Paper 2- Topic 1 Approaches Flashcards
Brief summary of Wundt’s role in the development of psychology
- Wundt opened first lab for psychology
- He created the first system where he could be the first to analyse the human conscious experience under controlled conditions (through introspection)
- He conducted a standardised experiment where he gave P’s stimuli of different objects and sounds and recorded their mental processes and experience
- their observation split into 3 categories: thoughts, images and sensations
Define introspection
examination of ones own mental states or processes, through looking inward
-broken up in basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
Define structuralism
isolating consciousness into structures such as thoughts processes and images
Explain the emergence of psychology as a science
-Wundt’s first lab and coined introspection
BEHAVIOURIST
- Watson and Skinner thought introspection wasn’t scientific enough as not visible, and was subjective
- Stated scientific psychology must be observed and measured objectively
- They brought better controlled methods (experimental methods) that could be observed and measured objectively
COGNITIVE
- Science advanced were made along with the digital revolution, as the cognitive approach likened the mind to computers (e.g multi-store model)
- tested predictions using experiments
BIOLOGICAL
- advances in tech, allowed advanced investigation into physiological processes
- new scanning techniques (e.g fMRI and EEG) allow study of brain activity
- new testing methods (e.g. genetic testing) lead to understanding between genes and behaviour
1 strength 1 weakness of Wundt’s research
STRENGTH
•systematic methods
-controlled conditions in lab (control ER)
-standardised procedures (all P’s tested in same way)
WEAKNESS
• unscientific in modern world
-subjective experience
-prone to bias (may have hidden some thoughts)
-hard to establish general laws and cause and effect
1 strength 1 weakness of modern psychology
STRENGTH
•claim to be scientific
-same aims as natural sciences to understand, control and predict behaviour
-controlled methods used by cognitive, learning and biological approach
WEAKNESS
•not all approaches use objective methods
-humanist focus on subjective experience
-psychodynamic use case studies which don’t have representative samples
-Possible demand characteristics shown by P’s
•no paradigm among all approaches
Assumptions of Social learning theory
- All behaviour is learnt through observational learning and modelling of role models actions
- learning occurs directly through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly (vicarious reinforcement)
- role models are identified to based on shared characteristics
Define vicarious reinforcement
indirectly experiencing reinforcement by observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour
imitation will usually only occur when behaviour is rewarded
What are the mediational factors
cognitive factors that intervene in the learning process, to decide whether a newly observed response is acquired
Attention- extent we notice behaviours
Retention- how well behaviour is remembered
Motor reproduction- ability to perform observed behaviour
Motivation- the will to perform the behaviour (based on if it was rewarded or punished)
Define identification
When an observer associates themselves with a role model as they possess similar or desirable characteristics
Banduras bobo doll study
Aim, Method and findings
Aim: studying social modelling of aggression
Method: -observed and recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave aggressively towards a bobo doll (some watched the, behave normally)
-these children were later observed playing with toys including the bobo doll
Findings: found that the children showed much more aggression toward the doll and toys than those who had observed a non aggressive adult
Follow up Bandura study and results
One group saw aggressive adult get praised for behaviour
One group saw aggressive adult get punished for behaviour
One group saw aggressive adult receive no consequence
- The group of children who saw the adult get praised were more likely to be more aggressive
- the children who saw the adult get punished were less likely to be aggressive
Strengths of SLT
•recognises cognitive factors in learning
- through the meditational processes, humans store info about behaviour of others and use this to make judgments of their own behaviour
- not accounted for in conditioning
- so provides more comprehensive explanation of human learning
•applied to range of real world behaviours
- used by teachers to help increase or reinforce all children in. class by punishing or pos reinforcing one child (vicarious reinforcement)
- can explain cultural differences in behaviour
- imitation, modelling and reinforcement can explain how children learn from others, including the media’s impact on children’s idea of social and cultural norms
- increases value of approach as accounts for real world behaviour
Weakness of SLT
• little recognition of biological factors
- little reference to influence of biological factors
- Bandura claimed all learning was determined by environment
