get older, our schema become more detailed and sophisticated
Schema enable us to process information quickly as sort of a mental short-cut
A limitation is that they might distort our interpretations of sensory information leading to perceptual errors.
A02
Scientific and objective methods:
Employs highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work.
Uses lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data.
The emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the 2 fields of cognitive psychology and biology to come together.
The study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis.
Application to everyday life:
Cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behaviour they observe
Limitation: suffers from being to abstract and theoretical in nature.
Experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli and may not represent everyday memory experience.
Research on cognitive processes may lack external validity.
Discuss the contribution of the biological approach to our understanding of human behaviour.
A01
Assumptions:
Looks at biological structures and processes within the body
Genes, neurochemistry and the nervous system
The mind lives in the brain - All thoughts and feelings and behaviour have a physical basis.
The genetic basis of behaviour
Behaviour geneticists study whether behavioural characteristics are inherited.
Twin studies are used by comparing the concordance rates.
Use examples such as OCD to describe genetic basis of behaviour
If MZ twins have a higher concordance rates then this characteristic is said to have a genetic basis as MZ twins have 100% DNA
Genotype and Phenotype:
Genotype is the genetic make-up
Phenotype is the way the characteristics are expressed
Expressions of genotypes are influenced by environmental factors
Much of human behaviour depends upon an interaction between inherited factors and the environment.
Evolution and behaviour:
Natural selection -> genetically determined behaviour that enhance and individual’s survival will continue to future generations.
The possessor of the advantageous characteristics is likely to survive in the competitive environment.
This means they are more likely to produce and so pass n their advantageous genes to their offspring.
This eventually extinguishes the unwanted genotypes from a population.
A02
Scientific methods of investigation:
Scanning techniques such as fMRIs and EEGs, family and twin studies and drug trials.
It is possible to accurately measure biological and neural processes in ways that are not open to bias.
Strength: based on reliable data
Real-life application
This has lead to the development of psychoactive drugs that treat mental illnesses such as depression.
May not be effective for everyone but have revolutionised treatment for many.
Strength: suffers are able to maintain their condition and live a relatively normal life
Determinist view of behaviour:
It sees human behaviour as governed by internal, biological causes of which we have no control over.
Has implications for the legal system and society as one of the rules of the law is that offenders are seen as legally and morally responsible.
Discuss the psychodynamic approach.
A01
The role of the unconscious:
Iceberg model.
Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious - stores our biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour and personality.
Also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed.
The preconscious includes thoughts and ideas which we may become aware of during dreams or through Freudian slips.
Structure of personality:
id - primitive part of our personality that operates on the pleasure principle.
Mass of unconscious drives and instincts.
Ego - works on the reality principle.
Mediator between the id and superego; does this by employing self-defence mechanisms.
Superego - formed at the end of the phallic stage.
Based on morality principle.
Internalised sense of right and wrong.
Punishes ego for wrong doing through guilt.
Psychosexual stages:
Oral - focus of pleasure is the mouth, mother’s breast is the object of desire.
Anal - focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling poo.
Phallic - focus of pleasure is the genital area. Oedipus or Electra complex.
Latency - earlier conflicts represented.
Genital - sexual desires become conscious.
A02
Explanatory power:
Alongside behaviourism, this approach remained the dominant force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century.
Used to explain a lot of phenomena including personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender.
Also significant in connecting experiences in childhood with later development.
The case study method:
Critics suggest that it’s not possible to make universal claims about human nature based on studies of a small number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal.
Interpretations were highly subjective.
Method Lack scientific rigour.
Psychic determinism:
Freud believed that their was no such thing as an accident and everything is driven by unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning.
The psychodynamic approach explains all behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts that are rooted in childhood such that any free will we may think we have is an illusion.
Outline assumptions of humanistic psychology. Discuss how humanistic psychology is different from other approaches within psychology.
A01
Free will:
All other approaches are determinist to some degree.
Claims that human beings are essentially self-determining and have free will.
Doesn’t mean that people aren’t affected by external or internal influences but are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development.
Humanistic psychologists reject scientific models that attempt to establish general principals of behaviour.
We are all unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experiences instead.
Person-centred approach.
Self-actualisation:
Innate tendency to achieve their full potential.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
1. physiological needs
2. safety and security
3. self-esteem
4. self-actualisation
All lower levels must be met before self-actualisation can be met.
Personal growth is concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled.
There are some psychological barriers that may prevent a person from doing this.
The self, congruence and conditions of worth;
Rogers - for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self must be congruent with their ideal self.
Incongruence - when there is a large gap between self and ideal-self. negative feelings of self-worth.
Client-centred therapy - helps bridge the gap between the self and the ideal self.
Problems have roots in childhood and can be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard.
A02
Not reductionist:
Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour.
Behaviourists - explain learning in terms of stimulus-response connections.
Freud - described the whole of personality as a conflict between the id, ego and superego.
Biological psychs - reduce behaviour to its basic physiological processes.
Cognitive approach - sees humans as info processing machines.
Humanistic psychologists advocate holism.
This approach may have more validity than it’s alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within real-life contexts.
Limited application:
Little real life application.
However, Rogerian counselling has revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation.
Has a limited impact within psychology as a whole.
May be due to the fact that it lacks evidence or that the approach has been described as a loose set of abstract concepts.
Cultural bias:
Ideas such as autonomy, freedom and personal growth, would be much more associated with an individualist culture.
Collectivist cultures emphasise the needs of the group and community and may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology.
Approach cannot be generalised to other cultures and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed.
