Approaches Flashcards
Describe Wundt’s role in the development of psychology. (6)
- Wundt known as ‘the father of psychology’ – moved from philosophical roots to controlled research.
- Set up the first psychology laboratory in Liepzig, Germany in 1870s.
- Promoted the use of introspection as a way of studying mental processes.
- Introspection – systematic analysis of own conscious experience of a stimulus.
- An experience was analysed in terms of its component parts e.g. sensations, emotional reaction etc.
- His work paved the way for later controlled research and the study of mental processes e.g. by cognitive psychologists.
Give an example of quantitative data collected by a psychologist who has studied conditioning
- Pavlov - a measure of the amount of saliva produced by the dog;
- Skinner, the time taken to respond to a stimulus (to peck a button / press a lever / jump over a barrier / reach a goal box etc) or number of responses to a stimulus (pecks, lever presses in a given time period).
Give two reasons why Behaviourists do not collect qualitative data in their investigations
- Subjectivity of qualitative data / open to interpretation;
- Cannot be replicated;
- Not open to quantification and statistical analysis;
- Specific so not amenable to generalization;
- Not associated with the scientific approach.
Briefly discuss the value of behaviourism in helping us to understand human behaviour. (5)
- Behaviourist assumptions (2)
- Discussion (3) eg, Practical benefits and extrapolation
Describe a procedure that behaviourists have used to study operant conditioning. (3)
- How the researchers used a controlled environment / context / variables – such as some detail of the Skinner box (do not credit naming Skinner’s rats and / or Skinner’s box)
- Pairing of specified stimulus and response / consequence eg rat presses lever- receives food pellet
- Reference to repetition– giving a food pellet each time.
What do social learning theorists mean by imitation?
Imitation means copying behaviour (of a role model).
What is meant by genotype?
Refers to the genes an individual possesses / an individual’s genetic make-up.
What is meant by phenotype?
Refers to the observable traits or characteristics shown by the individual; these traits / characteristics are due to the combined effect of genes and environment
(identical twins who were separated from birth)
Use your knowledge of genotype and phenotype to explain this difference in personalities.
- Have identical genotype as they are MZ twins.
- They have the predisposition to develop the same personalities as each other unless another factor(s) intervenes.
- For them to have developed different personalities over time, this must have been influenced by being in different environments.
- Their phenotypes – personalities achieved – are different, presumably because Rita was encouraged to be sociable and lively and Holly was not.
(Dream analysis)
Why psychodynamic psychologists have often been criticised for neglecting the rules of the scientific approach
- Interpretation of content of dreams open to bias and subjectivity;
- No verifiable evidence; small sample;
- Opportunity sample of friends and implications for generalizability;
- Qualitative data collected and implications for statistical analysis;
- Retrospective data / memory distortions – reports written on waking;
- Dreams are private experience and covert;
- Problem of replicability
Development of the superego (3)
- Occurs at the phallic stage of psychosexual development
- Arises through identification with same-sex parent
- And internalisation of his / her moral standards
- Via resolution of Oedipus / Electra complex
- Part of the tripartite personality
(Rs inferred mental processes in stem)
Explain what is meant by ‘inference’
Going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed.
Outline one problem of studying internal mental processes like memory ability by conducting experiments
- Direct observation of memory is not possible and must be inferred from the results / behaviour of the participants – this 0nce could be mistaken.
- The task given is rarely how normal memory functioning occurs because it is specifically designed to make measurement possible – the researcher therefore collects data that is only related to memory processing under experimental conditions.
Give two assumptions of the cognitive approach. For each assumption, illustrate your answer with reference to a topic in psychology
- For ‘thought acts as meditational processes between stimulus and behavioural response’ relevant topics might be: trial and error learning vs. observational learning or insight learning; depression.
- For ‘mental processes can be regarded as information processing’ relevant topics might be: memory.
- For ‘mental processes can be scientifically studied’ relevant topics might be: stress eg locus of control; memory.
- For ‘the brain affects cognitions and cognitive processes’ relevant topics might be forensic psychology.
- For applications to other areas of psychology, relevant topics might be: child development eg schemas; social cognition.
Referring to two assumptions of the humanistic approach, explain why humanistic psychologists have rejected the scientific method.
- Each person can exercise free will – explanation might focus on principle of determinism in science.
- Each person is a rational and conscious being and not dominated by unconscious primitive instincts – explanation might focus on the principles of determinism and reductionism in science.
- A person’s subjective experience and understanding of the world is of greater importance to understanding the person than objective reality – explanation might focus on empiricism in science.
- Humans should be viewed as a whole and not reduced to component parts – explanation might focus on reductionism in science.
- Humans strive towards achieving self-actualisation- explanation might focus on the need for objectivity in science eg operational definition vs. subjectively defined; hypothetical construct; no objective measure.
- Each person is unique – explanation might focus on general laws of behaviour / nomothetic approach.
Outline what is meant by ‘congruence’
Congruence is the match between the perceived self (how you see yourself) and the ideal self (the self you would like to be).
Explain one way in which social learning theory overlaps with one other approach in psychology.
- Behaviourist approach – learning of behaviour and role of reinforcement; overlap with cognitive approach - mental processes in learning.
- Overlap with the psychodynamic approach – role of identification in gender / moral development.
- One mark for elaboration / further detail or explaining limits of the similarity and / or difference between the SLT and chosen approach. ?
Outline Skinner’s research (not in notes)
Skinner’s Box = Skinner demonstrated, using a rat, the mechanisms of positive and negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement was shown when the rats pressed down on a lever to receive food as a reward, and subsequently learnt to repeat this action to increase their rewards.
Negative reinforcement was shown when the rat learnt to press down on the lever to avoid the unpleasant consequence of an electric shock.
Explain how reinforcement might be used to encourage primary school children to pick up litter in the playground
• Use a ‘token economy system’ with respect to litter-picking. Use of a positive reinforcement strategy – for ‘x’ amount of litter, a reward of ‘y’ and exchange of ‘y’ for something pleasant the children will value.
- direct primary reinforcement (e.g. deliberately rewarding children who pick up litter).
- use of vicarious reinforcement (e.g. watching a film or seeing teacher deliberately rewarding children who pick up litter).
Cognitive psychologists use the results of experiments to make inferences about behaviour
Explain what is meant by inference.
Make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed/going beyond the immediate research evidence.
Response A: ‘There were too many things to think about at the same time.’
Response B: ‘I had to do one task at a time, then do the next task, and so on.’
Briefly suggest how each of these responses might inform psychologists investigating models of human cognitive processing.
Response A: processing is limited capacity (when performing demanding/novel tasks)
Response B: processing is sequential (when performing demanding/novel tasks).
Outline what is meant by social learning theory
learning that involves observation, imitation/copying/modelling, identification and vicarious reinforcement
• acknowledges role of cognition in learning, eg attention, motivation etc
explain how social learning might have occurred in the procedure described above.
- in the procedure children observed the actions of the boy in the film
- the psychologist exposed the children to a role model, the boy
- using role model/boy of the same age encouraged identification
- after exposure the children would model/imitate the boy’s behaviour, stroking the puppy
- the psychologist’s comments acted as vicarious reinforcement making learning more likely
- the learning might not be outwardly demonstrated but could still have been internalised (because this is social learning and therefore need not be overtly demonstrated at the time).
Limitation of mediational processes in SLT
• mediating cognitive factors have to be inferred so cannot measure extent of their influence
