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A level psychology > approaches > Flashcards

approaches Flashcards

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1
Q

what is psychology?

A

the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour

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2
Q

what is science?

A

acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation with an aim of discovering general laws.

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3
Q

what is introspection?

A

a systematic method used to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations,

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4
Q

what were the early philisphical roots of psychology?

A

rene decartes - cartesian dualism (mind and body are separate)
john locke - empiricism (we learn all our knowledge and instinct and inherit nothing.
Charles Darwin - evolution and survival of the fittest.

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5
Q

when was Wundt’s lab set up?

A

1879 in Leipzig, Germany

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6
Q

what did Wundt do?

A

he and his colleagues tried to investigate the human mind through introspection and break conscious thoughts down into constituent parts - this is called structuralism

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7
Q

why was Wundt’s method not actually that bad?

A
  • all introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions with the same stimulus each time.
  • instructions to participants were standardised which allowed replication
  • it was stepping away from philosophy and heading towards science.
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8
Q

how did psychology emerge as a science?

A
  • Wundt developed introspection
  • John B watson argued this was too subjective so developed the behaviourist approach
  • this bought lab experiments and experimental method to psychology
  • new approaches developed that had similar principles but different focuses
  • most recent approach is the biological approach that uses new technology such as fMRI scanners to study the brain more directly.
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9
Q

what is the behavioural approach?

A

a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning

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10
Q

what is classical conditioning?

A

learning by association. occurs when an unconditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus to produce a conditioned response

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11
Q

what is operant conditioning?

A

a form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences. possible consequences being positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment

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12
Q

what is reinforcement?

A

a consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated, it can be positive or negative.

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13
Q

what are the assumptions of the behavioural approach?

A
  • only interested in behaviour that can be studied and measured
  • lab experiments and experimental methods
  • rejected introspection
  • following Darwin they believed that fundamental processes were the same in all animals so animals could replace humans in research.
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14
Q

outline the process of classical conditioning.

A

before conditioning: unconditioned stimulus –>unconditioned response
neutral stimulus —> no response
during conditioning: neutral stimulus + unconditioned stimulus —> unconditioned response
after conditioning: conditioned stimulus —> conditioned response

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15
Q

what is positive reinforcement?

A

receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed

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16
Q

what is negative reinforcement?

A

when a behaviour is performed to avoid an unpleasant consequence

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17
Q

what is punishment?

A

an unpleasant consequence of behaviour that decreases the likelihood of it happening again.

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18
Q

why does behaviourism have scientific credibility?

A

because it focuses of objectivity and replication

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19
Q

what real life applications does conditioning have?

A
  • it has been used in token economy systems in institutions

- it is a treatment for phobia

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20
Q

why is behaviourism a mechanistic view of behaviour?

A
  • there is no insight into the internal workings of the brain and organisms are assumed to be completely passive and have no conscious insight into our behaviour. this approach may be more accurate in animals than humans.
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21
Q

what is environmental determinism?

A

Skinner argues that we have no free will and all of our thoughts and behaviours are based off of our past conditioning.

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22
Q

what are the issues with animal studies?

A
  • ethical issues as Skinner’s box gave animals electric shocks etc.
  • the stressful conditions of the animals may have affected their behaviour
  • generalisability to humans is difficult.
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23
Q

what is social learning theory?

A

a way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.

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24
Q

what is imitation?

A

copying the behaviour of others

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25
Q

what is identification?

A

when an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model.

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26
Q

what is modelling?

A

from the observers perspective: it is imitating the behaviour of the role model
from the role models perspective: the precise demonstration of a behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.

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27
Q

what is vicarious reinforcement?

A

reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through someone else being reinforced for a behaviour.

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28
Q

what are mediational processes?

A

cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.

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29
Q

what are the assumptions of the social learning theory?

A

developed by Albert Bandura who agreed with behaviourists but argued learning can happen through conditioning or indirectly through reinforcement. he thought this was a social process.

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30
Q

what are the four mediational processes in the social learning theory?

A
  1. attention
  2. retention
  3. motor reproduction
  4. motivation
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31
Q

why is SLT better than behaviourism?

A

conditioning alone can’t explain all aspects of behaviour as it would take too long and be too dangerous for every human to discover everything for ourselves so we must learn some behaviours from others.

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32
Q

what is the bobo doll experiment and what does it show?

A

children were shown a video of adults striking a bobo doll - these children later behaved in the same way towards the doll.
when children were shown videos of the violent adult being praised for the violence or punished. the praised group behaved aggressive and the punished group did not.

this shows that the children learnt from and copied the behaviour of the adults and learnt by vicarious reinforcement what was good and bad to do with the doll.

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33
Q

why has the bobo doll experiment been criticised?

A

because those dolls are designed to be hit so some children may have just been doing what they thought they were supposed to be doing with the doll.

34
Q

how does SLT underestimate the role of biological factors?

A

in the bobo doll experiment boys were consistently more violent than girls so the role of male hormones such as testosterone are clearly not considered.

35
Q

how does SLT explain cultural differences in behaviour?

A

if we learn behaviour from the people around us then traits and behaviours between cultures will naturally vary.

36
Q

what is reciprocal determinism?

A

that we are influenced by our environment but can also exert an influence upon it.

37
Q

What is the cognitive approach?

A

an approach to studying psychology based on how mental processes affect behaviour

38
Q

what are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?

A
  • that internal mental processes can, and should be studied scientifically.
  • as mental processes are ‘private’ inferences are made based on people’s behaviour
39
Q

How can theoretical models help psychologists study the brain?

A

the human brain can be compared to theoretical models of technology like computers - like the computer model being used to compare how information is processed. they are a key feature of the cognitive approach.

40
Q

what is a schema?

A

a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence mental processing. they are developed from experience and as we get older our schema’s get more advanced. They can act as a kind of mental short cut.

41
Q

what is cognitive neuroscience?

A

the scientific study of biological structure that underpin cognitive processes.

42
Q

why has cognitive neuroscience only developed in the last 20 years?

A

the development of brain scanners such as fMRI and PET scans has been very recent and allows scientists to study the structures of the brain as they do things rather than just post mortem etc.

43
Q

why is the cognitive approach scientific?

A

it has a credible scientific basis as it uses highly controlled lab studies and biological methods to produce replicable data.

44
Q

what is machine reductionism?

A

when psychologists focus too much on the theoretical model of the computer or equivalent and ignore the impact of human emotion etc that affects our behaviour.

45
Q

what is the real life application of the cognitive approach?

A

the problem is that there isn’t really all that much - it’s all too theoretical and may lack external validity. However, it has developed AI technology which is awesome.

46
Q

why is the cognitive approach less detirminist than other approaches?

A

it is soft detirminism as it acknowledges that we can only respond to stimuli in a finite amount of ways but we are free to think and choose an appropriate response.

47
Q

what is the biological approach?

A

a perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetics and neural function

48
Q

what are the assumptions of the biological approach?

A
  • everything psychological is first physiological

- to understand behaviour we have to understand underlying biological structures and systems.

49
Q

what are genes?

A

sections of a chromasome which code for a specific protein. they are transmitted from parent to offspring.

50
Q

how does the biological approach study genetics?

A

twin studies and concordance rates are often used. DZ twins share 50% of their genes whereas MZ twins share 100%

51
Q

what is a biological structure?

A

an arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing.

52
Q

what is genotype?

A

the actual genes that an individual inherits, in no way affected by the environment.

53
Q

what is phenotype?

A

the characteristics caused by the genotype, can be affected by the environment.

54
Q

what is evolution?

A

the changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations.

55
Q

how does evolution affect behaviour?

A

the theory of natural selection states that behaviours or characteristics that increase an organisms chances of surviving or reproducing are more likely to be passed on to the next generation so over time these traits become more common.

56
Q

what scientific methods does the biological approach use?

A

it is a very scientific approach as it uses brain scans, twin studies in a lab environment etc.

57
Q

what real life application does the biological approach have?

A

the development of psychoactive drugs to treat many conditions such as depression and schizophrenia is a real strong point of the approach.

58
Q

why are causal conclusions a weakness of the biological approach?

A

they assume that the abnormal functions of structures in the brain cause psychological abnormalities but correlation does not mean causation.

59
Q

why is the biological approach detirminist?

A

it states that human behaviour is governed by internal biological processes so we have no free will beyond this.

60
Q

why does the biological approach struggle to separate nature and nurture?

