Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Psychology > Psychology Paper 2 - Approaches > Flashcards

Psychology Paper 2 - Approaches Flashcards

1
Q

What is the Behaviourist Approach?

A

-Explains how people learn and behave through their interactions with the environment.
-Behaviourists focus on observable and measurable aspects of behaviour, and are not concerned with mental processes.
-Behaviourists often study animals because they assume that the laws of behaviour is similar for all species, so knowledge gained from studying animals can be applied to humans.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

A form of learning which occurs by associating an unconditioned stimuli which produces an unconditioned response to a neutral stimulus which produces a conditoned response.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

A form of learning by direct consequences of behaviour. Reinforcements likely increase the behaviour and punishment likely decrease the behaviour.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What is a strength of the Behaviourist approach?

A

Objective and scientific:
-High controlled lab settings
-Breaks behaviour into simple cause and effects relationships.
-Scientific credibilty
-can be repeated

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What is another strength of the Behaviourist approach?

A

Real world application:
-high mundane realism
-token economy used in prisons
-used everyday
-can be generalised increasing validity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What is a weakness of the Behaviourist approach?

A

Ethical issues:
-Animals subjected to harm
-No consent
-Would not work today
-Would not work on humans
-Pavlov and Skinner violated ethical guidelines.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is another weakness of the Behaviourist approach?

A

Reductionist:
-ignores complex emotions
-only looks at stimulus and responses
-doesnt anaylse thoughts
-decreases validity as not everyone reacts the same
-research may be ineffective

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What is the Social Learning Theory?

A

A learning approach with combines the behaviourist ideas and cognitive ideas of involvement of mental processes. It proposes that new behaviours can be required by observing and imitating others. You can learn directly and indirectly.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is Identification?

A

When an observer associates themseleves with their role model and wants to be like them. A person becomes a role model when they share similar characteristic with the observer or are attractive to them

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is a strength of SLT?

A

Focuses on cognitive factors unlike Behavoiourism:
-Both classical and operant conditioning ignore it
-Humans and animals store information about behaviour through others
-Make their own judgement on how to act
-Recognises mediational processes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What is another strength of SLT?

A

Real life application:
-Explains cultural differences
-Learning through social media and world around them
-Modelling, limitation, reinforcement
-Understand ranges of behaviours
-Increases validity
-Children understand gender roles

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What is a weakness of SLT?

A

Conducted in lab settings: (Bobo Doll Study)
-Demand characteristics
-Low ecological validity
-Artifical setting
-Tells us little about everyday behaviour

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is another weakness of SLT?

A

Fails to consider biological factors:
-Found that boys are more aggressive than girls and blames it on SLT
-Doesnt consider testosterone levels for males
-Testosterone is linked to agressiveness
-Reductionist
-Decreases understanding and validity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What is the Cognitive approach?

A

-A learning process that focuses on mental processes, turning an input into an output (like a computer).
-Looks at memory, perception ad thinking
-Processes are ‘private’ and cant be observed.
-Studied indirectly making inferences.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What is Schema?

A

A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive thinking. They develop from experience.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What is Internal Mental Processes?

A

‘Private’ operations of mind such as attention and perception that meditate between stimulus and response.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What is Cognitive neuroscience?

A

The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Whats a strength for the Cognitive approach?

A

Scientific and objective methods:
-Use of laboratory experiments
-Scientific scans such as fMRIs and PETs scans
-Better understanding in factual information
-Can figure out what an individual is thinkning
-Highly controlled so no misleading info.
-Expands knowledge

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What is another strength of the Cognitive approach?

A

Real life application:
-Most dominant approach
-Applied to wide range of practical and theortical examples
-Important contribution to AI and robots
-May revolutionise how we live in the future
-Applied to treatments of depression
-Improved reliabilty of eyewitness testimony

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What is a weakness of the Cognitive Approach?

A

Reductionist:
-Ignores emotions and motivation on our cognitive system and effects it has
-Human mind is more complex
-Cannot generalise
-Ignores biological and social factors
-Cant refer to this approach all the time
-Oversimplifies human behaviour

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What is another of weakness of the Cognitive approach?

A

Scientific and objective methods:
-Relies on mental processes and ignores direct observation
-Too abstract and theoretical
-Tests like memory do not represent everyday behaviour
-Lacks external validity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What is the biological approach?

A

A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in th ebody such as genetic inheritance and neural function.

20
Q

What is a gene?

A

They make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features of an organism and psychological features. Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring.

21
Q

What is a biological structure?

A

An arrangemnet or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living things.

22
Q

What is neurochemistry?

A

-Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological function
-Occurs using neurotrasmitters
-Imbalance of neurochemicals in brain implicated as possible cause of mental disorder

23
Q

What is evolution?

A

The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological poulation over successive generations.

24
Q

What are the assumptions of the biological approach?

A

-Everything psychological is at first biological
-Must look at biological structures and processes within the body
-Mind lives in the brain so every thought has a physical basis

25
Q

What is a strength of the biological approach?

A

Real world application:
-Increased understanding of neurochemical processes in the brain
-Pyschoactive drugs to treat serious mental disorders
-Promoted treatment of clinical depression using antidepressant drugs that increase levels of serotonin
-Reducing depressive symptoms

26
Q

Whats another strength of the biological approach?

A

Scientific methods:
-Makes sure of range of precise and highly objective methods
-Use of fMRIs and EEGs
-Possible to accurately measure physiological and neural processes that are not open to bias
-Reliable data

27
Q

What is a weakness of the biological approach?

A

Biological determinism:
-See human behaviour as governed by internal genetic causes which we have no control over
-However phenotype is heavily influenced by environment
-Identical twins dont think the same
-A violent crime cant be excused by a ‘crime gene’
-Too simplistic and ignores mediating effects of environment

28
Q

What is the psychogynamic approach?

A

A perspective that describes the different forces, most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.

29
Q

What is The unconscious?

A

The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which directs much of our behaviour.

30
Q

What is Id?

A

-Entirely unconscious
-Made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification
-Operates pleasure principle
-Present at birth

31
Q

What is the Ego?

A

-The ‘reality check’ that balances that conflicting demands of the Id and the Superego
-Works on reality principle
-Develops around age of two years

32
Q

What is the Superego?

A

-The moralistics part of our personality which represents the ideal self- how we ought to be
-Formed at the end of phallic stage (age 5)
-Internalised sense of right and wrong
-Represents the moral standards of child’s same gender parent and punishes Ego for wrongdoing

33
Q

What is the Defence mechanisms?

A

Unconscious strategies that the Ego uses to manage the conflict between the Id and the Superego.

34
Q

What is the Psychosexual stages?

A

Five developmental stages that all children pass through. At each stage there is a different conflict, the outcome of which determines future development.

35
Q

What are the assumptions of the psychodynamic approach?

A

-Our mind that we know about is the conscious mind is the ‘tip of hte iceberg’
-Our mind is made of the unconscious storehouse of biological drives
-It contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed or locked away or forgotten

36
Q

What does each stage consist in the psychosexual stage?

A

1.) Oral (0-1) focus of pleasure in the mouth, mother’s breast can be the object of desire.
Oral fixation- smoking, sarcastic, critical, biting nails
2.) Anal (1-3) focus of pleasure in anus, gains pleasure from witholding faeces. Anal retentive- perfectionist, obsessive. Anal explusive- messy, thoughtless
3.) Phallic (3-6) focus of pleasure is the genital area. Phallic personality- narcissitic, reckless
4.) Latency () earlier conflicts are repressed
5.) Gential () sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty. Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.

37
Q

What is a strength of the psychodynamic approach?

A

Real world application:
-Introduced psychotherapy
-First attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
-Employed a range of techniques designed to access unconscious
-Helps clients bring thei repressed emotions into their conscious mind

38
Q

What is an other strength of the psychodynamic approach?

A

Explanatory power:
-Explains human behaviour
-Key force in psychology as it had huge impact
-Explains wide range of phenomena
-E.g. personality development
-Draws attention to childhood experiences
-Positive impact

39
Q

What is a limitation of the psychodynamic approach?

A

Untestable concepts:
-Popper argued it doesnt meet the scientific criterion of falsification
-Not open to empirical testing
-Impossible or difficult to test
-Research based on an individual ‘Little Hans’
-Difficult to universal claims

40
Q

What is the humanistic approach?

A

An approach to understanding bahviour that emphasises the importance of subjectove experience and each person’s capacity for self-determination.

41
Q

What is Free will?

A

The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by internal biological or external forces.

42
Q

What is Self actualisation?

A

The desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one’s full potential becoming what you are capable of.

43
Q

What are the hierarchy of needs?

A

A five-levelled hierarchical sequence in which basic physiological needs must be satisfied before higher psychological needs can be achieved.

44
Q

What is Self?

A

The ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and valuing of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’

45
Q

What is congruence?

A

The aim of Rogerien therapy, when the self concept and ideal self are een to broadly accord or match.

46
Q

What are Conditions of worth?

A

When a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children.

47
Q

What are the assumptions of the humanistic approach?

A
  • Humans have free will to do whatever they want
    -People are effected by external and internal influences
    -Reject more scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour
48
Q

What is a strength of the humanistic approach?

A

Not reductionist:
-Rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
-Explains human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus response connections
-Adocates holism
-Idea that subjective experiecnce can only be understood by considering whole person

49
Q

What is another strength of the humanistic approach?

A

Positive approach:
-Optimistic
-Promoting positive image of the human condition
-See all people as basically goof, free to work towards achievement of their potential and in control of their lives
-Offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative

50
Q

What is a weakness of the humanistic approach?

A

Cultural bias:
-Central to humanistic psychology such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth
-Refers to more individualist countries
-Countries with collectivist tendencies emphasies more the needs of the group
-This approach may not be as important in others
-Does not apply universally

Psychology (3 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions