Approaches: Paper 2 Flashcards
What did Wundt believe in terms of what could be studied scientifically and what was he interested in understanding?
Wundt believed that all aspects of nature, including the human mind, could be studied scientifically
He was interested in understanding how people become aware of stimuli (such as sounds or lights) in their environment.
What is introspection?
He believed that we could measure the contents of the mind in an organised way. This could be done objectively through a method called introspection - looking into one’s own minds.
What was reductionism?
In addition to this, he also believed the mind should be measured in a reductionist way. This means that he broke behaviour down into elements to be investigated.
How did he investigate his belief that the human mind could be studied scientifically?
Wundt tried to investigate his belief by asking his participants to focus on an everyday object (metronome) and look inwards to analyse it in terms of its component parts such as noticing sensations and perceptions.
How did Wundt contribute to the development of psychology, and what did it lead to?
One way Wundt contributed to the development of psychology was through his research in carefully controlled conditions, i.e. experimental methods, as he developed standardised procedures and attempted to produce conditions for replicability.
This encouraged other researchers such as the behaviourists to follow the same experimental approach and be more scientific, allowing psychology to be established as a scientific discipline, becoming known as the ‘Father of Psychology’.
Why do Behaviourists disagree with his method of ‘introspection’?
However, behavourists argue that introspection was not really scientific even if the methods used to introspect were.
For example, Skinner claims the results of introspection are subjective and cannot be verified because only observable behavior can be objectively measured.
What did Wundt focus on and how did this help the development of psychology?
Wundt concentrated on three areas of mental functioning; thoughts, images and feelings and some of these areas are still studied in cognitive psychology today.
This means that the study of perceptual processes can be traced back to Wundt.
Therefore, Wundt’s work has been revolutionary in stimulating interest in cognitive psychology.
Wundt’s findings unreliable
- Conscious experiences are non-observable
- Results are prone to bias as self reports are subjective, this makes it difficult to establish general laws
- Results from reports could not be replicated
Why was Wundt’s role in establishing Psychology as a Science important?
Wundt’s role in the emergence of psych as a science is significant as it marked the separation of modern scientific psych from its wider philosophical roots.
Why do Holistic psychologists disagree with Wundt’s approach of ‘reductionism’?
Holistic psychologists argue that behaviour cannot be understood in terms of the components that make them up.
They believe reductionism can lead to oversimplification and a failure to consider that the nature of human behaviour is complex because we still do not fully understand it.
Thus they would criticse Wundt and his reductionist stance on how the mind should be measured
Approaches
What stance do Behaviourists take in terms of determinism?
A01: Behaviourist Approach
Behaviourism takes a deterministic stance, arguing that behaviour is learnt from and controlled by forces in the environment meaning we do not have free will or choice.
Can you fully explain the concept of ‘Classical Conditioning’?
A01: Behaviourist Approach
- Classical conditioning is learning by associating different stimuli with one response.
- This relies on behaviour an animal already possesses such as reflexes.
- An unconditioned stimulus results in an unconditioned response, which is out of the animal’s control.
- When this is paired with a neutral stimulus, we learn to associate them.
- This neutral stimulus can come to elicit a conditioned response through association.
What is Operant Conditioning?
A01: Behaviourist Approach
Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated can change depending on its consequences.
What is Positive Reinforcement?
(provide an example and tell me how it affects the a behaviour’s occurrence.)
A01: Behaviourist Approach
Positive reinforcement is a desirable consequence such as a reward when a certain behaviour is performed. For example, praise from the teacher for getting high marks on an assessment. This increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated.
What is Negative Reinforcement?
(provide an example and tell me how it affects the a behaviour’s occurrence.)
A01: Behaviourist Approach
Negative reinforcement is when an unpleasant consequence is avoided. For instance, a student may revise at - home in order to avoid getting a bad result in their test. This increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated.
What is Punishment?
(provide an example and tell me how it affects the a behaviour’s occurrence.)
A01: Behaviourist Approach
Punishment is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour. For example, this may be getting shouted at by the teacher for talking numerous times in class. Punishments decrease the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated.
How does the Skinner Box Experiment provide evidence for the existence of ‘Operant Conditioning’ where behaviour can be shaped?
A01: Behaviourist Approach
A hungry rat was placed in a cage. Every time he activated the lever a food pellet fell in the food dispenser (positive reinforcement).
The rats quickly learnt to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box
This suggests that positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated.
This experiment was an example of the shaping of behaviour, as Skinner reinforced successive approximations to get to the final target behaviour (i.e.: every time the rat pulled the lever it was given food, even before it had figured out the association).
Can you fully outline Pavlov’s Dog Experiment?
A01: Behaviourist Approach
Pavlov managed to condition dogs to salivate when they heard a bell.
At first when the dogs where presented the food they salivated. The food was the unconditioned stimulus and the salivation was the unconditioned response.
