psychology paper 2 approaches in psychology Flashcards
Willhelm Wunt
- established experimental psychology as a science
- introspection
- established general theories about mental processes
emergence of psychology as a science
- empirical methods
- assumptions of determinism and predictability
- use of methods which are objective, systematic and replicable
- replication of results = higher validity
origins of psychology (evaluation)
-Wundt’s methods were unreliable relying on non-observable responses)
-Nisbett and Wilson found introspection to be inaccurate
+ objective and systematic methods
-contrived results, need for inference
+ introspection is still relevant to psychology
classical conditioning (behaviourist approach)
- pavlov
- pairing of neutral stimulus (NS) with an unconditioned stimulus making a conditioned stimulus (CS) that produces a conditioned response
- timing - requires NS to occur shortly before UCS
- extinction - CS loses ability to produce CR if after a couple trials without reinforcement
- spontaneous recovery - CS + UCS paired again, much quicker
- stimulus generalisation - CR also to stimulus that are similar to CS
operant conditioning (behaviourist approach)
- likelihood of repeating behaviour depends on its consequences
- positive AND negative reinforcements increase likelihood of behaviour occurring
- pleasant consequences = positive reinforcement
- removal of unpleasant stimulus = negative reinforcement
- continuous reinforcement effective for establishing a behaviour, partial reinforcement for maintaining
- adding unpleasant stimulus or removing pleasant = punishment
classical conditioning (behaviourist approach) (evaluation)
+ real world application, development of treatment to reduce anxiety
-different species have different capabilities to learn through classical conditioning (and most research comes from animal studies)
-ignores cognitive and emotional factors
social learning theory
- Bandura 1986
- new patterns of behaviour acquired as a result of observation from others
- “models” provide examples of behaviours tht can be observed and imitated
- key determinants, characteristics of model, observers ability to perform the behaviour, its observed consequences
- identification with a model based on (perceived) similarity
- vicarious reinforcement- individuals learn about the likely consequences of an behaviour through observation
operant conditioning (behaviourist approach) (evaluation)
+ reliance on experimental method
-skinner’s research was on rats, excluding humans free will
-ignores cognitive and emotional factors
key study, Bandura et al (social learning theory)
- 1961
- procedure: children observed aggressive or non aggressive models interacting with Bobo doll, aggressive model displayed distinctive physical and verbal anger towards doll, children were then allowed to play with the Bobo doll
- results: children who observed the aggressive model imitated their aggression, children who observed the non aggressive model showed little aggression
social learning theory (evaluation)
+ understanding of criminal behaviour
+ learning more effective from similar models (Fox and Ballenson)
-criticism of view of criminal behaviour due to exposure to deviant models
-disregard other potential influences on behaviour
- identification has been shown to be more important in social learning (Andsager study on health campaigns)
emergence of cognitive neuroscience (cognitive approach)
- using neuroimaging techniques to study the brain (brain scans etc)
- Burnett et al, when people fell guilt, medial prefrontal cortex is activated
the study of internal mental processes (the cognitive approach)
- mental processes cannot be studied directly so must be inferred
- schemas help organise and interpret info
- fill in gaps in the absence of info
- theoretical models are simplified representations based on current knowledge
- computer models of mental processes, analogies of info processing
