Paper 2 - Section 2 Approaches Flashcards
Who published the first book on psychology?
What did this achieve?
Wilhelm Wundt
Created recognition of psychology as a social science
When was the first psychology lab opened?
Where?
1879
Germany
What did Wundt focus on?
Trying to understand psychological processes of perception and sensation
What are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
Behaviourism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour
Psychology is a science
When we are born out mind is a blank slate (we know nothing)
There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and in other animals
Behaviour is a result of stimulus and response
All behaviour is learnt from the environment
What is a stimulus?
Anything internal or external that brings about a response
Response
Any reaction in the presence of a stimulus
What is reinforcement?
The process by which a response is strengthened
(Only in terms of OC)
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
The stimulus that cause a reflex response before the conditioning
What is a conditioned response?
The stimulus which, after conditioned, causes a conditioned response.
Why do we have different approaches in psychology?
So we can view things in different ways
What is structuralism?
It is a theory of conscienceless that seeks to analyse the element of mental experiences such as sensations, mental images and feelings and how these combine to form more complex experiments
Which case study is about classical conditioning?
Little Albert
Who did the Little Albert experiment?
Watson and Rayner
When did the little Albert experiment happen?
1920
What was the method of the Little Albert experiment?
The participant was an 11 month old called little Albert
Little Albert showed no fear to white fluffy objects such as a rat or rabbits. A white rat was placed in front of him. When he reached out for it a metal bar war struck loudly behind his head.
This was repeated twice at first, then five more times a week later
What were the results of the little Albert?
When little Albert was shown a rat, he would start to cry. This also extended to other white fluffy objects, such as a white santa clause beard
What were the conclusions of the little Albert case study?
A fear response to white fluffy objects had been conditioned in little Albert, showing that abnormal behaviour can be learned
What were the positive evaluations of the Little Albert case study?
It supports Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning
What were the negative evaluations of the little Albert case study?
Very unethical (they didn’t re condition him back)
Not everyone creates phobias after a negative situation so learning theory can’t be the full story
It was done in a laboratory so it lacks ecological validity as the situation was artificial
What are the two types of conditioning?
Classical conditioning
Operant confitioning
Which case study is about operant conditioning?
Rats showing operant conditioning
-the rats experiment-
Who did the rats experiment?
Skinner
When was the rats experiment?
1938
What was the method of the rats experiment?
Skinner created a “skinner box” in which he placed one rat at a time
Each Skinner box contained a variety of different stimuli (negative reinforcement). For example a speaker, lights, a floor which gave electrical shocks and a food dispenser which dispensed food when a lever was pressed.
A hungry rat was placed in the Skinner box
The time taken doe the rat to learn that pressing the lever was recorded
What were the results of the rats experiment?
Initially the rats would run around the cage until they accidentally pressed a lever
The more times the rat was put in the box the quicker they got at learning where the lever was
What was the conclusion of the rats experiment?
Rats can learn behaviour through operant conditioning because a behaviour such as pressing a lever can be positively reinforced by receiving food
What were the positive evaluations of the rats experiment?
It has been highly influential in promoting the idea of behavioural psychology
What is the negative evaluation from Skinners experiment?
It uses animals so results may not be generalisable to humans
What involves a reward for positive behaviour?
Positive reinforcement
Why does positive and negative reinforcement work?
It involves a positive or negative consequence
Define punishment
The consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated
For operant conditioning to work what needs to happen?
The reward needs to be given instantaneously so that a connection is made between the behaviour and the reward
What are the strengths of the behaviouralism approach?
Behaviourism is very scientific - theories are testable and they can be supported by evidence. This helps to establish the cause and effects of things
It is mainly quantitive data which make it easier to analyse
It can be applied to the real world (tends to have high ecological validity)
It has useful applications to education and child raising
It provides a strong natural counter argument to the “nature-nurture” debate
Benefit of the behavioural approach: Real life aplications
This can be used in certain types of economic systems prisons and psychological hospitals
Where certain behaviour can be rewarded with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges
Classical conditioning can be used to help people get through phobias
What does OC stand for?
