Paper 2 Approaches + Wunt Flashcards
Who opened the first ever psychological lab and where and when?
Wilhelm wundt in Leipzig Germany in 1879.
What was the objective of Wilhelm wundt set himself in his new lab?
He documented and describe the nature of human consciousness, this pioneering method came to be known as introspection and involve Wilhelm wundt and his coworkers recording their unconscious thoughts with the aim of breaking them down into their constituent parts.
How was Wilhelm wundt and his colleagues attempt to investigate the mind regarded when it happened?
Around the time psychology was seen as not a science and Wilhelm and his colleagues would be regarded as naive.
How did Wilhelm want help to make psychology a science taking it from a broader philosophical roots?
His use of scientific method such as introspection the lab-based area made psychology more scientific along with the data and analysis of data that he collected and he was able to make assumptions etc. also the use of control and standards instructions allowed him to take a significant separation of the modern scientific psychology from its broader philosophical roots.
What three philosopher’s are clear in early psychology? And what did they suggest?
Rene Descartes, John Locke and Charles Darwin.
Rene Descartes is suggested that the mind and body are independent.
John Locke proposed empiricism that idea that experience is obtained through the senses and we Neva inherit knowledge nor instinct.
Charles Darwin proposed evolutionary theory.
What was Watson’s criticisms of the scientific status of Wilhelm wundt study? (2)
John Watson 1913s main problem with introspection was that it produced date and it was subjective.
And therefore it became very difficult to establish general principles.
He was also highly critical on introspection focus on private mental processes and propose that through scientific psychology should restrict itself only disturbing phenomena that can be observed and measured.
What did John Watson’s criticisms of introspection and Wilhelm wundt psychology birth?
It but the start of the behaviorist approach and with it the emergence of psychology as a science.
How did Watson 1913 and later Skinner 1953 solidify psychology as a scientific approach?
They brought the language rigour and methods of the natural sciences into psychology. the behaviorist focus on the scientific processes involved in learning alongside the use of carefully controlled lab experiments which would go on to dominate discipline for the next five decades.
Since the cognitive revolution of the 1960s how has studying psychology changed?
The study of mental processes now seen as a legitimate and highly scientific area within psychology, although mental processes remain private cognitive psychologists are able to make inferences about how these work on the basis of lab tests.
How does the biological approach also make use of experimental data and cognitive?
Researchers within this area have take advantage of recent advances in technology to investigate psychological processes as they happened including line activity in the brain using sophisticated scanning techniques such as the fmri and eeg.
In order from earliest to latest order the psychological approaches and their dates.
1913 - John Watson behaviourist approach .
1950 - Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow developed the humanistic approach.
1960 - cognitive revolution came with the introduction of the digital computer and around this time Albert bandura propose the social learning theory which Drew attention to Cognitive of processes.
1980 - the biological approach begins to establish itself in psychology.
Define the behaviourist approach.
A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning.
What are the two types of conditioning?
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
What is classical conditioning?
Defined as learning by the sociation, and occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together and unconditioned stimuli and a new neutral stimulus.the neutral stimulus eventually produces the same as sponge that was first produced by the unlearned stimulus alone.
What is operant conditioning?
operant conditioning is a form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences possible consequences of behaviour include positive reinforcement negative reinforcement and punishment.
What are the three basic assumptions used in the behaviorist approach?
- They’re only focused on observable and measurable behaviour not concerned with the processes of the mind.
- they have to have a rigorous and control environments such as a lab experiments to ensure validity.
- following Darwin’s theory of evolution that all species than the same therefore research could be done on animals and applied to humans.
Who did research into classical conditioning and outline his study.
Pavlovhe revealed that dogs could be conditioned to celebrate a sound of a bell if the sound was repeatedly presented at the time that they were given food, gradually pavlov’s dogs learn to associate the sound of the bell with the food and that would produce the salivation response everytime they hear the sound.
This Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus in this case a bell can come to elicit and new learnt response (conditioned response).
Who did research into operant conditioning and outline their study?
Skinner 1953 suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans operate on their environment and they have a consequence of, positive reinforcement negative reinforcement and punishment. He did a study on rats to show this.
What is positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment?
Positive reinforcement is receiving an award when a behaviour is performed and therefore you will repeat this behaviour,
negative reinforcement occurs when you avoid something unpleasant for example a rat meal in the negative reinforcement that pressing it leave it leads to the violence of an electric shock,
Measurement is unpleasant consequences of behaviour such as being shouted at or an electric shock.
How does the behaviorist approach have great scientific credibility?
the behaviorist approach was able to bring the language and methods of natural sciences into psychology by focusing on measurement of observable behaviour with Harley controlled Labs settings and methods.
