issues & debates Flashcards
What does the learning approach assume?
+All behaviour is learned through the environment
+Looks @ observable behaviour
+Believes that animals and humans learn in the same way and therefore comparisons between them are credible.
+Psychology should be objective & scientific
What is classical and operant conditioning? what researchers are associated with these theories?
Classical conditioning is learning through association whereas operant conditioning if learning through reinforcement.
Classical conditioning [Ivan Pavlov and Watson&Little Albert
Operant conditioning: B.F Skinner
What applications has the learning approach had?
+Helped understand the development and maintenance of phobias and how attachments develop
+Lead to the development of useful theories such as systematic desensitisation
Evaluate the learning/ behavioural approach.
+ Has several cases of experimental support
+ Introduced the use of experimental methods to psychology which are more credible
+Has positive practical applications
=Does not consider the cognitive and biological aspects of human behaviours
=Animal studies were used however animals have very different physiology to humans and social structure
=Neglects the notion of free will and is very deterministic
What is the social learning theory?
Also known as the behaviourist approach, it believes that learning occurs through observation of other peoples behaviour and imitation of that behaviour.
What is the meditational process?
Refers to cognitive factors that influence learning and come between the stimuli and response.
Attention: Needs to pay attention to the behaviour to create a mental representation.
Retention: Storing the observed behaviour into the long term memory.
Reproduction: The individual must reproduce the observed behaviour
Motivation: Receiving vicarious reinforcements to imitate behaviours
What is imitation and when is it most likely to occur?
Most likely occurs through vicarious reinforcement and if they identify with the model by sharing characteristics e.g gender.
What was the bobo experiments, who conducted them and what were the results?
+Conducted by Bandura et al
+Aimed to understand the role of the model in behavioural influence
+The sample consisted of american infants aged 3-6 including 36 boys and 36 girls
+Children were shown a model acting aggressively to a doll or acting non aggressively to a doll with or without aggressive toys and then the child was placed in that environment
=Results showed that when children were showed an aggressive model they were more likely to show aggressive behaviour and imitated several of the same behaviours.
=Boys were more aggressive than girls
Evaluation of the social learning theory.
+Provides a more complex of human behaviour by taking in aspects from both cognitive and behavioural psychology
+Has real life applications such as understanding the influence of the environment on cases such as James Bulger
=In the bobo doll experiment, children may have acted differently due to demand characteristics
=Does not explain why boys acted more aggressively than females, requires deeper biological explanations
=Not reflective of how participants would act in real life, e.g lacked mundane realism. Parents are often there to guide children’s behaviour.
What is the cognitive approach and its assumptions?
The cognitive approach looks at how mental processes affect our behaviours.
+Assumes that mental processes should be studied scientifically
+Relates the human mind to the analogy of how a computer processes information
+Led to the use of models in understanding psychological processes
+Internal processes cannot be observed directly but we can infer how someone is thinking
What is a schema, what happens if a schema is used incorrectly?
Schema is a mental frame work we keep in our minds of beliefs and experiences
They are a packet of information that help us organise and interpret information
However distortion can occur if we use irrelevant schemas in certain situations such as inaccurate EWT.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the influence of brain structures on cognitive processes.
Can be studied through fMRI and PET scans.
Helps map cognitive functions to specific parts of the brain
What applications has the cognitive approach provided?
+Led to the development in cognitive interviews which can provide more accurate EWT for criminal justice
+Developed the cognitive-behavioural therapy for effective treatment of depression
What research methods do cognitive scientists use?
Laboratory experiments for the tight control of variables.
Case studies to study rare brain conditions
fMRI and PET scans
Evaluate the cognitive approach.
+Mainly uses scientific methods so they provide replicable and controlled results
+Has a wide range of practical applications to improve daily life
=Lacks ecological validity due to the artificiality of the tasks
=Does not take into account the biological factors
=Reductionist as it does not take into account motivations and emotions influence on behaviour
What is the biological approach?
The biological approach believes that our thinkings and behaviours are strongly determined by biological factors e.g the nervous system, genetic factors and evolutionary factors.
What are genes, what is a genotype and phenotype?
Unique genetic information that can be passed down hereditarily through generations. They code for certain characteristics and biological properties.
Genotype: The genetic makeup/ code
Phenotype: The physical characteristic expressed from this code
How is hereditary influence studied?
Hereditary influence is studied via twin studies and comparing the concordance rates. In theory MZ twins should share a 100% concordance rate in behaviours as they have identical genes.
What is the theory of natural selection?
The idea that genetically determined characteristics that provide an advantage for survival will be more likely to pass on to the next generation and become more common. Less effective traits will be filtered out.
What are the applications of the biological approach?
+Helped understanding the role of neurotransmitters and let to the development of useful drugs such as SSRIS for useful treatments.
Evaluate the biological approach.
+Uses scientific research methods which produce objective and reliable data which can be peer reviewed.
+Helpful real life applications such as drug therapy
=Twin studies are inaccurate as they do not separate environment and nature, twins may be more likely to behave the same as they will grow up in similar environments as mothers with unconsciously treat them the same as they have the same phenotype
=Very deterministic and reductionist , assumes behaviour is all evolutionary and that we are an outcome of our genes.
What are the assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?
+The unconscious mind is the driving force behind our behaviour and we are motivated by innate tendencies.
+We have a structure of personality
+Early childhood is essential in determining adulthood
What is the structure of personality?
ID: Biological personality, runs off pleasure principle for gratification and present at birth
EGO: Reality principle, balances the ID and SUPEREGO, uses defence mechanisms to maintain balance and unbalance here explains faults in our behaviour [1-3 months]
SUPEREGO: Molarity principle, it feels guilty and prevents bad behaviour, develops through identification [2-5 years]
What are defence mechanisms and what are some examples?
Mechanisms unconsciously applied to lower anxiety.
Repression: Locking a memory away in the unconscious so it cannot be accessed
Denial: Refusing to accept the reality of a situation
Displacement: Focus a strong emotion onto another person or object
What are the psychosexual stages of development? What is the phallic stage?
A series of stages from birth to adulthood which focus on different parts of the body and problems during any specific stage can lead to fixations in adulthood.
Phallic stage develops at 3-5 years and involves the development of the oedipus complex where boys are said to be in love with their mother and wishes to remove their father in fear of castration, this anxiety is only removed by identification.
What is the “Little Hans” case and what does it demonstrate?
+Provides evidence for the oepidus complex
+He had a phobia of horses as they represented his father by having a large penis and a harness to represent a moustache.
+His fear was only removed after identification with his father.
Evaluate the psychodynamic theory
+Has developed the use of psychoanalysis in treatment of certain mental disorders where many other treatments are based off of.
+Freud highlighted the importance of childhood on adult life
+Has large explanatory power
=Involves abstract concepts that cannot be tested scientifically therefore it lacks validity
=Deterministic as it rejects the idea of free will
=Not falsifiable as it explains a lot but however lacks in evidence and cannot predict behaviour
=Suffers from alpha bias as Freud implies that men are more complex than women
=Most information is gained by case studies and unstructured interviews which are open to interpretation
