Approaches Flashcards
🧠Define psychology
The study of the mind, behaviour and experience
🧠Define introspection
The study of the mind through breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
🧠Wilhelm Wundt’s firsts
Psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany
Wrote first textbook
🧠Wilhelm Wundt’s objectives (2)
Standardised procedures: observations recorded
Structuralism: consciousness divided into three categories+ the same stimuli order and instructions
🧠Evaluation of Wundt (4)
+Somewhat scientific: controlled environment, standardised procedures
-Subjective data: Self-reports are subjective and things could be left out. General laws not possible
+ Father of psychology: set foundation for approaches, particularly behaviourist
+ Introspection used: in investigation in fruit machine addicts
🧠Timeline (9)
17th/19th c: roots in philosophy
1879: Wundt
1900s: Psychodynamic (Freud)
1913: Behaviourist (Watson+Skinner)
1950s: Humanistic (Rogers +Maslow)
Cognitive; analogy w/ digital computer
1960s: SLT (Bandura)
1980s: Biological; tech advances
Eve 21st c: cognitive neuroscience
🧠Timeline evaluation (3)
🧪😇📜
+ Science: Learning, Cog and Bio all use scientific methods
- Subjective: Psycho and Humanistic rely on unscientific case studies. Research hampered by demand characteristics
- Paradigm: Philosopher Kuhn said a science must have a set of principles, methods, etc that all people in a subject must agree on. The very fact there are so many different approaches suggests it’s not a science.
🔔Behavourist Approach (5 points)
Only interested in observable, measurable behaviour.
Mental processes irrelevant.
All behaviour learnt; baby’s mind= blank slate written on my experience.
Basic processes that govern learning the same in all species.
Conditioning.
🔔Classical conditioning ( who and what) (4)
Pavlov. Learning through association.
Dogs taught to salivate at sound of bell if repeatedly presented with food. Gradually they associate the sound of bell with food. Eventually the dog produces salivation response to bell even without food.
So a neutral stimulus can come to elicit a conditioned response.
🔔Operant conditioning (who and what) (6)
Skinner. Learning through reinforcement/consequences.
*Positive reinforcement: reward increases the likelihood of behaviour.
*Negative reinforcement: avoidance of something unpleasant increases the likelihood of behaviour.
E.g. rat getting food pellet (pr) or avoiding a shock (nr) by pulling a lever.
*Punishment: unpleasant consequence that decreases the likelihood of behaviour.
🔔Behaviourist approach evaluation (5) 🥼🕺🪙🫥🐀
+ Well-controlled research: stimulus-response experiments. Removes extraneous variables.
- Reductionist
+ Real-world application: token economies
- Environmental determinism: All behaviour determined by past conditioning, not conscious decision-making. So no free will?
-Ethical issues: not good for animals
🤡Social Learning Theory Approach
Behaviourist +
Learn directly (classical + operant conditioning)
Also indirectly (vicarious reinforcement)
🤡Vicarious reinforcement (who and what) (4 points)
Bandura. Vicarious reinforcement= learning through observation and imitation.
Bobo doll study: Children who observed adults behaving aggressively towards a bobo doll were more likely to do the same.
Mediational Processes:
Attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation
Identification: more likely to imitate role models you identify with.
🤡 Social Learning Theory evaluation (5) ⚙️🪞😇📺🤔
+Cognitive factors: more comprehensive than behaviourists, considers cog factors.
“Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what they do” - Bandura.
- Underestimates biology e.g. mirror neurons
-Contrived lab studies. Participants respond to demand characteristics- bobo dolls meant to be hit. May not actually reflect how children learn aggression.
+ Real world application: SLT can account for development of cultural differences and have implications for the media (death of James Bulgar 1990)
- Less deterministic than behaviourism. Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism- we are not merely influenced by our environment, we also exert influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform
💻Cognitive Approach (3)
Internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically.
Investigate area of human behaviour neglected by behaviourists- memory, perception, thinking.
These processes cannot be observed so Cog psychologists make inferences.
💻Schemas (3)
Schemas= mental frameworks that contain everything we know, believe and have experienced of a certain thing.
Enable us to process lots of information quickly which prevents us from getting overwhelmed by environmental stimuli. However, can lead to perceptual errors.
Assimilation (addition) and Accomodation (alteration).
💻Theoretical and computer models (3)
Basically: Theoretical= abstract. Computer= concrete. Actually they overlap
Theoretical: Information processing approach. Suggests information flows through the cognitive system sequentially. E.g. MSM of memory.
A computer model would involve programming a computer to see if instructions produce a similar output. If yes, suggests humans and computers have similar processes. Used in AI.
💻Emergence of Cognitive Neuroscience (3)
Scientific study of how brain structures affect mental processes
Biological structures link to mental state e.g. Tulving et al found dif types of LTM found in opposite sides of the prefrontal cortex.
Brain imaging used
💻 Cognitive Approach evaluation (5)
🥼🤔🌏📠🍦
+Scientific methods: Lab studies produce objective data. Cog Neuroscience is very scientific
- use of inferences (too theoretical) and artificial stimuli = lack of external validity
+Real world application: Applied to AI, depression and eyewitness testimony
-Machine reductionist: Computer analogy is too simple, reduces people to input and output and ignores the influence of emotion and motivation. Weakens validity.
+ Founded on soft determinism: human behaviour may be determined by internal and external factors but also exert our free will at times.
🧬Biological Approach: (2)
Everything psychological is at first biological. To fully understand human behaviour we must look to biological structures and processes.
The mind lives in the brain- meaning all thoughts, feelings and behaviour ultimately have a physical basis. In contrast to cog.
🧬Neurochemical basis of behaviour (2)
Neurochemistry: action of chemicals in the brain. Many of our thoughts and behaviours rely on chemical transmission in the brain using neurotransmitters.
Imbalance of neurochemiclas implicated at possible cause of mental illness e.g. low levels of serotonin in OCD and overproduction of dopamine in schizophrenia.
🧬Genetic basis of behaviour (3)
Psychological characteristics are inherited in the same way as height or eye colour.
Twin studies used to investigate whether certain characteristics have a genetic basis. This is achieved by analysing concordance rates (the extent to which twins have the same characteristic). If a characteristic is genetic we would expect all monozygotic twins to be 100% concordant.
🧬Genotype and phenotype (3)
Genotype= genetic make-up
Phenotype= expression of the genotype.
In m twins, they have same genotype but may have different phenotype.
This illustrates that human behaviour depends upon interaction between inherited factors and the environment.
🧬Evolution and behaviour (3)
Natural selection: Darwin. Any genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individual’s survival and reproduction will continue in future generations.
Some psychologists argue that means that as all genetically determined behaviour that is passed on must be beneficial, even mental disorders like OCD must have some adaptive advantage.
Sexual selection refers to how males have unlimited sperm and can effectively reproduce as much as they like. But females must carry the baby for 9 months, so are more likely to be more picky. (?)
