Approaches in Psychology - Paper 2 Flashcards
Behaviourist approach
A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning
Classic Conditioning
Learning by association, a natural stimulus beings to elicit a conditioned response
A study which shows classsic conditioning
Pavlov’s dogs
What happened in the Pavlov dogs study
Food made a dog salivate
Bell created no response
Bell + food made the dog salivate
bell on its own made the dog salivate
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
a normal item which makes a response
what is an unconditioned response?
a natural response to a item
what is a neutral stimulus
a item which has no response
what is a conditioned stimulus
a item which has created response through conditioning
what is a conditioned response
a response which has been created through conditioning
Operant conditioning
a form of learning in which its behaviour is created from consequences
Positive Reinforcement
recieving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed. Eg. praise from a teacher
Negative reinforcement
occurs when a person avoids something unpleasant, and the outcome is positive. eg. handing in an essay to not get told of from a teacher
Punishment
An unpleasant consquence of behaviour. Eg. being shouted at
reinforcement
a consquence of a behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated
The skinner box
Researcher skinner conducted an experiment with rats. Everytime the rat activated a lever in the box it was rewarded with food.
What kind of reinforcement is the skinner box
positive reinforcement
Ethical probelms with the Skinner box
Animals were in a cramped conditions and underfed to make it easier to repeat the experiment
Did not consent to take part
Strength of the behaviorist approach
based on well controlled research. Behaviorists focus on the measurement of observable behavior’s.
Counterpoints of the behaviorist approach
May of oversimplified the learning approach
What is environmental determinism - Biological Approach
One limitation is that the approach is that it sees as all behaviour is conditioned by past conditioning experiences. Ignores the idea of free will
Social learning theory
A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement. Such as observation and imitation
Imitation
Copying the behaviour of others
Identification
See ourselves as similar (background, age and gender) You are more likely to imitate someone you see as similar
Modelling
Observer perspective modelling is imitating the behaviour of a role model. Modelling is the precise demonstration if a specific behaviour.
Vicarious reinforcement
Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced by a behaviour
Mediational processes
cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response
what are the 4 mediational processes
Attention
Retention
Motor production
Motivation
- Attention - Meditational Processes
noticing the behaviours and consequences
- retention
remembering the behaviour and consequences
- motor reproduction
being able to carry out the behaviour
- motivation
wanting to imitate the behaviour (depending on if the behaviour was reinforced or not)
What was the aim of Bandura bobo doll study
If social behaviours can be acquired by observation and imitation in children.
Procedure of the Bandura bobo doll study
- Lab experiment
- Independent’s variable is the type of model
- aggressive model attacks the bobo doll to 24 children (12 girls, 12 boys)
- Doll is thrown into the
air and hit
- Doll is thrown into the
- non aggressive model plays with the toys nicely to 24 children
- control group with no model
Findings of the Bandura bobo doll study
- Children with the aggressive model were aggressive to the bobo doll.
- Children with the non-aggressive model played with similar toys the model played with
- Boys were more psyscially aggressive.
Conclusion from the Bandura bobo doll study
- Children are able to learn social behaviours such as aggression from observation learnt from watching the behaviour of another person
Criticisms of the Bandura bobo doll study
- Low ecological validity
- Bobo doll is bot human so this may not reflect how the treat a human
Positives of the Bandura bobo doll study
Experiment can be replicated
No gender bias
Social learning theory in real life
The restrictions of cigarette’s and alcohol adverts.
Role of the media on weight loss etc.
Evaluation of the SLT
Takes thought processes into account so is less simplistic than the behaviorist approach.
Cognitive approach
: The cognitive approach focuses on studying internal mental processes, such as thoughts, perceptions, and attention, which affect behavior
What are internal mental processes, and how do cognitive psychologists study them
efer to private operations of the mind, such as perception and attention, that mediate between stimulus and response. Cognitive psychologists study these processes indirectly by making inferences about what is happening inside people’s minds based on their observable behavior.
schema + an example
Schema are mental frameworks of beliefs and expectations developed through experience, influencing cognitive processing. For example, a schema for a chair might include the idea of something with legs that you can sit on. Schema act as a mental shortcut, allowing quick processing of information, but they may also lead to perceptual errors.
How do babies develop schema,
Babies are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviors, and as they grow older, their schema become more detailed and sophisticated.
Adults Schema
. Adults develop mental representations for a wide range of concepts, from psychology to everyday situations like going to a restaurant.
Inference
Inference is the process whereby cognitive psychologists create assumptions about the way mental processes operate based on observed behavior.
Theoretical Models
he information processing approach, to abstractly understand the flow of information through the cognitive system in stages.
Computer models
involve programming a computer to mimic human processes. Both types of models help cognitive psychologists gain insights into internal mental processes.
cognitive neuroscience
study of biological structures underlying cognitive processes. It explores the relationship between brain structures and mental processes,
1860 Paul Brocas
identified that an area in the frontal lobe that was damaged and it could permanently impair speech production.
brain fingerprinting
analyzing brain wave patterns and has potential applications, such as determining the truthfulness of eyewitnesses in court.
strengths of the cognitive approach
highly controlled and rigorous study designs.
produces reliable and objective data
counterpoints to the cognitive approach
relies on interference rather than observation of behaviours.
Can be critised as being too abstract it theortical
Cognitive approach real world application
AI
Treatment of deprerssion
reliability of eye witness testimony
machine reductionism,
imitation of the cognitive approach, as it draws parallels between the human mind and the operations of a ‘thinking machine,’ like a computer
biological approach
emphasizes the influence of physical processes in the body, including genetic inheritance and neural function, on behavior.
Genes
components of chromosomes made up of DNA.