Approaches in psychology

• what are the types of approaches?

  
  

  behaviourist, psychodynamic, humanisitic, biology, evolutionary and cognitive
• what is the behaviourist perspective?

  concerned with how the environmental factors affect observable behaviour
• what is the main theory behind behaviourist perspective?

  • view people and animals as controlled by their environment and we are specifically a result of our environment and what we have learnt from it
• what is behaviourist main approach to research?

  behaviourism believes in scientific methodology and only observable behaviour should be studied because it can be measured it is not interested in the mental processes of the mind.
• what idea does behaviourism reject?

  it rejects introspection and tries to maintain more control and objectivity using research by using lab experiment
• what are the criticism of the behaviourist approach?

  • rejects the idea that people have free will
  • only believe environment affects behaviour
  • underestimates the complexity of human behaviour
• what does behaviourism believe in?

  they think that learning happens the same way in all species and so animals can be used in experiment to tell us about human behaviour
• what did John watson propose in 1930?

  that psychology should be more scientific and should only measure thing that can be observed
• what did pavlov discover?

  he was the first to describe this type of learning by testing it on animals this is learning by associating and refers to the conditioning of reflexes
• what is an unconditional stimulus?

  something that triggered a natural unconditional response
• what is an unconditional response?

  a response which is natural and does not need to be learnt
• what is a neutral stimuli?

  something that would not usually trigger a response
• what is a conditioned stimulus?

  something that triggers a learnt response
• what is a conditioned response?


  a response that has been learnt through association
• what is the order of conditioning?

  neutral stimuli + unconditioned response ---> paired together = conditioned response + conditioned stimuli
• what are the two research methods on the behaviourist approach?

  • pavlov's use of dogs to explore the mechanisms of classical conditioning
  • Skinner's use of rats and other animals to explore the mechanisms of operant conditioning
• how did pavlov conduct his research on classical conditioning?

  1927 pavlov investigated salivary reflexes in dogs when he noticed that the dogs salivated when food was placed in their mouth but also reacted to the stimuli that coincided with presentation of food
• what are the feature of classical conditioning?

  • timing - if the NS can not be used to predict the UCS then conditioning does not take place
  • Extinction- unlike the UCS the CR does not become permanently established as a response
  • spontaneous recovery- following extinction if the CS and UCS are paired again the link between them is made much more quickly
  • stimulus generalisation- once an animal has been conditioned they will respond to other stimuli similar to the CS
• what is the idea behind the operant conditioning (Skinner's theory)?

  • organisms spontaneously produce different behaviours and these behaviours produce consequences for that organism which can be positive or negative and if a organism repeats the behaviour it depends on the nature of these consequence
• How did Skinner conduct research on operant conditioning (Skinner's box)?

  Skinner developed the ' Skinner box ' experimenting on rats. The rat moves around and accidently presses a lever which released a food pellet. The hungry rat continues to press the lever to obtain more food. If the food pellet stop yet the rat continues to press the lever then the behaviour is extinct
• what is reinforcement?

  something in the environment that strengthens a particular behaviour making it more likely to recur
• what is positive reinforcement?

  when a behaviour produces a consequence that is satisfying or pleasant for the organism. (Administration of a positive stimulus that aims to increases a certain behaviour)
• what is a negative reinforcement?

  Removing a behaviour aversive to restore the organism to it's pre-aversive state
• what are the features of reinforcements?

  • schedules of reinforcements-continuous reinforcement schedule is most effective in establishing a particular response. a partial reinforcement schedule is more effective in maintaining that response and avoids extinction
  • punishment- circumstance whereby a behaviour is followed by a consequence that is undesirable or unpleasant for the organism decreasing its likelihood
• what are the strengths of the behaviourist approach?

  • The use of scientific methods means that research into behaviourism has good reliability
  • Behaviourism takes a nomothetic approach which is a strength as it seeks to establish general laws of behaviour which can be applied universally
• what are the weaknesses of behaviourist approach?

  • The behaviourist approach is overly simplistic, offering a reductionist view of behaviour which ignores key factors such as personality, cognition, culture
  • Scientific methodology is not necessarily the best way to study human behaviour: humans are more nuanced and sophisticated than a single quantitative finding may suggest
• what are the strengths of classical conditioning?

  -has lead to the development of treatments for the reduction of anxiety associated with various phobia (Systematic desensitisation)
• what the weakness of classical conditioning?

  • limited to reflexive behaviours
  • Seigman (1970) proposed the concept if preparedness as animals are prepared to learn associations that are significant in terms of their survival need and are unprepared to learn associations that are not significant to survival
• what the strengths of operant conditioning?

  • his reliance on experimental method which uses control variable to discover a relationship between two or more variables which showed its effectiveness and appliance to real life
• what are the weaknesses of operant conditioning?

  • limited explanation for complex human behaviours as he used non-human animals rather than actual human
• what is SLT (social learning theory)?

  suggests that learning occurs through direct and indirect classical conditioning and operant conditioning and vicarious reinforcement
• what is the concept of SLT?

  • SLT takes the principles of behaviourism and refines it to include the mechanisms of how people learn from others
  • SLT posits the idea that children learn by observation of role models particularly parents but also other significant people
  • the child observes the behaviour of a role model and then (if the behaviour is observed frequently) imitates that behaviour in different contexts
• who discovered the SLT?

  • proposed by Bandura (1972) as a more nuanced explanation of behaviourism 
• what increases the likelihood of imitation

  It is more likely that a child will imitate the behaviour of role models with whom they identify or who have similar characteristics to them e.g. same-sex parent or sibling, an attractive celebrity
• what is a role model?

  A person with whom the observer identifies with. The role model is usually attractive, has high social status, is of a similar age and the same gender to the observer. This model can exert influence indirectly by not being physically present in the environment
• what is identification?

  The process by which an observer relates to/ associates themselves with a role model and aspires to become more like that role model.
• what does research say about identification?

  Shutts et al (2010) found that children are more likely to identify and preferentially learn from models that are similar to them (particularly same sex models) the individual is more likely to imitate them showing SLT is more likely to be effective
• what is vicarious reinforcement?

  A type of indirect learning which occurs when an observer sees their role model being rewarded for displaying a certain behaviour. The observer is then motivated to imitate this behaviour, in an effort to receive the same reward.
• why is vicarious reinforcement important?

  • Vicarious reinforcement highlights the more sophisticated nature of SLT compared to behaviourism as it involves a degree of cognition
  • People are required to process what they have seen and  imagine themselves gaining a similar reward for the specific behaviour
• what research shows the effects of vicarious reinforcement?

  Bandura and Walters (1963) noted that children who observed a model being rewarded for aggressive behaviour were much more likely to imitate that behaviour then children who observed the model being punished for the behaviour