- however new research shows that observational learning is the result of mirror neurones in brain which allow us to emphasise and imitate with other people
•ideas come from Banduras experiment which is only on children
- children brain less developed than adults so study may not work on adults
- also kids may be more impressionable than adults
- won’t apply to adults and so can’t be a valid explanation of human behaviour
Assumptions of behaviourist approach
- Research should be scientific, observable and measurable (lab studies)
- all behaviour is learned
- basic learning processes (classical and operant conditioning) are the same in all species. So humans are replaced by animals in experiments
Classical conditioning
•learning by association (involuntary)
- Pavlov
- study showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if it was repeatedly presented at same time as food
- Gradually learned to associate them together and salivated to the bell (neutral stimulus) sound (new conditioned response)
define Operant conditioning
learning where behaviour is shaped by its consequences (voluntary)
•Skinner
- every time the rat activated a lever it was rewarded with food. The animal kept repeating the behaviour to get more rewards
Define positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Punishment
Positive reinforcement- receiving reward when a behaviour is performed (e.g praise)
Negative reinforcement- when you avoid a negative consequence due to behaviour
(e.g hand in homework on time)
Punishment- unpleasant consequence of behaviour
Describe Skinners research
- Aim to see if reward increased likelihood of behaviour
- rat or pombo pressed lever and food was released
- rat kept pressing lever to release more food
- when the consequence of the lever changed, it affected whether behaviour is repeated (punishment = stopped pressing lever)
Strengths of behaviourist approach
•based on well controlled research
- focus on measurable observable behaviour in highly controlled lab settings (remove all extraneous variables- valid)
•good application to real world behaviours
- used by teachers and parents to encourage desired behaviours and stop unwanted ones
- used in token economy aswell
Weaknesses of behaviourist approach
Ethical problems
• animals used in harsh cramped conditions and deliberately kept below weight so they were always hungry
•disregards mental processes
- (mediational processes, cognitive, social learning theory )
•sees all behaviour as based on past conditioning experiences
-ignores free will and conscious decision making processes
Assumptions of the cognitive approach
- internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically
- these processes of the mind are perception, attention and memory
- are private and can’t be observed so inferences are made about what’s going on inside people’s minds based on their behaviour
Define schema
•mental framework of knowledge, beliefs and expectations that developed from experience, and influences cognitive processing
(that helps us make sense of stimuli and information and organise it in the brain)
Why is schema useful
Help us:
- make shortcuts when interpreting large amounts of information
- to draw on aspects of it when in new situations
Brief summary of the emergence of cognitive neuroscience
include uses of new mapping techniques
DEFINITION: scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processing
- follows on from Broca finding damage to an area in frontal lobe impairs speech production
- advances led to systematic brain mapping techniques (PET, fMRI, EEG)
- -> useful in establishing role of some brain structures on mental disorders (e.g cingulate gyri on OCD)
- -> useful in establishing WMM, as Peterson found semantic and episodic memory on opposite sides of pre-frontal cortex)
- recent development has led to computer generated models being used to map out and “read” the brain from these scans
What are the new scanning techniques used in cognitive neuroscience and why are they good?
Describe an experiment using it
fMRI, EEG, PET - allow for more scientific and accurate observations of internal mental processes.
Can evaluate and falsify inferences objectively
- Fink used PET scans to see which areas of the brain are most active when looking at individual details or the holistic view of a picture
- Fink found that when people focus on details the left hemisphere was the brain is more active and when focusing on whole pic, the right side is more active
What is the role of theoretical and computer models
And a brief summary of them
Used to try and explain human mental processes
Computer- concrete model
- used computer analogies to explain human processes
- program computers and see whether the output of humans and computers is similar, when given same instructions
- use terms like input, output and coding
Theoretical- abstract
- use diagrams to represent the steps involved in internal mental processes
(e. g. information processing model)
assumptions of the biological approach
- genetics, evolution, hormonal and neural responses, and biological structures explain behaviour the best
- al thoughts, feelings and behaviours have a physical basis
- behaviour is innate & varies due to genetics
- mental illness explained by physical aspects of the body (same as physical illness)