Approaches in psychology

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the origins of psychology

Wundt -

Believed human mind can be studied scientifically via introspection. This means 'looking into' how a person aquires knowledge 

He believed that processes like memory can be observed systematically - particoipants were given a stimulous and were asked to desceibe their inner tought process 

The emergance of psychology as a sceince

Empiricism - the belief that knowledge comes from pbvervation and experience alone. Wundt used this method and psychology was recognised as a science 

two assumptions - all behvaiour is caused and secondly its possible to 'predict' behvaiour in different situations 

process used to explore these assumptions bevame known as the scientific method - used to investigate methods that are objective, systematic and replicable 

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evaluation of the origins of psychology

introspection is not particularly accurate - Nisbett and Wilson it lacks knowledge of the cuases of the process underlying behaviour - this is evident when studying implict attitudes e.g. stereotypes or unconcious racism - due to these toughts being unconcious self-reports through introsepction would not reveal them, challenging the value 

wunds methods are unrealiable - participants could only report concious behaviour critised by behaviourists - it failed due to the poor realiability of his methods they are not controlled or repeatable - behaviourists on the other hand were creating realiable results due to thier studys could be genralised to humans 

a scientific approach test assumptions about behaviour and makes genralisations - due to the realiance on empircal evidence psychology theories can be refined or abaondonned - most human behavour is unobservable so cant be measured - much of psychological knowledge is inferential 

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psychodynamic approach

freuds theory - emphaisies development in the unconscious mind and how early childhood experiences shape our personality 

psychoanalyis suggets that unconscious mind is revealed through 'freaudian slips'

structure of personality is three concepts - the ID (impulsive physical appetite including the libido) the EGO (meadiating the ID and SUPEREGO) and the SUPEREGO (consisting of conscience, internalise social rules, ego-ideal and dertermined by parental expectations)

defence mechanisms - prevent memories from becoming conscious and causing anxiety for ecample REPRESSION unconcious blocking of unacceptaible thoughts and impulses, DENIAL refusal to accept reality. DISPLACEMENT redirecting hostile feelings onto an innocent person or object 

psychosexual stages - emphaise that libido is the main drive but may be expressed differenlty at each stage of development; oral, anal, phallic, latent and gential 

for example - the phallic stage (age 3-6) sexual focus is on the genitals. Boys experience the Oedipus complec and girls the Electra complec 

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evaluating the psychodynamic approach

psychoanaylis is gender biased - freud  ignored female sexuality and how it might differ - other psychologists e.g. Horney to crtitise his work on his veiws of female development - dismissing females is problematic as fread had female pateients but also as his theories are still so commonly used today. 

psychoanalysis is a culture biased - sue and sue argue it has little relevance in non-westernised cltures - many cultural groups dont value discussion and insight in the same way westerners do e.g. in china they avoid talking about depression or avoid thoughts of depression - contrasting with the western belief that open discussion and insight are always helpful in therapy 

psychoanalysis; comprehenisve theory - it has theraputic applications but also descibes other aspects of human behaviour outside psychology - it has been used as a from of literacy critism for shakespears 'hamlet' where hamlets psyche is seen as a projection of shakespears own mind 

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the humanistic approach

we have free will - the ability to make significant personal choices within social contrsanits 

Maslows theory:

hierarchy of needs - people need to fulfill each stage: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self actualisation. those with self-actualiasation are creative and accepting 

Rogers theory;

we need two basic needs - unconditional positive reguard and feelings of self worth that develop in childhood from out parents. 

condtiotions of worth - a perception that acceptace of others depends on meeting their expectations

the more similar our self-concept and our ideal self the greater psychological health and congruence we have - most people experience some incongruence

