Psychology- Approaches

Wundt

Founded the first psychological laboratory

What was Wundt's aim?

study of the structure of the human mind

Structuralism

Analyses human mind by breaking down behaviors into their constituent parts into their basic parts

Introspection

The process where someone gains knowledge about their own mental and emotional states

Sensation

Experiences derived from sensory organs.

Perception

Brain's interpretation of sensory information.

Controlled Stimulus

Stimulus presented during introspection experiments.

Introspection experiment

He asked participants to describe their inner mental processes as they looked at an image or listened to a tone and asked them to report on these in terms of their intensity, quality and duration

Intensity

Strength of a mental or emotional response.

Quality

Nature or type of mental experience.

Duration

Length of time a mental state lasts.

Why is Wundt's experiment scientific

Highly controlled conditions

Replicable

Used introspection in a measurable way

Why is Wundt's experiment unscientific

YouYou cant see what someone is thinking

Introspection is unfalsifiable

We can't be sure that participants are accurate- easy to pretend thoughts

Unfalsifiable

can't be proved or disproved

Scientific Method

Systematic observation and experimentation in psychology

Behaviourism

Focus on observable behaviors, excluding mental processes

Cognitive Psychology

Studies mental processes scientifically through inference

Biological Approach

Links behavior to physical causes in biology

Cognitive Neuroscience

Combines cognitive psychology with brain study techniques

Features of the behaviourist approach

Tabula Rasa - blank slate

Environment shapes behaviour

Behaviour learnt through conditioning

Only obersvable behaviours studied

It's valid to study animals

Classical Conditioning

Involuntary, learning through association

Operant Conditioning

Voluntary, learning through rewards and punishments

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Stimulus that naturally triggers a response.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

Stimulus that initially elicits no response.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Previously neutral stimulus that elicits response after conditioning.

Conditioned Response (CR)

Learned response to a conditioned stimulus.

Pavlov's experiment- CC

investigated the saliva reflexes in a dog and noticed that dogs salivated when food was in their mouth and when stimuli associated with or symbolising the arrival of food

Skinner's theory

humans and other animals develop behaviour spontaneously due to the consequences it produces

Positive Reinforcement

Receiving a reward when certain behaviour is performed

Negative Reinforcement

Behaviour is performed to avoid something unpleasant

Punishment

An unpleasant consequence of behaviour

Skinner's Box

Specially designed box with a lever and dispenser

Skinner's box- positive reinforcement

Rat learned to press lever to receive food

Skinner's box- negative reinforcement

loud noises switched off by the lever

Skinner's box- punishment

lever delivered electric shock

Continuous Reinforcement

Rewarding every response to establish initial behaviour response

Partial/Variable Reinforcement

Rewarding responses intermittently to maintain behavior

Token Economy

System rewarding good behavior with tokens that can be exchanged for priveledges

Positives for Behaviourist approach

Research support

Highly controlled variables

Contributes to development of understanding behaviour (phobias)

Real-life application

Criticism of Behaviorism

Neglects free will (re-offenders) and mental processes (view humans as passive machine like responders)

Social Learning Theory features

Behaviour is learnt through observation and imitation

Vicarious reinforcement

mediational processes

Mediational processes

attention, retention, reproduction, motivation

Vicarious Reinforcement

Behaviour is more likely to be imitated if it is seen being rewarded

Mediational Processes explainations

Cognitive factors involved as the information learned from others' behaviour needs to be understood, coded, stored, and retrieved

Imitation

Copying behaviours of others/role models

Identification

Someone is in some way similar or wish to be like them

Modelling

Individual imitates a role model's behaviour- modelling

Attention

Someone must pay attention to the model's behaviour for successful imitation to take place

Retention

An individual must code and store the observed behaviour in memory

Reproduction

The observer must be capable of copying the behaviour

Motivation

An individual must have a good reason for reproducing the behaviour

Aggressive Condition

Children in the aggressive condition were rated significantly higher for physical and verbal aggression.

