Approachs

• Approaches in psychology


  • Learning approaches
  • Biological approaches
  • Cognitive approaches
  • Introspection
  • Psychodynamic approach
  • Humanistic psychology
• Assumptions


  The basic principles that each approach follows
• Concepts


  The core vocabulary and explanations that each approach has developed
• Research Methods


  How scientists from this approach conduct and analyse research
• Key Research


  Some of the most influential studies that have come from this approach
• Strengths


  Positive contributions from the approach
• Limitations


  Drawbacks of the approach
• Learning approaches believe that behaviours are best explained by studying how learning and experience has shaped us
• Biological approaches believe that behaviours are best explained by studying their biological underpinnings
• Cognitive approaches believe that behaviours are best explained by understanding the mental processing and thought processes that occur within the mind
• Introspection


  The work of Wilhelm Wundt, who set up the first experimental psychology laboratory
• Psychodynamic approach


  The theories of Sigmund Freud and his followers look at the influence of unconscious motivations on human behaviour
• Humanistic psychology


  A kind of psychology that emphasises free will, rejects science, and concentrates on helping people to grow and develop as individuals
• Wilhelm Wundt opened a dedicated psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany


  1879
• Structuralists

  Wundt and his followers who wanted to know about the structure of the mind and of mental processes
• Introspection


  A way of carefully and systematically observing and analysing one's own sensations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings
• Behaviourism


  The main assumption is that behaviour in humans and animals is a result of learning, or conditioning
• Classical conditioning


  Learning through association. A neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus when paired with an unconditioned stimulus

  
• Operant conditioning


  Learning through consequences: rewards and punishments
• Social Learning Theory


  Stresses the importance of learning to explain our personalities and behaviour, but learning can occur indirectly by observing and imitating others
• Mediational processes


  Cognitive factors that come between stimulus and response
• Cognitive Approach


  Assumes that the key to understanding people is understanding how the mind works, and is concerned with investigating internal mental processes like thinking, perception, problem solving and memory
• Schemas


  Knowledge structures within the mind that store and gather information about various categories of situation or thing, and which can be used to generate behavioural routines or mental shortcuts
• The biological approach assumes that psychological states and behaviours are ultimately caused by biological structures and processes
• Genotype


  The genetic code, the 'recipe' for making a person, written in the DNA molecule
• Phenotype


  The observable characteristics of an organism, resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment
• Biological approach


  Assumes that psychological states and behaviours are ultimately caused by biological structures and processes, and aims to investigate and understand these
• Areas psychologists in the biological approach may study

  • How biological structures such as the brain and nervous system influence behaviour
  • How behaviour and personality are influenced by genetics
  • How behaviours were shaped by evolution
• Brain anatomy and physiology


  • Can be studied to see which areas of the brain are involved in which tasks, and how they are involved
• Neurochemistry


  Looks at how chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters influence our mind and behaviour
• Phenotype


  The characteristics and behaviours that we actually observe, created by the interaction between genotype and experiences
• Heritability


  Measuring the influence of genetics on traits and behaviours
• Evolutionary psychology


  Looks at how elements of human behaviour may have been shaped by selection pressures in our ancestral environments
• Research methods used by biological psychologists

  • Neuroscience tools like fMRI and EEG
  • Biochemistry techniques
  • Case studies
  • Animal research
  • Twin studies
  • Adoption studies
  • Genome-wide association studies
  • Comparisons with non-human animals
• Psychodynamic approach


  Theory of personality that stresses the importance of the unconscious mind in driving behaviour
• Libido


  Sex drive that processes around the body during different stages of development
• Psychosexual stages


  Oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages of libido development
• Id, ego, superego


  The three parts of the personality according to Freud
• Ego defence mechanisms


  Repression, denial, displacement - used to protect the ego from unacceptable desires and traumas
• Psychodynamic theory was developed on the basis of case studies of individuals with mental illness