Section 5: Approaches In Psychology Flashcards
(49 cards)
Who was wundt and what was introspection?
- he wanted to document and describe the nature
Of human consciousness (this was his method - introspection) - introspection involved ppl recording own conscious
Thoughts
—> the aim was breaking them down into constituent parts
Isolating the struc of consciousness this way
Is structuralism
How did wundt control his methods
- All introspections were recorded under strictly
Controlled conditions in a lab - same stimulus used each time
- same standardised instructions to each ppt (replication)
Wundts work was significant enough to mark
Separation of the modern scientific psychology
From broader philosophical roots
How did Watson and early behaviourists contribute the the emergence of psychology as a science
At start of 20th century, scientific status and value
Of introspection was being questioned (Watson)
- his problem was that data produced was subjective
And opinionated, varying person to person
- he was critical of introspections’ focus on
‘Private’ mental processes and psychology - should restrict itself to studying only of things
that can be observed and measured
—> behaviourist approach was made
And with it, the emergence of psychology as science
What was Watson and skinners new scientific approach, and what approach did it soon develop into
Watson and Skinner borough language, rigour
And methods of science into psychology
— the behaviourist focus on the scientific processes
Involved in learning, alongside use of lab experiments
..
The legacy of behaviourism can still be observed today
Many scientists rely on these methods today
Following the cognitive revolution in 60s,
The study is mental processes is a legitimate
And highly scientific area in psychology
-
- although mental processes are still private
Cognitive psychologists can make inferences about how
These work in lab tests
- the biological approach makes use of experimental data.
- researchers in this area investigate physiological processes
As they happen
—> through live activity (sophisticated scanning techniques)
Like fMRI or EEG
What’s the psychology timeline (up to 1950s)
17th-19th century
- psychology is a branch of the broad discipline of philosophy
It was best understood as experimental philosophy then.
1879
- wundt opens the first experimental psychology lab
- psychology emerges as a distinct discipline/concept
1900s
- Sigmund Freud established psychodynamic approach
- emphasising the influence of the unconscious
Mind on behaviour
- alongside development of his directive therapy
(Psychoanalysis) he argued physical problems
Can be explained in terms of conflicts in the mind
1913
Watson and skinner establish the behaviourist approach
- the psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches
Dominate psychology for next 50 years
1950s
Roger’s and Maslow develop humanist approach (third force)
- rejecting views favoured by behaviourism or psychodynamic
- that human behaviour is not determined by individual
-
- humanistic psychologists emphasise the
Importance or self determination and free will
What’s the psychology timeline (60s to 2000)
1960
The cognitive revolution came with the introduction
Of the digital computer, giving psychologists
- a metaphor for operations of the mind
-
- the cognitive approach reintroduces
The study of mental processes but in
A more scientific way than Wundt’s investigations
1960s continued
Around time of cognitive rev, bandura proposes
The social learning theory
- the approach draws attention to role of
Cognitive factors in learning
- providing bridge between newly established cognitive approach
And traditional behaviourism
1980s
- the biological approach establishes itself
As the dominant scientific pov
- due to advances in tech that have lead to increased
Understanding of the brain and the biological processes
End of 20th century
Cognitive neuroscience emerges as a distinct
Discipline bringing bringing together the
- cognitive and biological approaches
-
- cognitive neuroscience is built on earlier
Computer models and investigates how biological
Strucs influence mental states
Evaluation of origins of psychology
— wundts methods were unreliable
- social desirability bias
With wundts method of introspection, reports could
Be distorted deliberately, as you may pretend to have
More positive thoughts, and not stray away from task.
- Wundt’s structuralist approach relied on non observable
Responses. This ultimately failed due to lack of reliability . - not relplicable
— (research against) In contrast, Pavlov already achieved reliably reproductible
Results and discovering explanatory principles than can
Easily be generalised to humans
..
