Approaches AO1 Flashcards
When was the origin of psychology?
In 1879 when the first experimental laboratory was created
Who created the first experimental lab?
Willheim Wundt
Where was Wundt’s first lab opened up?
Leizpig
What was the method Wundt developed?
Introspection
What was the method Wundt used to create his introspection theory?
- Analysing human consciousness under controlled conditions
- Used standardised procedures
- Wundt had participants analyse their own conscious experience
- Participants had various stimuli and had to report thoughts, images and sensations e.g. ticking metronome
- Participants were trained to make the data more objective (fact based)
- Participants had to describe their experiences but not interpret it
Why was Wundt’s work significant?
- He used a lab and controlled/ standardised conditions to study human consciousness
- Aim was to study/ understand the structure of the human mind
What are the 6 different aspects as psychology as a science?
Replicability
Objectivity
Control
Kuhn & Popper
Empiricism
Theory Construction
What is Replicablity?
The findings obtained by researchers need to be replicable or repeatable; it would be hard (or impossible) to base a science on inconsistent findings
What is Objectivity?
Scientists strive to be objective in their observations and measurements. Their expectations or any other internal or external factors should not affect what they record.
What is Control?
Scientists seek to demonstrate casual relationships to enable them to predict and control our world. In most sciences it is typical for experiments to observe the effect of one thing (IV) over another (DV) in a controlled environment.
What is Kuhn & Popper?
Kuhn Paradigm
- A set of shared assumptions and methods
- Social sciences lack a universally accepted paradigm
- Too much internal disagreement in psychology
- When there is a revolution people then begin to accept the paradigm and causes a paradigm shift
Popper Falsification
- Theories cant be considered scientific until it admits the possibility of being proved false
- Theories which survive the most attempts to be falsified become the strongest
What is Empiricism?
In science information is gained through direct observation or experiment rather than by reasoned argument or unfounded beliefs.
What is Theory Construction?
- Gather evidence empirically and creating a theory
- Should be scientifically tested e.g. supporting study
Who created the Psychodynamic Approach?
Sigmund Freud
What does the psychodynamic approach include?
-The Role of the Unconscious
- The Structure of Personality
- Defence Mechanisms
- Psychosexual Stages
What is the Unconscious Mind?
Psychodynamics
- Freud believed that we are not aware of all aspects of ourselves, and suggested that what we are aware of is represented in our conscious mind but that many of our memories, feelings and past experiences are locked in a part of our mind called the unconscious
- Freud believed that parts of our unconscious ‘leak out’ in dreams and slips of the tongue
What is in our unconscious mind?
Psychodynamics
Selfish Needs
Immoral Urges
Irrational Wishes
Fears
Shameful Experiences
Violent Motives
Unacceptable Desires
What does our unconscious mind do?
Psychodynamics
- Shapes our personality and protects our conscious mind and protect from anxiety/ fear/ trauma
- What we are not aware of and what we cant become aware of
What does our conscious and preconscious mind do?
Psychodynamics
- The part of our mind that we are aware of
- Things we can be aware of if we want to
What are the 3 parts that structure our personality?
Psychodynamics
The ID
The Ego
The Superego
What is The ID and what does it do?
Psychodynamics
- The ‘Pleasure Principle’ present at birth
- The ID is the animal part of the psyche and is governed by drives like food, drink and sex and its general motive is the satisfaction of these desires
-It is found in the unconscious - Demands instant gratification of its needs
What is the Ego and what does it do?
Psychodynamics
- The ‘Reality Principle’ which develops between 8 months and 3 years
- It is the mediator between the ID and Superego
- The role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of both other parts
- This part is concerned with reality and tries to balance the demands of the Id and the moralistic views of the Superego
What is the Superego and what does it do?
Psychodynamics
- The ‘Morality Principle’ and develops between 3 to 6 years
- Formed at the end of the phallic stage
- Our internalised sense of right and wrong
- Represents moral standards of the child’s same gender parent and punishes the ego for wrongdoing (through guilt)
- Governed by our need to behave in a way our parents approve of and when we dont we are punished with guilt and anxiety
What are the 3 different defence mechanisms?
Psychodynamics
Repression, Displacement, Denial
What do the defence mechanisms do?
Psychodynamics
Unconscious strategies used by the ego to reduce anxiety generated by threats from unnaceptable or negative impulses
What is Repression?
Psychodynamics
Forcing a distressing/ unpleasent memory out of the conscious mind (causes you to have difficulty accesing this memory). This is not a conscious choice e.g. sexual assualt
What is Denial?
Psychodynamics
Refusing to acknowledge some aspects of reality
What is Displacement?
Psychodynamics
Transferring feelings from the true source of a strong emotion onto a substitute target (person or object)
What are the 5 psychosexual stages?
Psychodynamics
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital
What are all the factors of the Oral stage?
Psychodynamics
Age: 0-1 years
Pleasure Focus: Mouth
Conflict: Mothers breast becomes the object of desire and is associated with the amount of food received
Fixation: Smoking/ Vaping, Nail biting, Chatty, Sarcastic
What are all the factors of the Anal Stage?
