Approaches in pyschology

• Wilhelm Wundt - father of psychology 


  • opened the first psychology labortory in Leipzig germany
  • His approach was to study the structure of the human mind by breaking down behaviours into their basic elements - known as structuralism
• Introspection


  Participants were asked to relfect on their own cognitive processes and describe them - established as a scientific method
• What the scientific method ?


  • Objective
  • systematic
  • replicable
• Intropection 


  • non-observable responses
  • subjective
  • generalised
• Intropection examples

  • Griffiths 1994 - used introspection to study the cognitive processes of fruit machine gamblers
  • Csikzentmilyi and Hunter 2003- used introspection to study happiness in their work in the area of positive psychology.
• Psychology as a science - 4 goals 


  • Description
  • Explanation
  • Prediction
  • Change
• Social learning theory 


  Albert Bandura proposes SLT as a development of the behaviourist approach.

  He argued that clasical conditioning could not accout for all human learning

  He believed that there are more important mental processes that lie between the stimulus and response proposed by the behaviourist approach
• SLT 


  recognises both the importance of the environmental influence and learning as well as mental processes is about learning through observation and imitation this called modelling
• What does SLT stand for?

  Social Learning Theory
• What does SLT combine in its principles?

  It combines principles of both the behaviourist and cognitive approaches
• What type of behaviour does SLT focus on?

  SLT is concerned with human behaviour rather than animal behaviour
• How does SLT view people in relation to their environments?

  SLT sees people as active manipulators of their own environments
• How does learning occur according to SLT?

  Learning occurs through observation of role models
• Is simply observing a model sufficient for learning to take place according to SLT?

  Yes, simply observing the model is sufficient for learning to take place
• What types of reinforcement does SLT recognize?

  Reinforcement may be direct or indirect (vicarious reinforcement)
• What cognitive processes are involved in observational learning?

  Observational learning uses cognitive processes such as memory
• What are the processes that occur between stimulus and response in SLT called?

  Mediational processes
• In what context is much human behaviour learned according to SLT?

  Much human behaviour is learned in interpersonal situations
• What are the key assumptions of Social Learning Theory (SLT)?

  • Combines principles of behaviourist and cognitive approaches
  • Focuses on human behaviour rather than animal behaviour
  • Views people as active manipulators of their environments
  • Learning occurs through observation of role models
  • Simply observing a model is sufficient for learning
  • Reinforcement can be direct or indirect (vicarious)
  • Involves cognitive processes like memory
  • Mediational processes occur between stimulus and response
  • Much behaviour is learned in interpersonal situations
• Models 


  there are 2 types of models:

  • Live model - these are people who are present in our environment
  • Symbolic models- these are people who are presented in the media
• Identification

  Involves internalising and adopting behaviours shown by a role model , who shares some feature with you and because they have a quality the individual would like to process
• Vicarious Reinforcement 


  Reinforecement which is not directly experienced but occurs through someone else being reinforced for a behaviour
• Modelling- mediational processes


  for modeling to occur:

  1. Attention (notice behaviour)
  2. Retention (remember the behaviour )
  3. Motor reproduction ( has to be physically possible)
  4. Motivation (reason )
• Banduras's Bobo doll experiment 


  Bandura recorded the behaviour of young children who had watched an adult behave in an agressive way towards a bobo doll.

  The adult hit the doll with a hammer and shouted abuse at it . Some adults played nicely with the bobo doll.

  The children then played in the room where there was the bobo doll as well as other toys. The children initated the behaviour they had seen the adults demonstrate
• Ongoing Development of behaviour 


  • behaviour is observed
  • Behaviour is imitated
  • behaviour is reinforced
  • behaviour is repeated
  • behaviour is internalised
• Imitation 


  the action of using someone or something as a model- intended to stimulate or copy modelling - the person demonstarting behaviour that is copied
• Identification 


  adopting the behaviour shown by a role model
• vicarious reinforcement- 


  learning the consequences to an action through someone else being reinforced
• Mediational processes 


  mental( cognitive) factors that intervened in the learning process to determine whether a new behaviour is aquired or not.
• Bandura discovered that htrough observational learning, children model their behaviour by watching others. This proves SLT because it demonstrates visula learning and not learning through classical or operate conditioning disproving the behaiourist responces
• Application of the aproach - watershed

  Banduras 1963 study was triggered by concern about violoence on Tv.

  In the uk, terrestrial TV observes a watershed which means programmes that contain swearing , violence or sexual content can only be shown after 9 pm .

  The watershed is an application of SLT - is based on the idea that children might observe antisocial or inappropriate behaviour on tv, then imiate it in real life
• Application of SLT -Phobias 


  Phobias can be explained by SLT if the phobia is modelled . e.g. young girls are scared of spiders modelled by the mothers with whom they identify whereas boys dont imitate this behaviour
• Strengths of SLT approach


  • considers the role of cognitive factors in learning
  • it is based on laboratory experiments
  • It is less deterministic and reductionist than other approaches
  • Explains development of culture
  • Explains the learning of complex behaviours ]
  • It has been successfully applied to amny areas of psychology ( gendered dev.)
• Limitiations of the SLT approach 


  • ignores the roles of biology
  • theory still concentrates mostly on external behaviours
  • doesnt fully explain individual differences
  • it doesnt account for all behaviour
  • Labourtury experiments are artifical
  • Theory is not good at explaining learning of abstract ideas
• The behaviourist approach 


  • founded by Watson in 1915
  • emerged beginning of 2oth century , rejecting the vagueness of introspection instead focuses on how we are a product of our own learning , experience and environment
  • key people:
  • ivan parlov -classical conditioning
  • B.F skinner - Operant conditioning
• Assumptions of the behaviourist approach 


  • bahaviourism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour
  • psychology is a science
  • when born our mind is a blank slate
  • there is little difference between the learning that takes place in the result of stimulus - response
  • all behaviour is learnt from the environment
• Key concepts of the behaviourist approach 


  • Stimulus - anything internal or external that brings about a response
  • Response - any reaction in the presence of the stimulus
  • Reinforcement - the process by which a response is srengthened.
• Classical conditioning 


  • Parlov was first to describe this process of learning by testing it on animalss
  • this is learning by association - refers to conditioning of relfexes and involves a new stimulus and innate bodily reflex Involves pairing a response naturally caused by 1 stimuluswith anothher previously neutral stimulus
• What is the process of classical conditioning?

  It is a learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.
• What did Pavlov establish about meat in his experiment?

  Meat caused the dog to salivate, acting as an unconditioned stimulus.