Approaches AO3

Who created the origins of psychology

Wundt

What was Wundt’s purpose of creating the origins of psychology

He wanted to describe the nature of human consciousness in a controlled scientific way

What was Wundt’s first way of attempting to study the mind

introspection

How did Wundt go about studying the brain

• Used the same standardies instructionsto all participants and stimuli were presented in the same order

• Led to identifying the structure of consciousness by breaking it up inot its basic strutures - thoughts, images, and sensations

Wundt +VE Evaluation

• Scientific - recorded introspection in a lab and used standardised procedures so everything was tested in the same way. It is a forerunner for later scientific approaches in psychology

• Psychology has the same aims as natural sciences to describe, explain, predict and control behaviour. He has helped psychology establish itself as a science

• He wrote the first academic journal for psychology and is reffered ot as the ‘father’ of psychology. His pioneering research set the foundation for many psychological approaches such as the cognitive and behavioural approach. Therefore, despite the flaws in his early research, he has made a significant contribution to psychology

Wundt -VE Evaluation

• Subjective - relied on Ps reporting their private mental processes. This is subjective, as the Ps could’ve hidden some of their thoughts. This makes it hard to establish meaningful laws of behaviour. Therefore, his early efforts were naive and would not meet the criteria of being scientific

• Humanistic approach doesn’t generate general laws of behaviour; Psychodynamic approach uses case studies with unrepresentative samples. Humans respond to demand characteristics. Therefore a scientific approach to the study of human thought is not desirable or possible

• Kuhn said that a science must have a paradigm: a set of principles and methods that all people who work within the subject agree on. Psychology does not have a paradigm however, most believe it is a study of mind and behaviour. This suggests that the question of whether psychology is a science remains unanswered

Outline the behaviourist approach

• Focus on observed behaviour only and is not concerned with mental processes

• Uses controlled lab studies

• Use animals as they believe the process that governs learning is the same in all animals

• Classical conditioning using Pavlov’s dog

• Operant conditioning using skinners rats and pigeons - rat activated a lever and was rewarded a food pellet

Behaviourist approach +VE Evaluation

• Controlled studies - break down behaviour into stimulus-response units and study causal relationships. Therefore they have scientific credibility HOWEVER, it may oversimplify learning and ignore important influences on behaviour such as thoughts. Other approaches such as the cognitive and SLT incorporate mental processes. This suggests learning is more complex than just what we observe

• RWA - e.g. token economies reward behaviour with tokens that are exchanged for privileges. This is an example of operant conditioning and is used in psychiatric wards. This increases the value of the behaviourist approach

Behaviourist approach -VE Evaluation

• Environmentally determinist - Sees behaviour to be determined by past experiences that have been conditioned and ignores any influence of free will. Skinner believes that free will is an illusion. When something happens we believe that we had the choice to act how we acted however in reality it is a result of past conditioning. This view ignores the influence of conscious decision-making processes on behaviour

Outline the SLT

• Learning is indirect and takes place in a social contxt

• Learning through consequences of behaviour - vicarious reinforcement

• Mediational processes - Attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation

• Identification with role models - more likely to imitae the behaviour of those you identify with

• Bobo doll

SLT +VE Evaluation

• SLT is more complete than the BA as it takes into account cognitive factors, so is a more complete explanation of human learning than BA

• RWA - Can account for how children learn through other people around them as well as through the media. Proved useful in understanding a range of behaviours such as how children understand their gender roles by imitating role models in the media. This increases the value of SLT as it can account for real-world behaviour

• Reciprocal determinism - we are influenced by our environment but we also exert influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform. This element of choice suggests there is some free will in the way we behave. This is more flexible and realistic than the BA as it recognises the role we play in influencing our environment

SLT -VE Evaluation

• Contrived - Bandura observed children in a lab setting so they could potentially respond to demand characteristics. The main purpose of a Bobo doll is to it it so they may’ve just been doing what they thought should be done with the doll. Therefore, it may tell us little about how children learn aggression in everyday life

Outline the cognitive approach

• Study of mental processes indirectly using inferences via controlled lab studies about what is going on in someone’s mind. Introspection is seen as too unscientific

• Role of schemas - packages of info developed through experiences ‘mental framework’

• Always refer to Internal mental processes, i.e thought process, in order to explain behaviour

• The mind works as a computer

• Input from our senses which is then processed and produces an output such as a language or specific behaviours

• Stimulus and response is only appropriate if there is a thought process occurring between the stimulus and response (direct criticism of behaviourism)

Outline the Theoretical and computer model

• Theoretical model - diagrammatic representations of the steps involved in internal mental process, e.g the information-processing model

  Computer models - software simulation of internal mental process that are created in collaboration with computer scientists

Outline cognitive neuroscience

• Scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes

• Brain scanning has allowed scientists to describe the neurological basis of mental processing e.g. LTM episodic and semantic are in opposite sides of prefrontal cortex in the brain

• Scanning techniques have also been useful in establishing the neurological basis of some disorders e.g. OCD

Cognitive approach +VE Evaluation

• Controlled studies - uses them to infer. Biology and cognitive come together to make cognitive neuroscience to enhance the scientific basis of study. This means the study of mind is credible and has scientific basis HOWEVER inference means it can be abstract and theoretical. Lab studies also use artificial tasks. Therefore research on cognitive processes may lack external validity and not represent everyday experiences

• RWA - Helped in the development of AI, robots and the treatment of depression. This supports the value of the cognitive approach

• Soft determinism - cognitive system operates within certain limits but we are free to make decisions before responding to a stimulus. Contrast with the behaviourist approach where we are passive and lack free choice in our behaviour. Therefore it takes a more flexible approach

