Learning Psychology

Question 1

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Ethics?

Answer 1

• ethical issues involved in animal research like Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Sttudy
• psychological harm caused by lab experiments like Bandura’s Bobo Doll Study and Watson and Raynor’s Little Albert Study

Question 2

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Practical Issues in the Design?

Answer 2

• difficult to generalise and extrapolate findings from animals studies to humans
• problems with using observations to study behaviour
• operant conditioning is carried out in an artifical environment within Skinner’s Study so it lacks ecological validity

Question 3

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Reductionism?

Answer 3

• does not take cognitive functioning into account to explain the cause and effect of behaviour
• only focuses on the stimulus response
• no account for individual differences
• takes away the idea of free will

Question 4

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Comparisons Between Ways of Explaining Behaviour Using Different Themes?

Answer 4

How Human Learn Behaviour:

• through classical conditioning
• through operant conditioning
• through social learning

Question 5

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Psychology as a Science?

Answer 5

Psychology is a Science:

• through the methodology used to measure the explict focus of behaviourism
• isolates variables in Little Albert’s Study
• accurate, scientfic measurements of saliva in Pavlov’s Study
• behaviourism is objectively recorded

Question 6

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Culture and Gender?

Answer 6

• Bandura’s experiment is ethnocentric
• Principles of reinforcement and punishment differ in cultures
• Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment show the differences in gender when imitating behaviour from either the same sex or opposite sex model
• Structured observation used to find a gender difference in aggressie behaviour

Question 7

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding the Nature-Nurture Debate?

Answer 7

Factors which can be biologically given which supports the nature argument or learnt from the environment which supports the nurture arguement:

• gender
• characteristics
• behaviour

Question 8

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding the Understanding of how Psychological Understanding has Developed Overtime?

Answer 8

• development of the media, leads to more violent behaviour
• development of treatment for phobias from flooding to systematic desensitisation to CBT

Question 9

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Social Control?

Answer 9

• use of reinforcement and punishment to control behaviours
• use of learning theories in therapy
• use of token economy, involving the power of the therapist to control behaviour

Question 10

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding the Use of Psychological Knowledge within Society?

Answer 10

• rewards to increase desirable behaviour in schools or prisons
• introduction of age ratings on films and video games to protect children from imitating violent or unacceptable behaviour
• positive and negative reinforcement to shape behaviour

Question 11

What are the Issues and Debates in Learning Psychology Regarding Socially Sensitive Research?

Answer 11

• Shaping a childs behaviour through rewards may be seen as manipulation by some
• Pavlov’s use of dogs
• Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiement leads children to be violent
• Watson and Raynor introduces new fears on Little Albert