Approaches in Psychology Flashcards
Origins of Psychology
Wundt founded first ever psychological lab in Germany in 1879.
Aimed to document and describe the nature of human consciousness.
Developed introspection
What was Wundt’s approach to psychology?
To study the human brain by breaking down behaviours such as sensation and perception.
What did Wundt believe about the human mind? What did this cause
He believed it could be studied scientifically, and this helped move psychology away from philosophy into a science of its own right
Introspection
Involved recording own conscious thoughts.
Aim was to break these thoughts down into their constituent parts.
Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is known as Structuralism
Strength of origins of psychology
-Scientific approach
- Brought objective systematic methods
limitations of origins of psychology
-Wundt’s methods were unreliable: non observable responses + hard to reproduce.
- inaccurate
- Lab studies produce low ecological results
outline of behavioural approach
- focused on observable events
- Behaviourists believed that much of human behaviour could be explained in terms of conditioning.
define classical conditioning
Learning through association
who studied classical conditioning and how?
Pavlov research - dogs associate sound of bell with food if bell is rung consistently before feeding.
classical conditioning in dogs
Food (UCS) = Salivation (UCR)
Food (UCS) + Bell (NS) = Salivation (UCR)
Bell (CS) = Salivation (CR).
The neutral stimulus (Bell) is conditioned to produce the response of salivation.
what features affect classical conditioning?
- Timing: timing between presenting UCS and NS cannot be too great
- Stimulus generation: once the animal has been conditioned, it will respond to other stimuli similar to the CS
what is a strength of classical conditioning ?
- lead to an effective treatment for a range of phobias: systematic desensitisation.
- based on classical conditioning as the patient is taught a new association to the phobic stimulus that runs counter to the original association
- relaxation instead of fear.
- this is a strength as it is an effective treatment and so is able to help people
what is a limitation of classical conditioning ?
relationships between the CS and UCS can be difficult to establish for some species. animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of survival (i.e. food+ smell of food) but unprepared to learn associations that aren’t significant in this respect (i.e. food+ and a bell)
Operant conditioning
learning through reinforcement or punishment. behaviour is more likely to be repeated if it is followed by a desirable consequence
who studied operant conditioning and how?
Skinners :
- rat moves in cage and presses lever, the reinforcer.
- hungry rat keeps pressing the lever for food
- and then abandons, extinction
2 types of reinforcement? (operant)
- positive reinforcement
- negative reinforcement
2 types of punishment? (operant)
positive punishment: when a behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence, and something is added to the situation. (i.e. getting a detention). behaviour is less likely to be repeated
negative punishment: when a behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence, and something pleasant is removed from the situation (i.e. phone taken off you) behaviour is less likely to be repeated
Positive reinforcement
when a behaviour produces a good/rewarding consequence and so the behaviour is reinforced and likely to be repeated
Negative reinforcement
when a behaviour removes something unpleasant from a situation and so the behaviour is reinforced and likely to be repeated
what is a strength of operant conditioning?
- experimental methods to find causal relationships between two or more variables. Through skinner’s box, he was able to find a cause and effect relationship between the consequences of a behaviour and the future frequency of its occurrence. : reliable and objective
what is a limitation of operant conditioning?
criticised for being based on animals not humans. critics say that we cannot use this to explain human behaviour, and also our behaviour is determined by free will not reinforcement : not a full/valid explanation of behaviour.
Limitations of the behaviourist approach
it ignores key elements that have an influence on behaviour such as cognitive elements and emotional states: not a valid approach
Strengths of the behaviourist approach
real life application - token economy systems
what are the 4 key principles of social learning theory?
1) Model. = someone who carries out the behaviour to be learned
2) Imitation= an individual acquiring and reproducing a new behaviour after observing it on a model
3) Identification= the extent to which the individual relates to the model, and thus how likely they are to imitate them
4) vicarious reinforcement= individuals who witness the model being rewarded for their behaviour are more likely to imitate it than if they were punished for it
