Approaches Flashcards
When did Psychology become a separate academic discipline?
1879
Who established the first psychology laboratory?
Wundt in 1879 in Germany
What was Wundt main method?
Introspection.
What was introspection?
introspection was asking subjects to systematically report on their inner mental processes such as emotions and sensations, and asking them to report on the quality, duration and intensity of what they felt.
How did Wundt ‘introspection’ approach affect Psychology?
It moved the study of mind and behaviour away from its philosophical roots adopting a more controlled, methodical way of studying internal mental processes.
Why was Introspection abandoned?
Due to the subjective (biased, unscientific) nature of subject’s interpretation of their own experiences.
What did Freud develop?
Frued developed psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach from approximately 1895 onwards.
Why was Freud’s approach criticised?
Frued’s emphasis on observable aspects of human behaviour attracted criticism from psychologists who argued that psychology should be scientific in aims and methods and focus on observable behaviour.
Who developed the Behaviourist approach?
Watson
What did Watson say that Psychology should be about?
He argued that psychology should adopt a strictly scientific, empirical approach focusing only on observable, measurable behaviour.
What did Behaviourism look at throughout the 20th century?
Behaviourism explored the variety of way in which behaviours are learnt, kept and unlearnt through classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning.
What approach dominated Psychology from the 1920’s-40’s?
Behaviourism.
What was Cognitive psychology studying in the 1950’s?
Internal mental processes and abilities such as memory perception, attention, decision making. The development of the first computers in the 50’s allowed Cognitive psychologists to model human mental processes artificially.
What did the Cognitive approach favour?
Scientific methods and controlled experimentation.
What does the Biological approach focus on in Psychology?
It focuses on the way in which internal structures and processes influence the mind and behaviour. biological psychology employs highly scientific methods and shares much in common with biology and chemistry.
From the 1920’s-60’s Behaviourism focus on?
It attempted to develop a more scientific approach in Psychology focusing on observable behaviour and how individuals acquire/learn behaviours through interaction with their social environment.
What is Classical conditioning?
Classical Conditioning argues that behaviours are acquired through ‘stimulus-response’ associations.
E.g. an event in the environment (stimulus) will cause a physiological effect (response) such as fear, happiness etc. if this association is repeated a number of times the response will automatically occur every time the stimulus is presented.
Who formulated the basics of Classical conditioning?
Pavlov 1927
What was Pavlov 1927 research that formed classical conditioning?
Dogs naturally salivated in the presence of food. He described this link as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS- the food) causing an unconditioned response (salivation-UCR).
By repeatedly pairing the unconditioned stimulus of food with a a neutral stimulus a bell ringing just before the presentation of food, pavlov found that eventually dogs salivated simply at the sound of the bell.
Therefore, the neutral stimulus of the bell had become a conditioned stimulus (CS) producing a conditioned response (CR) of salivation.
What are some practical applications of classical conditioning in psychology?
Watson later showed phobias could be acquired through CC in the ‘Little Albert’ experiment.
Systematic Densification which is based on the principles of CC to ‘unlearn’ phobic responses
(THESE CAN BE DESCRIBED AND EVALUATED IN AN APPROACHES QUESTION ON CC TO PROVIDE PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS/EXPLANATIONS FROM THIS APPROACH)
What is operant conditioning?
Operant Conditioning focuses on how behaviour is influenced by the consequences of our actions.
If behaviours are reinforced (rewarded) then they are strengthen and more likely to be repeated in the future. If behaviours are punished (or ignored) they will be less likely to be repeated in the future and may eventually be extinguished.
For example, aggressive behaviours in a child could be strengthened through the positive reinforcers of praise, attention, respect, etc.
What was Skinner’s 1953 study on operant conditioning?
Skinner (‘53) developed a ‘Skinner Box’ to study learning through operant conditioning in rats and pigeons. An animal placed in the box would discover accidentally at some point that pressing a lever in the box would release a food pellet.
This positive reinforcement would increase the frequency of lever-pressing. This would also occur if the lever took away an unpleasant stimulus such as a louse noise this is negative reinforcement. Unsurprisingly, punishments such as the lever generating an electric shock would lead to decreased lever-pressing.
How is Operant conditioning used in other areas of Psychology?
Learning theory of attachment partly explains attachment through operant conditioning.
This can be described and evaluated in an approaches question on OC to provide practical applications/explanations of this approach.
What is social learning theory and who was it developed by?
SLT was developed by Bandura in the 60’s and focuses on how behaviours such as aggression may be learnt via modelling and vicarious learning.
Imitation is most likely if the learner identified with the person whom they are imitating- the model.
What is Modelling?
Imitating observed behaviour e.g. aggression of a model.
What is Vicarious learning?
Imitation as a result of seeing another individual being positively reinforced (e.g. praise, popularity) for a behaviour e.g. aggression.
