Approaches (AO1 + 3)

Question 1

What are parapraxes?

Answer 1

Freudian slips (or parapraxes) are temporary dysfunctions of the memory apparatus that arise due to unconscious intentions interfering with conscious ones and which manifest as slips of the tongue or pen or bungled actions.

Question 2

What is psychoanalysis?

Answer 2

Identifying and releasing unconscious, repressed feelings, thoughts, memories, and desires that are negatively impacting your life by analyzing symbols in our dreams.

Question 3

What is psychic determinism?

Answer 3

This is the idea that all behaviour is caused by unconscious internal conflicts, over which we have no control.

Question 4

What are the 3 levels of the conscious?

Answer 4

The conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

Question 5

What does the unconscious store?

Answer 5

The unconscious stores our biological drives and instincts (e.g. hunger, thirst and sex) as well as upsetting and disturbing thoughts repressed from the conscious.

Question 6

What is Freud’s Tripartite Personality?

Answer 6

Freud viewed the personality as made up of three components i.e. ‘tripartite’. These are the Id, ego and superego.

Question 7

What is the Id?

Answer 7

This is the innate part of the personality, and operates on the pleasure principle.
Therefore, the Id constantly demands instant gratification (e.g. to fulfill innate, biological instincts, such as hunger and thirst) and so is in conflict with the superego.

Question 8

What is the Ego?

Answer 8

Formed during the first 3 years of life, and operates on the reality principle. The ego helps to resolve the conflict between the id and the superego through the use of defence mechanisms (repression, denial and displacement). The strength of the
unconscious depends upon how efficiently the ego resolves this conflict

Question 9

What is the superego?

Answer 9

Formed at the end of the phallic stage, and operates on the morality principle. This contains the child’s internalised sense of right and wrong, based upon their same-sex parent. The superego is in constant conflict with the Id.

Question 10

What are the 5 Psychosexual stages?

Answer 10

Oral (0-18months), Anal (18-3), Phallic (3-6), Latency (6-12), Genital (12+)

Question 11

Describe Freuds Psychosexual Stages theory

Answer 11

Freud adopted a nomothetic approach by suggesting that there a series of developmental stages through which all children progress, and in the same order.
Each stage is characterised by a conflict, which must be resolved to pass to the next stage, apart from latency.
Failure to do so results in ‘fixation’ at that stage, where dysfunctional behaviours associated with that stage are carried forwards to adulthood.

Question 12

How were ideas of the Oedipus and Electra complexes developed?

Answer 12

The ideas of the Oedipus and Electra Complexes were developed on the basis of case studies conducted on Little Hans, where Freud suggested that Little Hans’ phobia of horses stemmed from a fear towards his father, due to having sexual desires for his mother.
* This is an example of the idiographic approach to research (i.e. the use of case studied), but with a nomothetic application (i.e. all boys experience the Oedipus Complex, whilst all girls experience the Electra Complex).

Question 13

Describe the Oedipus complex

Answer 13

While the Oedipus complex concerns the conflicts between a mother and a male child during phallic development. For boys the Oedipus complex occurs where they pursue their mother as a love interest while experiencing hostility towards their father who is seen as a rival. As these feelings are uncomfortable, they are pushed into the subconscious and the child begins to identify with the father as a means of resolving the castration anxiety they experience.

Question 14

describe oral stage

Answer 14

The oral stage occurs between birth to about 18 months. During this time, an infant gets most of their pleasure from their mouth (focus of libido). This is associated with behaviours like eating and thumb-sucking. Freud believed an infant can develop oral fixation if their oral needs aren’t met. Adult fixations: Smoking

Question 15

describe anal stage

Answer 15

The anal stage, in Freudian psychology, is the period of human development occurring at about one to three years of age. Around this age, the child begins to toilet train, which brings about the child’s fascination in the erogenous zone of the anus.

Question 16

Describe the Phallic stage

Answer 16

The Phallic stages occurs from 3 to 6 years with a child’s focus moving to the genitals. For boys the Oedipus complex occurs where they pursue their mother as a love interest while experiencing hostility towards their father who is seen as a rival. For girls the Electra complex is triggered as the young girl realises both herself and her mother lack a penis and this leads to “penis envy” whereby she turns to her father as a love interest. Adult fixation: messiness

Question 17

Describe the Electra complex

Answer 17

The Electra complex relates to the relationship between the female child and her father during the phallic stage. For girls the Electra complex is triggered as the young girl realises both herself and her mother lack a penis and this leads to “penis envy” whereby she turns to her father as a love interest. According to Freud the Electra complex is resolved once she gives birth to a male child.

