Approaches AO1 Flashcards
What must a psychologist use in order to be scientific?
The hypothetico-deductive model of reasoning
What are the processes of the hypothetico-deductive model of reasoning?
Theory- about why behaviour is occurring
Hypothesis- to explain behaviour in line with theory, predict results of new observations
Empirical data- conduct empirical tests of predictions
Interpretation- verify findings to support/modify/throw out the theory
Who was Wundt?
Known as the ‘father of psychology’
Began studying humans in philosophical ways but moved towards more controlled research
Promoted use of introspection as a way of studying mental processes
What is introspection?
The systematic analysis of your own present conscious experience of a stimulus
What are the 2 sections in which an experience is analysed?
Physical sensations
Emotional feelings
What is structuralism?
Isolating the structure of consciousness
What did Wundt have in his labs?
Highly trained observers
Controlled and standardised sensory events
Individuals asked to describe mental experiences of events
Observations repeated numerous times
What did Wundt believe his observers had to be during his experiments?
High state of attention to the stimulus
In control of the situation
What does the behaviourist approach state about behaviour?
All behaviour is learnt and determined by the environment
Experiences after birth shape behaviour (nothing is innate)
Laws developed to explain all human behaviour and make predictions
How does the behaviourist approach state learning occurs?
Via classical conditioning or operant conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through association
Emphasises importance of association in causing behaviours
What is operant conditioning?
Based on learning via consequences of punishment and reinforcement
Emphasises importance of consequences
Behaviour that is reinforced is likely to be repeated and vice versa with punishment
What are the key terms linked to classical conditioning?
Unconditioned stimulus
Unconditioned response
Neutral stimulus
Association
Conditioned stimulus
Conditioned response
What is positive reinforcement?
Adding a desirable consequence to a behaviour to increase the chances of the behaviour being repeated
What is a primary reinforcer?
Something that in itself is directly rewarding
What is a secondary reinforcer?
Not directly rewarding but a token that will eventually lead to a primary reinforcer
What is an example of positive reinforcement?
Sweet for answering a question right
Sweet = primary reinforcer
Teacher = secondary reinforcer
What is negative reinforcement?
Taking away of something bad to increase the chances of the behaviour being repeated
What is an example of negative reinforcement?
Taking away chores for being good
What is punishment?
Causing an unpleasant outcome in response to a behaviour in order to make sure it is not repeated
Positive punishment- adding something bad
Negative punishment- taking away something good
What is an assumption about the psychodynamic approach?
Behaviour is determined more by internal psychological factors than by biological factors or environmental reinforcement
What did Freud say the personality is made up of?
Id- basic instincts and needs, sexual and aggressive
Ego- developing an appreciation of reality
Superego- morals
What does the psychodynamic approach say behaviour is determined by?
The unconscious mind and early childhood experiences
What is the unconscious mind?
Vast storehouse of basic drives and instincts, unresolved conflicts and unpleasant events/memories
What are some of the roles of the unconscious mind?
Store socially unacceptable drives and instincts that would interfere with us fitting in with society
Hide unresolved conflicts to protect ego/sense of reality
Source of dreams and automatic thoughts (Freudian slip)
Influences personality
How is the unconscious mind accessed?
Through psychoanalyis
How does a psychoanalyst access the unconscious?
Try to decode symbols of unconscious mind via dream analysis or free association
Psychoanalyst can tell patient what is buried and how patient must come to terms with it in order to recover
Can a patient ever access their own unconscious?
No, it is totally out of their awareness in its nature even though it controls much of their behaviour
When is the id formed?
Born with it, innate
What is the id responsible for?
Pleasure principle
Focusses on self, gets what it wants
Deals with feelings and needs
In the unconscious
E.g. quick temper, aggressiveness, cheating on partner
When is the ego formed?
Developed via psychosexual stages
Formed between 18months - 3 years
What is the ego responsible for?
Mediator between id and superego
Defence mechanisms
Self-preservation
Reality
Mediates conflict
E.g. calming down a situation
When is the superego formed?
Developed via psychosexual stages
Formed between 3 - 6 years
What is the superego responsible for?
Morality principle / moral guide
Punishes wrongdoing
Based on parental and societal views
In the unconscious
E.g. feeling guilty
What did Freud believe about child development?
Occurs in 5 stages
Each stage marked by a different conflict to overcome
What does unresolved psychosexual conflict lead to?
Fixation
Child becomes stuck and carries on certain behaviours/conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life
3 part personality will not be developed and will lead to problems in later life
What are the 5 psychosexual stages of development?
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latent
Genital
What age is the oral stage?
0 - 1 years old
What is the oral stage?
Libido is focused on the mouth
Things put into mouth to experience them
Weaning- major development
What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in oral stage?
Likely to become a smoker or a compulsive eater
What age is the anal stage?
1 - 3 years
What is the anal stage?
