Approaches to psychology Flashcards
(30 cards)
Behavourist approach
A learning approach that suggests all children are born as ‘tabulae rasae’ (blank slates), learning through their interactions with their environment.
Biological approach
a learning approach that views human behaviour as a result of genetics and proposes that individual psychology stems from internal physiology
Classical conditioning
form of learning which occurs by associating naturally occuring instinct with new stimuli, thus creating a ‘conditioned’ response
Cognitive approach
learning approach which likens the human mind to a computer with internal mental processes turning an input to an output. This approach suggests studying these internal processes by inference is the key to understanding human psychology.
Congruence
when a person’s ideal self and actual self are alignes
Defence mechanism
strategies employed by he ego to protect the mind from feeling that may be too overwhelming
Displacement
a defence mechanism utilised by the unconsious mind. This mechanism works by subsituting the real target of overwhelming emotions with a usually defenseless target. This allows for a cathertci release of emotions that would not be possible with the original target.
Denial
a defence mechanism utilised by the unconsious mind, this is the complete refusal to acknowledge to occurence of an event, in an attempt to prevent harm.
Ego
one of three components of the personalist according to the psychodynamic approach, The ego develops after the Id and functions to mediate between the desires of the Id and what is attainable.nThe ego is the decision making component.
Free will
idea that we are in full control of our behaviour and decisions
Genotype
The genetic profile o an individual i.e. the genes they carry
Humanistic approach
a learning approach which presumes all humans are fundamentally good, and encourages the holistic study of the entire individual.
Id
one of three components of the personality according to the psychodynamic approach. The Id is the most primitive and selfish part of the personality, the only one present at birth and only concerned with desires and achieving them.
Identification
a form of learning according to the social learning theory, which suggests humans can learn by observing role models whom they perceive as similar to themselves. It suggests we internalise the beliefs of someone we ‘identify’ with i.e. are similar to, perhaps in gender, age or goals.
Imitation
form of learning suggested by social learning theory, which proposes that people learn through copying the behaviour of a role model they identify with
Maslow’s hierachy of needs
theory that suggests humans have multiple needs that need to be achieved in a particular order to fully achieve a person’s potential.
Modelling
when a role model enacts a behaviour that can be imitated by an observer.
Mediational processes
internal processes that contribute to producing certain behaviours, hence ‘mediators’ between observation and imitation
Negative reinforcement
behaviour performed in response to a negative stimulus in the expectation that the negative stimulus will be removed, for example a mother comforting a crying child. They learn to comfort their child again and again to avoid the child crying.
Operant conditioning
form of learning by direct consequences for behaviour, whether that be reinforcement or punishment
Phenotype
an organism’s physical manifestation of their genotype
Positive reinforcement
administration of a positive stimuls that aims to increase a certain behaviour. An example would be giving a child a treat is they clean their room, so they clean their room more often.
Psychodynamic approach
learning approach that describes human behaviour as a product of unconsious processes
Psychosexual stages
a theory by Freud ehich suggests personality develops via overcoming a series of stages in childhood. Failure to complete a stage would result in fixation, which manifests as some sort of disorder in adulthood.
