A-level psychology approaches

Wilhelm Wundt

the first person in history to study psychology, he believed that all aspects of nature could be studied.

he aimed to study the structure of the human mind

introspection

the process by which people gain knowledge about his or her own emotional states as a result of the examination and observation of conscience thoughts or feelings

empiricism

the idea that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience.

generally characterised by the use of the scientific methods.

the scientific method

refers to the use of objective, replicable and systematic investigation methods.

they allow for the modification of hypothesis.

why were the methods that Wundt used unreliable and what does this mean of his findings?

one criticism of his study was that he relied heavily on non-observable responses.

although the participants could report on their conscience experiences.

the processes themselves were considered unobservable, tis approach ultimately failed due to a lack of reliability.

however, early behaviourists were already finding replicable results that could be easily generalised.

why might introspection not be that accurate?

Nisbett and Wilson claim that introspection may not be that accurate because we have very little understanding of the causes and processes underlying our behaviours/ attitudes.

they found this problem was small in the study of implicit attitudes.

for example, a person being implicitly racist will change how they react to certain ethnic groups,

because people are aware of these attitudes, this challenges the values of introspection.

what are some strengths and limitations of the scientific approach in psychology?

strengths:

because of its reliance on objective and systematic methods, knowledge gained is about more than just the acceptance, this means that scientific methods can establish the causes of behaviour.

conveniently, if theories no longer align with facts they can be abandoned. this means that scientific knowledge self correcting.

limitations:

not all psychologists share the view that human behaviour can or should be measured using the scientific method.

if human behaviour is not subject to laws/regularities then predictions become impossible and so do the scientific methods.

the role of the unconscious

to drive our thoughts and desires.

we store our traumatic memories in our unconscious and the minds prevents these memories from reaching the conscious mind causing anxiety.

defence mechanisms

unconscious strategies that protect our conscious mind from anxiety.

they involve a distortion of reality in some way so that we are better able to cope with a situation.

3 defence mechanisms

denial, repression, displacement

denial

the refusal to accept reality so as to avoid having to deal with any painful feelings related to the event.

the person acts as through the event has not happened

repression

refers to the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts and impulses

displacement

involves the redirecting go thoughts or feelings in situations where the person feels unable to express themselves in the presence of the person they should be directing it towards.

the 3 structures of the personality

id, ego, superego

id

irate desire, strives for instant gratification.

only in the unconscious, contains the libido.

ego

the compromise between id and superego

superego

conscious mind

internalisation of social rules. feelings of guilt once you have done something wrong.

not fulling going through psycho sexual stages leads to…

abnormal behaviours (deprivation and overindulgence causes changes and mutations)

oral stage

age 0-2

pleasure from oral stimulation such as tasting and sucking, dependancy= aggressive

anal

age 2-3

primary focus is on bowel control and bladder

poor control = messy and destructive

good control = clean/ ocd

phallic

age 3-6

primary focus is on genitals

boys learn to have their fathers characteristics to get their mothers love.

sexual deviance and identity confusion comes to the suface

latent

age 6-12

sexual desires are pushed to the back of their mind, focus shifts to other things such as school and hobbies.

genital

age 12+

sexual desires are renewed and people seek a relationship with other people.

psychoanalysis can be seen as a pioneering approach. why?

the development of psycho analysis as an explanation of human behaviour has represented a dramatic shift.

it suggested new methodological procedures for gathering evidence as well as developing new observations.

from these observations, Freud and his followers were able to demonstrate potential of psychological treatment for disorders.

therefore, this approach has lead to successful treatments

there is scientific support for the approach

critics claim that there is no evidence/that the approach is not testable or falsifiable.

however, many have been tested and confirmed using scientific methods.

For example, fisher and Greenburg summarised 2500 of these studies. Thos concluded that these studies compares well with other relevant studies. this therefore adds scientific credibility to Psychoanalytic explanations of human behaviour.

why is psychoanalysis a gender bias approach?

Freuds view of women/ female sexuality were less developed than his views on male sexuality. despite his theories being focused unisexual development he remained ignorant about how male and female sexuality differ.