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evaluation of the humanistic approach

suuport for conditions of worth - those who experience UPS are likely to display more 'false self behaviour' - teenagers who feel they have to fulfil certain conditions to gain parents approval frequently end up disliking themselves - consistent with rogers predictions they create a 'false self' pretend to be the person thier parents want them to be - likley to develop depression 

cultrual differances in the heirarchy of needs - occurs that the needs may appear in differnt order based on cross-cultural evidence - study in china found 'belonging' took priority over ;physiologcal' and 'self-actualisation' relates to contribution in the community - Europeand and Americans focus on self identity and thier self concept whereas Japanese, Chinese and Koreans define self-concept more in terms of social relationahips.

humanistic research do not establish causality - the evience used to support the approach fails to establish a cause and effect - rogers advocated non-experimental research measure arguing the requirements of experimental methods make it impossible to verify the results of counselling - dispite some studies showing personal growth as a result of humanistic therapy, these stduies do not neccessarily mean the thearapy caused the changes 

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evaluation of the humanistic approach

suuport for conditions of worth - those who experience UPS are likely to display more 'false self behaviour' - teenagers who feel they have to fulfil certain conditions to gain parents approval frequently end up disliking themselves - consistent with rogers predictions they create a 'false self' pretend to be the person thier parents want them to be - likley to develop depression 

cultrual differances in the heirarchy of needs - occurs that the needs may appear in differnt order based on cross-cultural evidence - study in china found 'belonging' took priority over ;physiologcal' and 'self-actualisation' relates to contribution in the community - Europeans and Americans focus on self identity and thier self concept whereas Japanese, Chinese and Koreans define self-concept more in terms of social relationships.

humanistic research do not establish causality - the evience used to support the approach fails to establish a cause and effect - rogers advocated non-experimental research measure arguing the requirements of experimental methods make it impossible to verify the results of counselling - dispite some studies showing personal growth as a result of humanistic therapy, these stduies do not neccessarily mean the thearapy caused the changes 

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the cognitive approach

Study of internal mental processes 

things like memory, emotion and perceotion has to be studies via inferances and logical reasoning. this approach studies the mind as an information processor e.g. input and output

the computer model (of memory) - we input information via our senses. the working-model is like a RAM and the long term memeory is similar to information stored in a hard drive 

schemas - a cognitive framwork that helps us to organise and interpret information. they allow us to take shorcuts when interpreting large amounts of infromation - may lead to stereotypes so we make assumptions based on false and incomplete information 

The emergance of cognitive neurosceince 

cognitive neuroscience studies the living brain, using brain imaging technology such as PET scans and FMRI scans that show active parts of the brain based on parts that are active when presented with different stimuli 

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evaluation of the cognitive approach

has many useuful applications - helped to understand how we interpret the actions of others - this approach has been useful to psychopathology and is used to explain dysfunctional behaviour shown by those who have traced .faulty thinking processes - these have led to successful treatment, using cognitive-based interventions of those with OCD and depression 

the studies may lack ecological validty - many tasks have little in common with participants everyday - for example memory experiments use test materials such as random word listings or digits that are different to memory in everyday life - therefore most of the researh in cognitive psychology can be critised as lacking ecological validity 

the computer analogy is limited analogy - terms like 'coding' etc. are from computing language but humans are very different - computers do not make mistakes nor do they ignore or forget information humans on the other hand are effected by emotion, motivation and systematic bias - this limits the usueuflness of explaining human behaviour using computer models 

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the social learning theory

learning through observation of others, imitating thier behaviours that are rewarded 

modelling - is a form of learning in which a person/model performs a behaviour and another individual observes it 

mediational processes - enable the observer to store mental representations of thier behaviour and its probable concequence 

imitation - process of copying an observed behaviour and is more likely to occur when identification takes place - children are more likely to identify with an learn from models who are similar 

children who observe a model receiving rewards are more likley to imitate thier behaviour = vicarious reinforcement 

