approaches Flashcards
what are the origins of psychology?
Descartes (1596-1650) was a french philosopher who suggested mind and body were independent from eachother - cartesian dualism.
locke (1632-1704) proposed empiricism which is the idea we that everything we experience can be obtained through the senses and that humans dont inherit knowledge or instincts. this view later becomes the basis of the behaviourist approach.
darwin (1809-1882) said there was an evolutionary theory where all human and animal behaviour has changed over generations so those with stronger and more adaptive genes survive and reproduce, but weaker genes don’t survive - survival of the fittest. this is linked to the biological approach.
17-19th century psychology is just a broader discipline of philosophy and is ‘experimental’.
1879 wundt opened the 1st experimental lab in germany and psychology emerged as its own discipline.
1900s freud established psychodynamic approach which emphasises the unconscious mind on behvaiour (person centered therapy - psychoanalysis).
1913 watson and skinner establish the behaviourist approach.
1950s rogers and Maslow develop the humanistic approach rejecting the views of behaviourism and psychodynamic.
1960s computers introduced and so then cognitive approach (scientific). bandura proposes social learning theory.
1980s+ biological approach is the dominant perspective.
21st century cognitive neuroscience is distinct discipline (cognitive and biological).
desribe Wundt - introspection
wundt opened the first lab dedicated to psychological enquiry. he wanted to document and describe the nature of human consciousness.
called this introspection and involved wundt and his colleagues recording their own thoughts to try break them down to their constituent parts, (isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism)
used controlled methods. the introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions and standardised instructions, allowing procedures to be replicated.
this meant wundt work was important in marking the seperation of the modern scientfic psychology from its borader philosophical roots.
describe the behaviourist approach
only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured. not concerned with investigating mental processes of the mind. early behaviourists rejected introspection as it had too many vague and difficult to measure concepts.
due to this they tried to get more control and objectivity in their research and relied on lab experiments for this.
followed darwin, so behaviourists suggested basic processes that govern learning are same in all species so in their research could use animals in place of humans.
identified classical and operant conditioning.
desribe the behaviourist approach - classical
this was from pavlovs research. classical conditioning is through ‘association’.
pavlov found dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly present at the same time as being given food. pavlovs dogs would associate the bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus) and produce saliva (unconditioned response). led to saliva becoming conditioned response.
pavlov showed how a NS can elicit a new learned response (CR) through association.
before - food US and salivation
UR bell NS and no salivation is noCR
during - bell and food lead to salivation as UR
after - bell CS salivation CR
desribe the behaviourist approach - operant
this was from skinners research. he said learning is an active process where humans and animals operate on their environment. in operant there is 3 types of consequences to behaviour.
positive reinforcement - receive reward when certain behaviour performed.
negative reinforcement - animal/ human avoids something unpleasant (student hands in essay to avoid unpleasantness of being told off).
punishment - unpleasant consequence of behaviour.
positive and negative increase likelihood behaviour is repeated but punishment decreases that likelihood.
skinner had ‘skinner boxes’ with rats who had to activate lever to get food, or press lever to avoid electric shock.
what are 2 strengths of behaviourist approach?
one strength is it has scientific credibility. behaviourism was able to bring the language and methods of natural sciences into psychology by focusing on measuring observable behaviour in highly controlled lab settings. by emphasising the importance of scientific processes like objectivity and replication meaning behaviourism influential in development of psychology as a scientific discipline giving it greater credibility and status.
another strength is real life application. principles of conditioning have been applied to broad range of real-world behaviours and problems. e.g. operant is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions like prisons and psych ward. can work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges, or classical conditioning with phobias. treatment like this have the advantage of requiring less effort from patient as patient doesnt have to think about their problem. such therapies are also suitable for patients who lack insight.
what is 1 weakness of behaviourist approach?
the weakness is it has a mechanistic view of behaviour. from a behaviourist perspective, animals are seen as passive with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour. other approaches like social learning theory and cognitive have emphasised importance of mental events in learning. these processes, which mediate between stimulus and response suggest people play a much more active role in their own learning. means learning theory may apply less to humans than to animals.
describe the biological approach
says that everything psychological is first biological so to understood human behaviour we must look to biological behaviours processes and structures like genes, neurochemistry and nervous system. an understanding of brain structure and function can explain our thoughts and behaviour. from biological perspective, mind lives in brain meaning all thoughts and behaviour have a physical basis. this is in contrast to cognitive approach that sees mental process of mind as seperate from physical brain.
describe the biological approach - genetic basis
behaviour geneticists study if behavioural characteristics like intelligence, personality etc are inherited in the sam way as physical characteristics.
use twin studies to determine likelihood certain traits have genetic basis by comparing concordance rate between twins, so the extent twins share the same characteristics.
if identical (monozygotic) have higher concordance rates than non identical (dizygotic), e.g for schiz, then it suggests genetic basis.
this is because mz twins share 100% genes but dz share about 50%.
describe the biological approach - genotype and phenotype
genotype is a persons actual genetic makeup. phenotype is way a persons genes are expressed through physical, behavioural and psychological characteristics.
expression of genotype influenced by environmental factors, e.g. identical adult twins usually look slightly different as one exercises or has dyed their hair. so despite having the same genes, the way identical twins genes are expressed (phenotype) is different.
illustrates what many biological psychologists would accept, that much of human behaviour depends on interaction between inherited factors and environment.
describe the biological approach - evolution
evolution of plants and animals is a fact. in 19th century darwin proposed natural selection. main principle is any genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individuals survival will continue in future generations.
in nature this selection occurs naturally so no one decides, the selection occurs just because some traits give the possessor certain advantages. if individual survives but doesnt reproduce the traits dont remain in the gene pool.
what are 2 strengths of the biological approach?
one strength is it has scientific methods of investigation. to investigate genetic and biological basis of behaviour this approach makes use of a range of precise and highly scientific methods. these include scanning techniques like fMRIs and EEGs, family and twin studies, and drug trials. withh advances in tech its possible to accurately measure biological and neural processes in ways that arent open to bias. this means biological approach is based on reliable data.
another strength is real life application. increased understanding of biochemical processes in the brain has led to the development of psychoactive drugs that treat serious mental illnesses like depression. although these drugs arent effective for all patients they have revolutionised treatment for many. this is a strength as it means sufferers are able to manage their condition and live a relatively normal life rather than stay in hospital.
what is 1 weakness of the biological approach?
the weakness is causal conclusions. the bio approach offers explanantion for mental illness in terms of the action of neurotransmitters in the brain. the evidence for this relationship comes from studies that show a particular drug reduces symptoms of a mental disorder and thus its assumed that the neurochemical in the drug causes the disorder. this is a bit like assuming the cause of headache is the lack of paracetamol just because taking paracetamol is effective in relieving symptoms of a headache. discovering an association between the 2 factors doesnt mean 1 is a cause. this is a limitation as the bio approach is just claiming to have discovered causes where only an association occurs.
describe the cognitive approach
this directly contrasts the behaviourist approach. the cognitive approach argues that internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically. as a result, cognitive approach has investigated those areas of human behaviour that behaviourists neglect, like memory and perception. these processes are ‘private’ and cant be observed so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about whats going on inside peoples minds on the basis of their behaviour.
describe the cognitive approach - models
they use both theoretical and computer models to help understand internal mental processes. in reality theres overlaps between these two models, but theoretical are more abstract and computers are concrete things.
the information processing approach IPA is an important theoretical model. it suggests info flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage and retrieval like in the multi store model. this IPA is based on the way computers function, but a computer model would involve actually programming a computer to see if instructions produce a similar output to humans.
if they do we can suggest similar processes are going on in the human mind. such computational models of the mind have proves useful in the development of ‘thinking machines’ or AI.
