approaches

    Cards (13)

    • behaviourist approach: assumptions - 'tabula rosa' born as a blank slate, our behaviour is shaped by our environment
      • classical conditioning - Pavlov, we learn by associating two stimuli together
      • operant conditioning - Skinner, behaviour is shaped by its consequences
      evaluation:
      strength:
      • skinner's research is well-controlled, establishes cause and effect - scientific credibility.
      • real world application: token economy systems in prisons
      weakness:
      • ethics, can be considered unethical to test on animals
    • social learning theory: behaviour is learned by observation
      vicarious reinforcement: imitation based on whether someone is rewarded or punished
      1. Attention - extent to which we notice behaviours
      2. Retention - how well is it remembered
      3. motor reproduction - ability to perform
      4. motivation - will to perform it
      1,2 - learning behaviour but 3,4 -performance behaviour
      identification: more likely to imitate those they identify with,
      model: someone who posses similar characteristics

      Bandura bobo doll: recorded behaviour of young students who watched adults aggressively hit a doll
    • social learning theory evaluation:
      strength:
      • real-world application as it explains cultural differences in behaviour regarding social norm - explanation for behaviour
      weakness:
      • demand characteristics as it was in a controlled lab study
      • implies that we have free will to make decisions, contradicts behavioural approach saying we dont have free will on our behaviour
    • cognitive approach: internal mental processes, how our thoughts and perceptions affect our behaviour
      • schema: information that is developed through experience
      computer model: information processing approach, comparison of human minds like a computer
      • emergence of cognitive neuroscience: use of PET and fMRI scans to underpin cognitive processes in specific areas of the brain - frontal lobe, broca's area
    • cognitive approach evaluation:
      strength:
      • credible scientific basis, controlled method of study making it scientific and reliable
      • practical application, AI and robot production
      weakness:
      • machine reductionism, human mind and computers to be compared as it ignores human emotion and motivation
    • biological approach: our behaviour is innate and down to biological structures.
      • synaptic transmission: neurochemicals, excessive dopmaine can lead to schizophrenia and low levels of serotonin can lead to OCD
      • genetic basis: twin studies, concordance rates (extent to which twins share the same characteristics) MZ share 100%, DZ share 50%
      • genotype: genetic make-up, phenotype: physical and behavioural characteristics
    • biological approach evaluation:
      strength:
      • real-world application: promoted treatment of clinical depression using antidepressants
      • scientific methods: EEG's and fMRI - reliable
      weakness:
      • deterministic, implying we cannot excuse our behaviour - criminals, legal justice system
    • psychodynamic approach: mind is majority made up of unconscious - repressed memories or biological drives
      • id: devil, pleasure principle and wants instant gratification, selfish - present at birth
      • ego: mediates between the two, reality principle, reduce conflict in decision making
      • superego: angel, morality principle, moral standards
    • psychodynamic approach; psychosexual stages:
      1. oral (0-1years) - pleasure focus on mouth, lead to oral fixation
      2. anal (1-3years) - pleasure focus on anus, withholding faeces, leads to anal retentive (obsessive) or anal expulsion (messy)
      3. phallic (3-6years) - pleasure focus on genitals,
      4. latency - earlier conflicts are repressed
      5. gentials - sexual desires become conscious, cannot form relationships
    • psychodynamic approach evaluation:
      strength:
      • production of psychoanalysis, therapy - real world application
      weakness:
      • psychoanalysis, those with schizophrenia cannnot articulate thoughts properly
      • deterministic, 'slip of the tongue' is down to unconscious forces
    • humanistic approach: idea that we have free will to make our own decisions
      • maslow's hierarchy of needs: motivate our behaviour to reach self-actualisation
      • can only reach the top if you pass through each stage
      Rogers: congruence: when self-concept and ideal self match
      • self-centered client treatment to overcome congruence
      • conditions of worth: when parents place limits or boundaries of love on their children
    • humanistic approach evaluation:
      strength:
      • holistic, looks at an individual as a whole taking into account their emotions and wishes.
      • free will, we have the ability to make our own choices and base it off what we want to achieve
      weakness:
      • culturally-biased, US would have an individualist tendencies, whereas other countries that wouldnt have this would not adopt the approach
    • Wundt and introspection: aim to analyse the nature of human consciousness
      • develop theories about mental processes - language and perception, broken up into basic structures = introspection
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