Approaches: Evaluation Flashcards
Origins of Psychology AO3
- unreliable methods: relied on ‘nonobservable’ responses
+ scientific: tests assumptions about behaviour by establishing causality + correcting theories - not all psychologists believ human behaviour can be explored using scientific methods: much is unobservable and relies on inferences from data
Behaviourist AO3
+ controlled labs: eg Pavlov and Skinner, importance of objectivity and replication, gave psychology credibility and status
+ successful therapies: cc can be applied to treatment of phobias (systematic desensitisation), oc can be applied to management of schizophrenia (token economy)
- research on animals: stressful situations and conditions, ethical issues, stress levels may have affected response
- overly deterministic: all behvaiour determined by past experiences that have been conditioned, ignores possibility of free will
Social Learning Theory AO3
+ practical application to aggression: explanatory power help understand James Bulger murder, insights into how to prevent teenage violence, Clockwork Orange withdrawn from cinemas after violent incidents
+ acknowledges role of other approaches: takes thought process into account, role of biological urges in aggression, slt teaches how and when
- no link between violent films + crime: Ulrich (2003) found no relationship, strongest cause is association with delinquent peers
- disregards other influences: slt emphasises gender specific, irl children exposed to many different influences interacting in complex ways
Cognitive AO3
+ scientific: theories and models as result of experimentation with human ps, conclusions based on more than common sense and introspection
+ applications: explain dysfunctional behaviour in terms of faulty thinking processes, development of treatments with cognitive based therapies (depression)
- computer models: uses ‘encoding’ and ‘storage’, important differences between human mind and computer programmes
- ignores important factors: tells us how but not why, role of emotion and motivation largely ignored, result of computer analogy
Biological AO3
+ highly scientific: lab, high control, high replicability, adds to validity, fMRI enhances these characteristics
+ applications: research into serotonin in depression has led to SSRIs, highly effective, widely prescribed
- overly reductionist: focus strongly on IV and DV, overlooks other factors, eg depression can be caused by social, environmental and hormonal factors
- socially sensitive concerns: if argue criminal behaviour is inherited people may not feel responsible, blame on genotype
Psychodynamic AO3
+ real world applications: dream analysis, ink blot tests, hypnosis, free association, little evidence to support success, aren’t empirically validated, formed basis of ‘talking therapies’
+ scientific support: many claims have been tested and confirmed using scientific methodology, Fisherr and Greenberg (1996) summarised 2,500 studies, ‘compare well with studies relevant to any majore area of psychology’
- case studies: Little Hans phobia of horses interpreted as problem in phallic stage, source and Freud biased, unlikely any other researcher would have drawn same conclusion
- gender biased: remained ignorant of female sexuality and how it differs, phsychoanalysts broke away and criticised work and views on women
Humanistic AO3
+ developing counselling techniques: PCC, individual expert, called clients, solve own problems in constructive ways, best applied to treatment of mild psychological conditions
+ alternative explanation not reductionist: reject attempt to break up behaviour into smaller components, advocate for holism
- different cultures: cross-cultural evidence, China belongingness needs seen more fundamental than physiological, EU and US focus more on identity in defining self-concept
- fails to establish causal relationship: Rogers advocate for non-experimental research methods, experimental methods make impossible to verify results of counselling, without experimental evidence evaluation of therapy difficult
Bandura’s Research AO3
+ supporting research: Fox and Bailenson (2009), virtual humans doing exercise, less likely to model when dissimilar
+ lab experiment: controlled environment, control of extraneous variables
- ethical issues: protection from harm, wellbeing, children may be distressed, may become behavioural problem
- lab experiment: may respond to demand characteristics, children maybe thought purpose was to hit doll
Cognitive Neuroscience AO3
+ scientific: more scientific and objective than cognitive, provides information about brain activity
+ backs older findings: provides evidence to support controversial findings, illuminates mechanisms of cognitive development that underlie observations
- correlational data: parahippocampal gyrus activated in people with OCD doesn’t show area is causally involved
- patterns aren’t always obvious: hard to identify patterns of brain acitivation corresponding to some psychological processes eg attention/planning
