paper 2 - approaches Flashcards
who’s is the founding father of psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt
Wundt moved the study of the mind from its______ to controlled_______
philosophical roots, empirical roots
What did Wundt set up first?
First psychology laboratory
Where and when did Wundt set up the first psychology laboratory?
In Leipzig, Germany in 1870.
Wundt’s approach to psychology became known as…
structuralism (breaking down consciousness to its basic elements)
What did Wundt promote?
introspection - as a way of studying mental processes.
Define introspection
Introspection is the process of directly examining one’s own conscious mental states and processes.
What stimulus did Wundt use when examining one’s conscious mental states?
Metronome
Outline behaviourist approach
The behaviour approach is only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured.
As a result, behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relied on LAB STUDIES as the best way to achieve this.
Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learnt. They describe a baby’s mid as a ‘blank slate’ and this is written on by experience- there’s no biological influence on behaviour.
Following Darwin…
behaviourists suggested that the basic processes that governs learning are the same in all species. This meant that in behaviourists research, animals replace humans as experimental subjects.
Behaviourists identified two important forms of learning, what are they?
classical conditional and operant conditioning.
Classical conditions
Classical conditioning is learned through association and was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov (1927).
What did Pavlov show?
Pavlov showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food. Gradually, Pavlov’s dogs learn to associate the sound of the bell (stimulus) with the food (another stimulus) and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the sound.
Thus, Pavlov was able to show how neutral stimulus, in this case a bell, can come to elicit (obtain) a new learned response (conditioned response) through association.
Explain how Pavlov tested classical conditioning (6 marks)
Classical conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov while he was studying starvation in dogs.
He observed that his dogs salivated when his assistants opened the doors to their cages and inferred that they must have learned to associate the opening of the doors with food.
He tested this by associating the ringing of a bell with the food so that the dog would salivate when they heard the bell.
Pavlov noted that there are some things dogs do not need to learn e.g to salivate when presented with food. This response is unconditioned. His experience aimed to use this unconditioned response and teach the dogs to associate a neutral stimulated with the response.
In typical experiment done by Pavlov, a bell would be run (NS) and the amount of saliva produced was measured. Food was be presented (UCS) and the amount of saliva measured (UCR).
This would be repeated a set of number of times, then eventually the bell would be rung (CS) without presentation of the food, and the amount of salvia would be measured to test strength of the condition response that had been learned.
Conditioning- a theory that the reaction (‘response’) to a response.
Operant conditioning
Skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment. In operant conditioning behaviour is shaped by its consequence:
Positive reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement is receiving reward when a certain behaviour is performed
E.g praise from a teacher for answering a question correctly in class.
Negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement occurs when an animal (or human) avoids something unpleasant . The outcome is a positive experience.
For example, when a student hands in an essay so not to be told off, the avoidance of something unpleasantly is the negative reinforcement. Similarly a rat may learn through negative reinforcement that pressing a lever leads to avoidance of electric shock.
What’s a punishment and reinforcement
Punishment is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour.
E.g. shouted at by the teacher for talking during a lesson ( finding a way to avoid that would be a negative reinforcement.)
Reinforcement increase the likelihood of a behaviour to happen
Punishment
Anything unpleasant which has the effect of decreasing the likelihood of any behaviour which is not the desired behaviour.
Neutral stimulus (NS)
An event that does not produce a response.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
An event that produces an innate, unlearnt reflex response.
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
An event that produces a learned response.
Unconditioned response ( UCR)
An innate, unlearned reflex behaviour that an organism produces when exposed to an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned response ( CR)
A learned physical reflex behaviour that an organism produces when exposed to a condition stimulus.
SKINNERS BOX- OPERANT CONDITIONING
B.F. Skinner (1953) suggested learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate in their environment, Skinner studied how animals learn from the consequences of their actions
The Skinner box experiment
Skinner devised a box known (unsurprisingly) as the ‘Skinner Box’
Inside the box, Skinner placed one rat at a time
Each box contained different stimuli, including a lever that released food and an electroplated floor
Rats were placed in these boxes consecutively and would learn how to release food by pressing a lever (reward = positive reinforcement)
The rats also learned to avoid the electric shock (punishment) by pressing the lever when the light came on (avoiding punishment = negative reinforcement)
EVALUATION FOR BEHABIOURIST APPROACH
(+) WELL CONTROLLED RESEARCH
Behaviourists focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab setting. By breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response unit, all other possible extraneous variables removed, allowing cause and effect relationships to be established.
For instance, skinner was able to clearly demonstrate how reinforcement influenced an animal’s behaviour.
COUNTERPOINT However, the problem with this is that behaviourists may have oversimplified the learning process. By reducing behaviour to such simple components, behaviourist may have ignored an important influence on learning- that of human thought. Other approaches, such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach have drawn attention to the mental process involved in learning. This suggests that learning is more complex than observable behaviour alone, that private mental processes are also essential.
(-) ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
One limitation of behaviourist approach is that it sees all behaviours as conditioned by past conditioning experiences. Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history. When something happens, we may think ‘I’ve made a decision to do that’ but according to skinner, our past conditioning history determined the outcome. Ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour (skinner himself free will is an illusion).
This is an extreme position and ignores the influence of conscious decision-making process on behaviour.
What does the SLT suggests
Albert Bandura agreed with the behaviourist that behaviour is learned from experience. However, his social learning theory (SLT) proposed a different way in which people learn- through observation and imitation of others. SLT suggested that learning occurs directly, through classical and operant conditioning, but also indirectly.
