Approaches Flashcards
Explain the role of Wundt in early psychology
First lab dedicated to psychological enquiry opened in leipzig in 1879. Document and describe nature of human consciousness. Known as introspection. Recording their own conscious thoughts. Isolating structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism
How scientific was wundts research
Introspections recorded under strictly controlled conditions using same stimulus every time. Same standardised instructions issued to all participants. Marked the separation of modern scientific psychology from its broader scientific roots
What did Watson and the early behaviourists do
Beginning of 20th century introspection questioned by John B Watson. His main problem was it produced data that was subjective data. Also critical of private mental processes. Scientific psychology should be restricted to studying phenomena that could be observed and measured
Evaluation of origins of psychology
Wundts methods were unreliable - criticism of structuralist approach non observable responses. Lack of reliability and subjective
Not accurate- nisbett and Wilson claimed little knowledge of causes of, processes underlying or behaviour and attitudes so conclusions can’t be drawn e.g unaware If a person is implicitly racist
Strengths of a scientific approach - corrections and adaptations to theories mean incorrect Ines are not around for long
Lack of ecological validity- contrived lab based situations that tell us little about how people would act in real life
Assumptions of the behaviourist approach
Only studying behaviour that’s observable and measurable. Not investigating mental processes. John B Watson rejected introspection. Maintain control and objectivity and relied on lab experiments to do this. Behaviourist research in animals can be applied to humans
What’s the research for classical conditioning
Pavlovs dogs
What’s the research for operant conditions
Skinners rats
What’s positive reinforcement
Receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
What is negative reinforcement
Occurs when an animal or human behaves in a certain way to avoid something unpleasant
Evaluation of behaviourist approach
Gave psych scientific credibility through the use of language and methods from natural sciences, highly controlled lab settings and objectivity and replication.
Real life application- principles of conditioning have been applied it s range of things e.g operant cond token economies in psychiatric wards
Mechanistic view of behaviour - viewed as passive responders to the environment with no insight into their behaviour. Rejected all cognitive processiong but humans have a higher level of mental functioning than animals
Social learning theory approach assumptions
Learn through observation and imitation of others within a social context. Learning occurs directly through classical and operant but also indirectly.
What’s vicarious reinforcement
Indirect learning, observes behaviour of others. Learner may imitate this behaviour if it’s reinforced positively. If negative avoid imitating. Observes consequence of behaviour
What are the mediational processes
Attention- the extent to which we notice behaviour
Retention- how well the behaviour is remembered
Motor reproduction- the ability to perform the behaviour
Motivation- the will to perform the behaviour in
What’s identification
More likely to imitate someone they identify with called role models. Process is modelling. Don’t have to be in presence links to important media figures
What factors affect a role model
Familiarity
Similarity
Power
Status
