approaches Flashcards
What are the five different approaches?
- learning approach
- cognitive approach
- biological approach
- psychodynamic approach
- humanistic approach
(+ comparison of approaches)
What was Wundt’s nickname?
‘father of psychology’
What research method became the preferred way of studying behaviour because of Wundt?
Experimental psychology e.g. the laboratory experiments as a preferred way of studying human behaviour.
When and where did Wundt set up the first psychology laboratory?
‘The institute of experimental psychology’ was set up in Leipzig, Germany, in the 1870s.
What did Wundt believe about how the human mind could be studied?
it could be studied scientifically using controlled, objective research.
Wundt’s work paved the way for a more scientific approach that studies mental processes. Which one?
cognitive psychology
What is structuralism?
Breaking down behaviours such as sensation into their basic elements.
What is introspection?
A systematic analysis of our own conscious experience of a stimulus.
What would participants do in an introspective study?
Focus on an everyday object and look inwards to analyse it in its component parts, breaking their thought process down systematically, which allowed general theories about perception to be created.
How was Wundt as scientific as possible?
using controlled stimuli, objective (standardised) procedure, and being replicable.
What is one strength of Wundt?
His controlled methods - all the introspection were recorded under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus every time. The use of standardised instructions makes the process more internally valid.
What did Wundt using controlled methods mean his studies had?
High replicability
Are Wundt’s methods still used today?
yes - Griffiths (1994) used introspection to study the internal mental processes of fruit machine gamblers, asking them to ‘speak aloud’ about their thoughts into a mic while playing.
What was a weakness of Wundt’s work to do with its subjectivity?
Because the data varied from person to person, it was difficult to establish general principles, and results were not reliably reproducible, so invalid.
What was Watson’s critique of introspection?
it is too focused on private mental processes, which cannot be objectively observed, so is not scientific.
What approach did Watson establish?
Behaviourist psychology
What were the two fundamental idea of the behaviourist approach?
- we should only study observable behaviour
- empiricism (all behaviour comes from experience and is not innate)
What are the two assumptions of the behaviourist approach
- all behaviour is caused (determined) e.g. there is a reason for it
- if behaviour is determined then it should be possible to predict how people will act in different situations (which can be studied using a scientific method)
When are methods objective?
When researchers do not let their preconceived ideas or biases influence the collection of their data.
When are methods systematic?
When observations and experiments are carried out in an orderly way.
When are results not reliable?
When they are not replicable and therefore cannot be accepted as being universally true.
What is empiricism?
Watson’s suggestion that all behaviour is due to observation and experience alone (i.e. we learn behaviour)
what are two strengths of Watson’s scientific psychology?
- If scientific methods no longer fit the facts, they can be refined or abandoned, meaning scientific knowledge is self-corrective.
- reliance on objective methods of observation means that the info is based on the scientific method rather than just passive acceptance of facts.
What are two weaknesses of Watson’s scientific approach?
- reliance on control and objectivity can create artificial environments that tell us little about how people act in real life.
- much of psychological study is unobservable and so can’t be measured with any degree of accuracy, so there will always have to be a gap between data and theory as psychology is so inferential.
What are the two ways Behaviourism argues we learn behaviour?
Classical (Pavlov) and Operant (Skinner) conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
learning by association - where two stimuli are repeatedly paired together; an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus. The neutral stimulus eventually produced the same result that the unconditioned stimulus does.
What is operant conditioning?
Where behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences e.g. positive/negative reinforcement and punishment.
What is positive reinforcement?
receiving praise when a certain behaviour is performed e.g. praise when you raise your hand in class, making it more likely to be repeated.
What is negative reinforcement?
When someone avoids something unpleasant (resulting in a positive experience) e.g. handing in homework to avoid being told off, making it more likely to be repeated.
What is a punishment?
An unpleasant consequence of your behaviour, for example being told off by your teacher for misbehaving,
In the process of classical conditioning, what is the ‘before’ section?
Neutral stimulus (NS) ——> No response
Unconditioned stimulus (US) ——> Unconditioned Response (UR)
In the process of classical conditioning, what is the ‘during’ section?
Neutral Stimulus (NS) + Unconditioned Stimulus (US) ——> Unconditioned response (UR)
In the process of classical conditioning, what is the ‘after’ section?
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) —-> Conditioned Response (CR)
In Pavlov’s study, what was the NS/CS?
the bell
In Pavlov’s study, what was the unconditioned stimulus (US)?
Food
In Pavlov’s study, what was the UR/CR?
The dog salivating
What was Pavlov’s procedure?
- moved salivary ducts to outside of dogs mouths, then fed them to see how much they produced.
- realised dogs were anticipating the food an salivating before getting it.
- erected screens so dogs couldn’t see when food was coming.
- Introduced an unrelated stimulus (metronome) before giving the dog food, and repeated this multiple times.
What did Pavlov find?
