General knowledge

who opened the first lab dedicated to psychology

Wundt

why is Wundt’s work significant

he opened the first ever lab dedicated to psychology, it marked the beginning of scientific psychology- separating it from its broader philosophical roots

what was Wundt’s pioneering method called

introspection

who came up with introspection

Wundt

what is introspection

the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations

what was Wundt’s standardised procedure

Wundt and his co-workers recorded their thoughts, images and sensations when presented with various stimuli e.g. a ticking metronome

what is structuralism

isolating the structure of consciousness

what is a major feature of introspection

structuralism- isolating the structure of consciousness: the stimuli presented to Wundt and his co-workers were always presented in the same order and the instructions were the same

what is it called when you isolate the structure of consciousness

structuralism

the timeline of approaches

experimental philosophy (17th-19th c.), Wilhelm Wundt-introspection (1879), psychodynamic approach- Sigmund Freud (1900s), behaviourist approach- Watson and Skinner (1913), humanistic approach- Rogers and Maslow (1950s), cognitive approach (1950s), social learning theory- Bandura (1960s), biological approach (1980s), cognitive neuroscience (21st c.)

what is science

building knowledge through systematic and objective investigation to discover general laws

who questioned introspection and when

Watson in the beginning of the 1900s

what was the issue with introspection

it produced subjective data- participants had to self-report allowing them to lie/miss bits out etc., this made it difficult to establish general laws

what did Watson and Skinner propose

a truly scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed and measured-objective e.g. behaviours that can be seen with carefully controlled experiments- the behaviourist approach

what’s the issue with the behaviourist approach

can’t study internal mental processes

what approaches are involved in the emergence of psychology as a science

Wundt’s introspection, behaviourist approach, cognitive approach, biological approach

how did the cognitive approach help with the emergence of psychology

digital revolution in the 1950s allowed cognitive psychologists to liken the mind to a computer e.g. multi-store model

how did the biological approach help with the emergence of psychology

researchers used advances in technology in the 1980s to investigate physiological processes as they happen e.g. MRI scans, also new methods like genetic testing improved understanding of relationship between genes and behaviour

what are Wundt’s three scales of pleasure

pleasure to displeasure, excitement to depression, relaxation to tension

which approaches are not considered scientific

psychodynamic and humanistic

what did experimental philosophy think psychology was

a branch of philosophy

what was the psychodynamic approach

emphasis of the unconscious mind on behaviour, Freud developed a person-central therapy-psychoanalysis- showing that physical problems can be explained in terms of conflict in the mind

what is the humanistic approach

it rejected the behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches and how human behaviour is determined by outside factors/the environment, emphasised the importance of self-determination and free will

what is the social learning theory

draws attention to the role of cognitive factors in learning, provides bridge between traditional behaviourism and new cognitive approach

what is cognitive neuroscience

connects cognitive and biological approach, investigates how biological structures influence mental states

what does the biological approach assume

everything psychological is at first biological

what does the biological approach think causes behaviour

biological structures and processes within the body

what links neurochemistry and behaviour

neurochemistry is the actions of chemicals in the brain- behaviour relies on chemical transmission in the brain e.g. low levels of serotonin could be linked to OCD

what are used to investigate whether certain psychological characteristics have a genetic basis

twin studies

what are twin studies used for

to investigate whether certain psychological characteristics have a genetic basis

how are results of twin studies calculated

using concordance rates

what are concordance rates

the extent to which twins share the same characteristic

what is the name for identical twins

monozygotic

what is the name for non-identical twins

dizygotic

what is assumed in the genetic basis of behaviour

the environment is constant

what is a genotype

a persons genetic makeup

what is a phenotype

the way genes are expressed through physical, behavioural and psychological characteristics

example of phenotype and genotype relationship

PKU

how does PKU show genotype and phenotype connections

children can be born with a genotype but the effects can be over-ridden by an environmental intervention- phenotype is both nature and nurture

what is PKU

a rare genetic disorder that can be detected in babies with a heel prick test, if unchecked it causes sever learning difficulties, but if placed on a restricted diet the child will be fine

behaviourist approach is only interested in studying…

behaviour that can be observed and measured

what is the behaviourist approach not interested in and why

investigating mental process of the mind because they were seen as irrelevant

what did behaviourist Watson reject and why

introspection- too many concepts that were vague and difficult to measure

who was an early behaviourist

John B. Watson

how do behaviourists conduct their research

lab studies with lots of control and objectivity

behaviourists theory

behaviour is all learned, babies minds are a ‘blank slate’, written on by experience, basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species, so animals can replace humans as experimental subjects

types of conditioning behaviourists identified

classical and operant conditioning

which group identified classical and operant conditioning

behaviourists

who first demonstrate classical conditioning

Pavlov

classical conditioning definition

making an association between a stimulus and a response- principles relate to reflex behaviour