Through this they were able to emphasise the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication, and was influential and development of psychology as a scientific discipline giving it greater credibility.
How does the behaviour support have real life application?
The principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and problems. for instance operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been successful in institutions such as prisons. And classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of phobias learning to associate with more happy things (systematic desensitization)
How from a behaviorist perspective and their mechanistic view on animal behaviour, cause criticism from theories such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach?
As from a behaviorist perspective animals are seen as passive and machine like responders to the environment with no conscious thought, this goes against the approaches such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach which emphasize the importance of mental events during learning. the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and response suggest that people may play a much more active role in their learning. This means learning theory may apply less to human than to animal behaviour.
How is the behaviourist approach deterministic? And what did Skinner say about free will?
As the behaviorist approach sees all behaviour as determined by past experience that have been conditioned, e.g. Skinner suggested that everything we do is a total of our reinforcement history and that completely ignores any free will we may have on behaviour.
Furthermore Skinner suggested that any sense of freewheel is simply an illusion.
What are ethical and practical issues in animal experiments?
Although they were able to maintain a high degree of control over their experimental subjects many critics have questions ethics of conducting such investigations on animals. The animals involved work supposed to stressful and a verse of conditions which may affect how they reacted to the experimental situation along with everyday life.
Define social learning theory.
A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect and reinforcement combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.
What are the assumptions of the social learning theory.
Bandura agreed with behaviourists that much of our behaviour is learnt to experience however social learning theory proposed a different way in which people learn through observation and imitation of others with social context, thus learning occurs directly through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Vicarious reinforcement takes place in indirectly learning in of which an individual observes the behaviour of others, the learner may imitate this behaviour but in general limitation only occurs if the behaviour is seen as rewarded by a vicariously reinforced thus the learner observes a behaviour but most importantly observes the consequence.
What is a mediational process?
Cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response such as thinking.
What is the role of mediational processes? and how is social learning theory described as the bridge between learning theory and cognitive approach.
The mental factors mediate and intervene in the learning processes to determine whether a new response is acquired there are four mental or meditational processes in learning that identified by bandura. it is described as the gap as it acknowledges both the behavioral side however also cognitive.
What are the four mediational processes in learning identified by bandura? And what are they?
- 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 determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished.
What part do the first two mediational processes relate to and the last two and how does it differ from traditional behaviourism?
The first two mediational processes related to the learning of behaviour and the last two to the performance of the behaviour. Unlike traditional behaviourism the learning and performance of behaviour and did not occur together and they may be stored by the learner and reproduced at a later time.
How is the importance of cognitive factors in learning is strength of SLT? (And a weakness of behaviourism)
It is a strength as neither classical or operant conditioning can offer an adequate account of learning on their own, humans and animals may store information about the behaviour of others and users to make judgements about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions as such SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational processes.
How is the over reliance on evidence from lab studies in banduras SLT a weakness?
Many of banduras ideas were developed through observations of young children’s behaviour in a lab settings.
This is a weakness as they are often criticised for the countries nature where participants may respond to demand characteristics, in relation to the bobo doll research that because the main purpose of the doll is to strike it. The children with simply behaviour in a way they were thought was expected. This important influence on behaviour is not accounted for an SLT.
How does social learning theory underestimate the influence of biological factors and therefore is a weakness?
banjo makes little reference to the impact of biological factors on social learning. One consistent finding in the bobo doll experiment with a boy’s and more aggressive than girls regardless of the specifics of experimental situation this may be explained through hormonal factors such as differences in levels of testosterone.
And this is also not accounted for in SLT.
How does social learning theory explain cultural differences in behaviour and is an advantage?
Social learning theory has the advantage of being able to explain cultural differences in behaviour. as social learning theory can account for help children learn from other individuals around them as well as through the media and this can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through particular societies and has proven useful in understanding a range of behaviours.
How is SLT less deterministic than the behaviorist approach and this is an advantage.
Bandura emphasises reciprocal determinism, in the sense that they were not merely influenced by the external environment but we also exert an influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform this is an element of choice that suggest there is some freewheel in the way we behave.
Define the cognitive approach.
The term cognitive has come to mean mental processes so this approach is focused on how a mental processes affect behaviour.
What are internal mental processes?
internal mental processes are private operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
What are internal mental processes?
internal mental processes are private operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
What is the schema?
A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing they are developed through experience.
What are the three assumptions of the cognitive approach?
- In contrast to the behaviour support they argue that internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically.
- as a result they have investigated those areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviour such as memory and perception and thinking.
- these processes are private and cannot be observed so psychologist City than indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s mind.
How can you study with the cognitive approach using theoretical models?
An important theoretical model is the information-processing approach, which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input storage and retrieval such as in the multi store model.
