Approaches

1596-1650: Rene Descartes. The mind could be an object of study.

1632-1704: John Locke. All experience can be obtained through the senses

1809-1882: Charles Darwin. Evolution and natural selection

1879: Wilhelm Wundt: established psychology as a science, to be objective and controlled. He used introspection (but this was too subjective)

1900’s: Sigmund Freud: psychoanalysis and childhood experience. Role of the unconscious

1913: John Watson. Behaviourism and social learning theory. Behaviour is learnt via experience, rewards, punishments and associations.

1950’s: Rogers & Maslow. The humanistic approach

1960’s: the cognitive revolution.

1960’s Bandura. Social learning theory, observable behaviour

1980’s: biological approach

21^st century: cognitive neuroscience

Assumptions

1. Psychology should be scientific and objective

2. We are born as blank slates

3. We can generalise from animal behaviour to humans

Two forms of learning:

Classical Conditioning – this is learnt behaviour and is first demonstrated by Pavlov and his experiment on dogs. It revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food.

Little Albert was also an example of classical conditioned. He was conditioned to associate a white rat with a loud bang behind him. Eventually he feared the white rat even if there was no bang.

Operant conditioning – carried out first by Skinner and his rats

He utilised positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.

Extinction – the conditioned response is not permanent, after a few of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus; it loses its ability to produce a conditioned response.

Spontaneous recovery – following extinction, if the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are then paired again, the link is quickly restored

Stimulus generalisation – once something has been conditioned, they will also respond to other stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimuli.

Assumptions

1. Human behaviour is learnt via Modelling; imitating the behaviour of their role model. People imitate behaviour from people they identify with, normally their role model.

2. Reinforcement may be indirect – vicarious reinforcement. This is observation of other behaviours being reinforced and we learn from these vicarious reinf.  And we are more likely to imitate behaviour that we see rewarded.

3. Mediational processes – humans have some mental processing between stimulus and response. These factors may be at play which affect whether or not the child will carry out the response. It includes attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.

Banduras’ Bobo Doll

1. Recorded the behaviour of young children whom watched an adult act aggressively towards a Bobo doll. When the children were left alone with the doll, they too acted aggressively towards the doll.

2. Three groups of children. One group was shown a video of aggressive adult and bobo doll. One group saw the model praised for the behaviour. The children in this group copied the behaviour. In the second group the aggressive model was punished and the children subsequently did not copy their behaviour. The third was a control group.

Assumptions

1. Internal mental processes can be studied scientifically and objectively. They are studied indirectly by inference (drawing conclusions on how mental processes operate from observing behaviour)

2. Schema. These are mental frameworks of beliefs/ expectations/ representations of how things look and for incoming info.

3. Use of models (theoretical and computer). Mind is compared to a computer in similarities of processing, coding and stores of information.

Emergence of cognitive neuroscience:

This is a scientific study of brain structures and chemistry and links them to mental processing. They map brain areas to specific functions. This is done using MRI scans and PET scans to investigate the neurological basis of mental processes. Research involving tasks uses episodic and semantic memory, like Tulving. For example when people feel guilty, several brain regions are active. This could be used in the future in court cases, to use objective, controlled science to help prove if someone is guilty or lying.

Gained prominence due to advances in technology like brain scanning and increased understanding of the genetic basis of behaviour. It states everything psychological has a biological basis.

Assumptions:

1. Genetic makeup and genetic inheritance. To find out the extent to which a characteristic is caused by genes, we use twin studies. This uses pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. MZ twins are identical and share 100% of their genetic material. DZ twins only share 50% and are not identical. Twin studies determine the likelihood that certain traits have a genetic basis by comparing concordance rates (the degree to which if one twin has it, the other does). If MZ they are found with higher concordance rates than DZ. E.g. schizophrenia has 50% in MZ with only 15% in DZ.

Genotype is their actual genetic make-up and phenotype is the expression of genes in physical ways. The expression is influenced by environmental factors.

Assumptions cont.:

2. Brain structures – an understanding of brain structure and function can explain our thoughts and behaviour. Knowing about neurons, the nervous system, CNS, PNS and brain

3. Chemical Processes – studies of the role of chemical changes in the nervous system and hormonal changes can also aid understanding.

4. Evolution and Behaviour – Charles Darwin proposed evolution by natural selection. This is that any genetically determined behaviour that improves an individual’s survival will continue in future generations. Some examples can be seen in humans:

Memory > human memory is complex

Attachment > attachment to a primary caregiver is adaptive as they need a carer

Relationships > sexual jealousy and finding one partner for security of offspring

Mental health > disorders like phobias give survival benefits