Psychology - Approaches

Emergence of Psychology as a Science:

1900s - John B. Watson (1913) argued that introspection as subjective, in that it vartied from person to person. According to the behaviourist approach, 'scientific' psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed and measured. 

1930s - B. F. Skinner (1953) brought the language and rigour of the natural sciences into psyhology. The behaviourists' focus on learning, and the use of carefully controlled lab studies, would dominate psychology for the next few decades.

1950s - Following the cognitive revolution of the 1960s, the study of mental processes was seen as legitmate within psychology. Although mental processes remain 'private', cognitive psychologists are able to make inferences about how these work on the basis of tests conducted in a controlled environemnt (lab).

1990s - Biological psychologist have taken advantage of recent advances in techology, including recording brain activity, using scanning techniques such as fMRI and EEG, and advanced genetic research. 

Strengths: 

• Wundt - Some of Wundt's methods are scientific. For example, he recorded the introspections within a lab environment and used standardised procedures so all participants recieved the same infomation. Wundt's research can be considered a forerunner to the later scientific approaches in psychology.
• Emergence - Research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific as psychology has the same aims as the natural sciences - to describe, understand, predicts and control out world. The alternative approaches all rely on scientific methods to investigate theories in an unbiased way.

Limitations:

• Wundt - Some aspects are not scientific as he relied on particiapnts self-reporting their 'private' thoughts. The data is subjective and runs risk of social desirability. Ps wouldn't have had the same thoughts everytime so establishing general principles would've been impossible.
• Emergence - The humanistic approach is anti-scientific and doesn't attempt to formulate general laws of behaviour and the psychodynamic approach makes uses case studies.. 

Wundt and Introspection:

Wilhelm Wundt establioshed the first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germnay in 1879. The aim was to describe the nature of human consciousness in a carefully controlled and scientific envirnement.

Intropsection was the first systematic experiemental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations. Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism.

The same standardised instructions were given to all participants (Ps). Procedures could be repeated (replicated). Ps were given a ticking metronome and they would report their thoughts, images and sensations, which were then recorded.

Although Wundt's early attempt to study the mind would have been today seen as naive, his work was significant as it markedthe seperation of modern scientific pyshcology from its broader philosophical roots.

Key Assumptions:

The behaviourist approach is only concerned with studying behaviour that can be observed and measured. It is not concerned with mental processes ofd the mind. introspection was rejected by behaviourists as its concepts were vague and difficult to meausure. 

Behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectitvity within their research and relied on lab studies to achieve this. 

Behaviourists suggest the processes that govern learning are the same in all species, so animals can replace humans as experiemental subjects.

Key Assumptions:

• Classical Conditioning: Pavlov's Research

Learning through association - Conditioning dogs to salivate when a bell rings 

Before Conditioning: Unconditioned Stimuli (Food) and Unconditioned Responce (Salivation) = Neutral Stimuli (Bell)

During Conditioning: Neutral Stimuli (Bell) + Unconditioned Stimuli (Food) occur at the same time

After Conditioning: Conditioned Stimuli (Bell) and Conditioned Responce (Salivation) occur together

Pavlov showed how a neautral stimulus can come to elicit a new learned repsince through association

Key Assumptions:

• Opperant conditioning: Sikinner's Research

Learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment. 

Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

Rats and pigeons were put in specially designed cages (Skinner boxes).

When a rat activated a level (or a pigeon pecked a button) it was rewarded with a food pellet.

Adesiravle consequence lef to behaviour being repeated.

If pressing the lever meant an animal avoided an electric shock, the behaviour would also be repeated. 

Key Assumptions:

There are three types of consequences of behaviour.

• Positive reinforcement - recieving a reward when behaviour is performed
• Negative reinforcement - when an animal or human produces behaviour that avoids something unpleasent
• Punishment - an unpleasent consequence of behaviour

Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated. Punishment decreases it. 

Stengths:

• Laws developed by behaviourists have real-life application. Token economy systems reward approproate behaviour with tokens that are exchanged for privillages. These systems are successfully used in prisons and psychiatric wards. 
  
• Behaviourism have psychology scientific credibility. The apprach focuses on careful measurment of observable behaviour within labs as well as the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and relication.

Limitation:

• It portrays a mechanistic view as animals and humans are seen as passive and machine-like responders to the environemt, with little conscious insight into their behaviour. The processes that mediate between stimulus and repsince suggest humans play a much more active role in their own learning
• A form of environmental determinist. The apprach ignores any influence that free will may have on behaviour. Skinner suggests that free will was an illusion and this is an extreme position and ignores the unfluence of conscious decision-making processes on behaviour, 

Key Assumptions:

One main assumption is that learning occurs indirectly. Albert Bandura agreed  with the behaviourist approach that learning occurs through experience. However, he also proposed that learning takes place in a social context though observation and imitation of others' behaviour.