Question 18

Describe the latent stage

Answer 18

The Latent stage occurs from 6 to 12 years of age with the conflicts of the previous stages being repressed and children unable to remember much of their early years. The child may also begin to develop a mastery of the world around them and consolidate the character habits they formed in the three previous stages of psychosexual development. (Develop defence mechanisms)

Question 19

Describe the Genital stage

Answer 19

The Genital stage spans through puberty and adult life and plays the role of psychological detachment and independence from the parents. Sexual energy is focused on the genitalia with the ego being established and the persons focus shifting from pleasure gratification to secondary process-thinking and gratification through friendships, intimate relationships and family/adult responsibilities. If all the stages were completed, then the person should be sexually matured and mentally healthy.

Question 20

Give 3 negatives to the psychodynamic approach

Answer 20

Unconscious Concepts = it is not possible to objectively and systematically measure it. The psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification, leaving it a pseudoscience.

The use of an idiographic approach / Case studies = Many of Freud’s theories, (Little Hans), were based on data from individual case studies and interviews. There are problems with this. The first, is that participants selected to be subjects of case studies are often of some kind of special psychological interest, and so cannot represent the experiences of the general population (findings lack ecological validity). Secondly, mainly qualitative data, which means that the researcher draws their own subjective conclusions. Especially if the researcher knows what they are looking for and/or the aims of the investigation, (researcher bias). Freud’s data and theories suffer from limited applications and generalisability.

Psychic Determinism = Freud suggested that all behaviour is the product of unconscious, internal conflicts (between the Id and the superego, whilst being mediated by the ego) over which we have no control. This means that every action, even ‘accidental’ slips of the tongue, has some kind of meaning and can give us insight into our
unconscious. However, this adds to the subjectivity of interpretations of these meanings, and therefore is not in line with scientific methods of investigating behaviour.

Question 21

Explanation of the case of Little Hans, using the psychosexual stages.

Answer 21

Aim - To discover evidence to support the Oedipus complex and displacement theories.
Procedure - A case study. Little Han’s father was a supporter of Freud and corresponded with him about his son’s fear of horses. He recorded the conversations he had with the boy between the ages of 3-5 and accounts of his dreams.
Results - Freud argued that Little Hans’ obsession with his ‘widdler’ and his mother, showed that he was in the phallic stage of psychosexual sexual development and had an unresolved Oedipus complex.
Conclusion - Little Hans’ phobia of horses was a displaced fear of his father.

Question 22

Give a positive to the psychodynamic approach

Answer 22

+ Practical Applications = Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are both rooted in the psychodynamic approach and still have modern uses. For example, Kohlenberg et al (2002) found that “FECT / Functional Analytic Cognitive Therapy produced a greater focus on the client-therapist relationship and is a promising approach for improving outcomes and interpersonal functioning. It also appears that a focus during sessions on clients’ problematic cognitions about the therapist adds to the efficacy”. Therefore, Freud’s psychodynamic approach has made a long-lasting contribution towards treatment of various mental disorders, such as depression

Question 23

Summarise the Humanistic Approach

Answer 23

• Assumes that we all have free will, so we can ignore the influence of internal and external factors on our behaviour.
• Sees self-actualisation, as achieved by being the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as a crucial part of being human.
• Due to having free will, we also have to ability to progress through this hierarchy of needs and better ourselves.

Question 24

What does the term ‘self’ mean in the humanistic approach?

Answer 24

The ‘self’ is a term to describe all the ideas and values we have about ourselves, including perceptions of our abilities

Question 24

What is ‘incongruence’ and what can it lead to?

Answer 24

When there is too large a gap between the self and the ideal self, we experience incongruence. The consequent negative feelings of low self-worth and low self-esteem prevent us from progressing through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and so we cannot achieve self-actualisation.

Question 24

What does the term ‘ideal self’ mean in the humanistic approach?

Answer 24

The ‘ideal self’ describes our perception of the best version of ourselves

Question 25

What is ‘congruence’ and what can it lead to?

Answer 25

• When there is little or no gap between the self and the ideal self, then we have achieved congruence, allowing us to progress up the hierarchy, with the aim of achieving self-actualisation.

Question 26

What is self-actualisation?

Answer 26

Self-actualisation refers to the innate desire we all have to become the best version of ourselves, through personal and psychological growth i.e. “achieving one’s full potential”

Question 27

Name Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from top to bottom

Answer 27

Self actualisation
Esteem needs (prestige and feeling of accomplishment)
Belonginess and love needs
Safety needs
Physiological needs

Question 28

What is Rogerian therapy?

Answer 28

• Rogerian therapy aims to reduce the gap between the self and the ideal self, thus increasing increasing the likelihood of achieving congruence and subsequently, self-actualisation.
  Rogerian therapy views a good therapist as being open, genuine, empathic and most importantly, providing the unconditional positive regard which the patient most likely lacked during childhood.
  These therapies view patients as ‘experts’ of their conditions, and so they are encouraged to arrive at their own solutions to these problems, with the help of a therapist.

Question 29

According to Rogers and Maslow where does a lack of unconditional positive regard originate from?

Answer 29

According to Rogers and Maslow, conditions such as low self-esteem and low self-worth originate in childhood, where adults restrict the love they show towards their children, by imposing conditions of worth. This represents a lack of unconditional positive regard.

Question 30

Give two negatives for the humanistic approach

Answer 30

— Untestable and subjective concepts = Humanism suffers from a lack of empirical evidence and no possibility of systematically observing and measuring the processes which it describes. Self-actualisation cannot be objectively measured, due to individual differences and a lack of a universal measuring scale. Similarly, congruence may also be up to
personal judgement, especially as opinions of whether one has is their ‘ideal self’ will differ. This does little to improve the scientific credibility of both humanism and Psychology.
— A culture-bound explanation of behaviour = Maslow’s ideas of self-actualisation, the need to improve oneself, and congruence can be mostly viewed as attitudes typical of Western, individualist cultures where the needs of the individual are greater than the needs of the group. Therefore, due to this cultural bias, humanism may be more readily accepted by Western cultures who will identify more with these values, as opposed to Eastern collectivist cultures, where such a desire for personal growth may be seen as selfish considering that the needs of the group are greater than that of the individual.

Question 30

Give two strengths to the humanistic approach

Answer 30

+ Practical Application to Therapy = Rogers’ client-centred therapy has had a major impact on counselling psychology, and how such therapies are used both in the USA and the UK. This therapy is particularly beneficial due to acknowledging that individuals do have free will and do have the ability to improve themselves, through focussing on developing solutions to the patient’s current problems. This is in stark contrast with Freud’s psychotherapies, which tend to dwell upon childhood experiences and so may be frustrating for the patient who has identified the cause of their problems. Nonetheless, Roger’s client-centred approach is not suitable for treating serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or depression.
+ Holistic Approach = The humanistic approach is unique in that it adopts holism, therefore focussing on the individual’s subjective experiences as a whole, as a method of investigating behaviour. This is in contrast with the cognitive approach (which sees the brain’s functions as analogous to a computer), the biological approach (which sees humans purely as biological organisms which are made up of physiological processes) and behaviourism (where all behaviour is seen as the product of past reinforcement contingencies).

Question 31

Give a strength of the cognitive approach

Answer 31

Assumes that the scientific and objective study of internal mental processes is possible. However, as these private processes cannot be directly observed, cognitive psychologists formulate conclusions of their workings, through making inferences, based upon observable behaviours.
Therefore, much of the work of cognitive psychologists is the indirect measurement of cognition.
The cognitive approach sees mental processes as being separate from the brain.
Cognitive psychologists use computer models and theoretical models to better understand and model cognitive processes, through the use of analogies.

Question 32

Give an example of a theoretical model from the cognitive model

Answer 32

• An example of a theoretical model would be the working memory model, which is a diagrammatic representation of short-term memory, made up of the following cognitive components, through which information flows: Central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer
  MSM

Question 33

What are schemas?

Answer 33

• Schemas are ‘packages’ of ideas and knowledge about a certain person, place, object or time. They are generated through experience, becoming more sophisticated through time.
• They also act as mental frameworks, providing us with ‘mental shortcuts’ so we can process large volumes of data quickly and efficiently, thus avoiding sensory overload.

Question 34

Give a negative of the cognitive approach

Answer 34

— Overly-Abstract Concepts = Cognitive psychology makes extensive use of schemas and analogies as ways of indirectly studying and inferring the cognitive basis of behaviour. However, this reliance of inference means that some ideas in cognitive psychology may seem too abstract and not have enough supporting empirical evidence of such mechanisms being observed. Therefore, this reduces the potential practical applications of cognitive research, as it remains mainly theoretical.

