approaches in psychology. Flashcards

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1
Q

What is imitation?

A

Copying the behaviour of others.

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2
Q

What is identification?

A

When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like them.

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3
Q

What are examples of role models?

A

teachers.
siblings.
parents symbolic models.
celebrities.

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4
Q

What is modelling?

A

The imitation of behaviour of the role model from an observer’s perspective.

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5
Q

What is vicarious reinforcement?

A

Not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for their behaviour.

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6
Q

What are mediational processes?

A

Cognitive factors that influence learning a behaviour and come between stimulus and response.
[key factor of imitation]

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7
Q

What must there be for modelling to occur?

A

attention.
retention.
motor reproduction.
motivation.

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8
Q

What is meant by the term attention?

A

The extent to which we notice certain behaviours.

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9
Q

What is meant by the term retention?

A

How well the behaviour is remembered.

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10
Q

What is meant by the term motor reproduction?

A

The ability of the observer to perform the behaviour.

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11
Q

What is meant by the term motivation?

A

The will to perform the behaviour which is often determined by whether they are rewarded or punished.

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12
Q

What is the cognitive approach?

A

Focuses on how mental processes affect behaviour.
> thinking causes behaviour.
> the mind actively processes information from our senses such as touch, taste and so on.

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13
Q

What are internal mental processes?

A

Perception and attention which are private operations of the mind that mediate between stimulus and response.

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14
Q

What is the complex definition of schema?

A

‘A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processes which are developed by experience. Act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by cognitive system.’

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15
Q

What is the basic definition of schema?

A

A mental shortcut of beliefs and expectations developed from experience.

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16
Q

What are the strengths of schema?

A

enable us to process a lot of information quickly and reduces cognitive overload.
we don’t have to rethink the same ideas - mental shortcut.
help us remember.

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17
Q

What are the weaknesses of schema?

A

can lead to phobias such as exams causing panic attacks.
can lead to prejudice and racism.
lead to perceptual errors as they distort the interpretation of sensory information.

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18
Q

What is inference?

A

The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour.

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19
Q

What is cognitive neuroscience?

A

The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.

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20
Q

What is the biological approach?

A

Where all behaviour is seen as rooted from our biological structure and everything psychological has a biological basis.

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21
Q

What three biological factors may affect behaviour?

A

❶ genes
↳ specific genes and combination of genes will have an influence on both the physical and psychological aspects of people. Beneficial genes are passed onto the next generations for survival.
❷ biological structure
↳ the behaviour of an individual is controlled and coordinated by the brain and the nervous system.
❸ chemistry of the body
↳ hormones in the body and neurotransmitters in the brain have an impact on behaviour.

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22
Q

What is a genotype?

A

A particular set of genes that a person possesses.

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23
Q

What are genes?

A

Made of DNA which codes physical and psychological features of an organism that are inherited.

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24
Q

What is the biological structure?

A

An arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing.

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25
Q

What is evolution?

A

The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations.

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26
Q

What is a phenotype?

A

Characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and the environment.

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27
Q

What is neurochemistry?

A

Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning.

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28
Q

What is the psychodynamic approach?

A

Where behaviour is influenced by early childhood experiences.

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29
Q

What instincts does the psychodynamic approach believe behaviour is motivated by?

A

sex.
life.

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30
Q

What is meant by the term the unconscious?

A

The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct our behaviour.

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31
Q

What is meant by the term the conscious?

A

The part of out mind we are aware of on a daily basis which can be influenced by the unconscious.

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32
Q

What is meant by the term id?

A

Made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification and is entirely unconscious.

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33
Q

What is meant by the term ego?

A

The reality check that balances the conflicting demands of the id and superego.

34
Q

What is meant by the term superego?

A

The moralistic part of out personality which represents the ideal self which is how we ought to be.

35
Q

What are defence mechanisms?

A

Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego.

36
Q

What is repression?

A

Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind.

37
Q

What is denial?

A

Refusing to acknowledge some parts of reality.

38
Q

What is displacement?

A

Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto substitute target.

39
Q

What is are psychosexual stages?

A

They are the five developmental stages that all children go through according to Freud.

40
Q

What occurs during the stage oral at the ages of 0 to 1 years old?

A

Focus of pleasure is the mother’s breast
↳ object of desire unresolved conflict leads to fixation.

41
Q

What occurs during the stage anal at the ages of 1 to 3 years old?

A

Focus of pleasure in the anus
↳ child holds pleasure by withholding and expelling faeces.
➝ unresolved conflict leads to anal retentive or anal expulsive.

42
Q

What occurs during the stage phallic at the ages of 3 to 5 years old?

A

Focus of pleasure in the genital area
↳ child experiences the oedipus or electra complex.
➝ unresolved complex leads to phallic personality such as narcissistic, reckless and possible homosexuality.

43
Q

What is latent?

A

Where earlier conflicts are repressed.

44
Q

What is meant by the term genital?

A

Where sexual desires become conscious along onset of puberty.

45
Q

What is meant by little hans?

A

It supports the oedipus complex theory where a 5 year old had a phobia of horses and therefore it was thought by Freud that the horse represented his father as he was scared his father would castrate him for desiring his mother.

46
Q

What is psychodynamic therapy?

A

Where the client talks freely to the therapist saying whatever comes first to mind allowing true thoughts and feelings to emerge through free association.
[dream analysis]

47
Q

What are the strengths of the psychodynamic approach?

A

it started the debate in psychology and the behaviourists developed their ideas to challenge his view.
lead to effective treatment.
link between childhood experiences and adult characteristics.
supports the existence of ego defence mechanisms such as repression such as adults forgetting child sexual abuse.
still used in the modern day.

48
Q

What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach?

A

untestable concepts such as the measuring of the superego.
unscientific as it is based on case studies.
unreliable.

49
Q

What is humanistic psychology?

A

The belief that we have free will and it is not about mental health as everyone can relate.
[looks at healthy individuals]

50
Q

What is free will?

A

The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces.

51
Q

What is self-actualisation?

A

The desire to grow psychologically and fulfill their full potential therefore becoming what you are capable of.

52
Q

Who is Wundt?

A

the father of psychology.
defined psychology as the science of consciousness.
emphasised a technique called introspection.
his work helped the study of mental processes.
opened the first experimental psychology lab in Germany in 1879.

53
Q

What are the strengths of Wundt’s work?

A

precise measures were taken to make sure that his records were detailed.
only method to access our conscious thoughts and feelings.

54
Q

What are the weaknesses of Wundt’s work?

A

subjective due to asking participants to say how they feel.
early experiments are unreliable.
no way to objectively verify the accuracy of introspection.

55
Q

What is the emerge of psychology as a science?

A

Psychology is seen as a scientific discipline which in part can be credited to the work of Wundt.
emphasises key concepts which are consistently applied to modern psychology such as intensity, duration and sense modality.
stresses the importance upon precise definitions of stimulus and response been studied.
psychology at the discipline is reliant upon the philosophical viewpoint called empiricism which states that knowledge comes from experiment.
psychology then focused on two viewpoints
↳ all behaviour is caused.
➝ as all behaviour is caused it is possible to predict how humans will behave.
Beyond Wundt’s work the scientific process was made which focuses on investigating phenomena.

56
Q

What are the strengths of psychology as a science?

A

allows psychologist to have flexibility when experiments produce inconsistent results which means the scientific knowledge is self corrective.
reliable.

57
Q

What is a weakness of psychology as a science?

A

Not all psychologists believe that the scientific method is the best way to study himena behaviour.

58
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

A form of learning in whch behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences including positive and negative reinforcement and punishment.

59
Q

What is the behaviourist approach?

A

The belief that all behaviour is learnt as we are born with a blank state therefore genes are not related to behaviour.
[human behaviour can be studied by looking at animals]

60
Q

What are the two types of conditioning?

A

classical conditioning.
operant conditioning.

61
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

It is a behaviourist theory which states that humans and animals learn new behaviours by the process of association.

62
Q

What are the three stages of classical conditioning?

A

before conditioning.
during conditioning.
after conditioning.

63
Q

Explain before conditioning.

A

A neutral stimulus produces no response such as a bell ringing
↳ at the end of a lesson before lunch, peoples’ stomach rumble.

64
Q

Explain during conditioning.

A

A neutral stimulus that is paired with the unconditioned response which needs to happen several times for it to occur
↳ when hearing the bell ring we know it is the end of the lesson therefore lunch so we become hungry.

65
Q

Explain after conditioning.

A

A neutral stimulus that has become the conditioned stimulus resulting in the conditioned response
↳ whenever we hear the bell even if it’s not lunch we still get hungry and our stomachs rumble.

66
Q

How has classical conditioning been demonstrated?

A

Ivan Pavlov demonstrated classical conditioning by using dogs and the sound of a bell as the neutral stimulus and a bowl of meat powder as the unconditioned stimulus.
before the experiment the dogs would salivate - unconditioned response - in respond to the meat powder but without the bell.
when a bell was rung the first time with no food there was no response - neutral stimulus.
during conditioning the bell was rung wherever the meat powder was presented.
after many trials the dogs would salivate at the sound of the bell alone, the bell had become a conditioned response.

