APROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY

What is the biological approach to psychology?

It sees behaviour as rooted in the physiology and biology of the body. It examines the processes that occur, and looks for how that may affect an individual.

What are the 3 core assumptions of biopsychologists that behaviour is affected by?

Genetics

Central Nervous System

Chemistry of the Body

What is a genotype?

The genotype is an individuals’ genetic makeup, which provides the genetic code for how that individual will develop. Each individual (apart from identical twins) has a genotype which is unique to them.

What is a phenotype?

The phenotype of an individual is the product of what happens when the genotype interacts with the environment.

How many pairs of chromosomes are people born with?

23 pairs

What research method can help to understand the interplay between genetic make-up and the environment?

Twin and adoption studies

What is the difference between identical and non-identical twins?

Identical = monozygotic

Non-identical = dizygotic

In the twin studies, how can we tell which is more of an influencing factor?

MZ twins in the same environment therefore share all their genes and their environment, whereas DZ twins in the same environment only share the same environment. Therefore if the concordance rate for behaviour is higher for MZ twins than DZ twins, it is probably mostly genetically influenced; and if the concordance rate for MZ and DZ twins is similar, and the behaviour is probably environmentally influenced. 

What is a central claim of evolutionary psychology?

The brain, and therefore the mind, evolved to solve problems encountered by our hunter-gatherer ancestors during the upper Pleistocene period over 10,000 years ago.

How does the evolutionary approach explain behaviour?

It explains behaviour in terms of the selective pressures that shape behaviour. Most behaviours that we see/display are believed to have developed during our environment of evolutionary adaptation to help us survive. Observed behaviour is likely to have developed because it is adaptive. It has been naturally selected.

What is a strength of the evolutionary approach?

It can explain behaviours that appear dysfunctional or behaviours that make little sense in a modern context

What is the Behaviourist approach?

It views people (and animals) as controlled by their environment and specifically that we are the result of what we have learned from our environment. Behaviourism is concerned with how environmental factors (called stimuli) affect observable behaviour (called the response).

Behaviourism also believes in scientific methodology, and that only observable behaviour should be studied because this can be objectively measured. Behaviourism rejects the idea that people have free will, and believes that the environment determines all behaviour.

What are the 2 main processes whereby people learn from their environment?

Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

What does Bandura’s Social Learning Theory say (1977)?

It agrees with the behaviourist learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. However, he adds two important ideas: 

1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses. 

2. Behaviour is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. 

What is observational learning?