psych paper 2

• Wilhem Wundt


  The father of psychology, opened the first psychological laboratory in a university in Leipzig, Germany
• Wundt's experiment


  1. Exposing participants to the sound of a metronome

  2. Asking them to introspect; describe how it made them feel
• Introspection


  The process of observing and examining your conscious thoughts and emotions
• Wundt's findings are not falsifiable, as you cannot falsify emotions
• As Wundt's experiment was conducted in 1879, he may not have been able to control all extraneous variables
• Wundt was the first person to suggest the mind could be studied empirically using experiments
• The concept of introspection to gather data was criticised by researchers such as John B. Watson for being very subjective
• Watson began the behaviourist movement, studying observable stimulus-response behaviour
• Approaches


  • Behaviourist approach
  • Cognitive approach
  • Biological approach
  • Psychodynamic approach
  • Humanistic approach
• Behaviourist approach


  An approach to explaining behaviour which suggests that all behaviour is acquired and maintained through classical and operant conditioning
• Only behaviour which can be objectively measured and observed is studied, as demonstrated by Skinner's Box
• This is due to the founders of behaviourism, Pavlov and Skinner, disagreeing with the subjective nature of Wundt's introspective methods, and the inability to formulate general laws and universal principles based on his observations
• Classical conditioning


  When a neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that it eventually takes on the properties of the neutral stimulus and is able to produce a conditioned response, becoming a conditioned stimulus
• Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment

  1. Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (food) produced an unconditioned response (salivation)

  2. During conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus was repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus (a bell), to produce the same unconditioned response of salivation

  3. An association was made between the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus

  4. After conditioning, the neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus, producing the conditioned response of salivation
• Extinction


  When the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus, so the conditioned response becomes extinct/disappears
• Spontaneous recovery


  When the individual carries out the conditioned response some time after extinction has occurred
• Generalisation


  When slight changes in the conditioned stimulus, such as different pitches of the bell used in Pavlov's experiment, still produces the same conditioned response
• Classical conditioning has been used in developing treatments for mental illness, such as systematic desensitisation
• Classical conditioning ignores the role of biology in behaviour, instead it suggests everything stems from stimulus response learning
• Classical conditioning does not account for the role of cognition/thought in behaviour as this is not observable
• Operant conditioning


  Learning through reinforcement or punishment. If a behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence then that behaviour is more likely to occur in the future
• Reinforcement


  Anything that strengthens a response and increases the likelihood that it will occur again in the future
• Positive reinforcement


  When behaviour produces a consequence that is satisfying or beneficial for the organism
• Negative reinforcement


  When something unpleasant is removed, restoring the organism to its 'pre-aversive' state
• Punishment


  The application of an unpleasant consequence following a behaviour, with the result that the behaviour is less likely to occur again the future
• Skinner's box experiment


  1. Behaviour - rat presses lever

  2. Positive reinforcement - rat given a food pellet

  3. Negative reinforcement - electric shock stops
• Real life evidence suggests operant conditioning is an effective way for both humans and animals to learn e.g. token economy programs in schools
• Skinner's work was conducted on animals and has been criticised for then being applied to humans. One reason is that humans often have thoughts associated with learning not taken into account in this theory of learning
• Much of the research took place on animals and exposed them to some unpleasant stimuli, which may breach ethical guidelines
• The Little Albert experiment


  1. After the continuous association of the white rat and loud noise, Little Albert was classically conditioned to experience fear at the sight of the rat

  2. Albert's fear generalised to other stimuli that were similar to the rat, including a fur coat, some cotton wool, and a Santa mask
• Social learning theory


  Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded (proposed by Bandura)
• Modelling


  A form of learning where individuals learn a particular behaviour by observing another individual performing that behaviour
• Role model


  Someone you spend the most contact time with, usually gender specific
• Mediational processes


  1. Attention ~ observe a role model and pays attention to their behaviour

  2. Encoding ~ memorise the behaviour they have observed

  3. Motivation ~ a reason / a similar situation has arisen

  4. Imitation / reproduction
• Imitation


  The action of using someone/something as a model and copying their behaviour
• Vicarious reinforcement


  Learning that is not a result of direct reinforcement of behaviour, but through observing someone else being reinforced for their behaviour
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment

  1. Children were either shown an adult acting aggressively towards a bobo doll / a non aggressive adult playing with the bobo doll / exposed to no model at all for 10 minutes

  2. Children were them placed in the room with aggressive (e.g. hammer, bobo doll, toy guns) and non aggressive toys

  3. The children's behaviour was observed for 20 minutes in 5 second intervals
• Children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups
• Boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models than girls. The evidence for girls imitating same-sex models is not strong
• Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls. There was little difference in verbal aggression between boys and girls