Origin and approaches of psychology Flashcards
(95 cards)
Who is Wundt and what did he do?
Wilhelm Wundt was the first man to open a lab dedicated to psychological enquiries in (Germany, leipzig).
He separated psychology from its broader philosophical roots.
What is introspection?
A process that involves looking inward to one’s own thoughts and emotions.
Subjective data was gathered by Wundt to analyse the nature of human consciousness.
What was Wundt’s aim?
Aim was to analyse the nature of human consciousness.
His main objectives was to try and develop theories about mental processes such as language and perception.
Describe the emergence of psychology as a science.
The value of introspection was questioned by the behaviourist John B Watson. Because introspection produced subjective data it is very difficult to establish general laws.
Watson and Skinner proposed that tue scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed objectively. For this reason behaviourists focused on behaviours that can be observed and used carefully controlled experiments.
Give a strength of Wundt’s work.
Some of his methods were systematic and well-controlled. All introspections were recorded in well controlled environment of the lab ensuring that extraneous variables were not a factor.
Procedures and instructions were all standardised.
Suggests that Wundt’s research can be considered a forerunner to later scientific approaches.
Give a limitation of Wundt’s work.
Other aspects of Wundt’s research would be considered unscientific.
Wundt relied on participants to self-report their mental processes this produced subjective data.
It is difficult to establish general laws on this.
This suggests that Wundt’s attempt to study the mind were flawed and would not meet the criteria for scientific enquiry.
What is the behaviourist approach?
Only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured.
Try to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and they rely on lab studies.
What are the 2 important forms of learning?
Classical conditioning.
Operant conditioning.
Who demonstrated classical conditioning and what is it?
Is learning through association and was first demonstrated by Pavlov
Who demonstrated operant conditioning and what is it?
Is learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by it’s consequences and was first demonstrated by B F Skinner.
What was Pavlov’s research?
Showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell (stimulus) if the sound was repeatedly present at the same time as they were given food (another stimulus). Gradually Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell with the food and would produce the salivation response .
Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus can come to elicit a new learned response
What was Skinner’s research?
He conducted experiments on rats and pigeons he placed them in what he called a ‘Skinner box’. Every time a rat would activate a certain trigger a food pellet would be revealed however if they pressed the other lever it would trigger an electric shock on them via the metal tray they are standing on . It was observed that the animal avoided to press the lever that would trigger the punishment but instead continued activating the lever that revealed the food pellet..
What is positive reinforcement?
Receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed.
What is negative reinforcement?
When a human or animal avoids something unpleasant but the outcome is a positive experience.
What is punishment?
An unpleasant consequence of a behaviour.
Give a strength of the behaviourist approach
It is based on well-controlled research.
They carried out their experiments in well-controlled lab environments. By breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus response units all other extraneous variables were removed.
So skinner was able to clearly able to demonstrate how reinforcement influenced an animals behaviour.
This suggests that the behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility .
Give a counterpoint of the behaviourist approach.
Behaviourists may have oversimplified the learning process.
May have ignored the important influence of human thought on learning.
This suggests that learning is more complex that observable behaviour alone and that private mental processes are also essential.
Real-world application of the behaviourist approach….
The principles of conditioning have been applied to real world behaviours and problems.
Operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions such as prisons and psychiatric wards.
Classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of phobias.
This increases the value of the approach because it has widespread application.
Environmental determinism of the behaviourist approach…
It sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences. This ignores any possible influence that free will may have on our behaviour.
This is an extreme position and ignores the influence of conscious decision-making processes on behaviour.
What are the ethical issues of the behaviourist approach…
Animals were housed in harsh cramp conditions and deliberately kept below their natural weight so they were always hungry.
What is the social learning theory?
Proposed a different way in which people learn through observation and imitation of others.
SLT suggested that learning occurs directly (through classical and operant conditioning) bu also indirectly.
What is imitation?
Copying the behaviour of others.
What is identification?
When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model.
What is modelling?
Role model’s perspective- the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.