A

the use of twin studies is useful but for the majority of cases twins live in the same environment so we cannot be sure whether concordance is due to nature or nurture.

61
Q

what is the psychodynamic approach?

A

a perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate the mind and direct human behaviour and experience

62
Q

in the psychodynamic approach, what is the role of the unconscious?

A

freud suggested that the main part of the human mind is the unconscious mind, which we are unaware of but still governs a lot of our behaviours. it contains traumatic or disturbing memories that have been repressed. Just under the surface is the preconcious mind which shows itself in dreams or slips of the tongue.

63
Q

how did Freud describe the structure of personality?

A

it consists of three parts:
the id - entirely unconscious, selfish and aggressive. demands instant gratification. (only thing present at birth)
the ego: the part that balances the demands of the id and the superego
the superego: the moralistic part that represents how we think we should ideally be.

64
Q

what are the psychosexual stages?

A

five stages of development that all children go through, each stage involves a conflict, which left unresolved can lead to fixation.

  • oral, 0-1 years
  • anal, 1-3 years
  • phallic, 3-5 years
  • latency (earlier conflicts are repressed)
  • genital, puberty
65
Q

what are defence mechanisms?

A

unconscious strategies that the ego uses to balance the desires of the id and the superego.

  • repression, forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
  • denial, refusing to acknowledge an aspect of reality
  • displacement, transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion to another substitute.
66
Q

how has the psychodynamic approach influenced later psychology?

A
  • it drew attention to how events in our childhood can explain adult behaviours
67
Q

why does Freud’s method lack scientific reliability?

A
  • he used case studies as his entire evidence base
  • he recorded them extensively but there were very few and they were all very subjective cases.
  • no scientific methods used
68
Q

why is the psychodynamic approach ‘untestable’?

A

because Freud studied the unconscious mind, which cannot be quantified or falsified, meaning the approach lacks the criteria to make it a science.

69
Q

what is psychic detirminism?

A

it is the idea that if nothing we do or say is an accident then we have no free will as it has all been predetermined in our childhood for example.

70
Q

what is the practical application for the psychodynamic theory?

A

led to the creation of psychoanalysis, a type of therapy that was the predecessor to many modern day therapies.

71
Q

what is the humanistic approach?

A

an approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each persons capacity for self determination.

72
Q

what is the humanistic approaches view on free will?

A

it is one of the only approaches that states humans do have free will and are able to self-detirmine. for this reason Maslow and Rogers rejected approaches that try to establish general laws and instead establish general principles.

73
Q

what is self-actualisation?

A

the idea that every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential. self actuaisation is reaching the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. not everyone manages to reach self-actualisation as there are psychological barriers that may prevent them from doing this.

74
Q

what is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

A

physiological needs -> safety and security -> love and belongingness -> self-esteem -> self actualisation.

75
Q

what is the self? (Rogers theory)

A

the ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ it involves perception and valuing of ‘what i am’ and ‘what i can do’

76
Q

what is congruence? (Rogers theory)

A

the aim of Rogerian therapy, when the self and the ideal self are seen to broadly align.

77
Q

what are conditions of worth? (Rogers theory)

A

when a parent places conditions or boundaries on their love for their children - conditional love.

78
Q

why is holism more valid than reductionism?

A

humanistic psychologists advocate holism, the idea that a persons subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person. this increases validity as it considers real life behaviour in real settings and context.

79
Q

what is Rogers client centered therapy?

A
  • the client is encouraged to discover their own solutions in a warm environment as the therapy is non-directive.
  • Rogers said a doctor should provide the client with genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
  • idea is to reduce the level of in-congruence between the actual self and the ideal self.
  • can only be applied to mild psychological conditions.
80
Q

why does the humanistic approach have limited application?

A

it lacks a sound evidence base and is only an abstract concept so it is hard to apply to the real world or the wider community of psychology.

81
Q

why has the humanistic approach been praised for its positivity?

A

it sees all people as basically good and able to strive towards their goals rather than be inherently held back by their genes or past conditioning.

82
Q

why is there cultural bias in the humanistic approach?

A

it is based on individualist cultures where people tend to work towards individual goals and achievements. in collectivist cultures self actualisation may be much harder to define as they strive towards community and interdependence.

A level psychology (10 decks)

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