Bandura's Research

Imitative behaviours were shown to be acquired using a blown-up weighted figure (Bobo Doll)

Bandura's experiment conditions

Model verbally and physically aggressive towards Doll

Model isn't aggressive

No doll, left in a room with toys

Research Support for Vicarious Reinforcement

Bandura and Walters found that children who saw aggressive behaviour rewarded were more likely to imitate it

SLT evaluation- strengths

less determinism

research support

positive application- understanding causes

SLT evaluation- weaknesses

undermines biological factors

doesn't explain all behaviours e.g. childrens acquisition of language

SLT Reciprocal Determinism

Bandura emphasises we are influenced by external environments and through the behaviours we choose to perform

SLT Biological Factors

SLT underestimates the influence of biological factors, such as testosterone linked to aggressive behaviour

Cognitive approach features (5)

refer to internal mental processes to explain brefer to internal mental processes to explain behaviour

stimulus-response pairing only appropriate if the process that occurs between stimulus and response is acknowledged

Internal mental processes studied using inferences and scientific techniques e.g. brain scanning

mind works like a computer

schemas

Schema

cognitive representations or framework that helps us organise and interpret information about the world around us and are developed through personal experience

Inferences

making assumptions about the way mental processes operate based on observed behaviour

Cognitive: Lab Experiments

Used to study healthy individuals and make inferences about their mental processes based on behaviour

Cognitive: experiments on brain damaged patients

infer which parts of the brain control certain behaviour based on what the patient can do

Cognitive: Brain Scans

Evidence from brain scans is used to observe brain activity when carrying out specific tasks

Theoretical Models

Simplified representations of a particular mental process used to conceptualize things that can't be seen (pictorial or verbal)

Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM)

Explains how information is dealt with, lost, and stored in the brain in the form of a memory

Computer Models

The mind is compared to a computer, processing information in a series of steps

Broca's Area

Brain region for speech production and showed that the different functions are controlled by different parts of the brain

EEG

Technique for observing brain electrical activity- led to rapid expansion of info about the brain

CBT

Cognitive therapy for challenging negative thoughts

Cognitive approach evaluation - strengths

Positive application- understand psychological problems

scientific methods to reach conclusions about how the brain works

less deterministic- acknowledges that we have the choice to perform behaviour

Cognitive approach evaluation- drawbacks

computer/theoretical models are reductionist

computer models don't acknowledge the role of emotions

inferences is not scientific

Features of the biological approach

therthere is a physical cause for behaviour

behaviour is affected by biological processes and the structures that govern them

three main bio factors: genetics, biological structures, neurotransmitters

Biological approach: genetics

behaviour is influenced by genes and this behaviour has evolved over time in the same way as physical characteristics do

Biological approach: biological structures

the brain affects our behaviour and biopsychologists are interested in the effects of damage to certain areas of the brain

Biological approach: neurochemistry

chemicals in the brain and nervous system influence behaviour e.g. neurotransmitters are found in varying levels in the brain and abnormal levels link disorders such as high levels of dopamine and low levels of serotonin are linked to OCD

Twin study: Schizophrenia

Gottesman and Sheilds- MZ was 42% DZ was 9%

Concordance

Likelihood of shared disorders in twins

Monozygotic Twins

Identical twins sharing 100% of genes.

Dizygotic Twins

Fraternal twins sharing 50% of genes.

Genotype

Actual genetic makeup inherited from parents

Phenotype

Physical appearance resulting from genotype

Natural Selection

explains traits that have evolved over time

Adaptive Behaviors

Traits enhancing survival and reproduction passed on in genetic code to offspring

Biopsychology

Study of biological influences on behavior

Family Studies

Examines behavior occurrence in families.

Twin Studies

Compares behaviors of monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

Adoption Studies

Analyzes similarities between adopted children and biological parents.

Cognitive Approach

Focuses on mental processes and their effects

Behavioral Characteristics

Traits inherited from parents affecting behavior

Evolution

Change over time adapting to environments

John Bowlby

Proposed attachment behavior as adaptive

Social releasers

Innate behaviors like smiling that elicit caregiver responses.

Phineas Gage

Case study showing frontal lobe's role in behavior- iron rod into skull, no intellectual impairment, behavioural impairment

Hippocampus

Brain structure crucial for memory transfer- HM suffered amnesia which was removed and left memory impairment

Neurotransmitter

released once a nerve impulse reaches the end of the neuron to transmit a nerve impulse across a synapse to another neuron

Serotonin

Neurotransmitter regulating stable mood, sleep, and memory

Dopamine

Excitatory neurotransmitter linked to motivation

OCD

Disorder - low serotonin, high dopamine