The Approaches

Give the AO1 for the behaviourist approach (learning theory)

1. All humans are born as a blank slate - Tabula Rasa - John Watson

2. All behavior is learnt from our environment through experience. This is learnt through classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is learning through association where the nuetral stimulus is paired with the UCS which causes an association that results in the NS becoming the CS and stimulating the same response as the UCS of the CR. eg. Pavlovs dogs. Operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement (negative and positive) to repeat a behaviour to avoid or encourage a consquence eg. Skinners rats

3. Behaviour is determined - environmental determinism 

4. Psychology should be studied scientifically using the empirical method

5. Researching on animals is valid as they share our learning principles.

Give the AO3 for the behaviourist approach (learning theory)

RESEARCH METHOD -

1. high internal validity due to the empirical methods - O,O,Q,R ensuring that only observable behaviour is measured and procedures are standardised to improve reliability. Skinner and pavolvs procedures allowed them to isolate variables and establish cause and effect.

2. Low generalisability due to animal studies - don’t have the same brain chemistry as humans and so are behaviour is far more complex

3. High reliability - Little albert

ISSUE/ DEBATE

1. Hard env. determinism - behaviourists argue that all behaviour can be explained by learning from the env., This removes freewills role in behaviour and so it goes against our legal system.

2. Not just env. maybe biological too - Dinardo found that not all people who had a bad experience with a dog developed a phobia - genes?

APPLICATION

1. Treatment of phobias through systematic desentisation of classical conditioning

2. Token economy - rewarding positive behaviour in prisons

Give the A01 for Social Learning theory (learning theory)

1. All behaviour is learnt from the environment by observing role models (eg. TV characters, parents or friends) that the individual indefines with having status or an achievement that is desirable. Whether the behaviour is then imitated is determined my mediational processes between stimulus and response. Attention, retention (in memory), motor reproduction (can the individual physically replicate the action) and motivation through direct or vicarious reinforcement (more likely to perform a behaviour if seen someone else is rewarded for it).

2. It is soft determinism as free will over role model and MP

3. Research to support comes from Bandura’s BOBO doll study - 72 children in 3 groups - he found that children exposed to an aggressive role model are more likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour than children shown a non aggressive role model - 12.7 agressive acts - much higher than control.

Give the A04 for Social Learning theory (learning theory)

RESEARCH METHOD 

1. High internal validity as uses empirical methods and experimental methods to isolate variables and establish cause and effect eg. Bandura - control group to compare

2. High reliability due to standardized Procedure

3. Lacks ecological validity due to mundane tasks and videos and novelty of the BOBO doll - cumberbatch

ISSUE/ DEBATE

1. Soft determinism so incorported positives of both free will and causes to behaviour 

2. However Bandura’s research results may not be due to learning but biological factors. Girls had a much lower rate of imitation to aggressive behaviours at 5.5 for female role model and 7.2 for male role model compared to boys at 25.8 for a male role model. this demonstrates it may be biological factors than influence the rate eg. Testosterone

APPLICATION 

1. Application to advertisment - 9 pm water shed on aggressive TV to prevent children imitating aggressive role models

2. Application to schools rewarding good behaviour - Vicarious reinforcement/.

3. Token economy 

Give the A01 for the cognitive approach

COGNITIVE

1. All behaviour can be explained by internal mental processes eg. conscious thinking that occurs between stimulus and response / input and output as mediational processes eg. Schemas. Schemas are mental framework to organise information based on knowledge (shortcuts). positives of this is that they create shortcuts to process information quickly and produce a response - helpful in danger to catagorise and it also avoids the brain becoming overwelmed with info as its catagorised. However, it can lead to prejudice, misremembering info as it doesn’t fit into a schema or only processing info that is in a schema already.

2. Because we can’t observe these internal mental processes we must infer from these and develop theory models that are scientific models to simplify, describe and objectify how IMP work. Eg. MSM of informational processing.

3. The mind works like a computer - input, process and output

4. Behaviour and IMP can be studied scientifically in a lab.

COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE 

The scientific study of the brain’s function, structure and neurochemistry and it’s effect on internal mental processes. 

They use specialistic new technology eg. PET scans to study cognition and live response to increase objectivity

Research using Cog Neuro:

1. OCD - finding that the obsessive thoughts may be due to overactivation of the OFC 

2. Clive wearing

3. Schizophrenia - Allen found that those with Schizophrenia often have lower activation in anterior and temporal superior cingulate gyrus.

4. Tulvings tracking brain blood flow

Give the A04 for the cognitive approach

COGNITIVE

RESEARCH METHOD

1. Low ecological validity as often takes place in highly controlled labs that carry out artificial tasks eg. EWT in loftus and palmers research that lacks mundane realism and lack of emotion of just watching videos.

2. Inference is not empirical as behaviour can’t be observed - lower internal validity

ISSUE/ DEBATE

1. Machine reductionism - reducing the complex human brain to a machine of input, process and output removes other factors that effect our behaviour and IMP eg. anxiety and emotions.