For example, Karen Horney broke away from freudian theory to criticise his work. frees dismissing women and their sexuality is problematic as his theories are still so influential today.

can this approach be applied to non-western cultures?

sue and sue argue that psychoanalysis has little relevance for those from non western cultures.

psychoanalysts believe that mental disorders are result of traumatic memories being locked in the subconscious.

they claim that cultural groups don’t value insight in the same way. Eg, a person who is anxious / avoids emotions that cause distress contrasts with the belief that open discussion is always helpful.

behaviourist approach

we learn through classical and operant conditioning.

assumptions of the behaviourist approach

it is only interested in behaviour and ignores mental processes.

studies observable behaviour in labs where it can be controlled and measured.

behaviourists believe that human learning is a more complex version of animal learning

classical conditioning

then a neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that it eventually takes on properties of this stimulus and is able to produce a conditioned response

classical conditioning study

Ivan pavlov was investigating the salivating reflexes in dog and began to present the dogs with a bell a the same time as their food and they eventually began salivating and simply the sound of the bell

process of classical conditioning

the unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response, the neutral stimulus is then paired with the unconditioned stimulus until they are associated with each-other, this then causes the neutral stimulus to produce the unconditioned response, this is called the conditioned response.

timing

conditional will not happen if NS is presented after UCS or if there is too long of an interval

extinction

if you later present CS without the UCS many times in a row, the UCS looses its ability to produce the CR

spontaneous recovery

following extinction, if the CS and UCS are paired again the the association is made much quicker

stimulus generalisation

if an animal has been conditioned they will produce the CR as a response to similar stimuli

operant conditioning

learning through reinforcement or punishment. if a behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence then it is more likely to occur again the future.

reinforcement

something that strengthens a response and increases the likelihood that it will occur again the future.

positive reinforcement

occurs when behaviours lead to a pleasant/satisfying consequence

negative reinforcement

when you remove something unpleasant to restore calm

punishment

involves application of an unpleasant consequence following a behaviour. this lead to a smaller likelihood of the behaviour happening again

skinners experiment

he put hungry rats in a box and they ran in circles until they hit the leaver that gave food, they then learnt that leaver=food, this is an example of positive reinforcement.

he would also electric shock them until they found the level to turn off the electric current. leaver=no shock= negative reinforcement.

classical conditioning has lead to the development of treatments

classical conditioning has been applied in the developments of treatments for the education of anxiety associated with various phobias

systematic desensitisation is a therapy based classical conditioning that works by eliminating a learned anxious response that is associated with a learned object/situation.

this classical conditioning approach has been found to eb effective for a large range of phobias

the relationship between the CS and UCS might be based more on survival

different species face different challenges in order to survive, this makes some links between CS and UCS harder to establish.

For example, Seligman suggested the idea that animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of their survival.

this suggests that classical conditioning is more appropriate in specific association than others

the findings were based on well controlled research

skinner relied on the experimental method meaning that controlled conditions allowed him to discover relationships between variables.

the box was a good example of this as he was able to manipulate the independent variable (behaviour) and could accurately measure the independent variable (effects on rats behaviour).

this allowed him to create a cause and effect relationship between consequences of behaviour.

the research used non human animals; can the findings be applied to humans?

skinner has been criticised as his research uses animals meaning it isn’t externally reliable and cannot be generalised to humans.

people claim that these studies show very little about human behaviour and argued that humans have free will rather than having positive/negative reinforcement driving their behaviour.

assumptions of the social learning theory

behaviour is learned from experience through observation and imitation of others

SLT suggested that learning occurs directly through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly

the 4 meditational processes

attention (to consequence of behaviour)

retention (of information in our memory bank)

motivation

imitation (copying the behaviour you have seen)

modelling

a form of learning where individuals learn a particular behaviour by observing another individual performing that behaviour

imitation

the action of someone acting as a model and copying their behaviour

identificaiton

a form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular group or person

vicarious reinforcement

learning that is not a result of direct reinforcement of behaviour but though observing someone else being reinforced for that behaviour

procedure of the Banduras Bobo Doll experiment

half of the children were exposed to adult models that interacted aggressively towards a life sized Bobo doll and half of the children were shown a non aggressive model.

the children were then observed when they played with the Bobo doll.

findings of the bobo doll experiment

children that were exposed to the aggressive role model acted more aggressively towards the doll.

boys were more psychically aggressive (biologically more testosterone)

more likely to imitate same sex models.

how has SLT helped us to understand criminal behaviour?

principles of SLT have been applied to increase understanding of criminal behaviour.

for example, Akers suggests that the chance of committing a crime is increased when they are exposed to role models who also commit crimes.

