Approaches Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic approach?
A perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious that operate on the mind and direct human behavior and experience.
Freud suggested that the part of the mind we know about ‘conscious mind’ is only the tip of the ice burg
What is the role of the unconscious?
- it acts a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that have an influence on our behavior and personality
- it contains memories which have been repressed or locked away and forgotten, these are accessed during dreams or through slips of the tongue (paraplaxes)
What is the id (purpose, principle, when)
The Primitive part of our personality that operates on the pleasure principle and is present from birth
What is the ego (purpose, principle, when)
It reduces conflict between the demands of the id and superego by employing defense mechanisms, it’s The mediator between the other two parts and works on the reality principle. Develops around 2 years old
What is the super ego (purpose, principle, when)?
Our internalized sense of right and wrong, based on the morality principle. Develops around the age of 5 and represents the moral standards of the same sex parent
What are the psychosexual stages?
- oral (0-1 years)
Pleasure in the mouth, mothers breast is desired - anal (1-3 years)
Pleasure in the anus, done so by withholding and expelling faeces - phallic (3-5 years)
Pleasure in the genital area, child experiences the oedipus or Electra complex - latency
Earlier conflicts are repressed - genital
sexual desire alongside onset of puberty
Evaluate the psychodynamic approach
+ although controversial freuds theory has had a huge influence on modern psychology alongside the behaviorist approach
- majority of freuds claims stemmed from or were backed up by intense research into singular case studies like little hand for example and findings were very subjective.
- all of freuds claims are unfalsifiable meaning they lack scientific credibility and may even be considered a pseudo science
- psychic determinism
What are the main assumptions of the behaviorist approach?
- only interested in studying behavior that can be observed and measured
- suggested that the basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species
- lab studies
- classical/operant conditioning
What is classical conditioning
Learning through association (two stimuli repeatedly paired together)
What is operant conditioning
- learning though consequences (positive, negative, punishment)
- skinner (1953) suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment.
Evaluate the behaviorist approach
- use of lab studies (high control,
Objectivity, replication) and focusing on the measurement of observable behaviors gave the approach good scientific credibility - real life application eg operant conditioning in token economies and classical conditioning in phobia acquisition (two process model)
- mechanist view on behavior e.g. we passively respond to our behavior with little or no conscious insight. (SLT and cognitive put emphasis on mental processes)
- environmental determinism. Everything we do is a sum of our reinforced history
Key assumptions of SLT
- proposed we learn through observation and imitation of others within a social context
- learning occurs directly through conditioning but also occurs indirectly
What is vicarious reinforcement
Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behavior, key factor of imitation
Explain meditational processes
Cognitive factors that influence learning and intervene in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired.
Attention - notice behavior
Retention - remember a behavior
Motivation - willingness to perform behavior
Motor reproduction - ability to perform
What is identification
When behavior is more likely to be imitated if the observer identifies with them (role models, modeling)
