paper 1-approaches Flashcards
definition of psychology
scientific study of the human mind and its functions and how these influence human behaviour
wundt-father of psychology
-set up first laboratory in Germany 1879
-wanted to investigate nature of human consciousness known as introspection
-believed in experimental method/scientific methods
-Wundt recorded participants own conscious thoughts by breaking them down into basic structures of thoughts, feelings
-isolating tiny consciousness is called structuralism
-introspection still used today in therapies
empricism
belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience
scientific method
use of investigative methods that are subjective, systematic and replicable
A03 for origins of psychology
Lack of ecological Validity-weakness
Introspection lacks validity-weakness
Contribution to approaches in psychology-strength
LIC
behavioruist approach
only classical conditioning and operant conditoning
learning approach umbrella
leanring approach is all 3
classical conditioning
operant conditioning
social learning theory
behaviourist approach
-approach only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured
-not interested in investigating mental processes of mind as seen as irrelevant
-John b Watson rejected introspection as involved too many concepts vague and difficult to measure
-behaviourist tried to maintain more control and objectivity
-relied on lab studies
-believe born tabula rasa ‘as a blank slate’ written on by experience
-also suggest basic processes that govern learning 1are same in all species hence why humans can be replaced in experimental methods
classical conditioning
learning through associations between unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus
-pavolov researched salivation of dogs
little albert-wayne and rayner study
baby exposed to white rat showed no fear
baby exposed to sound of hammer hitting steel bar started to cry
then exposed baby with both rat and hammer sound and baby found fear
found fear to anything white and fluffy e.g. Santa’s beard
what did Pavlov do
before conditoning
food response
unconditioned stimulus
operant conditioning
A type of learning where
behaviour is acquired and maintained based on its
consequences. Reinforcement increases the
likelihood of the observed behavior being
repeated, whilst punishment (an unpleasant
consequence of behavior) decreases this likelihood
two types of reinforcement
positive reinforcement
negative reinforcement
positive pun
empiricism
belief that all knowledge is deprived from sensory experience(what we can see/hear)
A03 points for behaviourist approach
Reductionism
Use of animals
Scientific methods
scientific method
use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable
a03 points for origins of psychology
lack of ecological validity
concentrating on objectivity and control in observations, leads to tell us little about how people act in natural real life environments
criticised for not being generalisable to situations outside a controlled, lab setting
leanrning approach umbrella
classical conditioning
operant conditioning
social learning theory
classical conditioning diagram
before conditioning
food = salivation
(ucs) (ucr)
before conditioning
bell = no salivation
neutral stimulus no conditioned resp
during conditioning
salivation
bell + food = unconditoned repsonse
after conditoning
bell salivation
conditoned stimulus = conditoned reps
little albert
to investigate if emotional response can be classically conditioned into 1 month year old baby
-first exposed to white rabbit and showed no fear
-then exposed to sound of hammer striking metal bar and started crying
-then exposed baby to both white rat and hammer sound
-in end, baby feared by white rat at moment he saw it
-his fear generalised to other white furry things e.g santa clause
operant conditioning
BF skinner
leanring through consequences such as reward i.e reinforcement or punishment
organisms spontaneously produce different behaviours, these behaviours produce consequences
consequences may be positive (desirable) or negative (Undesirable)
can determine whether or not behaviour repeated
relationship between reinforcement and punishment
reinforcement increases likelihood behaviour is repeated
punishment decreases likelihood behaviour will be repeated
3 umbrella to operant conditioning
postive reinfrocement
negative reinforcement
punishment
skinners box
-used to investigate opernat conditioning on rats
-rat runs round cage
-when accidnetly presses lever, food pellet (reward) falls in cage
-rat then starts pressing lever purposely to get food
-rat learnt through postive reinforcement that action results in postive consequence (food)
-also experimented with unpleasant stimulus e.g loud noise
-if rat presses lever, loud noise stops
-through negative reinfrocement that action resulted in removal of unpleasant stimulus
-finally, if rat presses lever get electric shock
-showing punishment
-decrease in amount of times lever was pressed as rat understood unpleasnt consequence so behaviour no longer repeated
learning approach
bandura
agreed with beahvioursist that leanring is based on enviroment
rests on idea of observational learning
leanring occurs through observtion of behaviour from imiatation of role models
assumptions of social learning theory
models more likely to be imitated if child identifies with them in some way e.g. gender, age
or if powerful and influential, of a higher status e.g. celebrity
behaviour that brings reward to role model, more likely to be copied by observer
called vicarious reinforcement
role of mediational processes
Attention
Retention
Motor reproduction
Motivation
Attention
extent to how we notice certain behaviours
Retention
how well the behaviour is remembered and stored in memory
motor reproduction
ability for observer to perform the behaviour
e.g. child footballer lacking necessary ability required to reproduce behaviour e.g. football
motivation
will to perform the behaviour
often determined by whether the behaviour was reinforced or punished
study of albert bandura
-wanted to investigate whether aggression could be acquired through modelling and to see whether children more likely to imitate same sex models
lab experiment
independent groups design
72 children(36 girls and 36 boys) (3-6) selected from stanford nursery
children placed into one of three conditions
each consisting of 24 (12 girls 12 boys)
what did the three groups of SLT have to do
two groups exposed to non aggressive and aggressive behaviours
one had same sex model
other opposite sex model
third group-control group had no model
non-agressive group
ecposed to toys be assembled for 10 minutes, bobo doll being ignored
agressive group
exposed to adult hitting model with mallet in head
what happened after the groups were brought back together
then were put in room full of toys not allowed to play with
then placed in room with both agressive toys and non agressive toys and had to observe through one way mirror (covert observation)
what were the results of banduras study
results showed
children exposed to aggressive behaviour more liekly to imitate and were more aggressive then non aggressive
effect was greater on boys
boys more likely to imitate same sex model then girls
boys more likely to imitate physical aggression
girls more likely to imitate verbal aggression
observers have greater tendency to imitate same sex models
strength-treatment implications
as with classical conditioning and operant conditioning it has led to effective treatments for phobias
weakness-lacks ecological validity
theory is based on research from the lab due to controlled artificial environment of a lab, the behaviours that were measured were not the same as genuine agression
weakness-oversimplistic
beacsue it focuses exculsively on the processes of social leanring and ignores all other potential infleunces on behaviour
weakness-demand characteristics
based on the principles of ST may lack internal validity as children may experience aggressive charcteristics
cognitive approach
in contrast with behaviourist approach
argues mental processes should be studied
studied those areas of brain neglected by behaviourists e.g. memory, perception
processes are private and cannot be observed meaning must make inferences
cognitive psychologists make interference’s about what’s going on inside mind based of their behaviour
mental processes can be studied in lab experiments
internal mental processes
operations that occur during thinking
Perception
Attention
Memory
Language
Problem solving
poppy and molly love pie
perception
how we change info from eyes into usable form
attention
how choose what to think about
memory
how we store info in future
language
how we construct meaningful sentences to communicate
problem solving
how we construct new solutions
what is a schema
packages of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system. Schemas enable us to process lots of information quickly and this is a useful sort of mental short cut that fills in gaps in our knowledge
schemas
babies are born with simple motor schemas for innate behaviours such as sucking and grasping
as we get older, our schema becomes more detailed and sophisticated
how are schemas useful
useful in explaining symptoms of psychological illnesses
negative schemas of the self, future and world can eb demonstrated in individuals suffering from depression
could explain low mood experienced by sufferers of this condition
these can be challenged by methods used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help client develop more positive schemas to help treat negative or distorted thinking
use of computer models
development of computer led to computer models emerging within psychology to explain different mental processes
computer models suggest mind is like a computer
inputting, storing and retrieving data
computer models of memory have been particularly useful in development of artificial intelligence(AI)
Tulving et al
were able to show how different types of LTM are localised in diffrent areas of the brain. Tulving found that when individuals ecalled historical facts, blood increased in temporal lobe, wheras, when they thought about childhoid experiencs blood flow increased in the hippocampus.
emergence of cognitive neuroscience
cognitive neuronscience is relatively new field that tries to brige gap between the cognitive and biolgical approaches
research supporting the cognitive neuronscience approach demonstates how memory has a biological basis in the brain
schema
package of ideas and info developed through experience
helps us process lots of info quickly
useful as mental short cut
example of schema
going to a restaurant
what sort of schema are babies born with
simple motor schema for innate behaviours e,g suckign and grasping
what happens to our schemas as we get older
become more detailed and sophisticated
how can schemas be useful
explains symptoms of psychological illnesses
negative schemas explain feeling of low mood/
can be demonstarted in indiviudals with depression
can be challenegd by CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy)
cognitive behavioural therapy which can make more postive schemas develop help treat negative or disorted thikinh
use of computer models
suggest our mind works like a computer
inputting, stroing and retrieving data
what happens to info that does not fit our schema
ignored or distorted
lead to perceptual eroors e.g discrimantion and prejudice
biological approach
suggest everything psychological is at first biological
to fully understand human behaviour, must look at biological structures e.g genes, neurotransmitters and the nervous system
biological perspective is that the mind lives in the brain, all thoughts, feelings have a physical basis
contrast with cognitive approach that suggests mental processes are separate from brain itself
first a01 point for biological approach
neurochemistry
neural=brain
study of chemical processes which take place in nervous system
much thought relies on chemical transmission of brain