He then introduced a neutral stimulus which was the bell
. Eventually the dogs salivated when no food was given and just the bell was sounded. The bell was then the conditioned stimulus and the salivation was the conditioned response.
Research support for the existence of ‘Classical Conditioning’ from Watson and Rayner
A03: Behaviourist Approach
Over time, Little Albert learned to associate the loud noise (which by itself produces a fear response) with the neutral stimulus of the white rat.
The white rat, which used to be a neutral stimulus, eventually produced a fear response without the pairing of a loud noise.
Real life applications of behaviourist determinism.
A03: Behaviourist Approach
Being deterministic is a strength because by assuming that behaviour is determined by factors in the environment, accurate predictions can be made about behaviour in specific situations and is thus useful as it allows us to modify aspects of everyday human behaviour such as in education.
For example, operant conditioning techniques are used by teachers for effective classroom management.
Therefore, this has useful applications in education as operant conditioning can be used to motivate learners to participate and excel in their studies actively, showing that the behaviourist principles that these applications are based on are valid as they are effective.
Why is determinism a problem?
A03: Behaviourist Approach
Being deterministic is however a problem because it suggests that an individual does not have free will or choice.
This explanation has implications on the legal system because if adopted it would raise questions as to whether criminals should be punished for their actions because the behaviourist approach suggests that they had no free will or choice in committing their crimes.
Behaviourist research is highly scientific (heavily controlled)
A03: Behaviourist Approach
A strength of Skinner’s research was his reliance on the experimental method, which uses controlled conditions to discover a possible causal relationship. By manipulating the consequences of behaviour, he was able to accurately measure the effects on the rat’s behaviour.
This allowed him to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the consequences of a certain behaviour (hitting the lever) and the future frequency of its occurrence.
This adds internal validity to the research whilst also allowing the research to be able to be replicated to increase its reliability through its emphasis on scientific methodology.
Why is utilising reductionism a strength of behaviourist research?
A03: Behaviourist Approach
Behaviourists utilise a reductionist method which is the belief that human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into simpler component parts.
This is a strength because it forms the basis of scientific research
. For instance, to establish operationalized variables, breaking down the target behaviour is necessary as it enables meaningful experiments or observations.
The behaviourist approach exemplifies this by illustrating how complex learning behaviour, as seen in Pavlov’s dog study, can be reduced into specific stimulus-response links within the controlled environment of the laboratory.
Applied to real life problems such as token economies in prisons…
Can you outline research support for its effectiveness?
A03: Behaviourist Approach
The principles of conditioning can be applied to real life problems and behaviour. For instance, operant conditioning has underpinned the token economy systems that has been used successfully in institutions, such as prison. These work by rewarding obedient behaviour with tokens that can then be exchanged for privileges.
Gendreau and Ross (1979) conducted a meta-analysis of studies on token economies in prisons. The results showed that token economies were associated with a reduction in aggressive behaviour, a decrease in rule violations, and an increase in participation in educational and vocational programs. This increases the reliability of the approach because it has widespread application.
Mechanistic lens of human behaviour…
A03: Behaviourist Approach
Moreover, a limitation of the behaviourist approach is that it views animals and humans through a mechanistic lens.
This is a limitation because it considers us as passive and machine-like responders to our environment without any conscious thought into our behaviours, assuming that animals and humans learn in the same way, ignoring the conscious thoughts and emotional realities that we as humans have, which arguably separates us from animals.
Thus, when using animals in experiments, there findings may not be generalisable to human behaviour.
Ethical issues of applying behaviourist principles…
A03: Behaviourist Approach
The behaviourist approach has ethical issues as it can be used by gambling companies to encourage people to behave in ways that they wouldn’t rationally choose to.
The behaviourist perspective explains gambling addiction through operant conditioning, where behaviours are shaped by consequences.
This has been negatively applied in real life by gambling companies who strategically use intermittent reinforcement in slot machines to enhance the thrill and positively reinforce the behaviour.
This may lead Individuals finding themselves compelled to gamble more frequently or for longer durations due to the perceived benefits associated with these rewards.
This raises ethical concerns when such conditioning techniques intentionally manipulate individuals, exploiting their psychological vulnerabilities for profit.
What does the Social Learning Theory (SLT) propose?
A01: Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory proposes that there is a mediational process between response and stimulus that the behaviourists fail to disregard. Bandura argues that we learn behaviour through observation and imitation of others.
What are the four mediational processes in learning?
A01: Social Learning Theory
Attention, Retention, Reproduction, Motivation
Can you outline each mediational process fully?
A01: Social Learning Theory
Attention: First, an individual pays attention to the behaviour that the model is performing.
Retention: Then, an individual retains this behaviour, storing it as a memory. Thoughts then allow us to select and learn a behaviour and perform it later.
