Approaches Flashcards
(40 cards)
Outline factors that make something a science
Controlled, experimental conditions that can show cause and effect and can test hypotheses
Highly standardised experiments that are replicable and reliable
Use of IVs and DVs
Scientific method- objective, systematic, replicable observation
Scientific cycle- objective, systematic, replicable observation.
Building, refining or falsifying, development of a scientific theory
Give reasons for psychology being a science
Relies on objective and systematic methods, it’s more than the passive acceptance of facts.
Scientific beliefs rely on determinism,
Can establish cause and effect through use replicable methods
Psychologists always replicating each others work so poor theories become redundant quickly
Give reasons agains psychology being a science
Concentrates on objectivity and control that it doesn’t explain much of the impact of the natural environment.
Most is unobservable, can’t be measured with accuracy
Briefly describe Wilhelm Wundt
German scientist
First person referred to as a psychologist
Wrote “principles of physiological psychology” in 1873
Viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience
Studied it using introspection
Describe introspection
“Internal perception”
Someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible
- uses a trained observer
- repeated stimuli that always produced the same experience in the subject
Outline problems with introspection
Not reliable,
Can’t objectively measure a person’s responses, unobservable
Processes are unobservable contrasts ie memory and perception
Not accurate or valid
What is reductionism
Reduces a complex phenomenon to the simplest explanation possible
+gives greater understanding of something by revealing evidence for a cause of behaviour
- humans too complex that the explanation doesn’t fully explain
Who introduced the behaviourist approach and with what
Watson
Behaviourists manifesto. ( 1913)
Identifies :
Behaviour is a response to environmental stimulus
Behaviourism is only concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviours
This can be studied in a systematic, objective way
Outline the principles of classical conditioning
Generalisation-
CR happens to a similar CS
Discrimination-
When person learns to differentiate between similar CS and a CR no longer occurs to a similar stimulus
Extinction-
When CS is no longer paired with UCS eventually CR will cease
Spontaneous recovery-
After extinction, only takes a few pairings of UCS and CS for the CR to reappear
Evaluate classical conditioning
Scientific approach,
Objective
Practical applications,therapies
Ignores cognition and free will,
Mechanistic view of human behaviour
Ethics of animal experiments
Ignores biology, nature v nurture
Describe skinners rat experiment
Rat placed in a Skinner box that has a lever
When rat pushes the lever, the box can either produce
Positive reinforcement like food
Punishment like an electric shock
A token conditioner like light
Describe social learning theory
Proposed by Albert Bandura
Takes cognitive process into account through looking at observational learning, modelling and vicarious reinforcement
Describe Banduras ideas on social learning theory
Pure behavioursim couldn’t explain why learning could take place in the absence of external reinforcement
Internal mental states must have a role,
Observational learning involves much more than imitation
- in imitation a person copies what the model does
- in observational learning, we learn by watching others, then imitating, or modeling
What were banduras three models
Live
Demonstrates a behaviour
Verbal
Doesn’t perform the behaviour, explains or describes it
Symbolic
Fictional character or real person who demonstrates behaviour in books or movies
Describe the factors for learning
Attention
Focused on what model is doing
Retention
Remember what you’ve observed
Reproduction
Must be able to perform the behaviour
Motivation
Must want to copy the behaviour
Describe vicarious reinforcement and vicarious punishment
Vicarious reinforcement
When a model is reinforced for their behaviour
Vicarious punishment
When you observe the model being punished
Describe Bandura’s bobo doll experiment
Describe the cognitive approach
Explains human behaviour in terms of internal mental processes
Contrasts learning approaches,
They focus only on the external behaviour
What is a schema
A cognitive structure where thoughts and linked together.
Influences future thinking
Influenced by the culture in which you grow up
Describe assimilation
When new information is added to a schema
Describe accomodation
When a new schema forms due to inconsistent information
Describe Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study
Hypothesis,
Memory is reconstructive
Experimental design
20 students
Told them an unfamiliar story of Native American folklore
Asked to recall it several different time intervals,
Ranging from hours to years later
Findings
Ps changed the story as they tried to remember it, distortion
3 patterns of distortion
1- assimilation, more consistent with their own cultural expectations(fit British norms)
2- levelling, became shorter
3- sharpening, change order of the story to make sense of it using terms more familiar to their own culture
Give an example of a computer model
AS model
MSM
Views memory as being based on processing and storing information
What are limitations to computer analogies
The brain came first,
Wrong way round
Machine reductionism
Reduce comp,ex thought processes down to simple mechanical processes
