Approaches

• Cognitive approach assumptions

  the mind is like a computer eg MSM

  importance of schemas - cognitive framework
• Strengths + weaknesses of cognitive approach

  S - scientific, high in validity + real life application, learning info

  W - machine reductionist - mind like a computer is too simplistic it ignores emotions
• Biological approach main assumptions

  behaviour is the consequence of hormone, neural correlates, genes

  role of the geno + pheno type
• Cognitive neuroscience main assumptions

  Uses techniques such as FMRI + EEG to study the brain

  aims to link cognitive behaviours with brain structures
• Strengths + Weaknesses of cognitive neuroscience

  S - Scientific

  W - FMRI is very expensive which makes it less accessible to researchers

  limited in what we can study - people are constrained cannot study social interactions
• Psychodynamic approaches main assumptions

  Role of the unconscious - behaviour is driven by unconscious but unaware

  ID, Ego + superego - immediate gratification

  Psychosexual stages - oral, phallic, latency, anal, adolescent
• Strengths + weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach

  S - uses case studies, little Hans

  W - Psychic determinism, childhood experiences determine behaviours

  Androcentrism, freud looked at feminity as failed masculinity
• Behaviourist approach main assumptions

  Born as a blank slate, behaviour is learnt from environment - classical conditioning + operant conditioning

  role of reinforcement - positive + negative
• Introspection


  systematic analysis of ones own conscious experiences in response to a standardised stimulus such as a metronome
• Structuralism 


  involves breaking down reactions into their individual components
• Wundt

  Father of psychology

  opened the first lab in Germany

  moved from philosophical roots to scientific branch
• Strengths + weaknesses of Wundt

  S - more scientific, standardised stimulus increasing the credibility

  W - self reporting is still subjective not scientific