Cognitive approach -VE Evaluation

• Machine reductionism - computer analogy has been criticised - emotion and motivation have been shown to influence accuracy of recall e.g. in EWT however these aren’t taken into account in the computer analogy. This suggests that machine reductionism may weaken the validity of the cognitive approach

Outline the biological approach

• All humans are biological organisms so behaviour can be explained in terms of physiological processes

• The mind lives in the brain so all thoughts feelings and behaviour have a physical basis - contrast with cognitive where the mind is different from the brain

• Neurochemistry

• Twin studies used to measure genetic influences MZ- 100% DZ -50%

• Genotype and phenotype - the way genes are expressed - PKU is a genetic disorder that can be prevented by restricted diet. Suggest that much of human behaviour depends on the interaction of nature and nurture

• Evolution - any genetically determined behaviour that enhances survival and reproduction will be passed on to the future generations. These are adaptive genes

Biological approach +VE Evaluation

• RWA - Led to effective treatments such as antidepressants - increase S at the synapse and reduce depressive symptoms HOWEVER, they don’t work for everyone. Research has compared 21 antidepressants, and they all had a wide range of effectiveness. This challenges the value of the biological approach as it suggests that brain chemistry alone may not account for all cases of depression - it is reductionist as it is only looking at one aspect of the condition. May be treating symptoms not cause as it is only looking at one aspect of the behaviour

• Scientific - uses scanning techniques which assess biological processes in ways that are not open to bias. Therefore, it is objective and reliable, which are features of science

Biological approach -VE Evaluation

• Deterministic - we have no control over our behaviour as it is determined by our genetic makeup. However the way genotype is expressed is heavily influenced by the environment. Not even twins look the same. This suggests that the biological view is too simplistic and ignores the mediating effects of the environment

Outline the psychodynamic approach

• Developed by Freud

• Mind is made of the conscious, preconscious (thoughts we may become aware of through dreams and slips off the tongue), Unconscious

• Saw personality in 3 parts - ID (primitive part that operates on pleasure principle, demands instant gratification), Ego (reality principle and is the mediator between ID and Superego), Superego (internalised sense of right and wrong based on morality principle and punishes the ego through guilt. It appears at age 5)

• Stages - Unresolved conflict the child must resolve in order to move to the next stages. Any unresolved conflict leads to a fixation where the child becomes stuck and carries behaviour associated with that stage through adult life

Outline the psychosexual stages

• Oral (0-2) - pleasure focus is on mouth; the mothers breast is an object of desire

• Anal stage (2-3) - pleasure focus is on anus; the child gains pleasure from withholding and eliminating faeces

• Phallic (3-6) - pleasure focus is on the genital area, Oedipus complex where the child wants to have a relationship with their mother and wants to get rid of their father. Therefore boys experience castration anxiety(punishment from their father), and in order to resolve this they identify with their father

• Latent (6-12) - earlier conflicts are repressed so children struggle to remember much of their early years

• Genital (12+) - sexual desires become conscious and directs us to sexual intercourse

Outline the psychodynamic defense mechanisms

• Denial - refusing to acknowledge reality

• Displacement - transferring feelings from true source onto substitute target

• Repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind

Psychodynamic approach +VE Evaluation

• Used in psychotherapy - helps clients deal with everyday problems by providing access to their unconscious using techniques such as dream analysis. Therefore psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern-day talking therapies such as counselling HOWEVER it can be inappropriate for many serious illnesses such as SCZ. It may not apply to those how have lost touch with reality

• Useful - used to explain a wide range of behaviours and draws attention to the influence of childhood an adult personality. This suggests that overall the psychodynamic approach has had positive influence on modern day psychology

Psychodynamic -VE Evaluation

• untestable - is not falsifiable in the sense that it cant be disproved. Many of Freuds concepts occur at the unconscious level e.g. Id or the Oedipus complex making them impossible to test. This means the Freuds lack of scientific rigour the theory is a pseudoscience rather than a real one

• Deterministic - we are influenced by our unconscious and there is no such thing as an accident. There is no room for free will beyond early childhood. Suggests that his views are too extreme

Outline the Humanistic approach

• Free will - Doesn’t fit into continuum of nature nurture as it describes to what extent behaviour is determined and Humanistic says behaviour isn't determined

• Each individual is unique so we shouldnt make general laws. Everyone should be viewed holistically

• Person-centered approach

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: the 4 lower levels (physiological needs, safety, love and self-esteem) must be met before the individual can work towards self-actualisation

• Self-actualisation is when an individual wants to reach their full potential and become the best they can be

• Focus on self and ‘I’ and ‘me’

• Rogers believed the ideal self needs to be congruent with their perceived self. If there is too big a gap, the person is in a state of incongruence and self-actualisation is not possible

• Conditions of worth - feelings of worthlessness stem from childhood and are due to the lack of unconditional positive regard. A parent who sets conditions on their love by claiming ‘i will only love you if ‘ is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future

• Therapists should provide their client with empathy, unconditional positive regard and genuineness. This si to increase feelings of self-worth and reduce incongerounce

Humanistic approach +VE Evaluation

• Anti-reductionist - refuse to break up behaviour into smaller components. Reducing someone to elements/components means that we lose much of what is important and we lose the person. They advocate for holism. This approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful behaviour within its real-world context HOWEVER this approach doesn’t even have many concepts that can be broken down anyways and be measured so it is short on empirical evidence to support its claims

• Has a positive approach - promotes positive images of human condition seeing people in control of their life and having the freedom to change. It is refreshing and optimistic

Humanistic approach -VE Evaluation

• culturally biased, self-actualisation is more of an individualist culture thing. Collectivist cultures emphasise the needs of the group. It is possible that the approach doesn’t apply universally and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed