Approaches

• What is introspection?


  the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes
• Who studies the mind using introspection?

  Wundt
• What is the behaviourist approach?


  A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning.
• What is classical conditioning?

  Learning through association
• What is operant conditioning?


  a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences
• What is reinforcement?


  A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated. Can be positive or negative.
• What are the basic assumptions of the behaviourist approach?

  - they are only interested in studying behaviour which can be observed and measured

  - we are born 'blank slates' and all behaviour is learned from experiences

  -they identified two important forms of learning; classical and operant conditioning
• What is the key study for classical conditioning?

  Pavlov's dogs
• Who studied operant conditioning?

  Skinner
• In operant conditioning, what are the three types of consequence?

  Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment
• What is positive reinforcement?

  Receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
• What is negative reinforcement?


  avoidance of something unpleasant
• What is punishment?


  An unpleasant consequence of behaviour
• What are the strengths of the behaviourist approach?

  It has scientific credibility and real-life application (reward charts for children)
• What are the limitations of the behaviourist approach?

  It holds a mechanistic view of behaviour- it ignores our free will
• Who suggested the social learning theory?

  Bandura
• What are the basic assumptions of the social learning theory?

  - Learning occurs through observation

  - Other people act as models and characteristics of the models influence the likelihood of imitation

  - Learning and performance are not the same
• What is imitation?


  Copying the behaviour of others
• What is identification?


  When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model.
• What is modelling?


  From the observer's perspective, modelling is imitating the behaviour of a role model. From the role model's perspective, modelling is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.
• What is vicarious reinforcement?

  Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour
• What are the 4 mediational processes?

  attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation
• What is attention in SLT?


  noticing certain behaviours
• What is retention in SLT?

  remembering the behaviour
• What is motor reproduction?


  the ability to perform the behaviour
• What is motivation in SLT?


  the will to perform the behaviour, usually decided by whether it was punished or reinforced.
• Outline Bandura's study


  He had a large sample of toddlers half female half male and setup a lab experiment. The experiment consisted of two conditions, in the first condition half the toddlers observed an aggressive model playing in a room ie. hitting a bobo doll and the second condition had the other half observing a non-aggressive model playing. There was a third condition in which no observation was taken place, this was the control group. The children were then put in their groups into the same room and observed for 20 minutes.

  He found that children who had observed aggressive models tended to act with much more physical and verbal aggressive behaviour when compared to the non-aggressive group who showed nearly no aggressive behaviour.

  This study provided evidence for social learning theory.
• What are the limitations of the social learning theory?

  It has an over-reliance on evidence from lab studies and underestimates the influence of biological factors
• What is the cognitive approach?


  This approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour.
• What are internal mental processes?

  'Private' operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response.
• What is a schema?

  a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
• What is inference?


  cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour
• What is cognitive neuroscience?

  The scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes
• What are the assumptions of the cognitive approach?

  - The mind actively processes information that comes through different senses

  - Only by studying mental processes can we understand why people behave as they do

  - Human processing is similar to that of a computer

  - Mental processes can be studies in an objective and scientific way
• What are the strengths of the cognitive approach?

  -Uses scientific and objective methods and has practical applications (for example, made an important contribution to a change in technology and the development of machines such as fMRI scanners)
• What are the limitations of the cognitive approach?

  It is too reductionist- it largely ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system and how this may affect how information is processed.

  Limitations surrounding computer models- computers do not make mistakes or forget things in the same way humans do
• What is the biological approach?

  A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function.
• What are genes?


  Genes are sections of DNA that control a single genetic trait.
• What is a biological structure?


  An arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing.
• What is neurochemistry?


  Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning