Approaches v2 Flashcards
Define psychology.
The scientific study of the mind and behaviour
Outline introspection.
The first systematic and experimental attempt to study the mind and mental processes by breaking down conscious awareness into basic structures of reflections, thoughts, images and sensations
Outline Wundt’s role in the development of psychology. (AO1)
- Wundt was the first person to call himself a psychologist and is known as the ‘father of psychology’
- He opened the first experimental psychology laboratory in Germany which helped shape psychology as a science using controlled conditions to facilitate the replication of results
- He devised introspection as way of studying internal mental events
- He aimed to investigate psychology in the same way as traditional sciences and believed it should emerge as one
- He used scientific methods to study introspection
- Helped psychology emerge as science and developed cognitive psychology
Describe the Wundt’s method of introspection. (AO1)
- Participants were presented with various stimuli, such as visual or auditory stimuli, under controlled conditions.
- The stimuli could be simple, such as a single tone or colour, or more complex, such as a series of words or images.
- Pps. had to focus on present experiences and say everything that they are thinking of while they are doing an activity or thinking about a topic or object
- They must keep talking even if thoughts are not clear and they must not hesitate, can use fragmented sentences and don’t need to justify their thoughts
- After introspecting upon their experiences, participants were required to provide detailed verbal reports of their subjective observations.
- mental states, the content of their thoughts, and any other relevant aspects of their conscious experience.
Evaluate introspection and emergence of psychology as a science. (AO3)
ADV 1:
- Psychology shares the same qualities as trad sciences
- Make predictions
- Form hypotheses
- Manipulate the IV to measure the effect on the DV
- High level of control of variables (lab study) e.g. the stimulus-response approach in classical conditioning explains how all stimuli (IV) generate a response (DV)
ADV 2:
- Still useful in psychology today
- Hunter (2003) used introspection as a method to measure happiness levels
- Group of adolescents given beepers and just before they went off at random times in the day they had to write down their thoughts and feelings
- generally more unhappy than happy
- When carrying out challenging task they were happier
- Introspection can be used as a tool to measure emotions and feelings and improve quality of life
DIS 1:
- Criticised for not being accurate
- Tells us nothing about the underlying causes and processes of our behaviours and attitudes
- We have attitudes and stereotypes even we are not aware of - some people are racist but do not know why and may behave stereotypically to other ethnic groups
- Only touches surface and not why or how we have these thoughts
DIS 2:
- Watson criticised Wundt’s introspection
- produces subjective data which varies heavily from one individual to the next
- Not objective or reliable
- We cannot prove what one’s thinking
- Watson argues that we need to observe behaviour as this is a more objective method to study humans (led to behaviourist approach)
Outline the assumptions of the behaviourist approach.
- Basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species
- Concerned with observable behaviour that can be objectively and scientifically measured
- All behaviour is learned from the environment and can be reduced to stimulus-response associations
Key terms in classical conditioning
- Stimulus generalisation: stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus will cause the same conditioned response e.g. bell with diff pitch
- Discrimination: stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus will NOT cause the same conditioned response (done by withholding original UCS food)
- Extinction: conditioned response is not produced when bell is rung (withholding UCS)
- Timing: If time interval between UCS and NS is too long, conditioning does not occur
- Spontaneous recovery: after extinction, if UCS and NS paired together, link is made more quickly
Evaluate classical conditioning. (AO3)
ADV 1:
- Research evidence to support CC explaining acquisition of phobias
- Pavlov and dogs study; Watson & Rayner Little Albert
- CC successful in animals and young children - they make associations all the time through stimulus-response approach
ADV 2:
- Application to treatments of psychological disorders
- Flooding and SD based on the principles of CC
- Both use counter conditioning (associate fear with calmness), based on idea of reciprocal inhibition
- Both therapies are successful (Ougrin & Choy)
DIS 1:
- Pavlov and Little Albert studies conducted in a lab setting (may find diff results in other settings)
- Lacks ecological validity making findings weak
- Also Little Albert is only one participant -lacks pop validity
DIS 2:
- Doesn’t explain how adults learn new behaviours
- Adult behaviours are very complex and not always result of previous exp or conditioning - do not encounter new stimuli
- limited to explaining new behaviours only in children and animals
Evaluate operant conditioning (AO3).
