4.2.1 - Approaches

• Behaviourist approach


  • Psychologists should only study observable, quantifiable behaviour
  • All behaviour is learned
  • Humans are no different from animals and should not be regarded as more complex
  • Research on animal behaviour is directly relevant to humans
• Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment

  • Pairing the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in dogs producing a salivation response (conditioned response) at the sound of the bell (conditioned stimulus)
• Operant conditioning


  Behaviour is the result of learning through the consequences of our actions
• Types of reinforcement


  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
  • Punishment
• Positive reinforcement


  A behaviour is followed by a desirable consequence (reward) and is more likely to be repeated
• Negative reinforcement


  A behaviour is followed by the removal of an adverse consequence and is more likely to be repeated
• Punishment


  A behaviour is followed by an unpleasant consequence and is less likely to be repeated
• Skinner box


  • An animal would move around the cage, and when it pressed the lever (by accident), it would be rewarded with a food pellet. The animal would learn, through positive reinforcement, that each time it pressed the lever, it would be rewarded with food.
• Behaviourist approach


  • Significantly contributed to the recognition of psychology as a science
  • Encouraged the use of animals as research subjects
  • Made important contributions to the understanding and treatment of mental illness
  • Criticised for its limited view regarding the origins of behaviour
• Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned and that humans have little choice in their behaviour, as it is simply the product of environmental learning
• Social learning theory


  Learning occurs through the observation and imitation of behaviour performed by role models, who model behaviour in a social environment
• Social learning theory


  • Recognises the importance of cognitive processes (mediational processes)
  • Rejects the notion that learning is purely the outcome of a stimulus-response loop
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment


  • Children were exposed to an adult model either behaving aggressively or non-aggressively towards a Bobo doll, and then the children's own behaviour towards the Bobo doll was observed
• Examples of internal mental processes


  • Perception
  • Memory
  • Attention
  • Consciousness
  • Language
  • Problem-solving

  
• Schemas


  • They provide us with expectations about what will happen in the world, rather than requiring us to process every single detail, all of the time
  • They allow us to make sense of ambiguous situations by "filling in the gaps" in our knowledge
  • They enable us to act comfortably even when our information is incomplete which makes it much easier to deal with complex situations
  • They can lead to errors in information-processing such as prejudice and discrimination
• Theoretical models


  • Multi-store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)
  • Working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)
• Cognitive neuroscience


  Field that tries to bridge the gap between the cognitive and biological approaches
• Cognitive neuroscience


  • Uses non-invasive brain scanning techniques like PET and MRI to understand which parts of the brain are active while specific internal mental processes are being used
• Brain scans have highlighted the distinction between different types of long-term memory
• Brain imaging techniques have also been successful in establishing a link to certain mental health disorders, such as the association between obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the parahippocampal gyrus
• Phenotype


  The expression of genes which results in the observable characteristics of a person, influenced by both genetic inheritance and interaction with the environment
• Genotype


  The genetic make-up of an individual
• Techniques used in biological research

  • fMRIs
  • PET scans
  • Drug trials
  • EEGs
• Strengths of the biological approach

  • It utilises reliable methods of research
  • It has many real-world applications such as drug therapies for mental illnesses
• Defence mechanism


  Unconscious internal process that protects the individual from anxiety and unacceptable impulses
• Psychodynamic approach


  Outlines how behaviour is determined by unconscious drives and early childhood experiences
• Psychodynamic approach


  Differs from humanistic approach in the extent to which it claims human behaviour is determined
• Humanistic approach


  • Claims humans have control over their own environment and are capable of change
  • Advocates complete free will
• Wundt


  Father of experimental psychology, set up the world's first psychological laboratory The Institute of experimental psychology in Leipzig, Germany in the 1870s and produced the first academic Journal that published psychological experiments
• Emergence of psychology as a science

  • Before Wundt, the study of the mind and behavior was limited to philosophy and Medicine
  • Wundt was the first to use controlled empirical scientific research techniques to study the mind
  • Wundt's use of scientific methods helped establish psychology as an independent field of scientific research
• Structuralism


  Wundt's research used an experimental technique called introspection with participants focusing inwards and reporting sensations, feelings and images
• Wundt's participants were 1) trained to report conscious experiences objectively, 2) asked to focus on a sensory object, and 3) asked to systematically report their experience breaking their thoughts into separate elements
• Wundt developed general theories of mental processes based on the experimental data collected
• Behavior psychologists rejected the study of internal mental states, seeing the mind as a black box
• Wundt's use of inferences influenced cognitive psychologists, these researchers asked participants to complete tasks under experimental conditions and made inferences about the structure of internal mental processes like memory and attention
• Behaviorism


  A learning theory that argues behavior is learned through experiences and interactions with the environment
• Behaviorists


  • They argue it is only possible to study scientifically what can be directly observed and measured, including what you do to a creature (stimulus) and the resulting behavior (response)
  • They argue the mind cannot be directly observed so it is a black box that is not suitable for scientific study
• Classical conditioning


  Learning by association, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally triggers a response
• Classical conditioning procedure


  1. Present neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus over several trials

  2. The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus producing the conditioned response even without the unconditioned stimulus
• Operant conditioning


  Learning by reinforcement, where voluntary responses are learned based on their consequences