Approaches: Learning Theory (L1-4)

Question 1

Who is known as the ‘ Father of Psychology’?

Answer 1

• Wilhelm Wundt

Question 2

Why is Wundt known as the Father of Psych?

Answer 2

• moved psych away from its philosophical roots to controlled research
• set up first psych lab in Liepzig, Germany
• founded the Institue of Experimental Psychology
• published one of the first books on psych
• helped establish the subject as independent branch of science

Question 3

What did Wundt develop?

Answer 3

• scientific method to study mental processes like structure of sensation and perception
• called this method introspection
• analysing your own thoughts and feelings internally

Question 4

Introspection was used in … which

Answer 4

• highly controlled studies
• enabled W to establish gen theories about mental processes
• made the way for later controlled research + study of mental processes
• but W later found higher mental processes like language and emotions can’t be studied in a strictly controlled manner

Question 5

What did W work lead to?

Answer 5

• the development of the field of cultural psychology
• based on gen trends in behaviour of groups of people

Question 6

Emergence of psych as a science +ve:

Answer 6

• W first to open a laboratory designated to the scientific study of psychological enquiry under controlled conditions facilitating accurate
  measurements and replication
  = W first psychologist to focus on understanding the psychological processes of perception etc. rather than philosophical or biological processes
• W later recognised that higher mental processes were difficult to study using his procedures
• this encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods and techniques, paving the way for approaches such as brain scanning
  techniques

Question 7

Emergence of psych as a science -ve:

Answer 7

• many modern psychologists argue that early behaviourists (e.g. Pavlov) made a greater contribution to the development of psychology as a science than Wundt did
• they produced reliable findings, which Wundt did not, with explanatory principles that were generalisable – much more in keeping with the scientific approach

Question 8

What is introspection?

Answer 8

• systematic analysis of our own conscious experiences of a stimuli
• experience is examined in terms of its component parts e.g. sensations, feelings, images etc

Question 9

Wundt claimed that with sufficient training an…

Answer 9

• individuals conscious mental processes, such as perception, could be objectively reported by the individual as they occurred
• e.g. Wundt would ask people to focus on an everyday object
• encourage them to look inwards and reflect on
  the sensations, feelings and the images that came to mind
• this info could then be used to gain insight into the mental processes involved in perception

Question 10

Introspection +ve:

Answer 10

• focus on mental processes through introspection can be seen as the forerunner of the cognitive approach
  = introspection still sometimes used in modern scientific psychological research (e.g. Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003)
  = and in areas such as therapy and studying emotional states
  = demonstrates its value as one way mental
  processes can be investigated

Question 11

Introspection -ve:

Answer 11

• studies using introspection may not be valid
• many psychologists would argue that several aspects of our mind are outside of our conscious awareness (e.g. research by Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) and so cannot be reported by an individual
  = doesn’t explain how the brain works, relies on peoples descriptions which aren’t objective
• data unreliable, is based on reports of experiences so accounts can’t be confirmed

Question 12

Key assumptions of the behaviourist approach?

Answer 12

• concerned with observable behaviour that can be objectively+scientifically measured
• all behaviour learned from env and can be reduced to a stimulus-response association
• little diff between learning in humans and non human animals so research can be carried out on humans and animals

Question 13

What is classical conditioning, BA?

Answer 13

• behaviourist approach suggests that all behaviour is learnt rather than being innate or inherited from parents
• one way in which behaviour can be
  learned is via classical conditioning, which is learning through association
• stimulus produces the same response as another stimulus because they have been consistently presented at the same time

Question 14

What did Pavlov do, BA?

Answer 14

• credited with discovering the process of classical conditioning
• was investigating the salivating reflex in
  dogs when he noticed that dogs would not only salivate when food was placed in their mouths
• but also when certain stimuli appeared, such as their dog bowl or the person who usually fed them
• led Pavlov to explore how the dogs had
  learnt that these stimuli meant food was on the way
• decided to see if he could teach the dogs to salivate when he rang a bell

Question 15

Steps in Pavlov’s study (CC), BA?