occurs using neurotransmitters-the brains chemical messengers
what are the two types of neurontransmitters
excitatory-
trigger nerve impulses
stimulates brain into action
e.g. dopamine associated with pleasure and motivation
implicated into addictive behaviours e,g smoking and SZ
inhibitory
inhibit nerve impulses
calm brain and balance mood
e.g serotonin
wide ranging effects and has been implicated into range of behaviours e,g sleep, appetite as well as depression OCD
genetic basis of behaviour
herteability coefficeint-can be used to quantify genetic or biological basis of charcteristics
e.g herteablity coffectient is 0.5 and infleunce of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) is equal
family studies
first degee relatives share 50% of their genes
second degree realtives share 25% of their genes
twin studies
compare differnece in concordance rates
likehood of both twins sharing same charactersitic
IDentic (monozygotic)
non identical twins (dizygotic)
share sae enviroment but only MZ twins ahve 100% identical genes
DZ share 50% of genes in common
concordate rate should be higher for MZ than DZ as they are geentically identical
genotype
collection of all genes within each cell
individuals genetic make up occurs at contraception andd porvides genetic code for how individual will develop
dictates characteristics should has hair and eye colour
phenotype
behaviour and psychical structure of individual
from interaction of their genotype and enviorment
product of what happens when both interact
dictates height an indivdual can reach
what is the largest part of brain called
cerebrum-85% of total mass of brain
what is the brain split into two
hemispheres
further divided into 4 parts
what are the 4 lobes of the brain
frontal-thinking, planning STM
pariental-touch,smell,taste
occupital-visual acitivity
temporal-memories
FTOP
what is the definiton of a case study
research method that involves a very detailed look into backgorund of one person or small group
case of phineas gage
working on railroad
mental bar went through his skull and brain
suvived and showed little intellectual impairment
carrying on faily normal
showed changes in personality
was outgoing but became foul mouthed and agressive
damage had occured in his frontal lobe which controls behaviour, particualry agression and personality
case of HM
undergone surgery for epilepsy
hippocampus was removed
LTM was damaged but STM was fine
results show hippocampus imporant for memory
particuallry from STM to LTM
could not make new memories as could only use STM memory
lost all memories from before the surgery
assumptions of psychodynamic approach
suggested our mind is both concious and unconcious
focused more on unconcious area of brain for motivated behaviour
perosality is componsed of three parts
ID
EGO
SUPEREGO
constant conflict with one another
iceberg analogy
describes the part of the mind that we ARE aware of as tip of iceberg (concious mind)
much larger part (unconcious area) is hidden underwater
contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed, locked away and forgotten
can be assessed during Freudian slips or psychoanalysis dreams
ID-pleasure principle
primitive part of personality/starts at birth
operates only in unconscious area
contains libido, persons sexual drive
life, ID is selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs
EGO-Reality principle
conscious and rational part of mind
mediator between impulsive demands of ID and super ego
employs number of defence mechanisms
super ego-morality principle
represnts the ideal self, how we ought to be
formed at end of phallic stage
what are the psychosexual stages of development
oral
anal
phallic
latency
genital
oral stage
birth to 1 and a half years
focus of pleasure is the mouth
mothers breast object of desire
oral fixation is nail biting or smoking
what is fixtation
where your stuck at a stage
anal stage
1 and half years to 3 years
focus of libido (anus)
child learns to respond to demands of society e.g. bladder control
child gains pleasure from excreting
fixation causes anal retentive-obsessive perfection
anal expulsive-messy
phallic
3 to 6 years
child starts to notice gender
desires for other type of sex start to develop
links with homosexuality
latency
6 years to puberty
earlier confilcts are temporrailty repressed
genital
puberty onwards
sexual desire emerge alongside puberty
becomes intereted in dating and marriage
guilt about sexuality
fixtation causes difficualty formoning heterosexual relationships
Oedipus complex
dusing phallic stage for boys
ages 3 to 4, young boy begins to desire hismother as she has been his main source of pleasure
wants her complete attention
sees his father as rival
experinces jekousy of his mothers desire
wishes the dad were dead
creates anxiety and fear that dad will castrate him
boys id thinks dad will kill me, ego thinks dad is stronger and bigger
boy looks up to ways to be similar to his father
takes on his gender role and moral values
superego is formed
learns morality from values and attitudes of father
Electra complex
during phallic stage ,age 3 to 6
little girl becomes sexually attached to her father and incrasingly hostile to mother
begins to admire father
relaises she does not have penis
leads to development of penis envy and desire to be a boy
girl blames mother for castrate state and creates tension
resolved by girl repressing desire
substitutes wish for a penis to a wish for a baby
remove tension between mother
little girl identfies with her mother
develops super ego through identifcation and internalisation of mothers values
little hans support
support Oedipus complex
little fibe year old boy came to freuds interst by father who was intersted in frued work of unconscious
devloped phobia for horses after experincing one collapse on street
hans started to devlop active interst in penis and started to masturbate
caused mother to threaten for it to be cut off
after 3 years old, hans developed fear of white horses and being bitten by them
hans phobia generalised to carts and horses