ADV 1
- Real life applications of operant conditioning
- Token economy systems in prisons and hospitals
act as a form of behaviour modification - Works by rewarding certain behaviours with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges
- Supported by research in SZ to make behaviour more appropriate
ADV 2
- Skinner relied on the experimental method
- used highly controlled conditions to find the relationship between the IV and DV and establish a cause and effect relationship
- This makes the research replicable and thus reliable
DIS 1:
- Skinner believes in hard determinism and ignores free will
- People have no control over their actions as it is determined by their past experiences involving operant conditioning
- e.g. children are punished for their behaviour but still repeat it - due to free will but it is not accounted for
DIS 2:
- Ethical issues with Skinner’s box study
- Rats and pigeons in stressful aversive situations
- Negative effect on psychological and physical health against BPS ethical guidelines
- Also results from animals cannot always be generalised
Define social learning theory.
New patterns of behaviour can be acquired by observing the behaviour of others and the consequences they receive of reinforcements or punishments.
Outline 4 main points of social learning theory as part of the learning approach. (AO1)
- Modelling: In order for social learning to take place we need a model to observe behaviour from; live model could be parents, teachers or peers and symbolic model could be someone in the media
- Imitation: people acquire behaviours by copying the behaviour that is modelled
- Identification: people are more likely to imitate the behaviour of a model who is more similar to them e.g. age, gender as they feel that as they are more similar to them, they will receive the same consequences
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Vicarious Reinforcement: Individuals learn by observing the behaviour of others and the reward and punishment they receive. People don’t need to
experience rewards or punishments directly in order to learn from them.
Outline mediational processes in social learning theory. (AO1)
- There are cognitive factors that occur between the stimulus (observation) and response (imitation)
1. Attention must be paid to notice behaviour of model
2. Retention of the behaviour
3. Motor reproduction: must be able to imitate e.g. cannot sly or shoot lasers
4. Motivation: must be willing to perform behaviour through vicarious reinforcement
Outline Bandura’s study.
- 36 boys and 36 girls ages 3-7
- 24 had to watch an adult model behave aggressively towards the BOBO doll; 24 with model that was not aggressive with doll and 24 with no model
- In both groups, they were split with a male and female model
- After exposure, they were made frustrated by withholding toys from them
- Children were taken one by one to a room with toys and a BOBO doll and observed for 20 mins
- Aggressive model = aggressive behaviour to bobo doll; others showed no aggression
- Boys imitate same sex models more than girls
- Girls were more physically aggressive with male model and verbally aggressive with female model
- Boys were more aggressive - imitation of aggression was greatest when model was same sex as observer
Evaluate SLT. (AO3)
ADV 1:
- Akers (1998) found that SLT explains how criminal behaviour is learnt
- Criminals engage in more criminal behaviour when they are exposed to a model they can highly identify with
- If model receives positive outcome for action, they increase chance that observer commits crime
ADV 2:
- Less determinist than behaviourist approach
- Bandura practiced reciprocal determinism: we are not only influenced by the env but we also exert influence on it
- Element of free will e.g. we choose our model
DIS 1:
- Ignores other potential influences on behaviour
- Boys are more aggressive than girls in Banduras study
- Due to biological factors: high levels of testosterone
- SLT is reductionist as it ignores these other factors
DIS 2:
- Bandura used a lab study
- Prone to show demand characteristics - children may just act in the way they believe are expected to
- Only accounts for how children acquire behaviours, not adults
- lacks ecological validity doesn’t explain how they learn behaviours in real life
Outline the study of internal mental processes as a feature of cognitive approach. (AO1)
- Internal mental processes can be studied scientifically
- Cognitive approach has studied areas of behaviour that are ignored by behaviourists e.g. memory, perception and thinking
- Internal mental processes are the operations that occur during thinking e.g. info from eyes into usable form (perception) and how we choose what to think about (attention)
- Inferences are used to study these processes - cognitive model makes assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed and goes beyond research evidence
- Direct observation of internal cognitive processes is not possible as results have to be inferred from behaviour/data