67
Q

Explain the little albert experiment.

A

Used to see whether humans learn through classical condition and can see if a fear resource can be successfully conditioned in a human child.
healthy baby whose mother was nurse.
albert was given a white rat which he liked.
whenever he reached out to stroke it, a loud noise from a metal bar was made scaring him.
this was repeated three times a day each month.
resulted in albert crying every time he saw the rat which transferred to other white things such as white rabbits, white fur coats, cotton wool and santa’s beard.

68
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

When behaviour is followed by a pleasant consequence resulting in the frequency of the behaviour being increased.

69
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A

When a behaviour leads to something unpleasant stopping resulting in the frequency of the behaviour being increased.

70
Q

What is punishment?

A

When a behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence resulting in the frequency of the behaviour decreasing.

71
Q

What is behavioural shaping?

A

When you teach something slowly to reinforce a behaviour.

72
Q

How was positive and negative reinforcement demonstrated?

A

By Skinner’s use of a box where a rat was kept.
there is a lever that delivers food.
positive reinforcement
↳ rat learnt through exploring that pressing the lever released food.
negative reinforcement
↳ when the rat got tired of the box, loud noises were released or a bird would be electrocuted which would stop if the rat pressed the lever.
extinction
↳ no longer a reward from pulling the lever resulted in the rat no longer performing the behaviour.

73
Q

What is SLT?

A

The social learning theory which suggests that behaviour is learnt from society or individuals.
concerned with human behaviour.
sees humans as active manipulators of their own environment.
the bridge between behaviourist and cognitive approach.

74
Q

What four factors affect imitation?

A

more likely to imitate a model we identify with therefore similar to us.
low self esteem individuals are more likely to imitate the behaviours of models.
most likely to imitate behaviours that result in positive reinforcement by models resulting in vicarious reinforcement.
internal mediational processes suggest that the observer will use the behaviour in the future.

75
Q

What experiment was performed to test the effects of vicarious conditioning on aggression?

A

Test by Bandura called the bobo doll experiment where 3 to 5 year olds were grouped.
first group was shown an adult being aggressive towards the bobo doll.
↳ resulted in aggressive behaviour towards the doll and was seen that those with the same gender as the adult were more aggressive.
second group was shown an adult playing nicely with the bobo doll.
↳ less aggressive behaviour.
last group was controlled and shown nothing.
↳ less aggressive behaviour.

76
Q

What are the strengths of Bandura’s experiment?

A

highly controlled the adults behaviour as it was pre recorded meaning each child was exposed to the same amount of violence.
easily replicated.
used matched pairs design.

77
Q

What are the weaknesses of Bandura’s experiment?

A

lack of ecological validity as the child and the model had no interaction which they would have done in a normal family life.
ignores the role of biology.
might not work with older children.
children may have known the outcome of the experiment as all the kids were friends.

78
Q

What is the use of theoretical and computer models?

A

Cognitive psychology uses conceptual models to explain how the kind works such as the multistore model and allows psychologists to predict when they do testing and experiments.

79
Q

What is the emerge of cognitive neuroscience?

A

Explains how mental functions are undertaken within the brain.
combined the study of brain damage, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology and computer modelling.
pet and mri scans are used to understand how the brain supports the different parts for emotions and functions when asked to perform different tasks.
looks at biological processes and neural connections that are involved in mental processes.

80
Q

What did Burrnett et al find?

A

When someone feels guilt, it is active in several arts of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for social emotions.

81
Q

What is the timeline of approaches in psychology including key dates and names?

A

❶ 17-19th century - philosophy.
↳ 1632-1704 - empiricism (john locke).
❷ 1809-1882 - evolutionary theory (charles darwin)
↳ behaviour has changed over generations as those with stronger genes survive over those with weaker genes.
❸ 1879 - introspection (wilhelm wundt)
↳ opened the first experimental psychology lab in germany.
❹ 1900 - psychodynamic (sigmund freud)
↳ published ‘the interpretation of dreams’
↳ emphasises the influence of the unconscious mind.
➝ psychoanalysis is suggested as therapy.
❺ 1913 - behaviourism (john watson and skinner)
↳ jw wrote ‘psychology as the behaviourist views it’.
❻ 1950s - humanistic (carl rogers and abraham maslow)
↳ rejects the behaviourist and psychodynamic views.
➝ emphasises the importance of self determination and free will.
❼ 1960s - cognitive approach/social learning theory (albert bandura)
↳ bridge between cognitive and behaviourist approach.
❽ 1980s - biological approach
↳ increased understanding of the brain and biological processes.
❾ 21st century - cognitive neuroscience
↳ cognitive and biological approach brought together.