Approaches Flashcards
What is introspection and who came up with it?
Wundt
The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
What is structuralism?
Wundt and his co workers recorded their own conscious thoughts, with the aim of breaking these down into their constituent parts.
Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called STRUCTURALISM
How were introspections recorded?
Recorded under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus every time.
The same STANDARDISED INSTRUCTIONS were issued to all participants, and this allowed procedures to be repeated (replicated) every single time.
Who was one of the first early behaviourists?
Watson
What was Watsons problem with introspection?
Watsons main problem with introspection was that it produced data that was subjective, in that it varied greatly from person to person, so it became difficult to establish general principles.
Also highly critical of introspections focus on private mental processes and proposed that a truly scientific Psycholgy should restrict itself only to studying phenomena that could be observed and measured.
How did Watson being to make Psycholgy research more scientific?
The behaviourist focus on the scientific processes involved in learning, alongside the use of carefully controlled LAB EXPERIMENTS.
What is the behaviourist approach?
A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning.
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association.
Occurs when 2 stimuli are repeatedly paired together
- an unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus and a neutral stimulus
- the neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response what was first produced by the unlearned stimulus alone.
What is operant conditioning?
A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequence.
- Possible consequences of behaviour include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment
What is reinforcement?
A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated.
- can be positive or negative
What are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach?
- behaviourist approach only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed ad measured.
- not concerned with investigating mental processes of the mind.
- suggested basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species.
- this meant that in behaviourist research, animals could replace humans as experimental subjects.
Outline Palvovs research
- classical conditioning is learning through association.
- Pavlov revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of the Bess of that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as food
- gradually, Pavlov dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell (stimulus) with the food (another stimulus) and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the sound.
1- BEFORE CONDITIONING:
Food= unconditioned stimulus
Salivation= unconditioned response
2- BEFORE CONDITIONING:
Bell= neutral stimulus
Salivation= no conditioned response.
3- DURING CONDITIONING
Bell + food —-> salvation (unconditioned response)
4- AFTER CONDITIONING
Bell= conditioned stimulus
Salivation= conditioned response
Outline Skinners research
- skinner suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their enviroment.
- skinner conducted experiments with rats in specially designed cages called skinner boxes
- every time rats activated a lever within the box, it was rewarded with a food pellet.
- from then on the Sandoval would continue to perform that behaviour (positive reinforcement)
- skinner gave rat electric shock when rat didn’t press lever and so continued to press lever to avoid this happening.
The behaviourist approach
EVALUATION
Scientific credibility
- behaviourism was able to bring the language and methods of the natural sciences into Psycholgy by focusing on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings.
- by emphasising the importance of scientific process such as OBJECTIVITY and REPLICATION, behaviourism was influenced in the development of Psycholgy as a scientific discipline, giving a greater credibility and status.
The behaviourist approach
EVALUATION
Real- life application
- principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and problems.
- for instance, operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions such as prisons and psychiatric wards.
- these. Work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with token that can then be exchanged for privileges.
- treatments such as these have the advantage of requiring less effort from a patient because the patient doesn’t have to think about their problems
- such therapies are also suitable for patients that lack insight.
The behaviourist approach
EVALUATION
Mechanistic view of behaviour
- from behaviourist perspective, animals are seen as passive and machine like responders to the environment- with little to no conscious insight into their behaviour.
- other approach’s in psychology, such as SLT and cognitive approach, have emphasised the importance of mental events during learning.
-these processes, which mediate between stimulus and responses, suggest that people may play a much more active role in theory own learning.
- this means the learning theory may apply less to human than to animal behaviour.
The behaviourist approach
EVALUATION
Ethical issues
Ethical issues- harming rates for example
What is the social learning theory?
Way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combine learning theory with the role of cognitive factors
Define imitation
Copying the behaviour of others
Define identification
When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model
Define modelling
From the observers perspective, mocking is imitating the behaviour of the role model.
From the role models perspective, modelling is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer
Define vicarious reinforcement
Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour.
- this is a key factor in imitation.
Define what mediational processes are
Cognitive factors (i.e. thinking) that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.
What were the assumptions of the social learning theory and who proposed it?
SLT proposed we learn through OBSERVATION and IMITATION of others within a social context.
SLT suggested that learning occurs directly and indirectly.
Albert Bandura
How does indirect learning happen (+ vicarious reinforcement)?
- for indirect learning to take place, an individual observes the behaviour of others.
- learner may imitate this behaviour, but in general, imitation only occurs if the behaviour is seen to be rewarded (reinforced) rather than punished e.g. vicarious reinforcement
What were the 4 medicational processes identified by Bandura?
- ATTENTION- the extent to which we notice behaviours
- RETENTION- how well the behaviour is remembered
- MOTOR REPRODUCTION- the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour
- MOTIVATION- the will to perform the behaviour, which is often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished.
How does a person become a role model to a person?
Person becomes a role model if they are seen to possess similar characteristics to the observer and/or are attractive and high status.
They may be on media not just in person
What was Bandura research? (1961)
BANDURA ET AL (1961)
- Recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a Bobo doll.
- when these children later observed playing with various toys, the behaved much more aggressively towards the doll than those who had observed a non-aggressive adult.
What was Bandura + Walter’s research? (1963)
- showed videos to children where an adult behaved aggressively towards the bobo doll.
- 1 group of children sae adult pro asked for their behavior (“well done”)
- 2nd group saw the adult being punished for their aggression towards the doll (by being told off)
- 3rd group (control group) saw aggression without any consequence.
- when given Bobo doll to play with, first group showed much more aggression.
- followed by 3rd and then 2nd
The social learnig theory
EVALUATION
The importance of cognitive factors in learning
- neither classical or operant conditioning can offer an adequate account of learning on their own.
- humans and animals store info about behaviour of others and use this to make judgments about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions.
- so SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of meditational processes.
The social learnig theory
EVALUATION
Over reliance on evidence from lab studies
- many of Bandura ideas were developed through observation of young children’s behaviour in lab settings.
- lab studies often criticised for their contrived nature where particpants may respond to DEMAND CHARATERISTICS.
- its been suggested (in bobo doll research) that vecause the main purpose of the doll is to strike it, the children were simply behaving in a wat that they thought was expected.
- so the reach may tell us little about how children actually learn aggression in everyday life.
The social learnig theory
EVALUATION
Underestimates the influence of biological factors
- Bandura makes little reference to the impact of biological factors on social learning.
- consistent finds was boys more aggressive than girls regardless of the specifics of the experimental situation.
- May be explained by hormonal factors like the differences in levels of testosterone (hormone greater in boys than girls) and hormone is liked to aggressive behaviour.
Means that this important influence in behaviour is not accounted for for in SLT.
What is the cognitive approach?
Term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes’ so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g thoughts, perceptions, attention) affects behaviour.
What are internal mental processes?
‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response
What are schemas?
Mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience.
What is inference?
Process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour.
What is cognitve neuroscience
The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.
What are the assumptions of cognitive neuroscience?
The cognitive approach argues that INTRNAL MENTAL PROCESSES can and should be studied scientifically.
As a result, the cognitive approach has investigated those areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviourists such as memory, perception and thinking.
These processes are private and cannot be observed
So cognitive psychologists study them INDIRECTLY by making INFLUENCES about what is going on inside people’s minds on the basis of their behaviour
Describe cognitive processing in terms of the idea of theoretical?
An important theoretical model is the INFORMATIONAL PROCESSING APPROACH.
- it suggests that info flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include INPUT, STORAGE and RETRIVAL
Describe cognitive processing in terms of the idea of computer models ?
- cognitive approach also uses COMPUTER MODELS, where the mind is compared to a computer by suggesting that there are similarities int he way info is processed.
- models use the concepts of a central processing unit (brain) and the concept of coding and use of stores to hold info.
This has been useful in development of AI.
What is the roles of schemas?
Schemas are packages of ideas and info developed through experience.
- act as metal framework for the interpretation of incoming info received by cognitive system
- schema enable us to process lots of info quickly and this is useful as a sort of mental short-cut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli.
What are the negatives about schemas?
Schema may also distort our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors.
The cognitive approach
EVALUATION
Scientific and objective methods
- cognitive approach has always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to INFER cognitive processes at work.
- has involved use of lab experiments, to produce reliable, objective data
- in addition, emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enables biology and cognitive Psycholgy to come together.
Means the study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis.
The cognitive approach
EVALUATION
Machine reductionism
- although there’s similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer (inputs, outposts, storage systems ad use of central processor), the computer analogy has been criticised.
- such machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect our ability to process info.
The cognitive approach
EVALUATION
Application to everyday life
- cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behavior they observe in their research.
- as a consequence, cognitive Psycholgy occasionally suffers from being too abstract and theoretical in nature.
- similarly, experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli that may not represent everyday memory experience.
The cognitive approach
EVALUATION
Less determinist than other approaches
- cognitive approach is founded on SOFT DETERMINISIMS
- it recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limit of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus
- this is a more reasonable ‘interactionist’ position than the hard determinism suggested by other approaches.
What is the biological approach
A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function.
what are genes?
They make up chromosomes and consist of DNA. Which codes the physical features of an organism (such as eye colour) and psychological features (such as mental disorders).
Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring.
What is neuro chemistry?
Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning.