Answer 15

1. Before Conditioning:
   - food was an unconditioned stimulus that produced the reflex of salivating, unconditioned response
   - bell was a neutral stimulus that produced no conditioned response
2. During Conditioning
   - unconditioned stimulus (food) was repeatedly
   paired with the neutral stimulus (bell)
   - eventually, the dog associated the bell with food
3. After Conditioning
   - bell was a conditioned stimulus that produced
   salivating in the dogs as a conditioned response

Question 16

What is the idea behind Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning, BA?

Answer 16

• organisms spontaneously produce different behaviours and these behaviours produce consequences for that organism
• some of these consequences may be positive and some may be negative
• if the consequence of a behaviour is positive then the behaviour is likely to be repeated
• if the consequence is negative then the behaviour is much less likely to be repeated

Question 17

Difference between operant + classical conditioning?

Answer 17

• responses are reinforced in operant conditioning but not in classical conditioning
• classical conditioning explains the acquisition of a response (e.g. a phobia)
• while operant conditioning explains the maintenance of a response

Question 18

What is reinforcement, OC BA?

Answer 18

• reinforcement is something in the environment that strengthens a particular behaviour (i.e. makes that behaviour more likely to happen)
• two types of reinforcement: positive and negative

Question 19

What is positive reinforcement, OC BA?

Answer 19

• occurs when behaviour produces a consequence that is satisfying or pleasant for the organism
• e.g. praising a child for doing their homework

Question 20

What is negative reinforcement, OC BA?

Answer 20

• when behaviour removes something aversive
  (unpleasant) and returns the organism to the pre-aversive state
• e.g. turning off the alarm clock allows a person to escape from the unpleasant noise

Question 21

What is punishment, OC BA?

Answer 21

• occurs when a behaviour leads to an unpleasant consequence
• this decreases the likelihood that the behaviour will occur again
• 2 types: positive and negative

Question 22

What is positive punishment, OC BA?

Answer 22

• when something unpleasant is added to a person’s life that was not there before
• e.g. giving a student detention

Question 23

What is negative punishment, OC BA?

Answer 23

• when something pleasant is removed from a
  person’s life
• e.g. confiscating a student’s mobile phone

Question 24

What was Skinners’ study, BA?

Answer 24

• conducted a study on rats in a device called the Skinner Box
• was a cage which had speakers, lights, a lever, a door and a floor which could be electrified
• one hungry rat at a time would be placed in the
  Skinner box and allowed to freely run round
• rat might accidentally press the lever and be rewarded by a food pellet which would drop into the Skinner box (positive reinforcement)
• rat would then continue to press the lever in
  order to receive a food pellet in the future, as the rat soon learned that pressing the lever led to a reward
• rat could learn that by pressing the
  lever they could avoid something unpleasant, by pressing the lever the rat could avoid receiving an electric shock (via the electrified floor)
• example of negative reinforcement

Question 25

Behaviourist approach +ve:

Answer 25

• enhanced the scientific status of Psychology by
  using strict scientific methods, being objective, and producing verifiable findings
  = has developed laws and principles that have enabled psychologists to predict and control behaviour
  = but also raises ethical concerns because the approach could be used to control people against their wishes
• has led to several useful treatments such as
  systematic desensitisation (classical conditioning) and token economy (operant conditioning)

Question 26

Behaviourist approach -ve:

Answer 26

• treatments focus solely on behaviour so neglects the whole person
• treatments using conditioning do not get to the root cause of a patient’s problem
• so it is likely that when the therapy has ended the patient will return to their original behaviour
  = environmentally reductionist because it focuses
  on a lower level of explanation than other approaches
• stimulus-response associations lack meaning when attempting to explain complex human behaviours, such as attachment
  = also environmentally deterministic, according to behaviourism, human behaviour is entirely
  determined by the environment
  = there is no account taken of a person’s free will
  to decide how to behave
• criticised because it uses non-human animals
• critics claim this tells us little about human behaviour as humans have cognitive factors and emotional states that influence their behaviour

Question 27

Key assumptions of social learning theory?

