Approaches Flashcards
What is introspection?
Study of the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures
What is psychology?
The scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience
Why is Wundt’s work on introspection significant?
It marked the beginning of scientific psychology and separated from its broader philosophical roots.
What was Wundt’s aim in his research?
- To analyse the nature of human consciousness, state and processes.
- To study the mind under controlled conditions
How did Wundt conducted his research?
- divided observation into three categories: thoughts, images and sensations
- isolated conscious thoughts into basic structures of thoughts, processes and images
- recorded their experiences of various stimuli.
What is structuralism?
isolating conscious thoughts into basic structures of thoughts, processes and images
What were the standardised procedures in Wundt’s experiment?
- He recorded his experiences of various stimuli.
- He applied the same instructions to all participants
Who is Wundt?
The father of psychology
When did Wundt open up his first Lab?
1879
Why did Wundt use structuralism?
To identify the basic elements of sensation used by introspection
i.e examining your mental state and emotional processes
What did John.B Watson believe?
- scientific research only studies phenomenas that are objective and measured.
- questioned introspection because it produces subjective data and cannot establish general laws.
What does Descartes believe?
the mind and body are independent
What is the biological approach?
A perspective which emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body.
Eg genetic inheritance and neural function
What are genes?
DNA that codes the physical features of an organism and psychological features.
They are transmitted from parents to offspring.
They make up chromosomes
What is a genotype?
The particular set of genes and individual possesses
What is a phenotype?
The characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and the environment
What is evolution?
The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations
What are the assumptions of the biological approach?
- everything that is psychological is first biological meaning to understand behaviour we need to look at biological structures
- the mind is within the brain therefore, thoughts, feelings and behaviour have a physical basis.
What do behaviour genetics believe about the way behaviour are inherited?
Behaviour characteristics (intelligence, personality and mental disorder) are inherited in the same way as physical features. (Eye colour and height)
What do twins studies explain about the genetic basis of behaviour?
They determine the likelihood of certain traits having a genetic basis by comparing the concordance rates between twins which shows the extent they share the same characteristics
Identical twins share….
… a higher concordance because monozygotic twins share 100% of each others genes
Identical twins have a…
… lower concordance rate because dizygotic twins share 50% of their genes
What is the phenotype equation?
Phenotype= environmental factors and genotype
What is most of human interaction dependent on?
interactions between inherit factors and the environment
What theory did Charles Darwin propose?
The theory of natural selection
What is natural selection?
Genetically determined behaviour that enhances survival which will continues in future generations.
How does natural selection occur?
Naturally. This is because some traits are possessors of certain advantages which increases chance of survival. This is then reproduced and passed on
What happens when the possessor doesn’t reproduce(biological approach)?
The individual survives but the traits do not remain in the gene pool
Outline a limitation of the biological approach- deterministic vs explains behaviour (CW)
Biological approach is deterministic.
-It suggests that human behaviour is governed by internal, biological causes which we have no control over.
This impacts wider society as the law on criminals hold them morally and legally responsible for their action.
However, provides explanation of criminal behaviour. Criminal gene= complicated but allows psychologist to understand behaviour.
Outline a strength of the biological approach- real-life application
-increased level of understanding of biochemical processes in brain
This is because psychoactive drugs treat depression providing revolutionary treatment
- allows suffers to understand and manage condition + live relatively normal life.
- demonstrates how approach can be applied to psychological research and impact lives
What are the two learning approaches?
Behaviourist approach
Social learning approach
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association.
It occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly pair together.
The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that was produced by the unlearned stimulus alone
What is operant conditioning?
Form of learning which behaviour is shaped and maintained by it’s consequences.
This includes negative and positive reinforcement
What is reinforcement?
A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour is being repeated
What is negative reinforcement?
The avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus which increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated
What is positive reinforcement?
When an individual receives a reward for performing desired certain behaviour. This increases the likelihood of behaviour being repeated
What is punishment?
The unpleasant consequence of behaviour. It decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated
What is the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment?
What is the classical conditioning equation?
Who researched classical conditioning?
Pavlov
Who researched operant conditioning?
Skinner
Identify the characteristics of the Id
-develops at 0-18 months
-pleasure principle
-immediate gratification
-irrational behaviour
Identify the characteristics of the ego
-develops at 18 months - 3years
-it is the reality principle
-mediator between Id and superego
Identify the characteristics of the superego
- it develops between 3-6 years
- it is the morality principle
What is the tripartite personality?
-Id
-superego
-ego
Outline a strength tho Wundt’s work on psychology
-his method’s are scientific
-recorded introspection in a controlled lab and standardised his procedure so all were tested in same way
-research considered forerunner for scientific approaches in psychology
Outline a limitation of Wundt’s research
-not all aspects were scientific
- Wundt relied on participants self-reporting ‘private’ mental processes. This is subjective and some don’t want to reveal such personal info.
-can’t generalise info.
-effort to study mind were naive and didn’t meet scientific credibility
Outline the order of psychology emerging as a science
-1900s: behaviourist John. B. Watson rejects introspection
-1930s: behaviourism dominates psychology by Skinner
-1950s: cognitive approach studied mental processes
-1990s: biological approach
What are the key assumptions in the cognitive approach?
-internal mental processes should be scientifically studied
- we should investigate thinking, memory and perception
-humans are information processors like computers
What is the schema?
A cognitive framework which organises and interprets information in our brain
How do schemas develop?
Babies are born with a simple motor schema for innate behaviours
They are learnt through experience and help with our responses
They become more detailed with age as adults have mental representations for everything
What does the schema help us do?
Prevent us from being overwhelmed by large stimuli by taking shortcuts when interpreting large amounts of detail
What is wrong with our schema taking short cuts?
scheme distorts our interpretation causing perpetual errors and stereotypes. This is because assumptions are made based on incomplete information.