Psychodynamics
Age: 1-3 years
Pleasure Focus: Anus
Conflict: Children gain pleasure from either holding or expelling faeces
Fixation: Either Anal Retentive (perfectionist and obsessive) or Anal Explosive (thoughtless and messy)
What are all the factors of the Phallic Stage?
Psychodynamics
Age: 3-6 years
Pleasure Focus: Genital area
Conflict: Oedipus Complex (Where boys are unconsciously sexually attracted to their mothers and begin to see their fathers as their rivals. They fear that fathers will castrate them as punishment and so boys begin to repress the feeling towards their mothers and identify with fathers. Causes them to take on gender roles and moral values of fathers)
Fixation: Narcissistic, reckless and selfish
What are all the factors of the Latency Stage?
Psychodynamics
Age: 6- Puberty
Pleasure Focus: X
Conflict: Earlier conflicts are repressed
Fixation: X
What is the Latency stage also known as?
Psychodynamics
The ‘Resting’ stage
What are all the factors of the Genital Stage?
Psychodynamics
Age: Puberty to Adulthood
Pleasure Focus: Genitals
Conflict: Sexual desires become conscious during puberty and become aware of attractions
Fixation: Difficult forming heterosexual relationships
How do Conflicts during the psychosexual stages become fixations?
Psychodynamics
When conflicts are unresolved this leads to fixations and the child can become stuck and carry this fixation into adulthood
What 2 theories are in the behaviorist approach?
Classical and Operant Conditioning
How does the behaviorist approach focus on observable behavior only?
- Only interested in behavior that could be measured and observed
- Not interested in mental processes (irrelevant)
In what setting were the studies carried out in?
- Aimed to study behaviors in a controlled or objective manner and used lab studies to achieve it
- All behavior is learnt
Why did the studies use animals?
Basic processes which govern learning are the same in all species so can use animals in the studies
What did Pavlov’s research help to create?
Classical Conditioning
What happened in Pavlov’s study?
-Pavlov initially wanted to measure how much dogs salivate in response to food
-However then learnt that dogs can associate two stimuli with a bell and food
What was the finding of Pavlov’s study?
Before
Bell -> No effect
(NS)
Food -> Saliva
(UCS) -> (UCR)
During (Repeat)
Bell + Food -> Saliva
(NS) + (UCS) -> (UCR)
After
Bell -> Saliva
(CS) -> (CR)
How do we learn in Classical Conditioning?
We learn through consequences
What is Extinction?
Extinction = Loose the association over time which can occur e.g. bell doesn’t illicit a response
How do we learn in Operant Conditioning?
We learn through consequences
What are the 3 types of reinforcement?
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Punishment
What is Positive Reinforcement?
-Behavior with a positive consequence is likely to be repeated e.g. room being tidy and rewarded with money
What is Negative Reinforcement?
-A behavior which results in you avoiding something unpleasant being removed (so the outcome is still positive)
-Means are more likely to repeat behavior
Example= Don’t like homework so work hard in lessons so dont have to do homework
What is Punishment?
An unpleasant consequence is given for a behavior and means it is less likely to be repeated e.g. phone being taken away after an argument
What happened in Skinner’s Research?
-Skinner used rats in a box
-When placed in the chamber it was given food
-Eventually the food supply got stricter and only gave food when the rat was near the lever
-After this the rat was only given food when touching the lever
-Finally the rat was only given food when pushing down on the lever
-This showed positive reinforcement
What was the negative reinforcement variation in Skinner’s study?
An electric current ran through the box floor which hurt the rat, and would only stop when the rat was near, touching or pressing the lever
What are the 2 main ideas of The Humanistic Approach?
(Not ideas included but what it believes)
- Reject ideas of science and scientific principles
- Believe we cant make big applicable theories for large groups because of uniqueness of people
What is free will?
-It is the opposite of the behaviorist and psychodynamic
-Affected by external and internal influences but are ‘active agents’ who determine our own behavior
-
What is self-actualisation?
-Where we become the best possible version of ourselves
-Innate motivation to reach our full potential
-Psychological growth, fulfillment and satisfaction in life
Who created the pyramid of needs?
Maslow’s
What are each of the five stages (and examples) in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
- Physiological (Breathing, food, water)
- Safety (Security of body, employment and health)
- Love/Belonging (Friendship, family and sexual intimacy)
- Esteem (Confidence, respect and achievement)
- Self-Actualisation (Morality, creativity and problem-solving)
How do you reach the next stage in the hierarchy of needs?
-All areas and needs must be fulfilled in the stage to be able to go up to the next stage/ level
-Not many people will reach the top area of self-actualisation
What is the self-concept and ideal-self?
Self-Concept = The way we see ourselves right now (good and bad)
Ideal-Self = The person you would like to be
What is Congruence and Incongruence?
- If a persons self-concept and ideal-self are in line they is congruence
- If there is a large gap between a persons ideal-self and self-concept they is incongruence (self-actualisation is impossible)
What is counselling/ client-centered therapy?
