Approaches to psychology

Question 1

17th to 19th century

Answer 1

• psychology stems from philosophy
• proposed empiricism (idea that all experience can be obtained through the senses)

Question 2

Wilhelm Wundt 1879

Answer 2

• first known psychologist
• established the first psychological labratory in 1879 in Leipzig

Question 3

1900s Freud

Answer 3

• wrote ‘interpretation of dreams’
• established psychodynamic approach

Question 4

1913 John Watson

Answer 4

• he questions introspection
• thought humans were born as ‘blank slates’ which introduced behaviourism

Question 5

1950s Rogers & Maslow

Answer 5

• humanist psychology
• focused on free will

Question 6

1960s Cognitive approach

Answer 6

• was introduced during the era of the first digital computer
• mental processes looked at in a scientific way
• lab experiments

Question 7

1960s SLT

Answer 7

• draws attention to role of the cognitive factors in leaning and connects cognitive and behaviourist approaches

Question 8

1980s Biological approach

Answer 8

• based on experimental dataa
• advances in technology have increased our understanding of the brain and biological processes

Question 9

Eve of the 21st Century

Answer 9

• cognitive neuroscience
• different areas of brain have different functions in thought/behaviour

Question 10

Introspection + Empiricism

Answer 10

introspection - recording thoughts aiming to break them down
empiricism - all experience can be obtained through the senses

Question 11

Information processing model

Answer 11

input —-> process —-> output

Question 12

Schema

Answer 12

a ‘package’ of beliefs and expectations on a topic that come from prior experience
- useful for organising information allowing us to take shortcuts in thinking
- born with basic ones which develop through experience
- lead to faulty conclusions and unhelpful behaviour

Question 13

Inference

Answer 13

process of drawing conclusions avout the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed evidence

Question 14

Computer model

Answer 14

• brain processes information like a compiter
• central processing unit - brain
• coding - to turn info into a useable format
• stores - to hold different bits of info

Question 16

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 16

• aims to study biological sturctures that influence mental processes
• last 20 year fMRI and PET scan used to look at the living brain. E.g episodic and semantic memory may be located at diferent sides of pre frontal cortex E.g hunger controlled by the hypothalamus

Question 17

Cognitive approach advantages

Answer 17

• helps explain internal mental processes
• experimental methods are considered scientific
• practical application supports the value of the cognitive approach

Question 19

Cognitive approach disadvantages

Answer 19

• over simplifies explanations for complex mental processes
• based on machine reductionism (ignores influence of human emotion and researchers think this is unsophisticated)
• determinist (assumes no free will)

Question 20

Behaviourist approach

Answer 20

studies behaviour that can be observed and measured

Question 21

behaviourism

Answer 21

an empirically rigorous science focused on observable behaviours and not unobservable internal mnetal processes

Question 22

classical conditioning

Answer 22

when a subject links certain events, behaviours or stimuli together in the process of conditioning (learning through association)
E.g Pavlov’s dogs - showed how dogs could be conditions to salivate at the sound of th ebell if the sound was presented at the same time as they had food

Question 23

operant conditioning

Answer 23

a type of learning that behaviour is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or taken away if followed by a punisher

Question 24

positive reinforcement

Answer 24

• receiving a reward when a certain behavour is performed, for example, praise from a teacher for - answering a question correctly in class

Question 25

negative reinforcment

Answer 25

• occurs when an animal/human avoids something unpleasant and the outcome is a positive experience. - e.g when a student hands in an essay so they don’t get a detention, the avoidance of something unpleasant is the negative reinforcement
• positive and negative increase behaviour being repeated

Question 26

punishment

Answer 26

unpleasant consequence of behaviour, e.g being shouted at by the teacher for talking during a lesson
decreases likelihood that behaviour will be repeated

Question 27

advantages of behaviourism

Answer 27

• there is evidence to support it e.g pavlov’s dogs
• many useful practical applications
• uses scientific methods of research

Question 28

disadvantages of the behaviourist app

Answer 28

• deterministic (assumes no free will)
• reductionist - reduces all aspects of human behaviour down to one level of explanation
• uses animals within research and cannot be generalised to humans - unethical