Paper 2 Approaches

• Wilhelm Wundt


  Separated psychology from philosophy

  - Analysed workings of the mind, structured way

  - Emphasis on objective and scientific measurement

  - Standardised instructions and controlled stimulus
• Introspection


  Systematic and repeated study of thoughts
• Griffiths


  Process of fruit machine gamblers

  Think aloud while playing with microphone
• Biological approach


  - Everything has biological cause

  - Biological psychology explains how we think, feel and behave

  - Brain structure, nervous system, genetics and hormones
• Concordance rates


  A measure of similarity between two individuals or sets of individuals on a given trait
• Monozygotic twins

  Dizygotic twins

  Derived from single ovum

  Derived from different ovum
• AO3 - Strengths of biological approach


  - Scientific approach = cause and effect relationships and established psychology as a respectable science

  - Lead to treatment and intervention

  - Measurements can be objective as it can be performed by machines which have to interest in outcome (EEG, PET scan)
• AO3 - Limitations of biological approach


  - Deterministic (sees behaviour as governed by uncontrollable biological forces, no free will)

  - Reductionist (all human behaviour explained through biological processes, no human is unique)

  - Ignore role of environment

  - No cause and effect

  - Hard to generalise

  - Lab experiments (lack ecological validity)
• Behavioural approach


  Emphasizes the role of learning and observable behaviours in understanding human and animal actions
• Classical conditioning


  Learn via association
• Pavlov


  Dogs can be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell

  Process

  Bell (neutral stimulus) --> Dog (no response)

  
  

  Food (uncon stimulus) --> Dog salivate (uncon response)

  
  

  Bell (Neutral stimulus) + food (unconditioned stimulus) --> dog salivate (unconditioned response)

  
  

  Bell (conditioned stimulus) --> Dog salivate (conditioned response)

  
• Features of Classical conditioning


  Extinction:

  Conditioned response not permanent after a few presentations of bell with no food or response.

  Spontaneous recovery:

  Following extinction, pair CS and UCS, association very quick

  Stimulus generation:

  Once conditioned, animals will respond to other stimuli
• Operant conditioning


  Learn through consequences

  3 types of consequences:

  - Positive reinforcement

  - Negative reinforcement

  - Punishment
• Positive reinforcement


  Increase likelihood of response, involve reward

  (getting paid, getting achievement points)
• Negative reinforcement


  Increase likelihood of response because involves removal of unpleasant consequences.

  (Choke collar loosened when dog move closer,

  car buzzer turns off when put on seatbelt)
• Positive punishment


  Receive something unpleasant to decrease behaviour

  (if you speed to get a ticket)
• Negative punishment


  Remove something desirable to decrease behaviour

  (Child banned from video games)
• Skinner box


  Every time rat activated a lever it got food, from then on the animal would continue to perform behaviour

  He also used an unpleasant stimulus (electric shock)
• Social learning theory


  Through observational learning, children model their behaviour by watching others.
• Mediating process ARRM


  Attention - how much behaviour noticed

  Retention - whether behaviour is remembered

  Reproduction - Ability to copy behaviour

  Motivation - Wanting to perform behaviour
• Bandura


  1. Children watched adults being aggressive and punished

  2. Children watched adults being praised for being aggressive

  Group where adults praised, children most violent
• AO3 Bandura


  Mirror neuron = neuron fires when an animal acts and observes some actions performed by another

  Neuron 'mirrors' behaviour of others

  Directly observed in primates
• Humanistic approach


  An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny. (Idiographic)
• Humanistic assumptions


  - Humans viewed as a whole, not reduced (Holism)

  - Humans strive to achieve self actualisation

  - Real and ideal self must be congruent

  - Control and determine development
• Humanistic approach free will


  Humans are self-determining and have free will meaning you have the ability to make your own decisions
• Humanistic approach - Self actualisation and Maslow's hierarchy of needs


  Every person wants to achieve their full potential (ultimate feeling of satisfaction and well-being)

  
• Humanistic approach - Focus on self


  Carl Rogers = People have 2 basic needs : positive regard for other people and a feeling of self worth

  - Self congruence (when your actual and ideal self match)

  (Parents may place the child's beauty before anything -condition of worth)
• AO3 - Humanistic approach


  + Positive approach = optimistic

  - Holism = Does not break up behaviour, subjective experience

  - Limited real world applications = Loose set of abstract ideas

  - Untestable concepts = variables can't be measured as they need to be reduced.
• Cognitive approach


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


  Process should be studied scientifically using controlled experimental research.

  Internal mental processes are private, studied by drawing conclusions from behaviour.
• Cognitive neuroscience


  the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)
• Psychodynamic approach


  An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society's demands, and early childhood family experiences.
• Freud


  Mental activity is unconscious, traumatic childhood experiences pushed to unconscious mind and lead to mental disorders.
• Role of unconsciousness


  Conscious = Small amount of mental activity we know

  Preconscious = Thoughts we become aware of through dreams

  Unconscious = Vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts influence behaviour
• Defence mechanisms


  Freud believed that the mind prevents traumatic memories from reaching conscious awareness which may cause anxiety.

  3 mechanisms:

  - Repression = force distressing memory out of conscious

  - Denial = Refusing to acknowledge aspects of reality

  - Displacement = Transfer feelings to substitute target
• 3 Personalities


  ID = drive us to satisfy selfish urges (from birth)

  Ego = Mediators between ID and superego

  Superego = Formed at end of phallic stage (age 5) moral standards of child's same sex parent
• Psychosexual stages


  the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

  
• Oedipus complex


  According to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
• Electra complex


  Conflict during phallic stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals
• Little hans


  - 5 year old with a phobia of horses

  - Freud thought the horse represented his father as he was scared his father would castrate him for desiring his mother - this is the Oedipus complex theory