APPLICATION

1. the cognitive approach to explaining behaviour has lead to understanding about the role fo faulty thinking and negative schemas in depression and models eg. ABC ellis and Beck’s negative triad. - treatments eg. CBT

COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

RESEARCH METHOD

1. empirical and use of tech eg. PET SCANS

DEBATE

• soft determinism - IMP and processes contain free will - more in favour of our legal system

APPLICATION

1. Law courts - lie detcetors as they can measure the part of the brain that is active during lying

Give the AO1 for the Biological approach

1. All behaviour can be explained by our biology in terms of neurochemistry, hormones and genes. -Biological determinism

2. Genes are heredity and passed down from parent to offspring in the genotype (genetic makeup). However whether this gene is presented as a characteristic/ behaviour (phenotype) is due to its interations in the environment. This therefore means that MZ twins that share 100% of their genes would have the same behaviour if it is genetically predisposed eg. Intelligence and a perfect 1+ correlation and DZ twins that share 50% would have a 0.5 correlation. this is supported by Bouchard who found that in a meta analysis of intelligence being genetic , MZ twins had concordance rates of 86% compared with 60% of DZ twins suggesting the behaviour must partly be down to genes and biology

3. Behaviour is also due to evolution. CHARLES DARWIN. Random mutations build up which causes a change in the genetic makeup and genotype which may cause a new characteristic to be presented in the phenotype if interacted with the env. If this characteristic or behaviour is advantageous then it is more likely that through survival of the fittest the individual will survive and pass this to their offspring. Through natural selection this characteristic is incorporated into future generations by evolution. Research to support this is bowlbys monotropy theory - innate, proximity and critical period and phobias - biological preparedness - seligman found that humans have an innate evolutionary characteristic to make associations between fear and repsonse.

4. Behaviour is also due to hormones in the endocrine system, nervous system and the brains neurochemistry - see others about this.

5. psychology should be studied scientifically in labs

Give the A03 for the Bioogical approach

RESEARCH METHOD

1. High internal validity due to empirical methods and new technology eg. fMRI

ISSUES/ DEBATES

1. Nature vs Nurture - Bouchard also found that concordance rates for MZ twins living together was higher than not at 72 compared to 86% and if behaviour was purely genetic = 100% - env factors

2. Biological reductionism - reducing everything down is good for understanding causation but bad for whole picture as we can’t say neuroimabalances cause mental disorders as it may be situation or emotions.

APPLICATION

1. SSRIS and dopamine for antipsychosis drugs for schizophrenia.

Give the AO1 for the Psychodynamic approach

1. Freud was a big pioneer in this field and he stated - Most behaviour is caused by our innate unconscious motives and drives. Freud claimed that one of these innate parts of our unconscious is our tripartite personality- The ID, ego and super ego.

   ID - developed 0-1 and is based on the pleasure principle which is the idea that it is selfish and animalistic and wants immediate gratification

Ego - 1-3 - reality principle- compromises between Id and super ego

Super ego - 3-6 - morality principle - punishes the ID with guilt. It’s developed from parents and it believes it doing what is morally right.

Another part of the unconscious Freud stated was the memories from the defense mechanisms - repression (hiding negative emotions and memories in the unconscious as the conscious can’t cope with it), denial (forgetting the memories by putting them in unconscious- can’t cope) and displacement (taking the pain caused by someone on something else that will have a less negative consequence.

2. Freud believed that the personality and development of a child was in psychosexual stages with each stage having a libido part and if a child didn’t develop in a stage - fixation would occur resulting in a personality trait

Oral - 0-1 - mouth - weaning - smoking and overeating

Anal - 1-3 - bowl - toilet training - cleanliness issue or messiness

Phallic - 3-6 - masterbation - Oedipus and electra complex - sexual deviancy and sexual issues

Oedipus and electra complex

1. An unconscious desire for the opposite sex parent

2. Rivalry with same gender parents for attention and love

3. Penal envy or castration anxiety

4. Fear of punishment

5. Repression of anger

6. Super ego

7. Gender identity

Lactency - 6-10 -super ego and repression of sexual ways -

Gentials - gentials - if all completed psychological health is achieved -

3. psychic determinism

Give the AO4 for the psychodynamic approach

RESEARCH METHOD

1. Little Hans supports Freuds theory’s but lacks generalisability due to being a case study and would anyone else have made that connection?

2. Not emprircal

3. Not falsifiable

ISSUE OR DEBATE

1. Gender bias - Freud says that women have a smaller super ego but that would mean they commit more crimes but women only make up 5% of prisons

2. Psychic determinism - goes against legal system

APPLICATION

1. Psychoanalysis- exploring the unconscious to determine the root cause - hypnosis and dreams

Give the AO1 for the humanistic approach

1. Developed in the 50s by Abraham Maslow and Carl Roger’s

2. All humans have free will over behaviour and while biological and environmental factors may affect this we have control

3. All humans have an innate drive to grow and achieve their potential and reach self-actualisation. Maslow believed in this and said that their was a ‘hierarchy of needs’ that everyone is on and you work at your level until you move to the next to reach your potential - psychological, safety, love and acceptance, self-esteem and self-actualisation. Roger’s also believed in this and that humans have 2 needs - positive regard from others and self worth. Self worth is developed in childhood by relationships with parents who can either have unconditional or conditional love (you have to behave in a certain way to revive love). Children with unconditional love from parents are more likely to have lower self worth. The higher your self worth the greater your mental health. Also the closer your ideal self and current self are the closer you are to congruence and positive mental health

4. Humans should be studied individually as we are all unique - idiographic not nomomatic

5. Psychology shouldn’t study animals as they are too different to us

Give the AO3 for the humanistic approach

RESEARCH METHOD

1. Not empirical - no observation, not scientific

2. Not generalisable due to case studies

3. Support for Roger’s conditions of love - teenagers who perform behaviours that don’t align with their values are more likely to have ‘false self behaviour’ and Harter found that teens with parents who give conditional love = more likely to develop depression

ISSUE/debate

1. Free will - our legal system

2. Maslows heirachy of needs is ETHNOCENTRISM- only based on western cultures and Nevis found that Chinese people value belonging above physiological

APPLICATION

1. Client lead counselling

   • therapist and client relationship is very important

   • Therapist is empathetic, supporting and gives unconditional love

   • The env is very warm and supporting

   • The client talkes and the therapist prompts the client to discover for themselves their own problems