Libido is focused on the bum and personal hygiene
Potty training- major development
What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in the anal stage?
Extreme orderliness/uptight
or
Extreme messiness
What age is the phallic stage?
3 - 6 years
What is the phallic stage?
Libido is focused on gender, love and morality
Obsession with opposite sex parent
Leads to identification with same sex parent
What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in the phallic stage?
Deviance from the ‘norm’
Sexual dysfunction
Criminality
What age is the latent stage?
7 - 12 years
What is the latent stage?
Calm, stable period
Developing use of defence mechanisms
Development of self, skills and values
What is consequence of unresolved conflict in the latent stage?
None
What age is the genital stage?
12 years onwards
What is the genital stage?
Libido is focused on developing a sexual interest in people outside of the family
What is the consequence of unresolved conflict in the genital stage?
Homosexuality
What must occur for someone to live a healthy and productive life?
Ego must be protected from unpleasant or threatening experiences using defence mechanisms
What are the 3 defence mechanisms?
Repression
Denial
Displacement
What is repression?
Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
e.g. forgetting clues that may indicate your partner is cheating
What is denial?
Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
e.g. an addict refusing to admit they have a problem
What is displacement?
Transferring feelings from a true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target
e.g. teacher makes you angry so you take it out on your friend as you cannot do it to teacher
What are the main points about the cognitive approach?
Mind actively processes information from senses
Humans seen as data processing systems –> similar to computers due to encoding of information and outputs
What does the cognitive approach argue about internal mental processes?
Should be studied scientifically
Studied indirectly by making inferences on basis of observable behaviour
What is inference?
To go beyond immediate evidence and make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed
What is an example of inference?
Baddeley –> STM, remember less acoustically similar words but infer that it is due to confusion in coding
What is a schema?
Mental representation of experience, knowledge and understanding, pre-conceived idea
When cognitive processing is affected by a person’s beliefs or expectations
Where do schemas come from?
Past learning and experiences or information given to us from sources such as people, books or the internet
What is the purpose of a schema?
Allows us to easily understand the world without having to learn everything from scratch
Helps make predictions about about future
Fill in past memories
Why could a schema not be useful when processing information?
Stereotypes may influence information processing
May lead to false memories
May make eye witnesses unreliable
Can lead to prejudice and discrimination
What is a way to study internal mental processes?
Theoretical models
What are theoretical models?
Visual representations of internal mental processes
Used to help researchers simplify and study complex processes
Diagrams or flowcharts that show how information is passed between different systems
What is an important theoretical model?
Information processing approach
Suggests information flows through cognitive systems in sequence of stages –> input, storage, retrieval
Why are the models theoretical?
Cognitive psychologists do not believe parts of model exist literally in the brain
Model is representation of what is happening
What is another type of model used in the cognitive approach?
Computer models –> mind compared to a computer
What are the processes that occur in a computer model?
Input from environment reaching central processing unit (brain)
Coding turns information into usable format
Stores hold information
Outpiut of behaviour
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Scientific study of brain/neurological structures that are responsible for cognitive processes
What advancements have been made in cognitive neuroscience?
Advances in brain imaging (fMRI and PET scans)
Allow psychologists to observe neurological basis of mental processes
Who developed the humanistic approach?
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
What is the humanistic approach concerned with?
Explanations of ‘healthy’ growth in individuals
What is a summary of humanistic approach?
People have free will to direct their lives towards goals
Person should be understood as a whole
Cannot make generalisations and laws due to individual being unique
Focus on self and conscious experience
What does it mean to say that the humanistic approach believes in free will?
That people are active agents with the ability to determine own development
What is self-actualisation?
A person reaching their full potential and becoming the best they can possibly be
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Explains how humans have an innate tendency to strive to self-actualisation
What do the four lower levels of the hierarchy of needs represent?
Deficiency needs
Must be met before individual can work toward self actualisation and fulfil full potential
What are the levels of the hierarchy of needs from bottom to top with examples?
Physiological (breathing, food, sex, water etc)
Safety (health, family, employment)
Love/belonging (family, sexual intimacy)
Esteem (confidence, achievement)
Self actualisation (self acceptance, purpose, morality)
What did Rogers argue was required for personal growth to be achieved?
Individual’s concept of self must be broadly equivalent or have congruence with their ideal self
What happens if there is too big of a gap between the ideal self and individual’s concept of self?
Person will experinece state of incongruence
Self actualisation will not be possible due to negative of feelings associated with incongruence
What did Rogers claim were the causes of incongruence?
Rooted in childhood
Lack of unconditional positive regard
E.g. parent which has limits for love of their child has introduced conditions of worth
How can gap between congruence and incongruence be closed/reduced?
Develop healthier view of ourselves
Have more achievable and realistic ideal self
Receive unconditional positive regard (from parent or therapist)
How does a therapist providing unconditional positive regard help?
