Origins And Approaches Flashcards
Who was Wilhelm Wundt and what was his contribution to psychology?
Wundt opened the first ever lab dedicated to psychology at Leipzig university in Germany in 1879.
His work is significant as it marked the emergence of psychology as a science, separating it from its previous philosophical roots and into more controlled research.
He promoted the use of introspection to study internal mental processes. It involved the self analysis of one’s own thoughts, feelings and sensations to the experience of a stimulus.
The work paved the way for later controlled research and the study of internal mental processes e.g cognitive psychologists.
What is introspection?
•The first systematic experiment attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations.
•done in a controlled environment like a scientific experiment to establish theories on mental processes.
•participants are presented with a stimulus, metronome, and report back their thoughts and images and sensation
Describe how standardised procedures are used in Wundt’s research
All participants received the same information and were tested in the same way, for example they all received a ticking metronome.
Evaluate Wundt’s research.
His methods were systematic and controlled in a lab environment, ensuring that extraneous variables were not a factor. The procedure was standardised so that all participants were tested in the same way.
Limitations:
Wundt’s methods were subjective as it involved self-reporting their mental processes. This means participants may had hidden some thoughts. This means there were issues with replicating and reproducing the ideas as the results were flawed by subjectivity.
Assumptions of the behaviourist approach
Studying behaviour that can be observed and measured as that is all needed.
Basic processes sane in all species
Ignored mental processes as saw them as irrelevant
Emerged in early 20th century and rejected introspection as it involved concepts that were difficult to measure
All behaviour is learned. A baby’s mind is a blank skate built by experience.
What were the two forms of learning that behaviourists identified?
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Why were animals often studied in the experiments done by behaviourists?
They were seen to share the same principles of learning as humans.
What is classical conditioning and who was the main researcher?
Learning through association with the pairing of an unconditioned stimulus (something that produces an automatic response without learning) with a neutral stimulus (something that would not produce a response in a normal situation) to get an unconditioned response (an unlearned response in a situation) which then becomes the conditioned stimulus (neutral stimulus after association) with a conditioned response (response produced through specific learning) through association.
Pavlov used this to show how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was presented repeatedly at times they were given food.
What is operant conditioning and who was the main researcher?
Learning is an active process where human and animals operate on their environment and behaviour is shaped and maintained by consequences. Skinner conducted an experiment with rats, proving positive and negative reinforcement by rewarding one for pressing a lever which increased the behaviour but giving another an electric shock to reduce the behaviour.
What is extinction and spontaneous recovery?
Extinction is the abolishment of the association, and then spontaneous recovery is the triggering of the return of the association after extinction.
Give strengths of the behaviourist approach.
•well controlled research. As they focused on what can be observed in lab settings. Possible extraneous variables removed so cause and effect can be established. E.g skinner and reinforcement on animals behaviour. - scientific credibility.
•real world application - applied to real world behaviours and problems. E.g regarding appropriate behaviour in some institutions than can be exchanged for privileges. E.g classical conditioning applied to treatment of phobias. Increases the value of the approach as it has widespread application.
Assumptions of the social learning theory
Learning through the observation of others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded as well as learning from experience.
They agree with behaviourists that learning can occur directly (classical and operant conditioning) but also indirectly.
Cognitive factors (meditational processes) are involved in the learning process.
What are the similarities and differences between social learning theory and behaviourism?
Similarities:
Learning can occur directly
Learned from our past experiences
Reinforcement and punishment affect behaviour
Differences:
Learning can also occur indirectly, learning from someone else (SLT)
Learned from observation and imitation (SLT)
SLT factors in cognitive factors
Key ideas of Albert Bandura
Social learning theorist, Bandura, argues that reinforcements and punishments inform an individual of the consequences of a behaviour; watching the behaviour being punished/rewarded.
He also considers the thought processes that underly behaviour.
Explain the Bobo doll study by Bandura.
(Aim, procedure and findings)
AIM - decide whether watching violent behaviour reduces or increases aggression and violence.
PROCEDURE - children observed an aggressive or non-aggressive adult model interacting with a bobo doll and then were tested for imitative learning as they were left alone with the doll.
FINDINGS - the children who observed the aggressive model reproduced much of the behaviour whereas the children who had observed the non-aggressive model showed almost no aggression. In a follow up study, children who saw the model being rewarded for their aggressive acts (vicarious reinforcement) were more likely to demonstrate aggression in their own play.
Explain vicarious reinforcement
More likely to imitate a behaviour seen as being rewarded, less likely if punished.