This supports the importance of social learning theory in this process. they found that violent behaviour during adolescence was associated with peer groups.

what did Fox and Bailenson (2009) find evidence for?

they found proof that observing a role model similar to the self should lead to more learning than observing a dissimilar model.

they used computer generated virtual humans to find evidence for this. participants who viewed the virtual model that looked similar to themselves exercising were seen to engage in more exercise in the 24 hours following the experiment than those who viewed the models that looked dissimilar.

they came to the conclusion that viewing a simple model lead to easier learn as it easier to visualise yourself in place of the model.

why can we not determine causality?

a large criticism of this theories explanations of deviance relates to the thoery’s claim that higher association with deviant peers increases likelihood that they will adopt these behaviours in the future.

for example, Siegel and McCormick suggest that young people who have deviant values and attitudes look for other people with similar characteristics.

therefore this might not be a cause of social leaning theory but rather having these deviant behaviours prior to meeting their peers.

SLT disregards any other potential influences on behaviour. why is this an issue?

this is an issue because the influences might have a large influence.

for example, in explaining development of gender role behaviour, social learning theorists would highlight the importance of gender specific role models.

however, thought life a child is shown multiple different influences.

Therefore it is difficult to show that social learning is the main influence on behaviuor.

behaviourist and SLT similarities

both focus on human response (reinforcement/reward)

all behaviour is learned from the environment around us.

both follow the scientific method using lab experiments.

heavily nurture based meaning that nature is rarely taken into account when explaining behaviour.

behaviourist and SLT differences

behaviourist is positive and negative reinforcement/ learning through conditioning

social learning they is vicarious reinforcement and learning through the meditational processes.

behaviourist is animal tested (harder to generalise to humans)

SLT is human / child testing

SLT has an element of nature (cognitive structures)

free will

humanistic psychologists believe that we have full conscious control and free will over our destiny.

we make significant personal choices within the constraints of own biology.

focus on the self

we must have positive self with and be held in positive regard by others. these develop in childhood due to parenting constraints.

we feel we should be or who we would like to be and the ideal self is who closer self worth + ideal self are = good psychological health

congruence

if there is similarity between a persons ideal self image , a state of congruence exists.

a difference represents incongruence.

conditions of worth

conditions imposed on individuals behaviour + development that are considered necessary to earn positive regard from others

hierarchy of needs

the motivational theory proposed by Maslow, often displayed as a pyramid with the most basic needs at the bottom and higher needs at the top.

self actualisation

rogers believes this is the drive to reach full potential. Maslow uses it o describe the final stage of the hierarchy of needs

order of the hierarchy of needs

psychological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self actualisation

can Maslows hierarchy of needs have relevance other than individual growth?

research suggests that Maslows hierarchy may have relevance on a much larger stage than individual growth.

there is a relationship between economic measures in 88 countries, those in early c=stages of development were characterised by lower level needs.

this supports Maslows hierarchy of needs in that self actualisation cannot be achieved unless lower, basic needs are met.

there has been research support. discuss.

research with adolescents has shown evidence that is consistent with rogers view.

individuals who experience conditional positive read are likely to display more ‘false self’ behaviour.

this aligns with his idea that young people create a false image that they believe parents and peers mat love more.

humanistic and psychodynamic similarities

both use counselling therapy

both study humans (one person at a time (idiographic))

both nurture (environment and upbringing)

both nature (forces+achievement)

both reject science

humanistic and psychodynamic differences

H= psychological problems are a result of a person conditions of worth and the regard they get from others.

P = unresolved childhood trauma leads to conflict within a personality causing anxiety

H = concealers see themselves as guide helping to solve problems in constructive ways.

P = only therapist can access your unconscious and bring unresolved conflict to the surface to be resolves.

H = supportive environment dissolves clients conditions of worth providing unconditional regard and helping them move to an authentic true self.

P = challenging environment therapist invites your thoughts to tackle conflict.

H = person centred approach

P = can lead to more trama

H = conscious mind

P = unconscious thoughts

assumptions of the cognitive approach

argues that internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically.

makes inferences about what is going on inside peoples minds on the basis of their behaviour

schema

a cognitive framework that allows us to organise and interpret information in the brain

they develop through life and with experiences we add information to each one.

they guide our behaviour for events

why schemas are useful

they allow us to take mental short cuts when interpreting large amounts of info on a daily basis.

they can help us to fill in gaps and complete information about an event

consequences of schemas

may exclude information if it dosnt’t fit our established ideas.

may only seek out information that confirms our ideas.

may develop stereotypes.

theoretical model

simplified representations of cognitive processes based on current research evidence (can be updated and refined as evidence is found)

computer model

information is input through the senses, encoded into the memory and combined with stored information to complete a task.

cognitive neuroscience

an area of psychology dedicated to neural bases of cognitive functions

non invasive neuroimaging techniques

PET scans

Fmri scans

can the cognitive approach be applied to other areas in psychology?

the cognitive approach has been applied in many other areas of psychology.

for example, in social psychology research into social cognition has been used to explain how much of peoples dysfunctional behaviour can be traced back to their thinking process.

these insights have lead to successful treatments using cognitive interventions.

does the cognitive approach use the scientific method?

another benefit of this approach is the emphasis on the scientific method.

the use of experimental method provides researchers with many methods for data collection and evaluations. This allows them to reach reliable conclusions.

this means that conclusions are far more reliable and based on more than introspection

can you apply the computer model to humans?

the computer model may lack ecological validity as in the human mind there is a different form of informational processing than a computer. computers also don’t make mistakes or ignore information that is available on their had drive.

humans on the other hand do all of these things which limits how the computer model can be applied to humans.

the cognitive approach ignores emotion and motivation

a limitation of the cognitive approach is that it fails to tell us why cognitive processes take place.

this means that the role of emotion / motivation has been ignored by this approach. However, many other approaches focus purely on motivation and largely ignore cognitive processes. this lack of focus on motivation may be explained by over reliance on the computer model.

do the studies of cognitive psychology lack ecological validity?

many cognitive studies tend to use natural tasks. for example, experiments in memory use artificial models that are pretty meaningless in day to day life.

therefore, it is unlikely that we can generalise these findings to day to day life.

assumptions of the biological approach

everything psychological is at first biological.

all thoughts, feelings and behaviour have a physical basis

what are genes and their function?

genes are a part of an organism that carries information about characteristics in the form of DNA

genotype

the genetic make up of an individual.

the genotype is a collection of inherited genetic material that is passed between generations.

phenotype

the observable characteristics of an individual.

this consequence of the interaction of the DNA with the environment

heredity

the possessing of a characteristic form one generation to the next through the genes (which carry information in the form of DNA)

heritability

the amount of variability in a trait within a population that can be attributed to genetic differences between individuals within that population

nervous system

carried messages from one part of the body to another using neurones

neurones

CNS (brain and spinal cord)

PNS (somatic and automatic nervous system)

the brain

the largest part of the Brain is the cerebrum.

outer surface of the cerebrum is the cerebral cortex, this is responsible for higher oder thinking.

each half is a hemisphere in four lobes that perform different functions.

neurotransmitters

chemical released into the body when nerve impulses reach the end of the Neurone that control behaviour travels across a synapse to the next neurone.

hormones

chemically produced by the endocrine glands and released into the bloodstain in response to a single given by the brain.

hormone function

travel to target cells where their presence causes a psychological reaction

evolution

changes that take place within a population overtime. natural selection is when animals must compete with each-other for resources. those who survive, reproduce and pass the characteristics to offspring though heredity

the biological approach uses the scientific method. why is this a strength?

this is a positive because the scientific approach can be elicited meaning that results are reliable and variables are controlled.

brain scans are also used which improves accuracy and objectivity

are there real life applications for the biological approach?

yes as we can make clear predications about the effects of neurotransmitters. it also allows us to make associations, of example, serotonin and depression.

drug treatments can also be developed to raise serotonin, this means that the economy benefit from people being at work.

the biological approach is reductionist, what does this mean and why?

this means that it is simplified down to its basic starting point.

simplifying depression down to its single neurotransmitters means that they can find the cause of the depression an cure it.

However, this can overlook the social and environmental factors that are actually causing the depression.