What is a Mediational processes?
Refer to thoughts and cognitions which influence whether we will or will not imitate others and how motivated we are to do so.
What were the 4 mediational processes Bandura identified in social learning?
Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation
What does Attention refer to as a mediational process?
The observer must observe the model behaving in a particular way
What does retention refer to a as a mediational process?
The observer must remember what they’ve seen.
what does reproduction refer to as a mediational process?
The observer must be capable of imitating the observed act.
What does motivation refer to as a mediational process?
The observer must be willing to imitate the observed act.
What Bandura et al 1961 study?
A study into imitative aggression based on SLT.
What was the procedure of Bandura et al 1961?
Bandura divided 72 children aged 4 into 3 groups of 12 boys and 12 girls.
In condition 1 the children saw a male and a female adult model physically and verbally attack a 5’ inch tall inflatable Bobo doll.
In the 2nd condition the adults did not aggress against the doll.
In condition 3 there was no adult model at all.
Children were then taken to a room and prevented from playing with some attractive toys to frustrate them.
They were then taken to a 3rd room with a Bobo doll and various weapons.
What were the findings of Bandura 1961?
Bandura’s observation of imitative aggression found that children in condition 1 who had witnessed the violent model were far more likely to aggress against the bobo doll than those in other conditions.
What was the Conclusions from Bandura (61’)
The research implies that violence in the media and the family can cause imitative aggression in children.
Where else is Bandura (61’) study used in Psychology?
Aggression topic
Gender topic.
Evaluate the strengths of Learning approaches to psychology?
Behaviourism adopts a strictly empirical approach: i.e. it only focuses on observable behaviour which can be measured and tested. Equally, Behaviourism employs scientific methods - experiments conducted under tightly controlled laboratory conditions aimed at understanding the cause-effect relationship which govern the acquisition, maintenance or extinction of behaviours.
Behaviourism illustrates how our social environment - family, peers, teachers, etc- influences our behaviour through reinforcement, punishment or imitation. Clearly this is an important ‘nurture’ influence governing a huge range of behaviours ranging from gender role to aggression to language acquisition. Therefore, Behaviourism is important in understanding how our social experiences with others in the family, our peer groups, at school, work etc mould our behavioural responses.
Learning theory has been used to develop methods for controlling behaviour in real-world situations: for example, classroom and family discipline, managing the behaviour of prisoners or inmates in mental institutions and treating mental disorders such as phobias through systematic desensitisation.
Evaluate the weaknesses of the Learning approach?
Behaviourists argued that humans are born a ‘tabula rasa’ (blank slate) whose behaviour, personality and attitude are acquired as a result of learning. Behaviourism is criticised fr its extreme ‘nurture’ viewpoint: e.g. it argues that all behaviours are acquired through learning and ignores the importance of biology, instinct, evolution and cognition in influencing behaviour. Thus behaviourism is reductionist and deterministic.
The laws of Behaviourism were originally formulated using research conducted on animals such as rats, dogs and pigeons. Behaviourists believed that fundamental laws governing the acquisition of behaviours were similar for all species including humans. Clearly, there is a problem generalising from animals to humans in regard to complexity of human cognitive processes. Although animals may response fairly mechanically to conditioning, human cognitions make human behavioural responses much more complex.
You can also gain marks for evaluation by stating what Learning theory ignores which other approaches do take account of.
What is reductionist?
Reduces all behaviour to learning
What is deterministic?
Argues that our behaviours are determined by previous learning experiences and we possess no free-will or choice.
What is ‘tabula rasa’?
A blank state or having no memory.
What does Cognitive mean?
Refers to the study of human mental processes.
Why was Cognitive psychology developed?
It was developed from the 1950’s onwards partly as an improvement on Behavioural Psychology which failed to recognise the importance of mental processes in determining behaviour; partly as a result of the development of computers which were able to mimic human mental processes.
Cognitive psychology is concerned with internal mental processes such as?
Perception- How we take in and make sense of external environmental stimuli
Attention- How we focus in on and filter out external environmental stimuli
Memory- How we retain and recall information
Language- The use of mental symbols to represent, manipulate and communicate aspects of internal and external reality
Thinking- Judgement, reasoning, logic, problem-solving.
What is Cognitive Psychology?
Cognitive Psychology is concerned with all the ways in which knowledge of the world is attained, retained, and used.
What are Schemas?
Schemas are mental maps of understanding about the world, ourselves and others..
For example, we have schemas of understanding about how to use the Underground, how to act in a job interview, how a policeman is likely to behave.
How do schemas help us?
Schemas help us to interpret incoming information quickly and effectively, this prevents us from being overwhelmed by the vast amount of information we perceive in our environment.
How can schemas affect eye-witness testimony?