Explain imitation
Coping of an observed behaviour
Explain identification.
Wanting to be like another person.
An observer associates themselves with a role model, they are people they are more likely to imitate.
A role model is seen to have similar characteristics to the observer and or have high status.
Explain modelling.
Imitating the behaviour of a role model.
What are mediational processes?
Cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.
Outline strengths of the social learning theory
•recognises cognitive factors, so more comprehensible explanation of learning by recognising this role. Classical and operant conditonjng cannot offer an adequate account of learning on their own. Information on behaviour is stored in some way.
•real world application - the principles can explain how children learn from others including the media and this can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through society. Increases the value of the approach.
Assumptions of the cognitive approach.
•unlike the behaviourist approach, they argue that internal mental processes should be studied scientifically. As a result, the cognitive approach investigated areas of human behaviour that were neglected e.g memory, perception, thinking. They cannot be observed and so they are studied indirectly.
Overall, the approach focuses on how our mental processes affect our behaviour.
Explain schema.
Ideas and information developed through experience. They act as mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information in the cognitive system. Babies are born with basic schemas for behaviours such as sucking and grasping. As we get older, our schema become more detailed and sophisticated.
It enables us to receive and process lots of information quickly.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The scientific study of biological brain structures on mental processes.
Why has cognitive neuroscience only emerged in the last 20 odd years?
Advances in brain imaging techniques (EEG, PET, fMRI) enabled scientists to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes.
Why are theoretical and computer models used in the cognitive approach?
Theoretical model is the information processing approach which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages. This is based on the way that computers function but a computer model would involve actually programming a computer to see if such instructions produce a similar output to humans. If they do, we can suggest similar processes are going on in the human mind. They have proved useful in development of robots and AI.
Name a strength in terms of the evaluation of research of the cognitive approach. (E in Recap)
•it uses objective scientific methods in highly controlled environments. The use of lab studies produces reliable data and high internal validity. Cognitive neuroscience enables the fields of biology and psychology to come together to enhance scientific basis. = the approach has a credible scientific basis.
Name a weakness in the evaluation of research on the cognitive approach.
Relies on interference of mental processes rather than direct observation so it can suffer from being too abstract. Research carried out using artificial stimuli so it lacks external validity.
Explain how the cognitive approach has practical application.
One strength of the cognitive approach is that it has practical application meaning it can be applied to the real world. The computer models has contributed to the field of AI and robots. It has also been applied to the treatment of depression, and improved reliability of eyewitness testimony. This improves the value of the approach.
Explain how machine reductionism is a limitation on the cognitive approach. Give an example.
The computer analogy has been criticised because it ignores the influence of human emotion on the cognitive system and how it may affect our ability to process information. For example, memory may be affected by emotional factors such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses.
(Credibility is lower - C in Recap)
Outline weaknesses of the social learning theory.
•gathered through lab studies - which are criticised for their nature of demand characteristics where participants act they way they think is expected, not what they actually would do. Research may be invalid. Use Bobo doll study as an example (the children behaved as they thought was expected in the way of hitting the doll)
•didn’t reference biological factors, they were underemphasised. Recent search suggests that observational behaviour (Bandura spoke about) is a result of neurones in the brain.
Give an example of how the behaviourist approach has real-world application.
• rewarding appropriate behaviour in some institutions that can be exchanged for privileges.
•classical conditioning applied to the treatment of phobias.
Weaknesses of the behaviourist approach.
•oversimplified the learning process. It was reduced to such simple components it may have ignored vital influences on learning. Suggests that learning is more complex than observable behaviour alone. (Cognitive approach - mental processes)
•sees all behaviour as conditioned by past experiences ignores any possible influence of free will, ignores influence of contrast decision making processes on behaviour
• ethical issues – Skinner box experiment kept animals in harsh conditions and below their natural weight
What are the concepts of operant conditioning? (3x reinforcements)
Positive reinforcement is receiving an award for a certain behaviour that is performed. Negative reinforcement is when a behaviour is avoided for positive outcomes. It increases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. Punishment is the unpleasant consequence of behaviour which decreases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.
What is attention in the meditational processes?
Attention - in order for the behaviour to be imitated, it has to be brought to our attention-
What is retention in the mediational processes?
Retention - forming a memory of the behaviour in order for it to be performed later on.
What is motor reproduction?
Motor reproduction - the physical ability of the observer to imitate the behaviour.
What is motivation in the mediational processes?
Motivation - the motivation to perform the behaviour (often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished.)
What is negative reinforcement?
When something unpleasant is avoided, and the outcome is positive.