- He found that initially dogs salivated when food touched their tongues.
- after a while they associated the metronome with the arrival of food and so salivated at the sound of the metronome.
What did Pavlov conclude from his study?
Animals learn via classical conditioning (learning by association) and so the salivation becomes a conditioned response.
How can punishment and reinforcement be used in prison?
Give prisoners tokens for positive behaviour, which they can then exchange for tangible rewards. This supports the external validity of behaviourism.
What is a skinner box?
An operant conditioning animal chamber used in behavioural psychology used to test hypothesis related to behaviour and learning.
What are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
- when we are born our mind is a blank slate.
- Behaviour is the result of a stimulus-response.
- Psychology is a Science so behaviour must be measured in highly controlled environments (labs)
- All behaviour is learnt from the environment. We learn behaviour from classical or operant conditioning.
-concerned with observable behaviour.
-little difference between learning in humans and in other animals.
What is a strength of the behaviourist approach?
Skinner relied on the experimental method, using controlled methods such as the Skinner box (soundproof, no need for human interference) which brought scientific methods and empiricism to psychology, making it more reliable and credible.
What is a real world application of the behaviourist approach?
- operant conditioning in prisons, giving out tokens to reward good behaviour which can then be traded for privileges (positive reinforcement).
- classical conditioning for phobias.
What supporting evidence is there for the behaviourist approach?
Pavlov (dogs) + Watson and Rayner (little Albert) for classical conditioning.
Skinner (mice) for operant conditioning.
What is an example of positive + negative reinforcement with a skinner box?
Positive: Skinner has a lever in the box that when activated by the rat, dispensed a food pellet, and so the rat continued to press it.
Negative: Skinner had a box that gave constant electric shocks until the rat pulled the lever. The rat then continued to pull the lever to avoid the negative consequence of the shock.
What is a weakness of the behaviourist approach?
It has been accused of environmental determinism, which ignores any influence free will may have on behaviour suggesting it is all the result of internal or external forces, which can result in people not taking responsibility for their actions, which has ethical implications for criminals and the law, making it not palatable for society.
What is a weakness of the behaviourist approach? (mental events)
Ignores the role of other factors in shaping our behaviour, such as mental events, which mediate between stimulus and response and suggest we play a non-passive role in our own learning. This suggests that the learning approach may apply more to animal than to human behaviour.
What is a role model?
A person who carries out an attitude or behaviour to be learnt, possessing similar characteristics to the observer or higher status.
What is a live model?
A type of model present in our environment e.g. parent.
What is a symbolic model?
A type of model present in the media, e.g. celebrities.
What is vicarious reinforcement/punishment?
Reinforcement - when you observe a model being praised for their behaviour so want to imitate it.
Punishment - when you see a model being punished for their behaviour so don’t want to imitate it.
What is identification?
The extent to which an observer relates to the role model e.g. both female.
What was the procedure of Bandura et al. (1961)?
- leave child, adult, and toys in room.
- have adult randomly start hitting and kicking the doll and being verbally aggressive ‘pow’ for ten minutes.
- leave the child alone in the room and see if they repeat the behaviour or not.
- have a control group of kids left with adult playing calming with the bobo doll.
What were the results of Bandura et al. (1961)?
- 1/3 of kids imitated the verbally aggressive behaviour they saw, and all the kids repeated the physical violence.
- imitation was closer when gender was the same.
- the control group repeated the behaviour of their adults.
How does Bandura et al. (1961) support social learning theory? (using key terms)
The role model in the study is the adult. They are a live model because they are present in the room with the child. The children identify with the adult because they are the same gender (for most of them) or potentially so they’re old and so wiser. The role model models the behaviour of either being aggressive towards the bobo doll or playing gently and so the child learns how to do this via observational learning. The adults get rewarded with having fun and so this acts as vicarious reinforcement. Therefore the children imitate by either playing aggressively with the doll or playing gently with it.
What are the 4 mediational processes?
- Motivation (the will to perform the behaviour)
- Attention (noticing the behaviour of the person they want to imitate)
- Retention (remembering the behaviour)
- Reproduction (consideration of our own ability to perform the behaviour)
What are the mediational processes?
The cognitive processes that occur between stimulus and response that affect whether the learned behaviour is produced.
What are the assumptions of SLT?
- behaviour is learned from experience in a social context.
- there are processes between stimulus and response, combining principles from the cognitive and behavioural approach.
- people are active manipulators of their own environment.
-classical and operant conditioning can not account for all human learning. - We can learn something but choose not to perform it.
- concerned with human rather than animal behaviour.
What are two strengths of SLT?
- Uses the experimental method, so has controlled conditions, e.g. the playroom in Bandura’s study, which means cause and effect can be studied, giving psychology credibility as a science.
- SLT can explain cultural differences in behaviour, and how children can learn through media, showing how cultural norms are transmitted through society, and also how kids learn gender roles, giving it external validity.
