Approaches Flashcards
(51 cards)
Who was Wundt?
Founding father of psychology - opened the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879
What was introspection + its problems?
psychological method devised by Wundt to analyse people’s thoughts + feelings. Stimuli was presented - ppts would comment on how it made them feel. Main problem that it was highly subjective, people will articulate their feelings differently
How do we decide if an experiment/theory is scientific?
what THE FORK
Theory Construction
Hypothesis Testing
Empirical Method
Falsifiability
Objectivity
Replicability
Kuhn (paradigm shifts)
Outline the behaviourist approach?
Assumptions are:
Humans are born ‘tabula rasa’ (as a blank slate)
* Human behaviour is learnt through experience (classical and operant conditioning)
* Only observable behaviour can be studied scientifically.
* It is valid to study animals as they share the same principles of learning and
therefore conclusions can be extrapolated to humans.
outline the learning theory of attachment
This process of learning can be applied to human development.
Comfort for the baby is an UCS that produces happiness, the UCR. The babies mother will talk to it while she feeds it and changes its nappies etc. and thus the baby hears its mothers voice every time it is made happy. The sound of the mothers voice is matched with the UCS and therefore becomes a CS, eventually the sound of the mothers voice alone will make the baby happy. The CS now causes the CR.
Aims of Pavlov’s study?
To investigate stimulus-response associations in dogs
Method of Pavlov’s study?
Lab experiment
Pavlov paired the presentation of food, (which naturally produced a saliva response - reflex) with a
number of different neutral stimuli (e.g. a bell) (UCS + NS = UCS). Pavlov repeated this pairing
several times.
Eventually, Pavlov presented the neutral stimulus in isolation of the UCS.
He inserted a small test tube into the cheek of each dog to measure salivation.
Results of Pavlov’s study?
After a number of pairings, the dogs would salivate when they heard the bell ringing (without the
presentation of food)
The dog had learned an association between the bell and the food and a new behaviour had been
learnt.
Food UCS = Salivation UCR
Bell NS = No response
Food UCS + Bell NS = Salivation UCR
conclusions of Pavlov’s study?
Behaviours could be learnt through making stimulus-response associations
Aims of Skinner’s study?
To investigate operant conditioning in rats and pigeons.
Methods of Skinner’s study?
Lab experiment. Skinner placed animals in a ‘skinner box’.
1. (positive reinforcement) The box contained a
lever on the side, and as the rat moved about
the box it would accidentally knock the lever.
Immediately after a food pellet would drop into
a container next to the lever. Skinner also tested
to see what would happen if the food pellet
stopped being released.
2. (negative reinforcement) the rat was placed in
a box and then subjected to an unpleasant electric current. As the rat moved
about the box is would accidentally knock the lever. Immediately after it did so the
electric current would be switched off.
Findings of Skinner’s study?
- The rat continued pressing the lever as it received a positive consequence and the
behaviour has been reinforced. When the food pellet stopped being released then
the rat stopped the behaviour as the reinforcer had been removed (extinction). - The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in
the box. The consequence of escaping the electric current ensured that they
would repeat the action of pressing the lever.
Conclusions of Skinner’s study?
Behaviours are more likely to be repeated if they are reinforced and less likely
to be repeated if punished. Therefore, behaviour is learnt through the consequences of
actions.
Positive evaluation of Behaviourism?
Research - Scientific, emperical research methods used - Skinner + Pavlov use replicable lab exps - adds internal validity
Application - has played a large role in the formation of behavioural therapies, in particular the treatment of phobias eg systematic desensitisation
Negative evaluation for Behaviourism?
Research - use of animal studies in research is invalid, it could be argued; animals do not share the higher cognitive processes that humans do, could be said that behaviourism overlooks cognition
issues/debates - hard determinist (environmental) claims all behaviour is a result of the environment, Skinner says that free will is an illusion. Socially sensitive, and also potentially inaccurate - eg not everyone bitten by a dog develops a phobia of dogs.
Outline the Social Learning Theory?
Social learning theory proposes that behaviour is learned from
the environment through observing role models. In society,
children are surrounded by many influential models, such as
parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends
within their peer group and teachers at school. These models provide examples of
behavior to observe and imitate, e.g., masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social, etc.
Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. This
is more likely if the child perceives the model as similar to itself (identifies) e.g. same
gender.
At a later time they may imitate (i.e., copy) the behavior they have observed. If a child
imitates a model’s behavior and the consequences are rewarding (direct
reinforcement), the child is likely to continue performing the behavior.
What are the cognitive mediational processes (ARMM)?
Attention - Learning can only take place if a model is attended to. More attention is
paid to role models who have status and those that we can identify with e.g individuals of
the same Gender.
Retention - Learning will only take place if the Behaviour we have observed is stored in
memory.
Motor reproduction - This relates to the performance of the behaviour. The
observer must be physically able to perform the behaviour for imitation to occur. For
example a child may want to imitate the skills of a footballer but lack the necessary ability
required to reproduce the behaviour.
Motivational processes - For a behaviour to be imitated, an individual needs the
right motivation to do it. If an individual observed a model being positively reinforced for
a behaviour (vicarious reinforcement), the behaviour would more likely to be imitated as
the consequence of imitation suggest we will be directly reinforced ourselves.
Then in future when an appropriate opportunity arises, the individual will weigh up the
chances of being directly reinforced. The individual might display the observed behaviour
provided that the expectation of positive consequences is greater than the expectation
of negative consequences.
Aims of Bandura’s study?
To find out if children would show more aggressive
behaviour if exposed to an aggressive role model and less
aggressive behaviour if exposed to a non-aggressive role
model.
Methods of Bandura’s study?
72 Children were split into three groups of 24 (12 boys, 12 girls)
Condition one (Aggressive)
Children observed a video of an adult (role model) attack a five foot
inflatable doll. The doll was kicked and punched and the attacker used
aggressive statements such as “Punch him on the nose”. Bandura used
males and females as role models.
Condition two (Non Aggressive)
Children observed an adult assembling a toy showing no aggression
Condition three (Control)
No adult model was observed
After this first stage each child was taken to a second room filled with toys and a bobo
doll. The child was filmed playing with the toys for twenty minutes
Bandura observed the children and recorded imitative aggression, partial imitation and
non-imitative aggression.
FIndings of Bandura’s study?
The children who had observed the aggressive model (condition one) displayed
higher levels of aggressive behaviour to the doll than those in either of the other two
conditions. Children were more likely to directly imitate same sex role models. Boys were
also more physically aggressive in all conditions.
Conclusions of Bandura’s study?
Bandura concluded that behaviour can be learned by observation and
imitation. Individuals are more likely to imitate role models that they identify with e.g those
of the same gender.
In later follow up version of the study – children were even more likely to imitate adults
who they had seen be rewarded for being aggressively. Which demonstrates the
importance of vicarious reinforcement.
positive evaluation for Bandura?
Experimental methods and Internal validity
Banduras research study was a laboratory experiment and therefore allowed for the
precise control of variables such as the role model used and the time the children
observed the behaviour. This allows for cause and effect to be established enhancing the
validity of the findings and the validity of the Social learning theory. The experiment also
used standardised procedures and instructions that allowed for it to be replicability. The
research has been replicated with slight changes such as the use of a video instead of
live role models and similar results were found enhancing its reliability.
negative evaluation for Bandura?
Artificial settings and Ecological Validity
A limitation of using laboratory studies such as Banduras on imitation is that it has low
ecological validity. The situation involved a child and an unfamiliar adult role model in an
artificial setting with no interaction between adult and child. This is a limited social
situation which is unlike real life modelling that takes place in a family or school context.
Also the imitation was measured almost immediately making this a snap shot study which
cannot tell us about the long term effects of the single exposure to the behaviour. This
therefore challenges the ecologically validity of Bandura’s findings as support for social
learning theory and the theory’s ability to explain learnt behaviour over time.
Positive evaluation for SLT?
Research - Bandura’s study provides backup to the claims made by SLT - lab exp adds int. validity
Issues/debates - SLT is comprehensive (not reductionist) when compared with something like behaviourism bc it addresses the role of cognitive mediational processes. explains individual differences in behaviour eg why not everyone who gets bitten by a dog has a phobia
Application - reducing stereotypes - can explain the development of gender-typical behaviour through the observation of same-sex role models in pop culture - SLT can help create legislation to combat these stereotypes
