Approaches in psychology Flashcards
What are the two types of conditioning in the behavioural approach?
Operant and classical.
What happens in classical conditioning?
A neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned response, and over time it becomes a conditioned stimulus that has an affect over the conditioned response.
What is an example of classical conditioning?
Pavlov’s experiment.
When the bell was rung (neutral stimulus), a treat was given to a dog, which made him produce saliva (unconditioned response). Then over time the bell was rung (became a conditioned stimulus) and the researchers didnt even need to give the dog a treat for him to salivate (now conditioned response).
What are some applications of classical conditioning?
Applied to therapy; the development of treatments for the reduction of anxiety with phobias. It means that you can eliminate the conditioned response. Systematic desensitization. Found to be effective in treatment- positive economic and mental health implications
What happens in operant conditioning?
Someone is either reinforced or punished for their actions. This can be either positive or negative.
What is positive reinforcement?
When a behaviour results in a positive consequence that is pleasant, like a treat.
What is negative reinforcement?
A behaviour that will remove something unpleasant, such as switching an alarm off in the morning.
What is positive punishment?
Adding something unpleasant as a consequence.
What is negative punishment?
Taking away something pleasant as a consequence.
Whats an example of operant conditioning?
Skinner’s rat study: the rat moves around the cage and if it accidentally presses the lever, a bit of food falls into the cage- the rat starts pressing the lever to get more food(positive reinforcement).
In a second study, the rat starts getting shocks but when pressing the lever, the shocks stop, thus they are negatively reinforced.
What are some problems with the behaviourist approach?
- relies too heavily on non human animals in research, can tell us little about human behaviour, biological differences e.g. humans have bigger and different brains
- ignores other explanations of behaviour such as emotional states, which approaches like the humanistic approach can explain, skinner argued against this because he said that internal states are scientifically untestable.
What are some strengths of the behaviourist approach?
- useful applications; anxiety phobia therapy treatments means less money spent on ineffective treatment and limits possible future effects. Also led to token economy which is based on operant conditioning; this can be used to monitor behaviour in institutions like prisons or mental health institutions to promote good behaviour In SZ patients
- skinner relied on the experimental method a lot- he had controlled conditions so could find the cause and effect relationship between variables
What did Wundt want to study?
The structure of the human mind and to break down behaviours such as perception into their elements- this led to the study of introspection.
What is introspection?
The process by which a person gains knowledge about his or her own mental and emotional states as a result of the examination or observation of their conscious thoughts and feelings.
What is empiricism?
The belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience. It is generally characterised by the use of the scientific method in psychology.
What helped psychology emerge as a science?
It’s reliance on the scientific method and empiricism
What are the 4 aspects of social learning theory?
Modelling, imitation, identification, vicarious reinforcement
What is modelling?
When someone observes a model’s behaviour, which they learn the behaviour from.
What is imitation?
The action of using someone or something as a model and trying to replicate and copy their behaviour.
What is identification?
Its a form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a person or group.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Learning that is not a result of direct reinforcement, but has been learnt through observing others and their reinforcement from behaviour.
What are mediational processes?
They refer to the internal mental processes that exist between environmental stimuli and the response made by an individual to those stimuli.
What study supports social learning theory?
Bandura bobo doll study. Children either watched a video of aggressive or non aggressive adult models playing with the doll and then were recorded playing with the doll. The ones exposed to aggressive behaviour mimicked this with physically and verbally aggressive abuse.
What is the concept of social learning theory?
That behave based on what we have learnt from observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded.
What are some applications of social learning theory in our understanding of crime?
It has been used to help our understanding of why people commit crime- differential association theory. Mediational processes are involved, such as modelling and identification. When people exposed to models who are rewarded (VR) or have positive outlooks on crime, they are likely to become criminals themselves. Led to interventions in high risk areas of gangs to avoid criminality (economic implications). Also James Bulger case- murderers carried out what they watched in chucky film.
How is social learning theory reductionist?
Because it disregards biological or cognitive influences on behavior. For example in gender, social learning theorists emphasize the importance of gender-specific modeling; however a child is exposed to so many different influences which all interact in different ways like biological predispositions or media portrayals.
What is one possible use of SLT that could have positive economic benefits?
Advertising
Advertisers can use mediational processes to encourage people to buy products. If they use well known role models- identification.
How is SLT determinist?
Because it assumes that everyone who observes people be socially rewarded for behaviour will carry out this behaviour. However, some people are more pre-disposed to social influence than others (people with an internal locus of control don’t rely so much on others when decision making).
Briefly explain what the cognitive approach is?
This explains behaviour by considering mental and informational processing. Internal mental processes (like operations of the mind) should be studied scientifically, but will have to rely on inference.
What is schema?
A cognitive framework that helps to organise and interpret information in the brain, and make sense of new information. They act as a mental model.
How is the role of schema good?
It allows us to take shortcuts when interpreting the huge amount of information we take in on the daily and fill in gaps we may have.
How is the role of schema bad?
Because it causes us to exclude information that does not conform to our established ideas. This means that we may develop stereotypes or prejudice which are hard to get rid of.
What are theoretical models?
Often represented by pictures or diagrams; these display simplified mental processes based on current research evidence.
What is an example of a theoretical model?
The multi store memory model or the working memory model
What are computer models?
Using computer analogies as a representation of how sensory information is coded as it passes through our systems. For example, input to output. Used to represent how memory is stored.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
An area of psychology dedicated to studying neural bases of cognitive functions (like memory)
What are the neuroimaging techniques and what is their purpose?
Studying the brain helps us to understand the different brain structures involved during different tasks.
PET and fMRI scans show this.
What is an example of what neuroimaging techniques have found in crime?
Violent criminals have reduced activity in their pre-frontal cortex, which cognitive neuroscience found to be involved with controlling impulses.
How has the cognitive approach helped with interviewing techniques?
Because it helped cognitive psychologists come up with the cognitive interview. This is rooted within schema, as the techniques used reverse the pre-existing scheman that we have. This is an effective way of interviewing and research has shown it is a lot more effective than standard interviews. Shows the importance of cognitive psych and underlying schemas in every-day life.
What is a problem with the scientific roots of cognitive psychology?
Because internal mental processes have to be studied via inference, we often have to use very controlled lab studies for example Baddley’s word list research. This lacks ecological validity as they are overly controlled, lacks mundane realism, and cannot be generalised to real life activities.
