psych approaches

• Origins of Psychology


  Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science
• Approaches in Psychology


  • Learning approaches
  • Cognitive approach
  • Biological approach
• Learning approaches


  • Behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov's research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner's research
  • Social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura's research
• Cognitive approach


  The study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes
• Biological approach


  • The influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour
  • Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour
• Cognitive Neuroscience


  Interdisciplinary field combining psychology, neuroscience, and computer science to understand neural mechanisms underlying cognition
• Wilhelm Wundt


  First person to call himself a psychologist, studied only those aspects of behaviour that could be strictly controlled under experimental conditions e.g. aspects of sensation and perception
• Structuralism


  The approach that Wundt took, breaking down behaviours such as perception and sensation into their basic elements to study the structure of the human mind
• Introspection


  Technique that Wundt used, process where a person gains knowledge of their mental and emotional states due to the examination or observation of their conscious thoughts and feelings
• Empiricism


  Belief that all knowledge was derived from sensory experience, characterised by use of scientific method in psychology
• Scientific method


  Use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable and the formulation testing and modification of hypotheses based on these methods, used to explore assumptions of how behaviour is caused and then used to predict behaviour
• Evaluation of Wundt and the scientific approach

  • Unreliability of Wundt's methods: relied primarily on 'Non observable' responses, Participants can report on their conscious experiences but processes (perception, memory) considered unobservable constructions
  • Introspection not particularly accurate: acceptance of Nisbett and Wilson (1977) that we have little knowledge of the causes of our behaviour - claim challenged value of introspective reports
  • Introspection still useful: Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter (2003) used introspective methods as a way of making happiness a measurable phenomenon
  • Much of subject matter is unobservable and cannot be measure with a degree of accuracy, Concentration of objectivity and control in observations create situations that have low ecological validity
  • Rely on belief in determinism so able to establish causes of behaviour thorough use of methods that are empirical and replicable, Scientific theories can be refined or abandoned so scientific knowledge is self-corrective
• Cognitive approach


  An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems
• Causal relationship


  Cause and effect; when a change in one variable causes a change in another variable
• Inference


  Go beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about internal mental processes
• Schema


  A cognitive framework that helps to organise and interpret information based on what we've already encountered, e.g. self schemas, event schemas
• Studies demonstrating how schemas affect memory

  • Bartlett (1932) - found that story details were altered in line with cultural schemas
  • Allport and Postman (1947) - showed people a photo, most people remember the razor being in the black man's hand likely due to racial stereotypes of the time
  • Bransford and Johnson (1972) - demonstrated how schemas help us make sense of new information
  • Breyer and Treyens (1981) - demonstrated how schemas help us to recall information
• Maguire et al (2006)


  Studied the hippocampus of taxi drivers to see if it would change because of taxi drivers' dependence on navigation skills, found posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers was larger and correlated with amount of time spent as a taxi driver
• Computational models


  Theoretical models are programmed into a programme to test them
• Theoretical models


  Simplified, usually pictorial representations of what various cognitive processes look like, e.g. the working memory model
• Cognitive neuroscience


  Seeing which parts of the brain are active when completing different cognitive tasks e.g PET scans, MRI Scans
• PET scans


  Neuroimaging used to understand which part of the brain is active in specific circumstances, uses radioactive tracers to produce colour image of brain to locate areas in use
• Evaluation of the cognitive approach

  • Scientific (due to methods used) - experimental method, conclusions based on common sense rather than introspection as can give misleading pic of mental processes which aren't consciously accessible. Therefore can reach accurate conclusions about how mind works
  • Lots of practical applications (CBT, EWT) - cog ap to psychopathology explains dysfunctional behaviour is traced to faulty thinking, led to OCD and depression treatment thru CBT
  • Machine reductionism (ignores bigger pic of humans such as emotion) - lack of focus on motivational states explained by over-dependence on info-processing analogies as motivational states = irrelevant to computers, but not to humans
  • Soft determinism (says behaviour is mostly predetermined, but there's room for free will)
  • Limits of comp models - comps make no mistakes, don't forget or ignore anything stored on hard drives yet humans do all of this
• Psychodynamic approach


  A perspective that describes the different forces (the drive), most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience, theories emphasise the change and development of the individual
• Conscious


  Everything we are currently aware of e.g. thoughts and perceptions
• Preconscious


  Things we can easily access e.g. memories
• Unconscious


  Things that make us feel uncomfortable e.g. selfish desires, fears
• Id


  Primitive, selfish part of our personality - 'pleasure principle' (birth)
• Ego


  Rational part of our personality - 'reality principle' (2-3yrs)
• Superego


  The moral conscience, judgemental part - 'morality principle' (5+yrs)
• Fixation


  Having attachments to people or things that persist from childhood to adulthood, Freud believed that persistent fixations were due to unresolved issues in previous psychological stages of personality development
• Psychosexual stages of development

  • Oral (0-2 yrs, pleasure centre= mouth from sucking/eating)
  • Anal (2-3yrs, pleasure centre = anus)
  • Phallic (3-6 yrs, pleasure centre = genital area, conflict is Oedipus complex)
  • Latency (6-12yrs, conflict of previous states repressed - childhood amnesia)
  • Genital (12+, culmination of psychosexual development, libido is fixed in genitals)
• Oedipus complex


  Male child unconsciously wishes to possess mother and rid father, as a result boys experience castration anxiety (punishment from father), solution = child identifies with their father and forms a bond
• Defence mechanisms


  • Repression (unconscious blocking of negative/unacceptable/traumatic thoughts, pushed into the unconscious where inaccessible)
  • Denial (refusal to accept reality)
  • Displacement (redirection of thoughts or feelings in situations onto a "safe" object, as person feels unable or not appropriate to express them at the source)
• Evaluation of psychodynamic approach

  • Pioneering approach - suggested new methodological procedures for empirical evidence, led to Freud demonstrating psychological treatments for disorders that were effective
  • Scientific support - Fisher and Greenberg (1996) summarised 2500 studies, found support for the existence of the unconscious motivation in behaviour and the defence mechanisms
  • Gender biased approach - Freud remained ignorant of female sexuality and how it differs from males
  • Culture biased approach - many cultural groups do not value insight in the same way that Western cultures do
• Behaviourist approach


  A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable, without the need to consider thoughts or feelings
• Classical conditioning


  Learning in which an existing involuntary reflex response is associated with a new stimulus
• Process of classical conditioning

  • NS -> no response
  • UCS -> UCR
  • NS + UCS -> UCR
  • CS -> CR
• UCS


  Event that produces an innate, unlearned reflex response
• UCR


  Innate unlearned reflex behaviour that an organism produces when exposed to UCS