Operant conditioning
What does CC stand for?
Classical conditioning
How can cc be used?
Treatment of phobias
State the negative evaluation of the behaviouralist approach: deterministic and reductionism
Animals are seen as passive and machine like. They respond to their environment with little of no conscious insight into their behaviour
SLT (as well as the cognitive approach) emphasis the importance of mental events at learning
Process mediates between stimulus and response, suggests that people may play a much more active role in their learning
Applies less to humans than animals
What does SLT stand for?
Social Learning Theory
State the negative evaluation of the behaviouralist approach: Environmental determinism
Skinner said “free will is an illusion”
He thought that our past experiences determines the outcome when something happens
What is environmental determinism
All behaviours are determined by past experiences that has been conditioned
What are the 6 approaches?
SLT
Biological approach
Behavioural approach
Humanistic approach
Psychodynamic approach
Cognitive approach
What is SLT?
A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors
What are the 4 mediational processes of SLT?
Attention
Retention
Motor reproduction
Motivation
Explain the mediational process’s
Attention - The extent to which we notice certain behaviours
Retention - The individual remembers what they have observed
Motor Reproduction - The individual replicates the behaviour shown by the model
Motivation - The individual seeks to demonstrates the behaviour that they have observed
Where is symbolic modelling considered to have a greater effect
In cultures where media is widely available
What is a live model?
Real people
What is a symbolic model
A model that isn’t a real person eg book or film characters
Evaluate SLT - Real world applications
Someone suggested that the possibility of someone committing a crime increases after seeing someone else commit a crime (Vicarious Reinforcement)
Evaluate SLT - SLT shows the importance of cognitive factors in learning
Neither classical nor operant conditioning can offer a good account of learning on their own
Humans and animals may store information about the behaviour of others and use this to make judgments about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions
There is a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational processes
In the Bandura experiment who was the more aggressive?
Why?
Boys
Due to testosterone
Describe an experiment about aggression in transsexual participants
35 female to male
15 male to female
These people completed questionnaires to asess proneness to aggression before and after receiving hormone treatments to change genders
Female to male reported an increase in aggressiveness.
Females are given testosterone therefore we can conclude that testosterone causes aggression.
What may increase aggression?
Testosterone, sometimes serotonin (Low levels) and the MAOA gene
What is vicarious reinforcement?
A way which we learn stated by SLT where we learn through watching others which often leads to imitation through the meditational processes, however, this only happens if the behaviour is seen to be rewarding (a lot of the time it is unconsciously rewarding)
Evaluate SLT - Cultural differences
1935 - it was found that the Arapesn is an example of non aggressive culture in which aggression is not admired. This is reinforced and/or modelled by adults
The Biwat population show the oposite as violence is normal and their status is determined by how aggressive they are. Therefore the children see violence as rewarding and therefore they copy the behaviour
The Tchambuil - women were i personal and dominant and men were less responsible but more emotional dependent on the women
This shows that children understood their role in society and by gender as the children copy what the parents do
Evaluate SLT - SLT is less deterministic
SLT is less deterministic than the behavioural approach
Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism
We are influenced by our external environment and we exert influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform
Evaluate SLT - Reductionist approach
SLT is a very basic cause and effect mechanisms
We know that behaviour is a result of learning
SLT ignores biological explanation
What are the positive evaluations of SLT?
Real world applications
Shows the importance of cognitive factors
Cultural differences
SLT is less deterministic
What are the negative evaluations of SLT?
Demand charartristics
Reductionalist approach
What is the biological approach?
This combines physiology and biology to provide a psychological explanation of human behaviour.
This branch of psychology tries to explain how we think, feel and behave in twerms of physical factors in the body
What is physiolgy
The study of the body and its parts and how the function
What are the assumptions of the biological approach?
