Approaches

• Psychology


  The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes and how these are affected by internal and external factors
• Science


  The pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world, following a systematic methodology based on evidence
• Features of science

  • Universal paradigm
  • Theory construction
  • Hypothesis testing
  • Falsification
  • Replicability
  • Objectivity
  • Empirical method
• Introspection


  A means of learning about one's own currently ongoing mental states or processes. Introspective knowledge is often held to be more immediate or direct than sensory knowledge
• Conditions of introspection


  • Mentality condition
  • First-person condition
  • Temporal proximity condition
• Structuralism


  Isolating conscious thoughts into basic structures of thoughts, processes and images
• Skinner disagreed with the subjective nature of introspection, in which the findings differed greatly from individual to individual, making it difficult to establish general laws and unifying principles of behaviour and cognition
• The laboratory experiment method of research allowed for the objective measurement of observable behaviour, providing reliable data through controlling and eliminating the effects of extraneous and confounding variables, by using highly controlled conditions
• Cognitive psychology


  Flourished with the invention of the computer in the 1960s, as psychologists had a metaphor for the functions and workings of the mind i.e. the 'computer analogy'
• Social learning theory

  Agreed with behaviourist principles (i.e. that behaviour is learnt through experience) but argued that these principles are better applied to a social context
• Biological approach


  Advances in technology, particularly with brain scanning techniques in the 1970s, allowed psychologists to objectively observe and measure the biological basis of behaviour
• Behaviourism


  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
• The basic laws governing learning are the same across both non-humans and humans, so non-human animals can replace humans in behaviourist experimental research
• Classical conditioning


  A type of learning which occurs through associations made between the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus
• Classical conditioning process


  1. Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces the unconditioned response (UCR)

  2. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired with the UCS, producing an UCR

  3. After conditioning, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus, producing the conditioned response
• 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 still produces the same conditioned response
• Operant conditioning


  A type of learning where behaviour is acquired and maintained based on its consequences
• Types of reinforcement


  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement


  • Completing homework to receive praise from a teacher
• Negative reinforcement


  • Completing homework to avoid being given a detention
• Skinner's Box


  Demonstrated the mechanisms of positive and negative reinforcement using a rat
• Social learning theory


  Suggests that learning occurs both directly, through classical and operant conditioning, and indirectly, through vicarious reinforcement
• Stages of social learning theory

  • Observer identifies with a desirable role model
  • Role model displays a specific behaviour
  • Observer imitates the behaviour
  • Likelihood of imitation increased if role model is vicariously reinforced
• Role model


  A person with whom the observer identifies, usually attractive, high social status, similar age and gender
• Identification


  The process by which an observer relates to/associates themselves with a role model and aspires to become more like that role model
• Vicarious reinforcement


  A type of indirect learning which occurs when an observer sees their role model being rewarded for displaying a certain behaviour
• Mediational processes

  • Attention
  • Retention
  • Motor reproduction
  • Motivation
• Bandura's Bobo Doll study found that children who'd observed an aggressive role model behaved more aggressively themselves towards the Bobo doll compared to the non-aggressive role model control group
• Boys exhibited more imitative aggression, aggressive gun play, and nonimitative aggressive behaviour compared to girls


  May be explained by boys having higher levels of the hormone testosterone, linked to increased aggressiveness
• Bandura's Bobo Doll study may lack internal validity due to demand characteristics, as the Bobo doll is specifically designed to be hit, and may not represent how children would be aggressive in day-to-day situations
• Social learning theory acknowledges the role of human cognition and mediational processes, making it a better explanation of human behaviour compared to behaviourism
• Bandura's study may lack internal validity, due to not entirely investigating the effect of aggressive role models because the Bobo doll is specifically designed to be hit
• The study may also lack mundane realism because it may not represent or measure how children would be aggressive in day-to-day situations, perhaps towards objects or people that are not meant to be struck
• Participants may have deliberately acted more aggressively towards the doll in order to please the experimenter (the 'Please-U effect')
• This reduces the generalisability of the findings
• Human cognitive and decision-making processes


  May be considered as more complex than that of animals
• Social Learning Theory (SLT)


  Has the advantage, over behaviourism, that it recognises the role of mediational processes as the conscious and cognitive insight that humans have into their behaviour