Approaches

Assumptions of the behaviourist approach

everyone is born as a 'blank slate' which life writes upon (Watson, ‘30)

• all behaviour is learnt from the environment and can be understood by classical and operant conditioning

Classical conditioning

• behaviourist approach

learning via association : Pavlov (1897)

• Food (UCS) → Dog drools (UCR)

• Bell (NS) → Dog doesn’t respond

• Bell (NS) + Food (UCS) → Dog drools (UCR)

• Bell (CS) → Dog drools (CR)

Operant conditioning

• behaviourist approach

learning via reinforcement and punishment : Skinner

• Skinner studied rats in a Skinner Box.

• The box had a lever that released food (positive reinforcement)

• Rats explored and accidentally pressed the lever.

• They learned to repeat the behaviour to get food.

• Shows behaviour is strengthened by reinforcement.

AO3: Use of scientific methods

• behaviourist approach

• Uses lab experiments with controlled variables (Skinner’s box) = high internal validity + replicability

• may lack ecological validity because real-life learning often occurs in more complex environments.

AO3: Real life application

• behaviourist approach

Systematic Desensitisation: uses classical conditioning to treat phobias by gradually associating a feared stimulus with relaxation instead of fear.

AO3: Environmental determinism

• behaviourist approach

• Alludes that all behaviour displayed is learnt from our environment and ignores the idea free will

• This oversimplifies human behaviour and neglects internal mental processes

AO3: Uses animal studies

• behaviourist approach

• many behaviourist studies use animals (rats, dogs), the findings are hard to generalise to humans due to differences in complexity, cognition, and emotions

• some animal studies also raise ethical concerns about the treatment of animals in experiments

Assumptions of the biological approach

everything psychological has a biological basis

Genetic basis of behaviour

• Biological approach

• Behavioural characteristics are inherited

• Twin studies are used to investigate a genetic basis for specific traits

Concordance rates

• Biological approach

used to measure the extent to which both twins share the same characteristics

• Monozygotic twins share 100% of each others genes

• Dizygotic twins share about 50% of each other’s genes

• If a characteristic is genetic, it would be an expected 100% concordance rate of MZ twins

Genotype

genetic makeup

Phenotype

characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and the environment

Natural selection : Darwin

• biological approach

genetically determined behaviour that enhances survival will continue in future generation

Nervous system

• biological approach

• CNS: brain + spinal cord, receives, sends and responds to sensory info

• Spinal cord: transmits signals between the brain and the rest of the body

Endocrine system

• biological approach

• sends chemical messages by secreting hormones into the blood stream

• Pituitary gland: instructs other glands to release hormones (testosterone, adrenaline, oxytocin)

The brain

• biological approach

• Temporal lobe: hearing and speech comprehension

• Frontal lobe: voluntary movement 

• Cerebellum: balance and coordination of movement

AO3: Research support for twin studies

• biological approach

• Bouchard et al: (‘90): Collected data on 1,500 pairs of twins

• MZ twins reared together showed a correlation of +0.9 

• The large sample size and quantitative data give this study good reliability

AO3: Research support for evolution

• biological approach

• Curtis et al (04): Higher levels of disgust for disease-salient images

• Disgust is an evolutionary mechanism as it prevents people from ingesting toxic materials

• If people have an innate disgust response to rotten food = validity to the idea that humans are biologically programmed for survival

AO3: Real world application

• biological approach

• success of drug therapies: SSRIs for the treatment of psychological disorders such as depression and OCD

AO3: Biological determinism

• biological approach

• arguing that complex human behaviour is a product of genetics alone is a simplistic view which ignores environmental factors on behaviour = limits external validity

Assumptions of the humanistic approach

humans have free will, humans should be viewed holistically, each individual is unique

what is free will

• humanistic approach

describes people as self determining

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

• humanistic approach

 interested in what motivates people and how to achieve self actualisation

1. Physiological (essential): water, food, air, shelter

2. Safety: security, protection, law, order

3. Social: friendship, family, love, feeling of belonging

4. Esteem needs: self worth, accomplishment, respect

5. Self actualisation: self fulfilment, transcendence, autonomy

Congruence

• humanistic approach

• self image overlaps with your ideal self. to be completely congruent you have to achieve self actualisation.

Incongruence

• humanistic approach

• Occurs when the gap between the real and ideal self is too wide + self actualisation isn’t possible

Conditions of worth

• humanistic approach

Rogers claimed that issues we experience as adults like worthlessness + low self esteem can be explained from a lack of unconditional positive regard in childhood

• UPR: When one receives acceptance without any conditions

or judgments.

• Counselling: Rogers developed client-centred therapy to reduce incongruence between self image + ideal self and to increase persons feelings of self worth

AO3: Holistic approach

• humanistic approach

Gives a complete + realistic understanding of people in comparison to other approaches

• Behaviourist: learn behaviour from our environment, focuses on rewards and conditioning

• Biological: reduces behaviour to physical causes like hormones, genes + brain chemicals

• Cognitive: reduces behaviour to mental processes like thinking, perception + memory

AO3: Positive approach

• humanistic approach

• Removes blame, guilt and shame from people who seek counselling, likely to lead to a good rate of client retention

AO3: Limited real life application

• humanistic approach

• Difficult to operationalise + measure so it lacks reliability being too

• opened to interpretation

AO3: Culture bias

• humanistic approach

• More applicable to individualistic cultures: HON emphasised the importance of reaching self actualisation. Rogers also placed value in one’s self-esteem and personal growth.

Assumptions of the cognitive approach

• Internal mental processes like memory, thinking and perception. They can’t be directly observed so we make inferences

• theoretical + computer models are used to understand IMP

Theoretical model

• cognitive approach

info processing approach: suggests info flows through cognitive systems in stages such as the MSM

Computer model

• cog approach

 mind is compared to a computer

1. Storage: computer = RAM + hard drives. | mind = STM + LTM

2. Brain acts as a CPU: responsible for processing info

3. Coding: computer = encodes data | mind = converts info into a usable format

Schemas

• cog approach

• Shortcuts helping us process info faster and stop you from becoming overwhelmed with environmental stimuli

• Babies are born with simple motor schemas for innate behaviours and as you get older, they become more sophisticated

Cognitive neuroscience

• cog approach

• Origins: discovery of the Broca’s area which is linked to speech production

• New tech: fMRI + PET allow psychologists to study how mental processes are linked to brain activity

AO3: Real life application

• humanistic approach

t has contributed to the development of AI due to it’s use of theoretical and computer models

AO3: Has a degree of flexibility

• humanistic approach

• It is an example of soft determinism compared to the hard determinism of the behaviourist approach

• This means that the cognitive approach does not take a completely rigid view of human behaviour; it acknowledges the existence of free will

AO3: Machine reductionism

• humanistic approach

ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to  process information.

AO3: IMP can only be inferred

• humanistic approach

So the explanation of behaviour is overly abstract and detached from real life = low external validity