frueds analysed and found hans showing oedipus complex meaning he was afraid of his father
fear was manifested in fear of horses
his obsession with widdler was showing phallic stage of development
concluded that the study supported his theory of psychosexual development and childhood sexuality
fear of father was displaced onto horses
what are the 5 ego defence mechanisms
denial
projection
repression
displacement
regression
humanistic approach
humans have free will, not all behaviour is determined
all indiviudals are unique and have an innate rive to achieve max potential
accurate understanding of humans can onky be achived by studying humans not animals
psychology should study indivudal case (idiohraphic) rather then groups (nomethetic)
free will
unlike most other approaches, humanistic pshycology emphasises ghtat people have full concious control over their own destiny i.e they have free will
-we are active agents-we have the ability to determine our own development
-Maslow and ROdger reject more scientifc models
maslows hierarchy of needs
maslow deveoped theory of human motivation
humans have intrisic motivation to grow and become best versions of themselves
view personal growth as essential to human
maslow intersted in what motivates people
led him to maslows heirarcy of needs
all four levels of heirarcy must be met for a person to self-actualise-recognise and reliae ones own potential
what is the order of Maslows heirarcy of needs
self actualisation-morality, creativity
self esteem-respect of otehers, confidence
love and belonging-freindship,family
safety and secruity-health employment
psychological needs-food water shelter
congruence
Rodgers argues that for persoanl growth to be achieved, an individuals concept of self (how they see themselves) should be equivalent or in congruence with the person they want to be i.e ideal self
closer they are, greater the congruence, higher the self-worth
what happens if gap between both is too big
person experiences incongruence
self actualistion will not be possible beacuse of the negative feelings of self worth that arise from incongruence
what has humanistic approach helped with
led to varity of different methods of counsellign and therapy used today
to reduce gap, rodgers developed counselling
rodgers referredd to those in therapy as clients ratherr then patirent as he saw individual as expert on their condition
double dissocciation
occurs when two patients show a mirror image of impairment e.g. person 1 can do task a whereas person 2 can do task 8 but not task A. Demonstrated by patients KF and HM
scanning techniques
also proved useful in establishing a neurological basis of some symptoms of psychological disorders e.g. OCD. PET scans of patients with OCD have shown elevated levels of activity in the orbito-frontal cortex. The OFC is the part of the brain circuit, one of the function of this circuit appears to be turning sensory information into thoughts
weakness-research lacks ecological validity
many of the experiments for the cognitive approach are based in a labatory which can change the valisity and not mimic hat happens in the real world. E.g. the use of memory tests do not use the brain for the same functions of how the memory in the real world works. Weakness as it conveys the arguments that the cognitive approach lacks real life app;ication and has low external validity
strength-use of objective and scientific methods
cognitive psychologists employ highly controlled and righteous methods of study so researchers are able to infer cognitive processes at work. It has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together and enhance the scientific base of study
weakness-psychic determinism
freud theory is strongly determinist as it view our behaviour as being caused entirely by unconscious factors over which we have no control. therefore, this approach contradicts the idea that we have free will and does not hold individuals personal responsible and accountable for their behaviour
weakness-limited empirical support:case studies
can be criticised for its idiographic nature. For example, Frueds concept of the Oedipus complex was largely detailed from the study if Little Hans. This is an issue as meaningful gneeilisationd cannot be made without further examples, as there is no adequate baseline with which to compare behaviour. Overall, the use of idiographic approaches can be seen to be low in population validity because of the nature of examining unique cases
weakness-unscientific
hugely unscientific in its analysis of human behaviour. Karl popper argued that the approach does not meet the scientific criteria of falsification. could be argued that the phsychodynmaic approach is unfalisable as its theories cannot be empirically investigated and so lack validity and reliability
strength-influence of approach
it’s ability to explain human behaviour. frueds theory is contraversial and occasionally bizarre but nevertheless had a huge impact. The approach has also drawn attention to the connection between childhood experiences such as our relationship with our parents and our later development
strength-treatment implications
as with classical conditions and operant conditioning it has led to effective treatments for phobias
weakness-lacks ecological validity
theory is based on research from the labatoru due to controlled artificial environment of a lab, the behaviours that were measured were not the same as genuine agressiion
weakness-over simplistic
because it focuses exclusively on the processes of social learning and ignores all other potential influences on behaviour e.g internal factors. Consistent finding in hobo doll experiments was that boys were often more aggressive then girls. may be explained due to hormonal factors
weakness-demand characteristics
based on the principles of SLT
may lack internal validity as children may experience aggressive characteristics
weakness-demand characteristics
based on the principles of SLT
may lack internal validity as children may experience aggressive characteristics
