Questions from everything

What is the key assumption of the psychodynamic approach?

Behaviour is driven by the unconscious

What are the three parts of the mind?

Conscious - Everything we are currently aware of

Pre-conscious - Everything we are not currently aware of but can be brought into the conscious

Unconscious - Drives and instincts that we are not aware of

What are the parts of the tripartite personality?

Id (Pleasure principle) - Present at birth and consists of our basic drives and instincts towards things like sex and aggression

Ego (Reality principle) - resolves conflict between the Id and the Superego

Superego (Morality principle) - Forms after socialisation and is our conscience and moral standards

What are the names of the psychosexual stages

Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital (“Old Age Parrots Love Grapes”)

What are the defence mechanisms?

Denial - Denying an event so it cannot cause anxiety

Displacement - Redirecting an emotion at an easier target

Repression - Forcing traumatic memories into the unconscious. This will unconsciously drive or effect our behaviour

What is the key assumption of the behaviourist approach?

Behaviour is learnt through trial and error when interacting with the environment

What is classical conditioning?

A form of learning which occurs by associating a naturally occurring instinct with a new stimulus, thus creating a “conditioned response”

Who came up with classical conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov

What happens before classical conditioning?

An unconditioned stimulus (UCS) creates an unconditioned response. (e.g. seeing food makes the dog salivate)

A neutral stimulus (NS) creates no response. (e.g. the bell sound has no effect on the dog)

What happens during classical conditioning?

The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is paired with the neutral stimulus (NS) to create an unconditioned response (UCR). This happens multiple times. (e.g the seeing food is paired with the bell sound to make the dog salivate)

What happens after classical conditioning?

The conditioned stimulus (CS) causes a conditioned response (CR). (e.g. the bell sound causes the dog to salivate)

What are the key features of classical conditioning?

Timing - Conditioning does not take place if the time interval between the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus is too long

Stimulus generalisation - The conditioned response can occur when faced with similar stimuli to the conditioned stimulus

Extinction - The conditioned response is not permanent. A few presentations of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus will stop the conditioned stimulus from causing the conditioned response

Spontaneous recovery - After extinction, if the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus are paired together ever again, the association is made much more quickly

What is the name of the experiment where the psychologists taught a baby to fear a white rat?

Watson and Rayner (1920)

What happened in the Watson and Rayner (1920) experiment?

The researchers were able to give an 11-month old baby a phobia of white rats by using classical conditioning. They paired a white rat (NS) with a loud noise (UCS) made by striking a steel bar with a hammer to make the child cry (UCR) until the child would see the white rat (CS) and cry (CR).

What is operant conditioning?

A form of learning through direct consequence for behaviours whether that be reinforcement (a consequence that increases the chance of a behaviour occurring again) punishment (a consequence that decreases the chance of a behaviour occurring again)

Who came up with operant conditioning?

B.F. Skinner

What did Skinner do?

He placed a rat in a box with a lever. The rat would eventually push the lever. In one version, the rat would receive positive reinforcement (food pellets) from pushing the lever and this made the rat push the lever more. In the other version, the rat would receive positive punishment (an electric shock) from pushing the lever and this made the rat avoid pushing the lever.

What are the 2 types of reinforcement?

Positive = adding a pleasant stimulus

Negative = removing an unpleasant stimulus

What are the 2 types of punishment?

Positive = Adding an unpleasant stimulus

Negative = Removing a pleasant stimulus

What are the names of the schedules of reinforcement?

Continuous, Fixed ratio, Fixed interval, Variable ratio, Variable interval

Describe the schedules of reinforcement

Continuous - Every behaviour positively reinforced

Fixed ratio - Reinforcement after every nth response

Fixed interval - Reinforcement at fixed time intervals

Variable ratio - Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of times

Variable interval - Reinforcement after an unpredictable amount of time

What are the responses and extinction for each schedule of reinforcement?

Continuous - Slow response, fast extinction

Fixed ratio - Fast response, medium extinction

Fixed interval - Medium response, medium extinction

Variable ratio - Fast response, slow extinction

Variable interval - Fast response, slow extinction