Behaviourism

    Cards (47)

    • perception
      the process of extracting meaning from what we hear, touch and see
    • introspection
      person gaining knowledge about their mental state by examining their conscious thoughts and feelings
    • determinism
      the idea that all events and behaviours have causes
    • if something is unbiased it is
      objective
    • What did Wundt do

      separated psychology from philosophy and biology and became the first psychologist
    • what was Wundts approach called
      structuralism
    • what is structuralism
      using experimental methods to find the basic building blocks of thought and investigate how they interacted
    • What did Wundt study first and why
      reaction time
      • the longer they took to respond the more mental processes involved
    • Wundts contribution to psychology
      • first psychology textbook
      • first lab of experimental psychology
    • A weakness of Wundts structuralist approach is that it relied on
      non observable responses
    • This means that...
      even though participants could report their own conscious experiences , the processes involved like perception and memory are unobservable .When other researchers repeated his experiments they got different results
    • This means his methods are unreliable because ...
      his findings can't be generalised to all people
    • An issue with introspection is that it is not very
      accurate
    • Nisbett & Wilson (1977)
      Claimed that we have very little knowledge of the causes and processes underlying our behaviour .They found this problem was relevant to study of implicit attitude .These attitudes exist outside of our conscious awareness , so self report through introspection won't uncover them
    • This challenges...
      The value of introspective methods in explaining the roots of our behaviour
    • strength of introspection
      it is still used in psychology today
    • It has recently ....
      Made a comeback .Eg.in 2003 there was a study called 'introspection and the study of happiness
    • Introspection therefore offers researchers ...
      A way of understanding human behaviour , which could improve the quality of our lives
    • Reductionism
      the reduction of complex systems to simpler components that are more manageable to study
    • Wundt's role in the development of psychology
      • set up first psych lab in 1870s
      • promoted use of introspection
      • paved the way for cognitive psychologists
    • Major features of introspection
      • focus on being objective
      • reflection on sensations , feelings and images
      • breaking thoughts about an object down into separate elements
      • Wundt would ask to focus on an everyday object and look inwards noticing sensations and feelings
    • Main point of operant conditioning
      organisms spontaneously produce behaviours and these produce consequences
    • What depends on whether the action is repeated or not ?
      The nature of the consequences
    • What is a reinforcement
      something that increases the chances of a behaviour reoccurring
    • positive reinforcement
      adding something to make sure the behaviour is repeated eg.reward
    • negative reinforcement
      removing something unpleasant to make sure the behaviour happens again
    • punishment
      when behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence
    • positive punishment
      adding in something unpleasant to make sure the behaviour doesn't happen again
    • negative punishment
      taking away something pleasant to stop a behaviour
    • What happened in the Skinner box
      when animal moves around the cage and accidentally presses a lever a food pellet comes out (the reinforcer)
      therefore the animal continues to do this
    • what was the punishment in skinners experiment
      electrified floor and so animal learnt behaviour to avoid electric shock
    • strengths of operant conditioning
      • has practical application
      • his use of experimental methods with high levels of control
    • what did Skinner box mean for the experiment
      skinner was accurately able to measure animals behaviour and establish a cause and effect relationship
    • what practical application does this experiment have
      education system
    • weaknesses of skinners experiment
      • ethics (animal abuse)
      • free will (which skinner didn't believe in as he thought all external influences affected our behaviour)
    • What is classical conditioning
      Learning through association
    • When does learning occur?
      When an association is made between a previously neutral stimulus and reflex response
    • example of a reflex response
      animals salivating when food is placed in their mouth
    • step 1 of Pavlovs experiment (before conditioning)
      unconditional response = food
      causes an unconditional response which is salivation
    • step 2 of Pavlovs experiment (before conditioning)
      neutral stimulus (bell) is presented
      there is no salivation or conditional response
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