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evaluation of the social learning theory

has usueful applications - more likley to engage in criminal behaviour if they identify the model who commits the crime - Ulrich found the strongest predictor of violent behaviour in adolescence was assosiation with delinquent peers where violence was rewarded - however psychologists suggest young people with deviant attitudes seek peers with similar mindsets 

disreguards other potential influences on behaviour - especially when talking about gender they would over emphaisise the importance of gender-specfifc modelling - in real life, a child is exposed to many different influences and interactions these may include a gentic predisposition, conditioning etc, - this presents a serious problem for the SLT. difficult to show that social learning is the main causal influence 

importance of identiication in social learning - health adverts often charecterised the model with the desired behaviour of the target audience e.g. physical - greater identification with the model is expected to influence social learning a psychologist found that a perceived similarity to an anti-alchohol advert meant an effective methods - this shows that if a message does not relate to the person, they can not relate to the modelled behaviour 

study - Bandura Et al 

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the biological approach

Genes - carry instructions for a particular characteristic. The genotype is the genetic code in the DNA and the phenotype  is the physical appearance that results from the inherited informatioon 

these develop based on the relationship between the DNA and the enviroment - biological structures e.g. the central nervous system also carry messages 

Neurotransmitters -  molecules that transmitt messages from one neuron to the next - they diffuse across the synapse and bind to the receptors where they may cause a excitation or inhibiton of an impluse 

behaviour may also be influenced by hormones, chemicals produced by the endocrine glands e.g. the pituitary gland. hormones are secreated into the bloodstream directly 

Darwins theory of evolution - behaviours that make individuals more likely to survive and reproduce through passed on genes. the genes associated with the desired or best behaviour are passed down to future generationa = natural selection 

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evaluation of the biological approach

uses scientific method and experiments - these studies take part in highly contolled labs these can be repeated and are high in validity - the use of presise and sophisictaed recoring techniques increased the objectivity of the experimental research - these technqiues have therefore have contributed to the scientific validity of the biological approach 

has useful applications in the real world - it provides clear predictions - research into the neurochemical imbalnance in depression has lead to the development of successful drug treatments - further demonstrating the value of the biological approach as the treatments created from it benefit peoples well-being and health 

the biological approach is reductionist - critised for the belief that complex behaviour can be broken down into the action of genes, neurochemcals and hormones - many explanations of mental disorders are redctionist because genes or neurochemical imbalnaces are believed to be the main causes of these disorders - we cant fully understand a behaviour without considering other factors that may influence including cognitive, emotional and cultural. 

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the behaviourist approach

Classical conditioning -  Pavlov  (key study; watson and raynar)

reserach on dog - presented a bell (NS) with food (UCS) leading to an salivation (UCR), after many pairings just the NS alone produces the same response of the UCS (salivation) producing a contioned response 

when the CS is presented without the UCS extinction occurs and CR is no longer produced, spontaneous recovery can occur if the CS and UCS are paired againt 

Operant conditioning - Skinner 

suggets that whether or not a behaviour is repeated depends on its concequnce ; positive reinforcement - behaviour is produces a concequnce that is rewarding 

negative reinforcement -  behaviour removes an unpleasant concequnce - reinforcement increases the likleyhood of the behaviour being repeated 

punishment -  behaviour is followed by unpleasant concequnce, decreasing liklihood of behaviour being repated 

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evaluation of the behaviourist approach

applied to the treatment of phobias - systematic desensitisation eliminated the learned anxious reposnse associated with a feared object or situtation - the learnd response (anxiety) is replaced with anither (relaxation) so pateint is no longer fearful of the object or situation - thereapy is effective for phibias e.g. aranchnophobia 

over realiance on non-human animals in research - skinners research is based on rats and pigeons not humans - critics claim that humas have free will rather than having thier behaviour determined by positive or negitive reinforcement - however, Skinner argues that free will is an illusion and behaviour we choose ny free will are actually a product of enviromental conditioning 

a reductionist/limited approach - behaviourts have been acused of ignoring other levels of explanations e.g. cognitive - tretaing humans as a product of thier conditioning alone means we ignore the evidnece for the role of these other factors in shaping behvaiour - however, Skinner argues that complex behaviour such as the interaction with the opposite-sex or pathological behaviour cna be better understood by the studying the reinfrocement history of the individual

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