Question 35

Give some strengths of the cognitive neuroscience (can be used for cognitive approach)

Answer 35

+ Scientific Methods and Rigour = The emergence of cognitive neuroscience has substantially increased the scientific credibility of psychology, bringing it closer to that of biology, physics etc. This is due to the emphasis on objectively collecting reliable data through direct observation of the neural processes underlying cognition, as seen in PET, CT, MRI and fMRI scans.
+ Practical Applications of Cognitive Neuroscience = An increased understanding of the neural processes underlying cognition have proven to be useful in many areas. For example, the design and manufacture of modern technology relies on an understanding of behavioural science and human-computer interactions. In education, cognitive neuroscientists can study a child’s performance in phonological tests to serve as a more accurate prediction of their reading ability. Therefore, the impact of cognitive neuroscience is increasingly seen in the real world.

Question 36

Give a strength for the cognitive approach
(soft determinism)

Answer 36

+ Soft Determinism = The cognitive approach sees humans as being able to reason and make conscious decisions within the limits of what they know or their ‘cognitive system’, and so adopts a soft deterministic approach. This is more flexible than the behaviourist hard determinism stance because it allows for humans to have some conscious insight into their behaviour: a complexity which differentiates us from animals, and so provides a better explanation for human behaviour than behaviourism.

Question 37

What are the main assumption’s of the biological approach?

Answer 37

According to the biological approach, humans are biological organisms made up of physiological processes.
* Therefore, all thoughts, ideas and cognitive processes must be biological in origin. This means that the mind ‘lives’ within the brain, and is not separate (as viewed by the cognitive approach).
* The actions of genes, hormones, neurotransmitters and neurochemical mechanisms must be understood in order to explain behaviour fully.

Question 38

What is natural selection?

Answer 38

The mechanism of evolution. The theory suggests that any genetically-determined behaviour, which gives the individual a selective advantage (increasing their chances of surviving, reproducing and passing down this beneficial allele onto their offspring), will be present in future generations.

Question 39

Give two strengths of the biological approach

Answer 39

+ Practical application in the development of drugs = An increased understanding of the biological processes which underpin mental health diseases has led to the development of psychoactive drugs e.g. for schizophrenia. These may target specific candidate genes to directly treat the disorder, or may alter neurotransmitter levels to help alleviate symptoms e.g. dopamine antagonists, such as Chlorpromazine, reduce dopamine action and so normalise neurotransmission in the hypothalamus and ventral striatum in the brains of schizophrenia sufferers. The main advantage of such drug
treatments, compared to cognitive therapies such as CBT, is that they require minimal effort on the part of the patient. They are non-invasive and not time-consuming, unlike cognitive therapies which require willpower and regular sessions. (Also cheaper)
+ Scientific Rigour and Methods = The biological approach uses EEG, PET and fMRI scans to objectively and systematically measure the biological or neural basis of behaviour. Drugs are also then developed on this basis, whilst family and adoption studies can lead to an increased understanding of the concordance rates and heritability of certain psychological characteristics. This increases the scientific credibility of Psychology, through the strict control of extraneous and confounding variables.

Question 40

Give two weaknesses of the biological approach

Answer 40

— Biological Determinism = The biological approach suggests that all behaviour is caused by internal biological forces over which we have no control i.e. the influence of genes, hormones, neurochemistry etc. However, this has serious implications for the judicial system and the economy. The current judicial system expects individuals to take moral responsibility for their actions, and so such actions cannot be entirely blamed on genetic factors. However, if, for example, a criminal gene or a schizophrenia gene was discovered, this could lead to ‘diminished responsibility’ of these individuals, as well as shorter prison sentences. The economical impact would be that if such information about genes coding for mental health disorders or criminality were made public, then such individuals may be denied health insurance and jobs on this basis. Therefore, such biological determinism has potentially severe real-life consequences.
— Twin studies cannot differentiate between the effects of nature and nurture = MZ twins usually show higher concordance rates for mental disorders and psychological characteristics compared to DZ twins. From a biological perspective, this is often explained by how MZ twins share 100% of genes with each other, compared to only 50% for DZ twins. However, this makes the naïve assumption that the only differences these twins have are genetic. MZ twins are more likely to grow up in the same household, be exposed to similar experiences and be raised using parenting styles. This may explain the differences in concordance rates between MZ and DZ twins, as opposed to only genetic differences. This may also explain why MZ twins often have higher concordance rates than ordinary siblings, despite both sharing 50% of genes. Therefore, this suggests that behaviour cannot and should not be explained in purely genetic terms (as suggested by the biological approach), without accounting for social contexts, through adopting an interactionist approach.