Approaches

• Wundt, Introspection & the Emergence of Psychology as a Science: Wundt's beliefs include two key components that make up the contents of human mind: sensations and feelings.
• Researchers need to look at the processes and activities that occur as people experience the world around them.
• Wundt's labs involved highly trained observers presented with carefully controlled sensory events and asked to describe their mental experiences.
• Wundt's technique of introspection involved training people to carefully and objectively report in detail their own thoughts and feelings when presented with a stimulus such as a problem to solve or something to be memorised.
• Controlled observation is a controlled, experimental procedure that was repeated several times with the same stimulus, such as a ticking metronome, individuals and instructions.
• Watson was critical of introspection as it produced subjective (biased) data and couldn’t establish general laws.
• Watson & behaviourism proposed that a truly scientific psychology should only study observable and measurable things, leading to behaviourist approach.
• Watson & Skinner brought methods from natural sciences into psychology, including controlled lab experiments.
• Following cognitive revolution in 1960s, the study of mental processes is now seen as a highly scientific area within psychology.
• The biological approach uses experimental data and recent advances in technology mean that imaging techniques investigate physiological processes such as 'live' activity in the brain.
• The psychodynamic approach lacks scientific validity as it is unfalsifiable and its concepts cannot be measured or falsified.
• The biological approach is scientific, objective, and empirical, as evidenced by Holland et al (1988) - ass.
• The biological approach is deterministic and human behaviour is said to be caused by biology, removing an individual's independence and ability to blame themselves for a wrong action.
• Bandura's research lacks ethical issues as the children may have been distressed by the adult behaviour and may have learnt aggressive behaviour that could stay with them and become a behavioural issue.
• Bandura's research on children's imitation of vocabulary and accent used by their teachers is reliable and valid as it was conducted in 1963 and 1965, standardised his procedure, used two observers behind the one way mirror, and was filmed in 1963.
• The psychodynamic approach lacks supportive research as Eysenck's meta-analysis showed that 66% showed recovery after being treated with psychoanalysis.
• Psychoanalysis is effective treatment according to the psychodynamic approach.
• The humanistic approach lacks scientific validity as it is subjective and lacks empiricism.
• Psychodynamic approach is unscientific, lacks empiricism, and uses case studies.
• The humanistic approach is holistic, increases validity, and is not scientific.
• Children imitate the vocabulary and accent used by their teachers.
• The lack of validity in Bandura's research is due to the children being put into a situation with low MR, adults performing unusually, and toys they don't usually play with, which resulted in unnatural behaviour.
• Behaviourism assumes that behaviour is learned from experience and only observable behaviour is measurable scientifically, while thought processes are subjective and difficult to test.
• Classical conditioning is a learning by association process where learning occurs when an association is made between previously neutral and response.
• Pavlov’s research led to the development of aversion therapy, which has been successful in curing people with addictions but not all human behaviours, and tragic failures when it was misguidedly used to treat homosexual men.
• Bandura’s research, which supports Social Learning Theory, includes participants who share the same characteristics, only children aged 4 on average, making it impractical to generalise this theory to an age group above 4.
• Token economy, an application of Skinner’s research, is used in prisons to reduce undesirable behaviour.
• Treatments, such as aversion therapy, are more likely to be effective and used more regularly when they are applied by society.
• Social Learning Theory explains cultural differences in behaviour, accounting for how children learn from other individuals around them as well as through media, and explains the transmission of cultural norms in particular societies.
• Pavlov’s research on dogs faces extrapolation issues as humans are more complex than dogs and unable to generalise the findings of the dogs to humans.
• Social Learning Theory is more holistic and enhances our knowledge and understanding of behaviour if both learning and cognitive explanations are taken into account.
• Pavlov used standardised procedures and careful documentation of his study, repeating it with different dogs and different neutral stimuli, allowing different researchers to measure the saliva of dogs.
• Skinner reduced the rats’ behaviour down to operant conditioning, but it is incorrect to suggest that rats behaved in that way just because of operant conditioning.
• Social Learning Theory is useful in understanding a range of behaviour, including addictions, aggression, and violence.
• Pavlov’s research involved dogs associating the sound of the bell (NS) with the food (UCS) and producing saliva (CR) every time the bell (CS) was heard.
• Stimulus generalisation is when Pavlov found that when varying the bell pitch & tone, the dog will still salivate.
• Exogenous zeitgebers can influence our internal rhythm to a certain extent, but their influence may be overstated, as evidenced by the story of a young man, blind at birth, with a circadian rhythm of 24.9 hrs, despite exposure to social cues.
• The use of animals in research, particularly for circadian rhythm studies, raises considerable ethical issues, as they are deliberately put in harm's way.
• The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is not as important as once thought, as 'peripheral oscillators' are also present in the adrenal gland and lungs.
• Methodological issues in studies, such as Campbell and Murphy’s study, can limit the validity of findings.