ENTRANCE Origins Of Psychology Flashcards
What method did Wundt used to study?
Introspection-reflecting on one’s own mental processes by breaking up conscious awareness into basics structure of thoughts, images and sensations.
What is the definition of psychology?
The scientific study of the mind behaviour and experience.
What is the definition of science?
A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation. The aim is to discover general laws.
Explain ‘Wundts Lab’ .
In 1879 Wundt opened the first ever psychology laboratory in Leipzig Germany.
Why is Wundts research significant?
It marked the beginning of scientific psychology, separating it from its broader philosophical roots.
What was Wundts aim?
To analyse the nature of human consciousness, and thus represented the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled conditions.
What is meant by standardised procedures in Wundts research?
The main objective of Wundts research was to develop theories about mental processes he and his coworkers recorded their experiences and them into thoughts, images and sensations.
For example, the participants would be given a ticking metronome and they would have to report their thoughts, images and sensations.
What is meant by structuralism?
Isolating the structure of consciousness in the way of standardised procedures is called structuralism.
What three components emerged psychology as a science?
In the 1900s behaviourists questioned introspection because it provided subjective data and it was difficult to establish general laws. Watson and Skinner proposed a truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed objectively.
In the 1950s the cognitive approach emerged the digital revolution came about to study the mind with use of tested experiments.
In the 1980s the biological approach was founded advances in technology psychologist to investigate neural and genetic explanations to behaviour.
What is the behaviourist approach?
A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning. Learning through association and reinforcement.
What is meant by classical conditioning?
Learning by association-occurs when two stimulus are repeatedly paired together.
What is operant conditioning?
A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences possible consequences of behaviour include reinforcement and punishment.
What is meant by reinforcement?
A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated it can be positive or negative.
What are the assumptions of behaviourism?
It is only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured.
Watson and Skinner, rejected introspection as it was subjective.
They relied highly on lab studies.
They believe or behaviour is learned.
They describe babies minds as a ‘blank slate’ tabula rasa.
The process of learning is the same in all species.
Who demonstrated classical conditioning and how was it demonstrated?
Classical conditioning is learning through association and was first demonstrated by Pavlov in 1927.
Pavlo showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sounds repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food.
Gradually Pavlo dogs learn to associate the sound of the bell with the food and would produce salvation response every time they heard the sound.
Who demonstrated operant conditioning and how was it demonstrated?
Skinner in 1953 suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment in operant conditioning behaviour is shaped by its consequences.
Positive reinforcement: receiving an award when a certain behaviour is performed .
Negative reinforcement: the avoidance of something unpleasant for a positive experience.
Punishment: pleasant consequence of behaviour.
What was the procedure of Pavlov’s dogs?
The unconditioned stimulus of the food meant an unconditioned response of salivation of the dog.
Then a neutral stimulus of a bell was paired with the food and their response was salivation of the dog.
Therefore the bell became the conditions stimulus and the response of salvation when there was no food became a conditioned stimulus.
What was the procedure of Skinners box?
Skinner conducted experiments with rats and sometimes pigeons in specially designed cages called Skinner boxes.
Every time the rat activated a believer within the box it was rewarded with a food pellet from then on the animal would continue to perform the behaviour.
Skinner also showed how rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an unpleasant stimulus for example an electric shock.
What is social learning theory?
A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.
What is meant by imitation?
Copying the behaviour of others.
What is meant by modelling?
From the observers perspective modelling is imitating the behaviour of a role model.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Reinforcement which is not directly experience but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour. This is a key factor in imitation.
What are mediational processes?
Cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.
What are the assumptions of social learning theory?
Bandura agreed with behaviourist that behaviour is learned from experience. However social learning theory proposed a different way in which people learn; through observation and imitation of others.
SLT suggests learning directly through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly.
How can indirect learning take place?
Through the carious reinforcement and individual observes the behaviour of others the learning may imitate this behaviour but in general imitation only occurs if the behaviour is seem to be rewarded rather than punished.
What is the role of mediational processes?
Social learning theory is often described as the bridge between behavioural learning theory and the cognitive approach because it focuses on how mental factors are involved in learning these mental factors mediate in the learning process to determine whether a response is a required.
What are the four mediational processes and what do they mean?
Attention – the extent to which we noticed certain behaviours.
Retention – how well the behaviour is remembered.
Motor reproduction – the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour.
Motivation – the will to perform the behaviour which is often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished.
What is meant by identification in social learning theory?
People are more likely to imitate people they identify with a process called identification. The personally identify with is called a role model and the process of imitating a role model is called modelling a person becomes a role model if they are seen to possess similar characteristics to the observer And tractive and have high role models may not necessarily be physically present in the environment and this has important implications for the influence of the media on behaviour.
What was Bandur’s research procedure?
Study a: Bandura in 1961 recorded the behaviour of a young children who watched an adult behaved in an aggressive way towards a Bobo doll. The adult hit the door with a hammer and shouted abuse at it.
When these children relative observed playing with the various toys, including a Bobo doll, they behaved much more aggressively towards the doll and the other toys who had observed a non-aggressive adult.
Study B: Bandura together with Walters showed videos to children when adult behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll group of children saw the adult praised for their behaviour second group so that adult punished for their aggression towards the door by being told off the third group saw the aggression without any consequence.
When given their play with the first group showed much more aggression followed by the third group and then the second.
What is the cognitive approach?
The term cognitive has come to mean mental processes so this approach is focused on how our mental processes affect behaviour.
What is the definition of internal mental processes?
Private operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