-When a person has a gap between their self-concept and ideal-self
The role of the therapist is to be a ‘sounding board’ and should offer unconditional positive regard
What is Conditions of Worth?
- Parents and limits of love such as ‘if only’
- Parents should love child regardless
How does a conditional positive relationship with a parent lead to therapy?
Because it increases the gap between our ideal self and self-concept and so we have to have client-centered therapy to get unconditional positive regard
What does the cognitive approach argue?
Internal mental processes should be studied scientifically and investigated areas of human behavior that were neglected by behaviorists
How do cognitive psychologists observe behavior?
They make inferences about what is going on in people’s minds based on observable behavior
What is the role of inference?
-Processes where cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behavior
-Cannot study directly so must make inferences
What is a Theoretical Model?
An abstract model e.g. The Multi Store Model of Memory
What is a Computer Model?
A concrete model e.g. programming a computer to see if instructions would produce a similar output to humans so if we do we can suggest similar processes going on in the human mind
What is a schema?
Mental representations of situations, events, people and objects and are organised packages of information which are stored in our long-term memory
What do schema’s do?
It is a mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing (developed through experiences)
What do schema’s help us with?
Schema’s help us to make sense of situations and can make life predictable
What are the positives and negatives of schema’s?
Positives:
-Help us predict what could happen in situations
-Enable us to process large amounts of information quickly
-Stops us being overwhelmed from environmental schema
Negatives:
-Lead to memory errors e.g. EWT
-Negative schema’s can affect our mental health
What is Cognitive Neuroscience?
Studying the influences of brain structure on mental processes:
-Advanced technology which allows us to observe and describe neurological basis
-Use PET scans and fMRI
-Have been able to identify where some mental processes are based e.g. Hippocampus is linked to memory
What is the Social Learning Theory based on?
The learning approach (behavioral) and is part of the behaviorist approach e.g. Operant and Classical Conditioning
What did Bandura say about SLT?
-People learn through observation and imitation of others
-Learning can occur indirectly through vicarious reinforcement where someone sees someone else being reinforced for their behavior (observes the consequences)
-People are more likely to imitate behavior of people they identify with (identification)
-The person they identify with is called a role model and the process is called modelling
-Role models are usually people we look up to and identify with
What is Vicarious Reinforcement?
Where you see another person get rewarded for behavior so they are more likely to imitate the behavior
What is Identification?
Where we want to be like them or think we are like them
Summary of The Bobo Doll Study.
(3 KEY POINTS)
-Studied children in a matched pairs study
-Were either shown an adult being aggressive towards a Bobo doll or an adult not being aggressive towards one
-Those who saw an aggressive adult were more likely to be aggressive too
What is the key word for the 4 cognitive factors?
Mediational Processes
What is the first step of the Mediational Processes?
Attention
What is Attention in the Mediational Processes?
-You need to pay attention to the behaviors performed
-Part of the Learning phase
What is the second step of the Mediational Processes?
Retention
What is Retention in the Mediational Processes?
-Whether was can remember the behavior or not (memory)
-Part of the Learning Phrase
What is the third step of the Mediational Processes?
Reproduction
What is Retention in the Mediational Processes?
-We must be physically able to carry out the behavior (imitation)
-Part of performance phase
What is the fourth step in the Mediational Processes?
Motivation
What is Motivation in the Mediational Processes?
-Whether we actually want to behave this way or not
-Part of the performance stage
What are the assumptions of The Biological Approach?
- All behavior has a biological basis
- To fully understand human behavior we must look at biological structures and processing in our body
- The mind lives in the brain
- Influenced by genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, brains and evolution
What kind of people are used mostly in Biological Approach studies?
Twins!
What is a Dizygotic (DZ) twin?
-Non-Identical Twins
(Product of two sperms fertilising two eggs)
How much DNA do Dizygotic twins share?
They share 50% of their genes like other children from the same couple of parents
What are Monozygotic (MZ) twins?
Identical Twins
(Product of one egg being fertilised by one sperm and then having the cells in the embryo split in two)
How much DNA do Monozygotic twins share?
They share 100% of their genes and are a clone
What are the benefits of Monozygotic twins in biological research?
Provide an opportunity to determine whether a characteristic is controlled by inherited genes or the environment
What is Concordance?
The degree of similarity between two individuals
What does a high degree of concordance mean/show?
Genes are more likely to be involved
What does a high degree of discordence mean/show?
Environment is more likely to be involved
What is a genotype?
The particular set of genes that a person possesses
What is a phenotype?
The characteristics of an individual determined by both out genes and our environment
Are genes always expressed the same way?
Despite having the same genes the way they are expressed is different
What is variation?
There is a genetic variation within a population which can be inherited
What is competition?
Overproduction of offspring leads to competition for survival
What is adaptation?
Individuals with beneficial adaptations are more likely to survive to pass on their genes
What is selection?
Over many generations, there is a change in allele frequency (evolution)
Who proposed the theory of evolution?
Charles Darwin
What is natural selection?
Any behavior that enhances an individuals survival will continue on for generations
What is sexual selection?
Refer’s to traits that improve an organism’s ability to secure a mate
