approaches case studies

wundt (1879)

structuralism: isolating the structure of consciousness

- separated scientific psychology from philosophical psychology

- recorded his and his coworkers experiences with different stimuli like a metronome

- divided observations into thoughts, images and sensations

wundt eval

- self report data is subjective and unscientific

- introspections were recorded in a controlled lab environment and the procedure was standardised, so everyone was asked to divide observations into same three categories

pavlov (1927)

- classically conditioned his dog to associate a bell with food

- neutral stim of bell + uncon stim of food = condin stim of bell

pavlov eval

- rwa with application of classical conditioning to the development of phobias

- broke down behaviour into basic stimulus and response

- reductionist and implies that all behaviour is conditioned by the past

skinner (1953)

- when rats activated a lever in a box they were rewarded with a pellet

- would do the same behaviour to avoid something unpleasant like an electric shock

- supported operant conditioning of positive and negative reinforcement

skinner eval

- rats kept below their natural weight so they were always hungry

- deterministic, implies that we don't have free will and all behaviour is the sum of past experiences

- well controlled and clearly demonstrates reinforcement of behaviour through a token economy

bandura (1961)

- group 1 saw adult hit bobo doll and was rewarded for it, group 2 saw adult hit bobo doll and was punished for it, group 3 saw adult hit bobo doll with no pos or neg consequence

- group 1 children hit the doll the most, then 3, then 2

bandura eval

- because bobo dolls are meant to be hit, the children might just have been doing what they thought they were expected to do by hitting it (demand characteristics)

- could explain how social norms exist through modelling and imitation

- supports mediational processes of attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation. first two processes are for learning of behaviour, second two are for reproduction of behaviour.

- supports the idea of reciprocal determinism, we are influenced by the world but also exert and influence on it

cipriani (2018)

- compared 21 antidepressant drugs and found wide variation in effectiveness

freud

- five psychosexual stages, all except latency (which is repression of all earlier conflicts) have conflicts that must be resolved before moving onto the next stage, otherwise the child will carry certain behaviours into adult life

- oedipus and electra complex from unresolved phallic stage at 3-6 years, boys desire their mothers and repress this by taking on the roles of their father, girls desire their father and repress this by desiring a baby

- id operates on pleasure principle, superego operates on morality principle, ego operates on reality principle

- three defense mechanisms to handle the conflicting id and superego = repression. denial and displacement

freud eval

- deterministic and freud thinks all behaviour is rooted from unconscious conflicts during childhood which is a very extreme viewpoint

- freuds theories aren't able to be empirically tested or disproved as they all occur unconsciously

- introduced the idea of psychotherapy and talking therapies like counselling, rather than just physical treatments which are inappropriate for accessing unconscious thoughts

- despite being very bizarre and abnormal, has had a huge impact off psychology as a whole and has drawn attention to a connection between childhood and adult behaviour

- some rwa like freudian slips where we accidentally reveal unconscious thoughts, like calling a female teacher 'mum' instead of 'miss'

maslow + rogers

- maslows hierarchy of needs, the uniquely human desire for self actualisation at the top where we fulfill all our desires and capabilities. personal growth is required to move through the pyramid bc humanistic psychology focuses on being able to change yourself

- rogerian client centred therapy where congruence between the real self and the ideal self is tried to be established. client centred therapy helps with low self esteem.

- low self esteem can come from a lack of unconditional positive regard from parents

maslow + rogers eval

- maslow and humanistic psychology in general hasn't had much rwa and is more of a loose set of ideas than a solid scientific theory

- however rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling

- humanistic psychology in general has been praised for its positive view unlike people like freud who viewed humans as slaves to their past

- maslows hierarchy with things like individual freedom and autonomy is more associated with individualist cultures

emergence of psychology

1900's - behaviourists, watson and skinner questioned value of introspection, focused on scientific approaches and behaviours they could observe

1950's - cognitive, focus on memory, attention and the mind as a computer

1980's - biological, advances in scientific technology like fmri and eeg that can study live brain behaviour

emergence of psychology eval

- modern psychology is scientific and can be investigated in controlled and scientific ways

- not all approaches use objective methods, like humanistic psychology focuses on individual subjective experiences

cognitive approach

• schemas are packages of ideas developed through experience, born with simple motor schemas and become more sophisticated as you age

• information processing model suggests information flows through the cognitive sequence in stages like input, storage and retrieval (theoretical model)

• cognitive neuroscience maps specific functions to brain areas (ie brocas area and speed production, wernickes area and speech comprehension)

• fmri and pet scan have shown us the neurological basis for mental processes (ie tulving semantic and episodic emories are in different parts of the prefrontal cortex)

cognitive approach eval

- machine reductionism ignores human emotion (like impact of anxiety on ewt) and we are not literally thinking machines

- cognitive approach is soft determinism which makes it a more flexible approach

• uses objective scientific methods that are highly controlled so psychologists can make inferences

• however inference can still be too theoretical in nature, and mundane stimuli in controlled studied might not reflect real-world situations

biological approach

• an imbalance of neurochemicals can lead to mental illness, like too low serotonin for depression, too high dopamine for positive symptoms of schizophrenia.

• twins with the same genotype can have different phenotypes, showing an interaction with nature and nurture

• twin studies are used to test the genetic basis of something through concordance rate analysis, eg 100% is entirely genetic

biological approach eval

• some claim it isnt possibly to falsify the theory of evolution bc we cannot show evolution is happening, we can only deduce it has taken place

• determinist and suggests we have no control over even things like committing crime. however we know that not even mz twins have 100% concordance for things like ocd so its not inevitable that you will inherit a condition.

• uses highly advanced and objective technology like fmri and eeg

• rwa bc if we know the neurochemical cause for something then we can treat it w drugs, eg antidepressants which increases serotonin at the synapses

• however statistically drugs like ssris work better in combo w therapy, suggesting its not always a solely biological reason for a condition