Everything psychological is at first biological
Much of human behaviour has a physiological cause which may be geneticly or enviromentaly altered
Psychologists should study thye brain, nervous systems and other biological systems eg hormones and other chemicals in the body
The mind lives in the brain (which isn’t what the cognitive approach thinks)
The approach investigates how biological structures and processes within the body impact behaviour
What is monozygotic?
One zygote - these twins are formed when fertilised egg cells split into 2 and forms 2 separate embryos
What is dizygotic?
2 zygote - these twins are formed when 2 separate eggs both come fertilised by different sperm cell
What is concordance rate?
The agreements between 2 things (similarity)
(Twins have a high concordance rate)(no one has a 100% concordance rate(this may be becaused the enviroment effects us))
How high is the concordance rate between DZ twins?
Around 25%
What does DZ stabnd for?
Dizygotic
What does MZ stand for?
Monozygotic
What did Galton say?
When?
All natural abilities are inherited
1869
Evaluate Gatton’s view of our natural abilities?
In 1869 he said that all natural abilities were inherited
However, this is a reductionist viewpoint and Galton latter admitted that the environment could play a role. However, with some abilities this may be true for example alcoholism
What is selective breading?
When you choose a male and female to breed because hey have desired characteristic which you hope will be passed to the offspring
What are the basic units of hereditary?
Genes
Why do genes appear in quartets?
They come in pairs
How does gene variability happen?
When a child gets genes from their parents
What is the genotype?
The genes that someone has.
This is the genetic programming that provides some of the phenotype
What is the phenotype?
The observable characteristics that someone has based of their genes
Genotype ± environment = phenotype
What are the 2 types of genes?
Recessive or dominant
When is the difference between recessive and dominant genes?
The recessive gene only shows in the phenotype if there are 2 of them but dominant genes will override a recessive gene and will therefore show if there is only 1 dominant gene there
Draw a genetic cross
What do you know is true if both your parents have brown eyes and you have blue eyes?
How do you know this?
Both of your parents have Bb alleles (they both contain the recessive gene)
You know this because blue eyes is a recessive gene and therefore you must get 2 blue eye genes to get blue eyes therefore both patents must carry it)
Define heterozygous?
When the genotype consists of 2 allies
Define homozygous
When the genotype consists of the same 2 allies
What does Gottesman do?
He did a meta analysis of aprox 40 twin studies
What were Gottesman’s results?
If you had an identical twin with schizophrenia. This gave you a 48% chance of developing the condition. This reduced to 17% in non identical twins
What was the conclusion of Gottesman’s study
Schizophrenia has a strong genetic basis
What are the positive evaluations of Gottesman’s analysis
It was carried out on field studies so it has a high ecological validity
What are the negative evaluations of Gottesman’s analysis?
Becausde identical twins share 100% of their genes it would be expected that they get the same genetic diseases. Since only about half both had schizophrenia this means that another factor must always be involved.
Identical twins tend to be treated very similarly. Therefore there could be a strong environmental role (they are treated even moe similarly that non identical twins)
When was Gottesman’s analysis?
1991
Who were the experimenters in the twin and adoption studies?
Gottesman - 1991 meta analysis
Heston 1966 - adoption study
What approach are the twin and adoption studies in?
The biological approach
Who did the exp[eriment on scitzophrenia in identical twins?
Gottesman
Who did the adoption study?
Heston
When was the adoption study?
1966
What study did Heston do?
The adoption study of schizophrenia
What was Heston’s method?
47 adopted children (who’s biological mothers had schizophrenia) were studied. There was a control group of 50 children (who’s biological mothers didn’t have a diagnosis of schizophrenia)
The children were followed up as adults where they were interviewed and given personality and intelligence tests
What were the results of Heston’s study?
Of the experiment group only 5/47 were diagnosed with schizophrenia compared to 0/50 in the control group
But, another 4 of the group were classified as borderline by the researchers
What was the conclusion of Heston’s study?
The study supports the view that schizophrenia has a genetic basis
What are the positive evaluations of Heston’s research?
Interviews are a scientific way to get information
What were the negative evaluations of Heston’s research?
Interview data can be unrealistic due to lying and social desirability bias
The control’s group mothers may of shown symptoms of schizophrenia but not have an oficial diagnosis
What is evolution?
The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations
Who is associated with evolution?
Darwin
What were Darwin’s main 2 concepts in evolutionary theory?
Natural selection
Sexual selection
What is the principle of diversity?
The idea that there is variation within species
Because it increases the chance the chances of survival through natural selection
What is the principle of interaction?
This shows how the variety of all species adapt and fit in with the environment.
Because the animals that can do this will be more naturally selected
What is the principle of differential amplification?
Those who adapt to their new environment will reproduce and those who don’t will die out
What are the 3 principles of natural selection?
The principle of:
Diversity
Interaction
Differential amplification
What is sexual selection?
The process through which we choose who to have sex/reproduce with based off of relationship studies to increase the chance of having a healthier offspring
How is sexual selection different between the sexes?
Men have unlimited sperm whilst women only have a limited amount of egg cells.
Therefore females are more particular about who the farther of their child is. This is reinforced by the commitment for the women (9 months of pregnancy)
Aka sociobiological theory
What is a positive of the biological approach’s research methods?
It is based on the hard sciences and therefore their research methods tend to be highly scientific in nature.
The most common methods tend to be laboratory experiment and observations and brain scanning
What are the different brain scans?
PET scan
CAT scan
MRI
FMRI
SQUID magnetometry
What does an MRI do?
It detect small tumours and provides detailed information about structures
What does a fMRI do?
It gives structural and functional information
What are the strength of the biological approach?
It is a scientific approach so it has highly scientific approaches like fMRI and twin studies that lead to reliable data
The scientific approach leads credence to the study of psychology which established psychology as a respectable science
This could lead to new treatments and intervention to those suffering
If we can understand how an abnormal brain works it could shed light on normal brain functions
Measurements can be objective (as it can be done by unbiased computers)
Machines are accurate and precise
What are the limitations of the biological approach?
It is a deterministic viewpoint - This is stating that we have no free will
This approach is reductionist (by stating that all human behaviour can be explained through biological processes) and therefore we are not unique as individuals.
It also dehumanises humans as machines (input-process-output)
Also It ignores the role of the environment etc. it should be used with a combination of other approaches
Research may be focused on abnormal and rare conditions - lacks generalisability
Complex machinery is used by humans who could make mistakes which could taint the data
Correlations are frequently used. We can’t always determine the cause and effect exactly
Small and/or restricted samples make findings difficult to generalise
Laboratory experiments lack ecological validity
What does the cognitive approach look at?
How our mental processes (for example thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour
How is the cognitive approach a reductionist approach?
Cognitive psychologists study process indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds based on behaviour
What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?
Our mental systems have a limited capacity - the amount of information that will be processed will be influenced by how demanding the task is and how much other information is processed
A control mechanism overseas all mental processes - this will require more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else
There is a two way flow of information - we take in information from the world, process it and react to it. We use our knowledge and experiences to understand the world
What is a cognitive scientists view?
We act like a computer
Input process output
What is a schema?
A “package” of ideas and information developed through experience. It helps you organise and interpret information and experiences. Whilst affecting our behaviour
What happens when the information which causes a schema is consistent?
It is easier to incorporate it into our lives (when info is consistent it is assimilated in our schema)
What happens when the information which causes a schema is inconsistent?
Accommodation occurs and the schema is forced to change in order to resolve the problem
What are the 3 different types of schema?
Role schema
Event schema
Self schema
What is a role schema?
This type of schema is when there are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation
Draw a diagram of the psychodynamic approach’s model of the conscious?
