Approaches in Psychology Flashcards
Who is Wilhelm Wundt?
He is known as the ‘Father of Psychology’ as he is credited for moving the discipline from its philisophical roots to more controlled research.
When was the first psychology lab set up?
1879 in Leipzig Germany by Wundt
What theory did Wundt come up with?
Introspection
What is introspection?
Means ‘looking into’ is the process by which a person looks inward at their own mental processes to gain insight into how they work. It’s the self-observation of one’s consciousness.
How did Wundt create introspection?
He trained psychology students to make observations that were not biased by personal interpretation or previous experience, and used the results to develop a theory of conscious thought.
How did Wundt study introspection?
Participants would be given stimulus, such as a ticking metronome and would reflect on the experience. They would report what the stimulus made them think and feel. The same stimulus, physical surrondings and instructions were given to each person.
What is structuralism?
Wundt was aiming to isolate and study the structure of consciousness, thought and perception - hence his approach is known as structuralism. He argued the structure of conciousness and mental experience could be broken down into compounds, just like in chemistry.
What did Wundt’s emphasis on measurement and control in his introspection mean?
It marked the seperation of the ‘new Psychology’ from its parent discipline of philosophy. Philosphers had discussed ‘the mind’ for thousands of years but Wundt was now applying scientific methods to the study of mental processes.
Why was Wundt’s use of controlled features significant?
It’s an important scientifc principle, when conditions are carefully controlled this can ensure extraneous variables do not impact findings.
Wundt helped establish this as the norm for Psychology given that his introspection method always took place in highly controlled lab settings.
Why did the objectivity and empirical testing (features of science) mean Wundt had minimal significance on Psychology?
Wundt did not contribute as his introspection involved participants self-reporting on their mental processes… this is subjective so it’s difficult to establish meaningful lwas of behaviour from this data which is an aim of science.
Why was Wundt’s use of reliability significant?
Relaibility is an important feature of scientific research and is achieved when controlled and standardised procedures are used so procedures can be replicated and the consistency of findings can be checked. Wundt helped establish this in Psychology as his method of introspection followed a standardised procedure, with participants all given the same stimuli and instructions.
Why was Wundt’s use of reliability insignificant?
Nisbett and Wilson (1977) changed the reliability of introspection. They reviewed experiments in which subjects verbally explained why they had a particular preference or how they arrived at a particular idea. They concluded that subjects had “little or no introspetive access to higher order cognitive processes”. They distinguished between mental contents and mental processes arguing that while introspection gives us access to contents, processes remain hidden.
Why is introspection (Wundt) significant?
It is still used today in areas such as therapy and studying emotional states demonstarting its value as one way to study mental processes. Griffiths (1994) used introspection to study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers.
Why are Wundt’s theories considered insignificant?
Whilst he is widely considered the father of experimental psychology, it’s perhaps an ‘origin myth’. Wundt has left no lasting legacy in terms of theories or discoveries; whilst he put experimental Psychology ‘on the map’, his methods and ideas were largely abonded by future psychologists.
Why was Wundt’s focus on mental processes significant?
It can be seen as a forerunner for the Cognitive Approach to Psychology which dominated from the 1950s onwards.
What does it mean for Psychology to be a science?
Psychology as a ‘science’ refers to the application of scientific methods. Science is also about the collection of evidence, evidence which must be collected in an objective way so others can relplicate it. Psychology is important as it allows objectivity, the ability to establish cause and effect relationships and to test hypotheses and theories.
What are the strengths of a scientific approach to Psychology?
Relies on objective and systematic methods of observation. The scientific approach is based on determinism and thus enables the development of casual laws based on the empirical and replicable methods.
What are the limitations of a scientific approach to Psychology?
The drive to maintain objectivity means that situations studied may not reflected behaviour in natural environments, much of the subject matter is unobservable and therefore can’t be measured with any degree of accuracy, demand characteristics of observation, isn’t suitable for studying rare psychological characteristics in case studies and not all psychologists agree that human behaviour can be studied using scientific methods.
What is the background of the Behaviourist approach?
Emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and soon became the dominant approach for half a century. It’s credited as the driving force in the development of Psychology as a scientific discipline, early behaviourists such as John B. Watson (1913) rejected introspection as it involves too many vague concepts and as a result behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab experiments to achieve this.
What is Behaviourism primarily concerned with?
Observable behaviour, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotions. Observable behaviour can be objectively and scientifically measured.
What are the key assumptions of the Behaviourist Approach?
Psychology is a science so behaviour must be measured in a highly controlled environment to establish cause and effect, when born our mind is a blank slate and experiences are wrote upon us.
What do Behaviourists believe about the relationship between humans and animals?
There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals. Therefore research can be carried out on animals aswell as humans. Thus it is valid to generalise from animal behaviour to human behaviour.
What do behaviourists believe about stimulus-response?
Reinforcement strengthens a behaviour and punishment stops a behaviour. All behaviour is learnt from the environment. We learn new behaviour through classical or operant conditioning. Psychology should investiage the laws of learning which means that behaviourists are strongly on the nurture side of the debate.
What do behaviourists belive behaviour is determined by?
The environment and therefore people do not have free will.
Who was Ivan Pavlov?
One of the first behaviourists to explore the relationship between learning and behaviour.
What did Pavlov develop?
The theory of classical conditioning.
What is classical conditioning?
A type of learning in which an existing involuntary reflex is associated with a new stimulus.
How did Pavlov test his theory?
Using dogs who were conditioned to associate the sound of a bell with food. This resulted in the dogs producing a salivation response at the sound of a bell, even when no food was present.
What did Pavlov demonstrate with his research?
Repeated exposure to an event leads to a learned and uncontrollable behaviour. This process can be used to explain the aquistion of phobias and the development of attachment.
Principles of classical conditioning: What is Association?
Classical Conditioning can be defined as learning due to association of a neutral stimulus with an unconditional reflex response.
Principles of classical conditioning: What is Extinction?
Pavlov found that conditioned responses could be elimated gradually; a process he referred to as extinction. If Pavlov rang his bell repeatedly and failed to feed his dogs, the salivation ceased.
Principles of classical conditioning: What is Stimulus generalisation?
Pavlov noticed if a phenomena he called stimulus generalisation. If a dog became conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell, then just about any bell migt=ht do. The more like the original sound the more saliva produced.
What was Watson and Raynor’s experiment?
1920 Little Albert was a laboratory experiment to examine whether a fear response could be learned through classical conditioning, in humans.
What was the procedure of the Little Albert experiment?
11 month old Albert was noted beofre the experiment to show no response to various different objects in particular a white rat. They struck a metal bar with a hammer behind Little Albert’s head causing a very loud noise everytime he went to reach for the rat. They did this 3 times. Thereafter, when they showed Little Albert the white rat, he began to cry.
What did Watson and Raynor’s experiment demonstrate?
A fear response could be induced through the process of classical conditioning, in humans. In addition, Little Albert also developed a fear towards similar objects, including a white Santa Claus beard. The experiment revealed that Little Albert had generalised his fear to other white furry objects.
What did Skinner suggest regarding Operant Conditioning?
Skinner suggested that behaviour is the result of learning through the consequences of our actions. Skinner believed that behaviours we display are likely to be repeated if they are reinforced or extinguished and not repeated again if we are punished. Skinner conducted research into his operant conditioning theory using rats and pigeons.