Reproduction: Then, the observer attempts to perform the behaviour that they had previously remembered.
Motivation: The will to perform the behaviour later depends on whether the behaviour was rewarded or not.
In Vicarious Reinforcement, people observe a behaviour being praised and this leads to the observer being motivated to replicate that behaviour to gain similar praise. This could lead to internalisation of behaviour, where a behaviour becomes part of the observer’s personality
What is Identification?
A01: Social Learning Theory
Identification is when an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model.
This means they are more likely to imitate and learn from the behaviour of people they view as role models in a process called modelling.
A person becomes a role model if they are seen to possess similar characteristics to the observer or have high status.
Can you fully outline the Bobo Doll Experiment?
A01: Social Learning Theory
Bandura et al recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a Bobo.
The adult hit the doll with a hammer and shouted abuse at it. When these children were later observed playing with various toys, including a Bobo doll, they behaved much more aggressively towards the doll and the other toys than those who had observed a non-aggressive adult.
This demonstrated that learning could occur through the observation of role models.
Relies on Lab Experiments –> Highly Scientific
A03: Social Learning Theory
This is a strength because his research uses standardised procedures, which make it reliable as they can be repeated.
For example, in the Bobo Doll experiment, all ppts had the same doll and equipment and the same room.
Moreover, the Bobo Doll Experiments have high levels of control. Therefore, meaning that the approach can establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the observation and imitation of role models, establishing the approach as a scientific discipline and demonstrating the research’s high internal validity.
One strength of the SLT is that it is less reductionist that other approaches.
A03: Social Learning Theory
This is a strength because it does not reduce complex behaviours such as aggression in children to a simplistic level. Bandura considers the complex interaction between cognitive and environmental factors.
For example, he argues imitation of an action can only occur after a series of mediational processes such as self-efficacy (a belief of how successful they are in performing that observed action).
Therefore, this approach is more holistic than others as it considers both behavioural and cognitive factors when explaining human behaviours.
The Social Learning Theory is less deterministic than the behaviourist approach.
A03: Social Learning Theory
Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism, in the sense that we are not merely influenced by our environment, but we also exert an influence upon it, through the behaviours we choose to perform as we can
For example, select an observed behaviour and store it as a thought (retention) for later reproduction if we so wish it.
This suggests the approach accepts some element of free will in choosing how to behave.
Real life applications
A03: Social Learning Theory
This is a strength because SLT principles have been applied in real life by creating intervention models.
For instance, a school might invite a well-known athlete as a role model to promote healthy habits and deter criminal behaviour, as students often strive to identify with and imitate these role models.
Another real-life application is that SLT principles have been applied in real life to develop successful treatments for phobias
A03: Social Learning Theory
For example, modelling allows the client to watch another non phobic person who is like them interact with the phobic object.
This provides the patient with vicarious reinforcement because the model is interacting with positive consequences, which could lead the observer who is afraid of the phobic stimulus to replicate that behaviour and eventually learn to interact with the phobic object in a calm and collected way through repeated exposure to modelling.
Therefore, this means that the ideas of observing, imitating, modelling and vicarious reinforcement can be applied in real life to improve the lives of people in the real world who may have anxiety orders such as phobias, so that it does not affect their day-to-day living.
One limitation of the SLT is that it does not pay much attention to the impact of biological factors of behaviour.
A03: Social Learning Theory
This is because boys are naturally more aggressive than girls (as seen in the results of the experiment where boys tended to be more aggressive towards the Bobo Doll than the girls) as the presence of testosterone in boys, which from when they were in the womb has had a higher exposure than girls.
This, therefore, explains why in the research males tended to respond more aggressively towards the Bobo Doll than female participants.
What is another biological explanation for their behaviours? —> Mirror Neurones
A03: Social Learning Theory
Moreover, a further biological explanation is that observational learning could be the result of biological factors such as mirror neurons.
Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that allow us to empathise and imitate the behaviours of others.
Therefore, biological factors may have an influence on our observational learning, which the social learning approach fails to consider.
However, one limitation of the SLT approach is that the fact that most of his research relies on laboratory experiments can be criticised for being artificial.
A03: Social Learning Theory
This is a limitation because the children may have been responding to demand characteristics and may have thought they were expected to copy the model due to the unfamiliar environment when they observed and imitated the model’s aggressive behaviour.
Therefore, this means that the social learning approach provides a low external validity of behaviour as the behaviour the children initiated may not be because of observation and imitation.
Research support for identification with models
A03: Social Learning Theory
Fox and Bailenson found evidence using computer generated humans engaging in exercise. the models looked either similar or dissimilar to the participant. the participants who viewed the similar model engaged in more exercise in the following 24 hours than those who saw the model loitering or dissimilar model.
They concluded that greater identification with a model leads to more learning because it is easier to visualise the self in the place of model which shows that there is research support to support the idea of identification adding to the strength of this approach.
