Approaches Flashcards
(52 cards)
1
Q
What are the 5 main approaches?
A
Behaviourists, Cognitive, Biological, Psychodynamic, Humanistic
2
Q
Explain the features of Wundt’s approach - introspection and structuralism
A
-Structuralism: isolating structure of consciousness with scientific methods studying structure of sensation/perception.
- Introspection means “looking into” in Latin.
Using introspection to investigate human mind by asking participants to reflect in own cognitive processes and describe them.
3
Q
What did Wundt discover?
A
- Higher mental processes difficult to study using introspection.
- Encouraged others to look for more appropriate methods paving way for other approaches.
4
Q
What are the negatives of Wundt’s approach: introspection?
A
- Relies on non-observable responses and participants unable to comment on unconscious factors relating to behaviour.
- Introspection produced subjective data so it was hard to establish general principles.
- Means introspective experimental results not reliably reproduced by other researchers.
5
Q
What are the positives for introspection?
A
-still used today and to gain access to cognitive processes
-used in areas like therapy
6
Q
Explain the 4 goals of psychology
A
- Description: tells us what occurred.
- Explanation: tells us “why” a behaviour or a mental process occurred.
- Prediction: identifies conditions under which a future behaviour or mental process is likely to occur.
- Change: Applies psychological knowledge to prevent unwanted behaviour and to bring about desired change.
7
Q
Explain the focus of the behaviourist approach
A
- Concerned with observable behaviour, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion.
- Can be objectively and scientifically measured.
8
Q
State the assumptions of the behaviourist approach
A
- Psych is science so behaviour must be measured in controlled environments to establish cause and effect.
- When born mind is blank slate.
- No difference in learning in humans compared to animals. Research can be carried out on animals.
- Behaviour learnt from environment. Learn through classical or operant conditioning.
9
Q
Explain how Pavlov used classical conditioning on his dogs
A
- Presented a tone (bell) immediately before presenting the food multiple times.
- Eventually the dogs had an unconditioned response (salivation) to the sound of the conditioned stimulus (bell).
- Unconditioned stimulus (food) + conditioned stimulus (bell) = unconditioned response (saliva).
10
Q
Explain BF Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
A
- All behaviour learnt as result of consequences in environment - operant conditioning.
- Involved learning through consequences (positive + negative) of behavioural responses.
11
Q
Explain positive reinforcement
A
- Increases likelihood of response occurring as it involves a reward for the behaviour.
- E.g. getting a dessert for eating vegetables, a worker gets paid a bonus for working hard.
12
Q
Explain negative reinforcement
A
- Increases likelihood of a response occurring because it involves the removal of, or escaping from, unpleasant consequences (e.g. it leads to stopping or avoiding an electric shock).
13
Q
Explain punishment
A
- The consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated (e.g. the behaviour leads to an electric shock or a smack).
14
Q
Give 2 examples of operant conditioning being applied to the treatment of behaviour
A
- Examples:
1. Social skills training for offenders
2. Token economy systems used in institutions whereby tokens are given as a secondary reinforcement for good behaviour
15
Q
Positives of behaviourist approach
A
-strength of the approach
-research support
-real life application
16
Q
Positive evaluation of the behaviourist approach
A
- Theories testable and supported by experimental research (experimental method) helps establish cause and effect, objective.
- influences all areas of psychology.
- replicable - can be repeated due to high control so has reliability
- mainly quantitative data - easy to analyse
17
Q
Negatives of the behaviourist approach
A
-mechanistic view of behaviour
-environmental determinism
-ethical and practical issues
18
Q
What is the social learning theory?
A
- Way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.
- Learning can occur simply through observing others -> also known as MODELS in our environment.
- Part of the behaviourist approach.
19
Q
Explain Albert Bandura’s take on the Social Learning Theory (cognitive processes)
A
- Learning occurs from observing others.
- Mind, behaviour and the environment all play a role in learning behaviour.
- Deals with the major criticism of behaviourist approach, which ignores mental processes, by taking account of cognitive processes.
20
Q
What is vicarious reinforcement? (Modelling)
A
- We learn through modelling -> involves learning through observation of other people (models), may lead to imitation (repetition) of the behaviour.
- Only occurs if behaviour is seen to be rewarded.
21
Q
What are the 4 conditions for social learning?
A
- Attention (learning of behaviour)
- Retention (learning of behaviour)
- Motor reproduction (performance of behaviour)
- Motivation (performance of behaviour)
22
Q
What is the attention condition for social learning?
A
- The extent to which we notice certain behaviour.
23
Q
What is the retention condition for social learning?
A
- The individual remembers what they have observed.
24
Q
What is the motor reproduction condition of social learning?
A
- The individual replicates the behaviour shown by the model.
25
What is the motivation condition of social learning?
- The individual seeks to demonstrate the behaviour that they have observed.
26
What are the types of models in social learning?
- Live models
- Symbolic models
27
What are live models (social learning)?
A
- Physically present in our environment, e.g. mother, teacher, pop star etc.
28
What are symbolic models (social learning)?
- E.g. people in films, books, cartoons etc.
29
What is symbolic modelling (social learning)?
- is considered to have a greater effect on cultures where media is widely available.
30
What are the evaluations of the social learning theory?
Positive:
- Real World application
- Importance of cognitive factors in learning
Negative:
- Over-reliance on ev from lab studies (Bobo Doll experiment)
- Underestimates influence of biological factors
31
Explain how the SLT relies too much on evidence from lab studies
- Behaviours of children were observed in lab settings - Demand characteristics
- Bobo doll: were they behaving in the right way?
- What does it tell us about every day life (is it representative)
32
What is the cognitive approach?
- How our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour.
33
What is the key assumption of the cognitive approach?
- Cognitive pychologists study processes indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds, based on their behaviour (reductionist approach)
34
What are the key principles of the cognitive approach?
- mental systems have limited capacity.
- Control mechanisms oversees all mental processes.
- 2 way flow of info
35
Explain the principle of mental systems having a limited capacity (cognitive approach)?
- The amount of info that can be processed will be influenced by how demanding the task is and how much other info is processed.
36
Explain the principle of control mechanisms overseeing all mental processes (cognitive approach)
- This will require more processing power for new tasks, leaving less available for everything else
37
Explain the principle of the 2 way of flow of info (cognitive approach)
- we take in information from the World, process it and react to it.
- We also use our knowledge and experiences to understand the World.
38
What are the 3 different types of schema (cognitive approach)?
- Role schemas
- Event schemas
- Self schemas
39
What are role schemas (cognitive approach)?
- These are ideas about the behaviour which is expected from someone in a certain role, setting or situation.
40
What are event schemas (cognitive approach)?
- These are also called scripts. They contain info about what happens in a situation.
41
What are self schemas (cognitive approach)?
- These contain info about ourselves based on physical characteristics and personality, as well as beliefs and values.
- These schemas can affect how you act.
42
What is the role of a schema (cognitive approach)?
- A ‘package’ of ideas and info developed through exp, helps organise and interpret info and experiences.
- When info is consistent with a schema, is assimilated into the schema -> exp is assimilated and schema is strengthened.
- when the info is inconsistent -> accommodation occurs and the schema has to change in order to resolve the problem.
43
What are the problems with schemas (cognitive approach)?
- Can stop people from learning new info:
- Prejudice and stereotypes can be an outcome of schemas.
- Schemas which hold expectations or beliefs about a certain subgroup of people may bias the way we process incoming info.
- Can lead to faulty conclusions and unhelpful behaviour.
- Can lead to perception errors.
44
What are the methods involved in brain scanning (cognitive approach)?
- Lesion studies
- electrophysiology
- Neuroimaging
45
What are lesion studies (methods involved in brain scanning)?
- They see if brain damage changes behaviour.
46
What is electrophysiology (methods of brain scanning)?
- Using electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity and brain waves.
47
What is neuroimaging (methods of brain scanning)?
- Pinpointing areas of the brain which are active when a task if performed.
48
Explain Tulving et al’s (1985) study on the cognitive approach
- Using PET and fMRI scans, Tulving systematically observed neurological basis in mental processes.
- Tasks involving episodic (personal memory store) and semantic (knowledge of the World store) memory may be located at different sides of the pre-frontal cortex.
- Left side: involved in recalling semantic memories.
- Right side: involved in recalling episodic memories.
49
List the strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive approach
Positive:
- Use of scientific and objective methods
- Less determinist than other approaches
Negative:
- Machine reductionism
- lack of application to everyday life
50
Explain how the use of scientific and objective methods is a strength of the cognitive approach
- Research employs highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work.
- Lab experiments -> reliable, objective data produced.
- Results in credible scientific basis.
51
Explain how machine reductionism is a weakness of research on cognitive approach
- Ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect our ability to process info.
- Humans have an unreliable and unlimited memory -> computers have a limit but it is reliable.
52
Explain how lack of applicability is a weakness of the cognitive approach?
- Only able to infer mental processes from behaviours observed.
- too abstract and theoretical in nature.
- Use of artificial stimuli may not represent everyday memory exp.
- May lack external validity.