+ strengths of having a scientific approach to psychology
Knowledge from scientific methods are more than passive
Acceptance of facts;
- it’s reliance on objective and systematic observation methods
- mean that when scientific theories don’t fit facts anymore
- they can be refined or abandoned (self corrective)
- as psychologists always repeat each others experiments
- theories that don’t explain facts don’t last long
— limitations to having a scientific psychology approach
By concentrating in objectivity and control in observations
These contrived sits. don’t tell us much abt natural environments
- much of psychology is inobservable (so can’t be measured
With any degree of accuracy)
- psychology is the most inferential of sciences
—> far bigger gap between actual data obtained in
research investigations and theories put forward
To explain this data
what’s the behaviourist approach?
its an approach thats only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed/measured
> not concerned with investigating mental processes of the mind
was driving force in psychology development as a scientific discipline
..
watson rejected introspection (examination of conscious thoughts/feelings)
as contained concepts that are too vague and difficult to measure
- behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity (opposite of subjectivity)
- relying on lab experiments and control
believed that basic process governing learning are same in all species (animals could replace humans as experimental subjects
what is classical conditioning?
behaviourists identified two important forms of learning
- classical and operant conditioning
classical conditioning = learning through association
pavlov , for example, demonstrated that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at a bell sound
– if sound was repeatedly present at same time as food given, dogs associate them together, salivating everytime they heard the sound
..
unconditioned stimulus (food) > unconditioned response (salivation) = innate/unlearned
neutral stim (bell) > no conditioned response
unconditioned + neutral > unconditioned
conditioned (bell) stim > conditioned response (salivation) = learned
what’s operant conditioning, reinforcement and punishment
skinner suggested that learning is an active process where humans/animals operate/work in their environment
in operant conditioning, there are three types of consequences
- positive reinforcement
receiving a pleasurable consequence when a certain behaviour is performed
(praise from teacher after answering a question)- increases likelihood that behaviour will be repeated
- will increase chance of answering questions in class
- negative reinforcement
when avoiding something unpleasant; punished when behaviour isnt performed
(rat learns lever leads to turn off electric floor)- increases likelihood behaviour is repeated
- lever is pressed as soon as rat gets into skinners box
- punishment
recieving an unpleasant consequence when doing the behaviour
(shouted at by the teacher when talking)- decreases likelihood behaviour is repeated
- pupils will speak less in class
evaluation of behaviourist approach
+ scientfic credibility
able to bring language and methods of natural sciences to psych by focussing
on measurement of observable behaviour in controlled settings
- influencial in psych development as a scientific discipline, giving higher credibility and status
+ real life application
conditioning principles have been applied to a broad range of real world behaviours/problems
- like operant conditioning is basis of token economy systems in prisons
- regard appropriate behaviour with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges
– mechanistic view of behaviour
from a behaviourist pov animals (and humans) are passive machine like responders to environment
(little to no conscious insight to behaviour)
–> other approaches like social learning theory and cognitive approach
emphasised importance of mental processing during learning
-
- these processes (abt stimuli and responses) suggest ppl play a more active (not passive) role in learning; conditioning applies less to humans
whats the social learning theory
a further development of behaviourist approach (isnt behaviourist)
- operant and classical conditioning couldnt account for all human learning
» there are important mental processes that mediate/abt stimulus and response
- assumptions -
bandura agreed with behaviourists that most behaviour is learned from experience
but his social learning theory proposed a diff way ppl learn
= observation and imitation of others in a social context
- - suggests learning occurs directly through both types if conditioning
- and indirectly
whats vicarious reinforcement in association with SLT
for indirect learning to take place an individual observes others’ behaviour
- learner may imitate this, but generally only occurs if behaviour is seen to be reinforced rather than punished
vicarious reinforcement is watching another get reinforced when performing a behaviour
then learner imitates
learner observes a behaviour, but mainly the consequences
whats the role of mediational processes in SLT
SLT is described as the bridge between traditional learning theory and cognitive approach
- as it focuses on how mental/cognitive factors are involved in learning
these mental factors mediate/intervene in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired
- four mental or mediational processes in learning were identified by bandura
- attention (extent in wch we notice certain behaviour)
- retention (how well behaviour is remembered)
- motor reproduction/ability (ability of observer to perform behaviour)
- motivation/consequences (to will to perform behaviour; often determined by whether reinforced or not)
whats identification in SLT
ppl/children are more likely to imitate ppl behaviour with whom they identify (role models)
- this process is modelling
a person becomes a role model if seen to have similar characteristics to observer
AND/OR attractive with high status
role models may not be physically present in environment
has important conclusions for the influence of media on attitudes
what was banduras research support for SLT (procedure)
aim was to demonstrate learning aggressive behaviour takes place from observing another behave aggressively
- learned aggressive behaviour is only performed in an appropriate sit.