Schemas about race, gender and social class have been shown to bias witness’s memories of events in that stereotypes may cause us to believe that some people are more likely to commit crime.
How is the mind often conceptualised as a computer/information processor?
The mind has an input of information from the external world via the senses; throughput in the form of memory, thinking and language, and output in the form of decision making, speech and action.
What is parallel processing?
Is processing different tasks at once (e.g. driving a car and holding a conversation)
What is behaviour to the Cognitive approach?
behaviour is the result of information processing. Thoughts can be both conscious and non-conscious, these thoughts pass through stages called internal mental processes.
What is the Computer model?
Is how we can think of the structure of the mind/brain system as analogous to a computer, such as CPU= Brain, Coding = Turning stimuli into thoughts, Memory stores= Specialist memory areas in the brain. Output= behavioural responses.
What are Theoretical models?
Are like flow chart models used in computer programming and are a representation of how information flows and is processed through a mental system, such as memory or attention.
What are two ways the Cognitive approach uses to study internal processes?
Theoretical models and Computer models.
How are models such as theoretical and computer models useful?
Models produce testable theories that can be studied with scientific methods and inferences made from experiments.
What is Assimilation?
Is when we add new information to existing schema.
What is Accommodation?
Is when an old schema has to be adapted, or new schema has to be created.
What is a Piaget?
Suggested as children developed they acquired new schema through interaction with the world and others.
What are 3 types of schemas?
Self-schemas
Role-schemas
Event-schemas
What is an inference?
Inference refers to going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed.
What are strengths of the cognitive approach?
The cognitive approach has been useful in researching, describing and understanding the effects of mental processes and cognitions on behaviour. An example of this is Loftus and Palmer’s study on eyewitness testimony showed that memory can be warped and distorted after the event by leading questions. Studies such as these have real-life applications in this case how witnesses are questioned by police and cross-examined by lawyers. Similarly, cognitive therapies are widely employed in the NHS and research evidence indicates they are an effective in the treatment of a wide range of disorders such as depression, stress, anxiety and social phobias.
Cognitive approach lends itself to laboratory experimentation, therefore hypotheses can be tested under highly controlled conditions, confounding variables can be eliminated and cause-effect relationships between variables can be established. The testing of mental processes such as memory or perception often makes use of technical measuring instruments which ensures high levels of precision in measurements taken.
What are some of the weaknesses of the cognitive approach?
Although the computer analogy of the mind is, in some respects, suitable, computers essential number-crunch quantitative data at high speeds. Human are far less capable than computers in this respect, but computers do not possess most of the characteristics of the human mind - intuitive decision-making, emotion, personal beliefs and motivations etc. Thus humans are qualitatively different to computers. Even the most advanced computer technology is far from able to mimic complex human mental states.
The cognitive approach views thought processes as all important in deterring emotional state and behaviour. It ignores, therefore, alternative influences on behaviour such as instinct, genetics, neurotransmitters, learning experiences and social environment. For example, a depressive’s maladaptive cognitions could be the result of a biochemical imbalance, and mood and behaviour could be improved by a drug such as Prozac rather than through altering cognitions.
You can also gains marks for evaluation by stating what the Cognitive Approach ignores which other approaches do take account of.
What is Cognitive neuroscience?
Cognitive neuroscience brings together knowledge of the structure and functions of the brain from Biological psychology with cognitive psychologists’ knowledge of mental processes such as memory and perception.
It aims to find out how the brain structures influence the way we process information and map mental cognitive functions to specific areas of the brain. This is done using brain imaging techniques such as PET scans.
What was a Cognitive neuroscience study?
Patient HM study
What was the Cognitive neuroscience study Patient HM?
HM had his hippocampus removed in an operation to reduce his epilepsy. After the operation he could remember things he had just been told suggesting that his STM was intact, but could not transfer this information to the LTM. Thus he could not form new long-term memories. He could, however, remember LTM’s before the surgery. This provides evidence for the MSM’s argument that STM and LTM are 2 separate stores.
What do you need to know for the Biological approach?
The influence of genes
Biological structures and Neurochemistry on behaviour
Genotype and Phenotype
Genetic basis of behaviour
Evolution and Behaviour
What is the Biological approach?
A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function.
What are genes?
They make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features of an organism (such as eye colour, height) and psychological features (such as mental disorder, intelligence).
Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring.
What is Biological structure?
An arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing.
What is Neurochemistry?
Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning.
What is a genotype?
The particular set of genes that a person possesses.
What is a phenotype?
The way in which the genotype is modified and influenced by the environment is referred to as the phenotype.
What is evolution?
The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations.
What was Darwin’s theory of evolution?
It argues that physical and psychological characteristics which increase the chances of an organism surviving and reproducing (adaptive traits) mean that these characteristics will be more likely to be passed onto the next generation.
