Psychology

• Psychoanalytical theory


  This psychological theory proposes that the unconscious struggles of the mind determine how personality develops and dictate behaviour
• Psychoanalytical theory


  • Founded by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century
  • Proposed that personality and behaviour are the outcome of continual conflicts in the mind
  • The individual is not usually aware of the discord because it takes place at a subconscious level
• Conscious mind


  Contains the ideas and emotions that people are aware of
• Preconscious mind


  Stores information such as childhood memories, which can be accessed through psychoanalysis
• Unconscious mind


  Hides most of a person's impulses, desires, and thoughts because they involve both sexuality and mental processes
• Psychoanalysis


  The client tells the analyst about their childhood memories and dreams in order to unlock the unconscious mind and reveal how it is controlling or triggering undesirable behaviour
• Psychosexual stages


  • Freud believed that personality develops from birth in five stages which he called psychosexual
  • At each stage a person's mind focuses on a different aspect of sexuality, such as oral pleasure when they suck their thumb as a baby
  • Freud believed that the psychosexual stages trigger a battle between biology and social expectations, and the mind must resolve this conflict before a person can move on to healthy mental development
• Dreams


  Are seen as a channel for unconscious thoughts that people cannot usually access because many of them are too disturbing for the conscious mind to cope with
• Id


  Strives for instant gratification, is childlike, impulsive and hard to reason with
• Ego


  The voice of reason, negotiating with the id and the superego
• Superego


  Wants to do the right thing, is the moral conscience that takes on the role of a strict parent
• Defence mechanism


  • Freud argued that people subconsciously employ defence mechanisms when faced with anxiety or unpleasant emotions
  • These mechanisms help them to cope with memories or impulses that they find stressful or distasteful by tricking them into thinking that everything is fine
• Denial


  A common defence mechanism used to justify a habit an individual feels bad about, such as smoking. By saying that they are only a "social smoker", they can allow themselves to have a cigarette while not admitting that they are in fact addicted to smoking them.
• Inferiority complex


  When self-esteem is so low that a person cannot function normally. The idea was developed by neo-Freudian Alfred Adler.
• Pleasure principle


  What drives the id - the desire to obtain pleasure and avoid pain
• Neo-Freudians


  Theorists who built on Freud's psychoanalytic theories, such as Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, and Alfred Adler
• Neurons are specialized cells that transmit information throughout the nervous system.
• The brain is the most complex organ in the body, with over 100 billion neurons.
• Interneurons connect sensory and motor neurons within the brain and spinal cord, allowing complex processing of information.
• Neurons communicate with each other through synaptic transmission, where neurotransmitter molecules cross the gap between two cells at a synapse.
• Motor neurons transmit information from the CNS to muscles or glands.
• The brain is divided into three main parts: cerebrum, cerebellum, and medulla oblongata.
• Cerebral cortex is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as thinking, reasoning, and decision-making.
• The autonomic nervous system regulates involuntary functions such as heart rate, breathing, digestion, and blood pressure.
• Cerebral cortex is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as perception, memory, language, problem-solving, and decision making.
• Cerebral cortex is responsible for higher mental functions such as thinking, reasoning, and decision making.
• Limbic System includes structures involved with emotions, memory, and motivation.
• Behaviourist approach


  Behavioural psychology analyses and treats people on the basis that their behaviour is learnt by interacting with the world and that the influence of the subconscious is irrelevant
• Behaviourist approach


  • The starting point is a focus on only observable human behaviour, leaving out thought and emotion
  • People learn their behaviour from the world around them, and not from innate or inherited factors
  • Psychology is a science, so measurable data from controlled experiments and observation should support its theories
  • All behaviour is the result of a stimulus that triggers a particular response
• Classical conditioning


  A method used by behavioural psychologists to predict and change a person's stimulus-response association
• Methodological behaviourism


  Watson's theory that viewed psychology as a science with the goals of prediction and control of behaviour, ruling out any influence from a person's DNA or internal mental state
• Methodological behaviourism


  • Assumes that when people are born, their minds are a blank slate and they learn all their behaviour from the people and things around them
• Operant conditioning


  A method for inducing behaviour change involving positive or negative actions on the part of the owner to reinforce or punish the behaviour
• Operant conditioning


  • Positive reinforcement (giving a reward to encourage good behaviour)
  • Negative reinforcement (removing something bad to encourage good behaviour)
  • Positive punishment (doing something unpleasant to discourage bad behaviour)
  • Negative punishment (taking away something the dog enjoys to discourage undesired behaviours)
• Radical behaviourism


  Developed by B.F. Skinner, which allowed for the influence of biology on behaviour and the idea of reinforcement - behaviour that is reinforced by a reward is more likely to be repeated
• Psychological behaviourism


  Conceived by Arthur W. Staats, it informs current practice in psychology, especially in education, and considers that a person's personality is shaped by learned behaviours, genetics, their emotional state, how their brain processes information, and the world around them
• Humanism


  A psychological approach that places central importance on the individual's viewpoint, encouraging the question "How do I see myself?" rather than "How do others see me?"
• Humanism


  • Assumes that personal growth and fulfilment are primary goals in life, and that emotional and mental wellbeing comes from achieving this
  • The principle of free will, exercised in the choices a person makes, is also key
• Gestalt psychology


  Examines in detail how the mind takes small pieces of information and builds them into a meaningful whole, emphasizing the importance of perception
• Gestalt psychology


  • The Rubin Vase illusion, which illustrates the law of 'figure' and 'ground' - a person's mind always works to distinguish a figure (e.g. words) from its background (e.g. a white page), and in doing so, makes a decision about priority and what to focus on