Answer 27

• behaviour is learned through experience
• specifically through observation and imitation within a social context

Question 28

5 aspects of the SLT?

Answer 28

• modelling
• imitation
• indentification
• vicarious reinforcement
• mediational processes

Question 29

What is modelling, SLT?

Answer 29

• for social learning to take place models must carry out the behaviour to be learnt
• live model could be a parent, teacher or peer
• symbolic model could be someone in the media

Question 30

What is imitation, SLT?

Answer 30

• lots of the behaviour people acquire is learnt thorugh copying (imitating) the behaviour that is modelled by others

Question 31

What is identification, SLT?

Answer 31

• idea that we are more likely to imitate the behaviour of a model who we admire or who is similar to us in some way (e.g. same age and gender)
• to identify with the model, observers must feel that they are similar enough to the model that if they performed the same behaviour, the consequence would be the same for them as it was for the model

Question 32

What is vicarious reinforcement, SLT?

Answer 32

• how individuals learn by observing the behaviour of others and the reward and punishment they receive
• people do not need to experience rewards or punishments directly in order to learn from them
• people may learn behaviours, but not perform them because they have also learned
  that the behaviour is likely to be punished if displayed

Question 33

What are mediational processes, SLT?

Answer 33

• cognitive factors that intervene in the learning process to determine whether a new behaviour is acquired or not
  observer must:
• pay ATTENTION to the model
• needs to be capable of RETENTION (remember the behaviour modelled)
• must be motivated to imitate the behaviour (may want same outcome as model)
• must consider themselves physically and psychologically capable of reproducing the behaviour, they may be incapable due to low motivation or due to mere incapability

Question 34

Banduras’ study SLT:

Answer 34

• conducted a study involving 36 male and 36 female children aged 3-7 years of age
• children had to observe a model acting either aggressively or non aggressively with a bobo doll
• some children saw a same-sex model,
  others saw a different sex model
• in experimental conditions the model
  displayed aggressive acts towards the bobo doll such as striking it with a mallet
  and shouting “POW!”
• then children were made to feel frustrated by being shown attractive toys but told they were not allowed to play with them
• children (one by one) were then taken to a room which had some toys including a bobo doll
• children were observed for 20 minutes

Question 35

Banduras’ study findings, SLT?

Answer 35

• children who observed the aggressive model
  reproduced the same aggressive behaviour towards the bobo doll
• but children who observed the non-aggressive model, showed no aggression to the
  bobo doll
• 33% of children who observed and heard verbal aggression repeated what they had seen and heard
• but 0% of children in the non aggressive
  group displayed verbal aggression
• boys were more aggressive than girls
• also imitation of aggression was greatest when the model was the same gender as
  the observer (identification)

Question 36

SLT +ve:

Answer 36

• recognises the importance of both behavioural and cognitive factors (mediational processes) when examining how people learn new behaviours, unlike the behaviourist approach (classical and operant conditioning)
  = evidence based approach, shows learning through observation
• positive approach to explaining behaviours, behaviour shaped by env so reduces self blame

Question 37

SLT -ve:

Answer 37

• validity is ? as artifical env so results may not explain everyday behaviour
  = focuses on nurture, blame on model for aquisation of behaviour, can cause guilt
• sees behaviour as environmentally determined and so ignores the role of biology in behaviour
• but Bandura (1961) found in his experiment that boys were more aggressive than girls, regardless of the experimental situation they were in
• boys might be more aggressive because of
  the hormone testosterone which means it is biologically determined
  = env deterministic, ignores role of free will
• mediational factors have to be inferred so we cannot measure the extent of their influence
• SLT does not try to explain mediational processes, it leaves this to cognitive psychologists
  = criticised because it does not take into account cause and effect
  = studies found that young people who have deviant attitudes seek out peers with similar attitudes, rather than becoming deviant
  because of their peers
  = able to explain behaviours such as aggression, but not so able to explain the learning of abstract notions, e.g. fairness, justice etc. which cannot be observed directly