Approaches in Psychology Flashcards
What is the behaviorist approach?
Most Influential approaches in modern psychology. Key assumptions:
1) Psychologists should only study, observable, quantifiable behavior.
2) All behavior is learned.
3)Humans are no different from animals and should not be regarded as more complex.
4) Research on animal behavior is directly relevant to humans.
What is Classical Conditioning?
IVAN PAVLOV.
Classical Conditioning is a type of learning in which existing involuntary reflex is associated with a new stimulus.
BELL(Neutral stimulus)—–DOG(No response)
FOOD(Unconditioned Stimulus)—-SALIVATION (Unconditioned Response)
FOOD(Unconditioned stimulus)+BELL(Neutral stimulus)—-SALIVATION(Unconditioned Response)
BELL(Conditioned stimulus)—-SALIVATION(Conditioned response)
What is Operant Conditioning?
SKINNER
Suggested that behavior is the result of learning through the consequences of our actions.
Using rats he found three types of reinforcement behavior:
1) Positive reinforcement- When a behavior is followed by a desirable consequence (reward) and is more likely to be repeated.
2)Negative reinforcement - When a behavior is followed by the removal of an adverse consequence and is more likely to be repeated.
3)Punishment - When a behavior is followed by an unpleasant consequence and is less likely to be repeated.
What was Skinners box used for?
To examine operant conditioning in rats and pigeons.
The animal would press a lever by accident and it would be rewarded with food pellet.
The animal would learn through positive reinforcement that each time it pressed the lever it would be rewarded with food.
It therefore, learnt a new voluntary behavior which is repeated to revive the reward again.
Evaluation of the behaviorist approach
1)A strength is the use of animals.
-It is believed that the learning process in animals and humans is very similar.
Using non-human animals in research gives experiments more control over the process, without demand characteristics or individual differences influencing findings.
HOWEVER
Many consider using animals unethical as there is less concern about protection from harm for non-human subjects.
FURTHERMORE, some argue that findings from animal experiments are not generalisable to human behavior.
Issues and Debates for the behaviorist approach.
-Since the behavioral approach suggests that all behavior is learned, it falls on the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate, in which our experiences and surroundings shape our behavior directly rather than any internal or biological factors. The behaviorist approach refers to the human mind as a tabula rasa (blank slate) suggesting that at birth the mind is blank and throughout life, the slate is filled while behavior is shaped through learning.
-The fact that behaviorists believe that behavior is controlled by something as simple as a stimulus response association, as in classical conditioning, is an example of ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM. Behaviorists argue that humans have little choice in their behavior, and our behavior is simply the product of environmental learning.
Social Learning Theory
Rests on the idea of OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING: that learning occurs throughout the observation and imitation of behaviour performed by role models, who model behaviour in a social environment.
Unlike the behaviourist approach SLT recognises the importance of cognitive processes-mediadional processes- and rejects the notion that learning is purely the outcome of a stimulus-response loop.
ADD MORE.
Evaluations of the Social Learning Theory
Issues and Debates for Social learning theory
What is the cognitive approach?
Cognitive approach focuses on the examination of internal mental processes such as perception, memory, attention and consciousness.
Since these processes are internal they cannot be studied directly, their operations must be inferred from the observation and measurement of visible human behaviour.
To assist this interference, cognitive psychologists make use of theoretical models and computer models. Theoretical models enable the visual representation of complex conceptual processes, and computer models provide a basis for research within the field of cognitive psychology.
What is The Study of Internal Mental Processes?
These are the operations that occur during thinking.