Client centred therapy
Helps patient cope with everyday life
Failed to receive unconditional positive regard as a child so therapist moves patient into state of congruence
What is the aim of Rogerian therapy?
Increase feelings of self worth
Help person become more fully functioning person
What is client centred therapy like?
Non-directive
Client encouraged towards discovery of own solutions
Therapeutic atmosphere
Warm, supportive
Non judgmental
What 3 things should an effective therapist provide with client?
Genuineness
Empathy
Unconditional positive regard
Why has client centred therapy been praised?
Forward-looking and effective approach
Focuses on present problems rather than dwelling on the past
What is social learning theory?
A way of explaining behaviour including direct and indirect reinforcement
Individual has to decide if they want to enact behaviour normally based on evaluation of potential rewards
Who proposed the social learning theory?
Bandura
What are the main assumptions of the social learning theory?
States that people learn through observation and imitation of others within a social context
What are the 4 ways in which learning can occur?
Identification
Modelling
Vicarious reinforcement
Imitation
What is identification?
Idea that people are more likely to imitate the behaviour of those who they identify with (role models)
Role model is someone who possesses similar characteristics to the observer e.g. same gender, high status, celebrities
What is modelling?
When we decide who to imitate based on several different consdierations- only imitate most influential people
If an individual imitates the person’s behaviour later this is modelling the behaviour
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Reinforcement the observer sees the role model receiving
Observer does not receive reinforcement/punishment themselves but see someone else get it
Reinforcement makes observer more likely to imitate behaviour for themselves
What is imitation?
When an individual observes a behaviour and copies it
Behaviour is often not able to be copied exactly –> simulation
What are mediational processes?
Bridge between learning theory and cognitive approach
Mental factors mediate in learning process to determine whether new response is acquired or not
What are the 4 mediational processes?
Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation
What is attention?
Behaviour must grab our attention for it to be imitated
We normally attend more to role models
Links to modelling and identification
What is retention?
Important as much of social learning is not immediate
Observed behaviours may be stored by observer and reproduced at a later time, needs to be a memory to refer to
What is reproduction?
When someone appreciates that an action is a desirable one but may not attempt to imitate as physically/logically cannot
See many behaviours that we would like to imitate but limited by physical abilities
What is motivation?
Rewards/punishments will be considered by observer before
Perceived rewards outweigh costs then behaviour will be more likely to be imitated
Behaviour will not be imitated if vicarious reinforcement not seen to be important enough
What are the assumptions of the biological approach?
Suggests everything psychological is first biological
Must look at biological structures and processes to understand human behaviour
Thoughts, feelings and emotions believed to have physical basis
What is within each human cell?
23 pairs of chromosomes made up of 2 DNA molecules
What is within each DNA molecule?
Genes (humans have approx 20,000)
What are twin studies used for?
To investigate genetic basis of behaviour
What are DZ twins?
Twins who are 50% genetically the same
What are MZ twins?
Twins who are 100% genetically the same
What result from twin studies would suggest genes are the cause of behaviour?
MZ twins more similar than DZ pair
What result from twin studies would suggest the environment is the cause of behaviour?
Both just as similar
What are alleles?
Different forms of a gene
Can be dominant or recessive
What is the genotype?
Actual gene information for a trait
Genetic code represents alleles present
What is the phenotype?
Expression of the trait in the environment due to interaction, combined effect of genes with environment
What are neurons?
Cells in nervous sytem which transmit nerve impulses in form of electrical signals
What is the central nervous system made up of?
Brain
Spinal cord
What are the different parts of the brain?
Brain stem
Limbic system
Cortex
What is the brain stem?
Basic and automatic functions
E.g. breathing, digestion
What is the limbic system?
Emotions, memory
E.g. hippocampus
What is the cortex?
Complex cognitive functions, not fully developed until 30
E.g. decision making, language, adding meaning
What are key ideas about neurochemistry?
Communication via electrical impulses/signals
Neurotransmitters sent across synaspses
What are neurotransmitters that activate messages called?
Excitatory
What are neurotransmitters that stop messages called?
Inhibitory
What is evolutionary psychology?
Looks at current behaviours and tries to work out if they exist due to their adaptiveness or if they were adaptive long ago
What is the environment of evolutionary adpation (EEA)?
Approx 70,000 years ago
When humans lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle
Had to adapt and evolve due to difficult environments
What is the mismatch theory?
If behaviours were adaptive long ago but no longer make sense in a modern world
E.g. flight or fight response, needed for cavemen but rarely used in today’s society and can be harmful in large amounts
What is natural selection?
Where a behaviour enables survival
E.g. access to food, safety from predators
What is sexual selection?
Where one biological sex chooses mates of other sex to mate with, competition between members of same sex for access to members of opposite sex
What is selective advantage?
Any genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individual’s survival and reproduction will continue into future generations
