Approaches Lessons 01 - 03 Flashcards
Define psychology
The scientific study of the mind and behaviour
Define science
The pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world
Wilhelm Wundt
The first person to call themself a ‘psychologist’ - he is the ‘father of psychology’
In 1879, he opened the first experimental psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. It was designed to aid the scientific study of psychological inquiry and it used controlled conditions
He devised ‘Introspection’ as a way of studying internal mental events
He wanted to focus on perception and structuralism (a theory of consciousness). He and his workers recorded their thoughts, and broke them down into their constituent parts (sensations, emotions, reactions etc.).
He wanted to investigate psychology in the same way as the traditional sciences
Introspection
The first systematic and experimental attempt to study the mind/mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations
Involves a person saying everything that is going to their mind whilst they are doing an activity or thinking about a topic. They must keep talking even if that idea is not clear, must not hesitate, may use fragmented sentences and do not have to explain their thoughts.
Introspection is highly reliable as replication is possible and it is done in controlled conditions
Watson and other approaches
John Watson (1913) argued that introspection provided subjective data (biased) meaning it varied greatly from person to person, making it difficult to establish general phenomena. He proposed that a truly scientific psychology should restrict itself to studying phenomena that could be OBSERVED and MEASURED - the BEHAVIOURIST approach. The behaviourist approach focused on carefully controlled lab experiments.
However following the cognitive revolution of the 1960s, the study of mental processes is now seen as legitimate and highly scientific.
The BIOLOGICAL approach also makes use of experimental data. Researchers take advantage of advances in technology (studies of the brain - fMRI, EEG scanning)
Evaluation of Introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science
+ Introspection helped develop other approaches (behaviourism, cognitive approach). It is a useful phenomenon used in psychology that has formed the basis of other approaches
+ Introspection is extremely scientific – shares the same qualities as scientific subjects, Chemistry, Biology, Physics (e.g. they all form hypotheses). There is a high level of control of variables in a lab setting
+ It establishes what causes behaviour. If we know the cause, we can predict future behaviour. An example would be that we know high levels of dopamine can cause OCD, so we can ensure that dopamine levels are regulated
+ Introspection is still used today. Example = cognitive therapy
+ Wundt supports the idea of reductionism - consciousness can be broken down to his basic elements, which can be studied
- Watson criticised the idea of introspection and whether psychology was emerging as a science. Introspection provides subjective data which can vary, therefore it is not objective or reliable
- Introspection is not scientific or accurate - psychologists know little about behaviours outside of conscious awareness (e.g. racism) and introspection would not help understand it
- Introspection fails to explain HOW the mind works - psychologists cannot see how thoughts are generated
Behaviourist Approach Assumptions
Following Darwin, behaviourists believed that the basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species, therefore animals could replace humans as the experimental subjects
All behaviour is learned from the environment and can be reduced to a stimulus-response association
Classical Conditioning
Learning through association
Was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov - he revealed that dogs can be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if the sound was repeatedly present when food was given. The dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell with food and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the bell
Pavlov Experiment
Before CC:
- Food (unconditioned stimulus - UCS) produces salivation (unconditioned response - UNR)
- A bell (neutral stimulus - NS) is rung alone, and the dog does not salivate (no response)
During CC:
- The UCS (food) is repeatedly paired with the NS (bell), producing UCR (salivation). Learning is taking place
After CC:
- The bell (conditioned stimulus - CS) is presented alone and the dog salivated (conditioned response - CR). Learning has taken place via CC and an association has been made.
Key principles of CC
1) Stimulus Generalisation - stimuli similar to the CS also cause the CR
2) Discrimination - stimuli similar to the CS will not produce the CR. This can be done by withholding the UCS
3) Extinction - the CR is not produced when the CS is present. (The CS is there without UCS)
4) Timing - if the NS is shown after the UCS and the time interval is too long, conditioning does not happen
5) Spontaneous Recovery - after extinction, if the CS and the UCS are paired together once again, the link is made much more quickly (memory comes back quickly)
1 AND 2 ARE OPPOSITES
Evaluation of CC
+ Research evidence that supports it - Pavlov’s dogs, Little Albert by Watson and Rayner. It is successful in explaining how learning can occur in animals and children
+ Pavlov’s research has helped develop treatments (e.g. flooding, systematic desensitisation), which are very successful
- The studies were done in a laboratory setting - different results may be found in different settings - lacks ecological validity
- CC might not be very strong in explaining how adults learn new behaviours - limited to children and animals
- Menzies criticised CC. He studied people with hydrophobia and only 2% had encountered a negative experience with water. 98% had not learnt to be afraid. Further research has found that 50% of people with a dog phobia never had a bad experience with them - learning cannot be a factor
- CC is deterministic as it ignores free will. It claims that an individual will respond to a CS with no variation, which is untrue as people do have control over their actions
Operant Conditioning
A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.
B F Skinner (1953) proposed that learning is an active process where humans and animals operate on their environment.
Reinforcement
A consequence that makes a behaviour more likely to occur.
Positive Reinforcement: receiving a REWARD when a certain behaviour is performed (e.g. praise)
Negative Reinforcement: AVOIDING something unpleasant (e.g. doing something in order to not be told off)
Punishment
A consequence that makes a behaviour less likely to occur
Positive punishment: ADDING something unpleasant (e.g. slapping a child)
Negative punishment: TAKING away something (e.g. taking away a child’s phone)
Skinner’s experiment
Skinner put a rat into a device called ‘The Skinner Box’. This rat would accidentally press down the lever and would be rewarded by a food pellet (positive reinforcement). The rat would continue to press the lever in order to receive a food pellet and would soon learn that pressing the lever leads to a reward. The rat also learn that by pressing a lever, they could avoid something unpleasant, such as an electric shock (negative reinforcement)