what did Pavlov do

rang a bell when giving dogs food repeatedly, dogs learned to associate the bell with food, started salivating when they heard the bell

process of classical conditioning

UCS→UCR, UCS+NS→UCR, repeat, CS→CR

who suggested operant conditioning

Skinner

what did Skinner suggest

operant conditioning

operant conditioning definition

learning is an active process where humans and animals operate on their environment

what is operant conditioning behaviour shaped by

consequences

what are the tree types of consequences

positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment

what is positive reinforcement

receiving a reward when certain behaviour is performed

what is negative reinforcement

doing/not doing something to avoid something unpleasant/ taking away something bad as a reward

what is a punishment

an unpleasant consequence for behaviour

what does reinforcement do

strengthen behaviour

what does punishment do

weakens behaviour

what did Skinner do

showed impact of positive and negative reinforcement: put rats of pigeons in cages, the rats got food when it activated a lever/the pigeons got food when it pecked a disc, animal continued that behaviour, he also shocked the animals until they performed that behaviour as a different condition and stopped the shock when they activated the lever/pecked the disc

who investigated reinforcement

Skinner

how did Skinner adapt his investigation

realised if an animals was rewarded every time conditioned behaviour would quickly die out as the animal was satiated, introduced a variable ratio schedule so the reward is given after an unpredictable number of responses

what can be used to increase effect of reinforcement

schedules of reinforcement- continuous or variable ratio

extinction definition

learnt response disappears when behaviour is never reinforced

what is it called when a learnt response disappears when behaviour is never reinforced

extinction

cognitive approach opinion

internal processes should be studied

what is the issue with what the cognitive approach investigates and how do they overcome it

the processes are private and cannot be observed- they are studied indirectly by making inferences about what’s going on inside people’s minds due to their behaviour

what are schema

mental frameworks of information developed through experience, used for interpreting incoming information

what are mental frameworks of information developed through experience, used for interpreting incoming information

schemas

what can schemas be about

• objects

• people e.g. stereotypes

• actions

• relationships e.g. attachment

• events/scripts

what happens to our schema as we get older

become more detailed and sophisticated

what schema do babies have

simple motor schema e.g. sucking and grasping

what are benefits of schema

• help make predictions/expectations of what will happen in our world based off experience

• enable us to process vast amounts of information rapidly

• prevent us from becoming overwhelmed by environmental stimuli

what are limitations of schema

• can distort interpretations of sensory information

• can lead to perceptual errors or inaccurate EWT

• can cause biased recall

• negative or faulty schema may have a negative impact on mental health

what models does the cognitive approach use

theoretical and computer models

what are theoretical models (used by cognitive approach)

abstract e.g. information processing approach- suggests information flows through cognitive system in a sequence of stages, input, storage and retrieval such as MSM

what are computer models (used in cognitive approach)

concrete things (not abstract) e.g. programming a computer to see if instructions produce a similar output to humans, if they do we can suggest similar processes happen in human mind

how does cognitive approach link to AI

computational models have been useful in developing ‘thinking machines’ or AI

how did cognitive approach start

mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions, Broca identified in 1860s damage to an area of frontal lobe could permanently impair speech

what are examples of brain imaging techniques

fMRI and PET scans

what have fMRI and PET scans allowed

• systematic observing and description of neurological basis of mental processes

• establishing neurological basis of mental disorders e.g. link of parahippocampal gyrus and OCD

example of impact of fMRI and PET scans

Buckner and Peterson could show how different types of LTM may be located on opposite sides of prefrontal cortex- central executive thought to be in similar area

how has cognitive neuroscience used computer generated models

used to ‘read’ the brain, led to mind-mapping techniques known as ‘brain fingerprinting’

how could ‘brain fingerprinting’ be used in the future

analyse brain wave patterns of eyewitnesses to determine if they are lying in court

similarities between human mind and a computer

• both take in data and store and process it e.g. solving problems

• both produce output e.g. behaviour or printout

differences between human mind and a computer

• means of input is different- senses vs keyboard

• brain tissues vs silicon chip

• humans are affected by emotion e.g. anxiety on EWT

what is meant by inference

deducing/concluding how internal mental processes work by analysing/interpreting visible results/behaviour

what do cognitive researchers use to do research

lab experiments to produce reliable objective data

social learning theory overview of opinion

Bandura agreed with behaviourists that behaviour is learned from experience, people also learn from observations and imitations of others

who is the main person who came up with the Social learning theory

Bandura

which theory did Bandura agree with

Social learning theory

does social learning theory suggest learning is direct or indirect

both

what are the examples of direct learning in SLT

operant and classical conditioning

what type of learning are operant and classical conditioning

direct

what is indirect learning in the SLT

individual observes behaviour and imitation occurs if behaviour is seen to be rewarded not punished- vicarious reinforcement

what is the word for the thing that persuades imitation to occur

vicarious reinforcement

what is vicarious reinforcement

imitating behaviour as you have seen the positive consequences of it