Approaches Flashcards
Who was wundt?
The father of psychology, started controlled empirical research
What did wundt do?
Opened the first psychological lab in Leipzig Germany studying internal mental processes. Used introspection (looking inwards and self examination) analysing your own conscious experience to standard stimuli (such as metronome) reporting present experience such as sensations, emotional reaction, mental images
What is structuralism?
Breaking thoughts about an object down into separate elements was an attempt to uncover the structure of the mind
Evaluation of wundts work?
Paved the way for later scientifically controlled research in psychology
Criticised by behaviourist learning theorists who thought introspection was not scientific, they saw the mind as a black box not open to objectivity
Study of internal processes was later continued cognitive psychologists who built models of how systems such as memory worked. Experimentation not introspection.
What is the behaviourist approach?
Developed in an attempt to make psychology more scientific by using highly controlled experiments, criticised earlier attempt to study internal mental processes, sees the mind as a black box
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association. Learning happens when a neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that eventually the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus producing the response caused by the UCS
What was pavlovs study?
Demonstrated this in dogs who would associate the sound of the bell or metronome with food and drool to the CS
What is stimulus generalisation?
Conditioned response that happens with similar stimuli. E.g. little Albert was classically conditioned to fear a white rat and became afraid of a dog, fur coat and a Santa mask
What is operant conditioning!
Learning by trial and error. Learning from connection between behaviour and consequences
What was skinners study?
Demonstrated on rats that learnt from trial and error that pulling on a leaver would release a food pellet. The leaver pulling behaviour became more frequent and deliberate over time. The rats also learnt to press the leaver to stop the floor of the cage being electrocuted for 30 seconds.
What are the types of reinforcement?
Positive (adding a stimulus to increase a behaviour
Negative (removing a stimulus to increase behaviour)
Punishment (adding a stimulus to decrease a behaviour)
Extinction (stopping reinforcement will result in behaviour stopping over time)
What was little Albert?
Showed fear was a learnt response, suggesting not instinctual. Led to the development of behavioural explanation and counter conditioning treatments for phobias
Negatives of behaviouralist approach?
Used in an attempt to control human behaviour - unethical
Environmentally deterministic. Behaviours are not free will. Hard determinist
Reductionist approach focusing on lower level of explanation. Lacks meaning for complex behaviours
Research with animals, hard to generalise.
Positives of behaviourist approach?
Uses objective scientific methods - systematically manipulating variables, focusing on observable behaviour demonstrates cause and effect
What is social learning theory?
Agrees with behaviourist results from learnt experience, disagrees with behaviourist approach of ignoring internal mental processes, suggesting they must be present for learning. Focused on learning taking place in a social context due to exposure to others behaviour.
Types of behaviour?
Imitation: other behaviour is observed, if rewarded, more likely to reproduce the behaviour
Vicarious reinforcement: less likely to replicate if observed negative consequence
Modelling: others act as blueprints for our behaviour
Identification: models with characteristics we relate to are more like alt to be imitated
Mediational processes: cognitive processes between stimulus and response that influence likelihood of behaviour imitation. Attention, retention, motivation and reproduction
What was banduras study?
72 3-5 year olds. Children matched on levels of aggression. Groups watched videos of adults interacting aggressively and non-aggressively/neutrally with a bobo doll. Children matched on levels of aggression.
Found: aggression was imitated in group who watched adults model aggression. Other groups were not aggressive. Effect stronger if adult was the same gender as the child, suggests imitation and identification
Evaluation of Bandura?
Research used controlled variables and demonstrated behaviour was imitated. However a cause and effect relationship due to imitation in real life examples of aggression is difficult to study
Positive of SLT?
Inclusion of internal mental processes is improvement on behaviourism in explains human behaviour due to personal experience of having internal mental processes, face validity.
Negatives of SLT?
not observable directly - less scientific
Development of basic behaviours but not more abstract concepts
Sees behaviour as environmentally determined by some behaviours may be innate and better explained by biological factors
What is the cognitive approach?
Result of conscious and unconscious information processing
What are internal mental processes?
Series of stages of mental information processing. Stages are represented as theoretical models, similar to flow charts. The models produce theories testable by experiments.
What does the cognitive approach suggest?
Brain can be viewed as similar to a computer cpu and the mind as like a software that runs on the CPU. Computers also have inputs like the brain has senses and outputs like behaviour. Termed the computer model.
What is the role of schema?
Cognitive mental frameworks/blueprints of how people work. Formed by prior experience, these organise the large amount of new information we experience every moment and make assumptions on how to behave and think, however incorrect schema lead to stereotypes, prejudice and bias