..
children watched a short film of an adult behaving aggressive to a life sized bobo doll (punching, swearing, kicking, hitting with hammer)
- children then divided to three groups
1 had a second film where adult was praised for acting aggressively
2 had a diff film where adult was punished for behaving aggressively
3 the control group were not shown a second film
each child was then put in a room with the bobo doll; behaviour towards it were observed and recorded
what were the results and conclusion for bandura’s study
Group 1 (saw model reinforced or praised for acting aggressively to the doll)
- were most likely to behave aggressively toward the doll
Group 2 (model punished for aggressive behaviour)
- least likely to behave aggressively to the doll
Group 3 (control; not shown a second film)
- had result between other two
in conc, children learned how to behave aggressively to doll by observing adult
but children were most likely to imitate aggression when saw adult praised for behaving aggressive (vicarious reinforcement)
SLT evaluation
+ importance of cognitive factors in learning (adds more to approaches)
- classical/operant conditioning cant offer a full explanation of learning (behaviourist)
- humans/animals store info on others’ behaviour , using this to make judgements on when its ok to perform certain actions (schemas)
- SLT give a clearer explanation of human learning by recognising mediational process
..
– overreliance on lab studies
- ppts may respond to demand characteristics ; children responded to this in a way they thought was expected
»_space; so research doesnt tell us how children learn aggression in everyday. (low mundane realism)
..
– reductionist/underestimates biological factor influence
- one consistent finding was that boys were more aggressive then girls; incomplete research as unexplained
- could be due to hormonal factors = high levels of testosterone associate with high aggression levels
»_space; biological factors arent taken account of
what are assumptions of the cognitive approach
development of computers gave cognitive psychologists a metaphor for mental processes
- directly contrasting behaviourist, cognitive approach argues internal mental processes can be studied scientifically
> investigate areas neglected by behaviourists, like memory, thinking, perception
these cant be observed so studied indirectly by inferences abt whats going on
based on behaviour
..
- computer models
a theoretical model
eg. information processing approach = info flows through cognitive system by input, storage, retrieval, like multi store model
in computer model, mind is compared to computer
- use concepts of a central processing unit (brain)
- concept of coding (turn info into useable format) and use stores to keep info
» proved useful in ai and thinking machines
input > processing > output
what are points in cognitive approach
- theoretical and computer models
- role of schemas
- emergence of cognitive neurosci / scanning techniques
point in behaviourist approach
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning
points in SLT
- vicarious reinforcement
- role of mediational processes
- identification
- banduras study
what are the role of schemas
cognitive processing is affected by ppl’s beliefs or expectations - often referred to as a schema
» packages of ideas and info developed through experience
- metal framework for interpreting incoming info from cognitive info received from cognitive system
-
-eg. something with legs you sit on. package of experience helps you know how to respond
..
babies are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviours ; sucking , grasping
- grasping schema consists of moving a hand to an object and shaping hand round it
in coordination with visual input
as we get older, schemas become more detaliled/complex. adults have developed mental representations of everything from what happens in a restaurant, what a zombie looks like, etc
schema let us process lots of info fast; mental shortcut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by stimuli
> but schema may distort interpretations of sensory info, leading to errors in perception
Whats cognitive neuroscience
> scientific study of influence of brain strucs on mental processes
- mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions has a long history
- eg Broca found damaged frontal lobe leads to impaired speech production
There are advances in brain imaging techniques like fMRI or PET scans
» scientists have been able to systematically observe/describe neurological basis of mental processes
Eg tulving found diff types of LTM are on diff sides of prefrontal cortex
..
Scanning techniques have been useful in establishing neurological basis of some mental disorders
- focus of neurosci has expanded recently to include use of computer generated models that read the brain
»_space; lead to mindmapping techniques like brain fingerprinting
»_space; future use could be using brain waves to detect lies in court
