Approaches Revision Cards

• Learning through association​

• Dogs can be trained to salivate (unconditioned response) in response to a bell (neutral stimulus) if the sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as the food (unconditioned stimulus)​

• They would eventually associate the bell (conditioned stimulus) with food so that when the bell was rung, they would salivate (conditioned response) even if there was no food

• Positive reinforcement – receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed​

• Negative reinforcement – avoiding something unpleasant ​

• Punishment – unpleasant consequence of a behaviour

• Scientific credibility – focuses on observable behaviour – objective & replicable lab-based experiments

• Real-life application – token-economy systems & treatment of phobias

• Mechanistic view of behaviour – seen as passive & machine-like responders to the environment – doesn't consider possible mediational processes – maybe SLT is a better approach

• Environmental determinism – all behaviour is determined by past experiences that have been conditioned – doesn't consider free will

• Ethical issues – animals involved in experiments were exposed to stressful & adverse conditions – Skinner Box

• People learn through observation and imitation of others​

• Vicarious reinforcement is not directly experienced by the observer but through observing someone else's being reinforced for a behaviour

• Attention – noticing behaviours 

• Retention – remembering

• Motor reproduction – performing behaviour

• Motivation – reason to perform behaviour

• People are more likely to imitate the behaviour of people with whom they identify – role models – modelling ​

• A person becomes a role model if they have similar characteristics to the observer and/or attractive and have high status

• Cognitive factors - provides a more comprehensive explanation of behaviour

• Over-reliance on lab-based studies – Bobo doll – demand characteristics

• Biological factors? - does not consider the impact of biological factors like testosterone affects aggression in boys

• Explains cultural differences – ranging behaviours in different societies

• Reciprocal determinism – not only influenced by the environmentbut we also influence the environment – less deterministic than behaviourism

• Information processing approach – information flows through the cognitive system in stages – input, storage and  retrieval

• Computer models – the mind is like a computer as it processes info in a similar way ex. coding (turn info into usable format)

• This has been useful in the development of artificial intelligence

• Schema – the mental framework of beliefs that influence cognitive processing - formed through experience

• Helps respond to something appropriately 

• Babies have motor schemas for innate behaviours like grasping

• Schemas allow us to process info quickly – preventing us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli

• Though they can distort our interpretations of sensory info – leading to perceptual errors

• Within the last 20 yrs, there have been advances with brain imaging techniques – fMRI and PET scans – can observe mental processes

• These have allowed developments in research for things like different types of long-term memory

• Has also helped find neurological bases for mental disorders – like the link between OCD and parahippocampal gyrus

• Cognitive neuroscience has led to the development of mind-mapping and could be used to analyse brain wave patterns for lie detectors

• Scientific and objective methods of study – highly reliable – credible

• Machine reductionism – ignores the effect of emotion and motivation on the cognitive system – anxiety has proved to have an effect – ewt

• Application to everyday life? – too focused on lab-based studies which lack external validity

• Real-life application – made an important contribution to artificial intelligence and thinking machines – robots 

• Less deterministic than other approaches – soft determinism more of an interactionist approach

• Behaviour is down to biological structures – genes, neurochemistry ​

• We inherit behavioural characteristics like intelligence and disorders through our genes​

• Twins studies and high concordance rates show a genetic basis for behaviour​

• Genotype – actual genetic make-up​

• Phenotype – characteristics influenced both by biological and environmental factors​

Much of behaviour depends on an interaction of nature andnurture

Genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individual's survival and reproduction will continue in future generations through natural selection

• Scientific methods of study – highly reliable

• Real-life application – development of psychoactive drugs for mental illness treatment

• Causal conclusions– offers many causes of mental illnesses mainly neurotransmitters – mainly just an association not necessarily a cause 

• Hard determinism – sees everything as being governed by biological factors, ignoring everything else

• Cannot separate nature and nurture – twins share the same genetics, but also the same environment so can't say it ispurely nature

• Freud suggested that most of our mind is made up of the unconscious

• It contains disturbing memories which have been repressed and forgotten – we only become aware of these in dreams and slips of the tongue (parapraxes)

• ID – primitive part – operates on the pleasure principle – selfish and demands instant gratification

• Ego – works on reality principle – mediator between other two – employs defence mechanisms

• Superego – internalised sense of right and wrong – works on moralityprinciple – end of the phallic stage – moral standards of same-sex parent

• Explanatory power – huge influence in psychology in the 20th century - explained wide-ranging phenomena like abnormal behaviour 

• Case studies – Freud's work mainly based on case studies – Little Hans – lack scientific rigour

• Untestable concepts – Popper argued it is not falsifiable – not scientific – unconscious and Oedipus complex cannot be studied

• Practical application – psychoanalysis – used to treat mild neurosis

• Psychic determinism – everything driven by unconscious forces

• Free will – humans are self-determining and are not influenced by biological or environmental factors – a person-centred approach

• Self-actualisation – Maslow – everyone has the innate tendency to achieve their full potential – personal growth is what it means to be human – hierarchy of needs

• Congruence – Rogers – when the self and ideal-self are matched

• To reduce the gap between self and ideal-self, client-centred therapy was introduced – helps with low self-esteem 

• Holist – looks at the whole person – more validity 

• Limited application – hierarchy of needs has been applied in the workplace to understand the motivation - not as useful as other approaches

• Positive – focuses on people themselves and optimism

• Untestable concepts – self-actualisation and congruence lack empirical evidence

• Cultural bias – these ideas are focused on individualistic cultures – individual freedom – does not consider collectivist cultures