Children observe other people's behaviour and take note of its consequences. Behaviour that is seen to be rewarded (reinforced) is much more likely to be copied than behaviour that is punished. Bandura called this vicarious reinforcement.

Mediational (cognitive) processes play a crucial role in learning. There are 4 mediational processesin learning:

• Attention - whether behaviour is noticed
• Retention - whether behaviour is remembered
• Motor Reproduction - being able to do it
• Motivation - the will to perform the behaviour

The first two relate to learning and the last two relate to performance.

Key Assumptions:

• Imitation of aggression: Bandura's Research

Research 1:

Children watched an adult either:

• Behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll
• Behaving non-aggressively towards a Bobo doll

When given their own doll to play with, the children who had seen aggression were much more aggressive towards the doll.

Research 2:

Children either saw an adult:

• Rewarded or Punished or Neither

When given their own doll they identified and immitated the adults behaviour

Strengths:

• SLT emphasises the importance of cognitive factors in learning as neither classical conditioning nor operant conditioning can offer a comprehensive account of human learning on their own because cognitive factors are omitted. SLT provided a more complete explination of human learning than the behaviourist approach by recognising the role of mediational processes.
  
• Another is that SLT is less determinist than the behaviourist approach. It is more realistic and flexible than is suggested by the behaviourist approach.

Limitations:

• SLT underestimates the influence of biological factors as a consistent finding in the Bobo doll experiements was that boys showed more aggression than girls, regardless of the specifics of experiemental condition. This means that Bandura may have underplayed the important influence of biological factors on social learning
• SLT also relies too heavily on evidence from lab studies. Many of Bandura;s ideas were developed through observation of children's behaviour in lab settings and this raises the problem of demand characteristics.

Key Assumptions:

The conitive appraoch is classed as the 'scientific study of mental processes'. In direct contrast to the behaviourist approach, the cognitive approach argues that mental processes should be studied, ie studying perception and memory.

They also focus on the role of inference in the study of mental processes. They theorize that mental processes are 'private' and cannot be observed, so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences (assumptions) about what is going on inside people's heads on the basis of their behaviour.

There is also the use of theoretical models when describing and expalining mental processes. The information processing approach suggests that information flows through a sequence of stages that include: input, storage and retrieval, as in the multi-store model. 

Key Assumptions:

There is also the use of computer models when describing and explaining mental processes in the cognitive approach. Computer models refer to the programmes that can be run on a computer to imitate the human mind. By running such a programme psychologists can test whether their ideas about information processing are correct. 

The idea of schema is central to the cognitive approach:

• Schema are packages of information developed through experience
• They act as a 'mental framework' for the interpretation of incoming information recieved by the cognitive system
• Babies are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviours such as sucking and grasping
• As we get older, our schema become more detailed and sophisticated

Key Assumptions:

The emergence of cognitive neuroscience:

• Cognitive neuroscienceis the scientific study of the influence of brain structures (neauro) on mental processes (cognition).
• With advances in brain scanning technology in the last twenty years, scientists have been able to describve the neaurological basis of mental processing. 
• This included research in memory that has linked episodic and semantic memories to opposite side of the prefrontal cortex in the brain.
• Scanning techniques have also proves useful in establishing the neaurological basis of some disorders, e.g. the parahippocampal gyrus and OCD.

Strengths:

• Cognitive psychologistshave always employed controlled and rigourous methods of study. This has enabled the two fields (Cognitive and Biological) to come together (Cognitive neuroscience). This means the study has credible, scientific basis.
• The cognitive is dominant in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts. Has contributed to the development of AI so is likely to revolutionize how we live in the furture.

Limitations:

• The approach is based on machine reductionism. For instance, human emotion and motivation have been shown to influence accuracy of recall These factors are not considered within the information-processing model. So, the cognitive approach oversimplifies human cognitive processing and ignores important aspects that influence performance.
• It also lacks external validity as cog. psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from behaviour they observe and research is often carried out using artificial stimuli. 

Key Asusmptions:

If we want to fully unerstand human behaviour we must look to biological structures and processes within the body, such as genes, neurochemistry and the nervous system.

Behaviour is believed to have a genetic and neurochemical basis. It is inhertited in the same way as physical characteristics such as height or eye colour. For example, the 5HT1-D beta gene implicated in OCD. Neaurochemistry also explains behaviour, for example low levels of seretonin in OCD.

From a biological perspective, the mind lives in the brain - meaning that all thoughts, feelings and behaviour ultimately have a physical basis. This is in contrast to the cognitive approach which sees the mind as separate from the brain. 

Concordance rates between twins are calculated - the extent to which twins share the same characteristics. Higher concordance rates among monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins is evidence of genmetic basis. For example, 68% of Monozygotic twins have OCD in comparison to dizygotic twins with 31%.

Key Assumptions:

The difference between genotype  and phenotype:

• A person's gentotype is their actual genetic make-up
• Phenotype is the way that genes are expressed through physical, behavioural and psychological characteristics
• The expression of genotype (phenotype) is influenced by environmental factors
• For example, phenylketonuria (PKU) is a genetic disorder that can be prevented by a restricted diet
• This suggests that much of human behaviour depends on the interaction of nature and nurture

Key Assumptions: 

The theory of evolution is used by the biological approach to explain many aspects of behaviour:

• Charles Darwin (1859) proposed the theoryof natural selection
• Any genetically determined behaviour that enhances survival and reproduction will be passed on to future generations
• Such genes are described as adaptive and give the possessor and their offspring advantages
• For instance, attachment behaviours in newborns promote survival and are therefore adaptive and naurally selected.

Strengths:

• Increased understanding of biochemical processes in the brain has led to the development of psychoactive drugs that treat serious mental disorders, such as depression. Althought these drugs are not effective for all patients, they have revolutionised treatment for many. This is a stregth of the approach because it means that sufferers are able to love a relatively normal life, rather than in hospital.
• The apprach also used scientific and objective meothods of investigation which means that data collected is reliable.

Limitations:

• It is difficult to establish cause and effect with neurotransmitters. The role of neurotransmitters in mental ilness comes from studies that show a particular drug reduces the symptoms of the disorder by chagning levels of neurotransmitter. It is assumed that the neaurotransmitteris the cause. This is a limitation because the biological approach is claiming to have discovered causes where only an association exists.
• There is also much difficulty separating nature and nurture meaning findings could easily be interpretated incorrectly. 

Key Assumptions:

Sigmund Freud suggested that the mind is made up of the:

• Conscious - what we are aware of
• Pre-conscious - memories and thoughts we are not currently aware of but can be accessed
• Unconscious - we are unaware of the contents of the unconscious. It is a vast storehous of biological drives and instincts that influence our behaviour.

Freud also saw personality as having a tripartite structure:

• Id - primitaive part of the personality operates on the pleasure principle, demands instant gratification (Eros and Thanatos)
• Ego - works on the relaity principle and is the meidator between the id and superego
• Superego - internalised sense of r8ight and wrong, based on the morality principle. Punishes the ego through guilt.

Key Assumptions:

Freud suggested there are five psychsexual stages that determine adult personality. Each stage is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve to move on to the next. Any conflict that is unresoolved leads to fixation where the child becomes 'stuck' and carrie behaviours associated with that stage through to adult life.

• Oral (0-1 years) - pleasure focus = mouth, the mother's breats is the object of desire
• Anal (1-3 years) - pleasure focus = anus, the child gains pleasure from withholding and eliminating faeces
• Phallic (3-5 years) - pleasure focus = genital area
• Latency - earlier conflicts are repressed
• Genital (puberty) - sexual desired become conscious

The Oedipus complex is an important psychosexual conflict occuring at the phallic stage. This is where young boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their father. Later, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with the father, taking on his gender role and moral values. 

Key Assumptions:

Defence mechanisms  are used by the ego to keep the id 'in check' and reduce anxiety. For example some unconscious strategies used by the ego are:

• Repression - forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind
• Denial - refusing to acknowledge reality
• Displacement - transferring feelings from their true source onto a substitute target

Strengths:

• Although Freud's theory is controversial and often bizarre, it has had huge influences on Western contemproary thought. It has been used to explain a wide range of behaviours (moral, mental disorders) and draw attention to the influence of childhood on adult personality.
• Freud introdruced a new form of therapy: psychoanalysis. Thr therapy is designed to access the unconscious mind using a range of techniques such as dream analysis.Psychoanalysis is most suitable for induviduals suffering from mild neuroses but has been criticised as inappropriate for people with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

Limitations:

• Karl Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification, in the sense that it cannot be proved or disproved. Many of Freud's concepts, such as the id or the Oedipus complex, occur at an unconscious level making them sifficult, if not impossible, to test.
• The osychidynamic approach explains all behaviour as determined by unconscious conflicts that are rooted in childhood. Even something as apparently random as a 'slip of the tongue' is driven by unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning. 

Key Assumptions:

The Humanistic Approach centres the concepts of free will and rejects attempts to establish scientific principles of human behaviour. We are all unique, and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws - a person centered approach.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs has self-actualisation at the top. Self-actualisations refers to the innate tendency that each of us has to want to achieve out full potential and become the best we can possibly be. In Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs the four lower levels (deficiency needs) must be met before the induvidual can work towards self-actualisation - a growth need.

The approach suggests we focus on the self. The self refers to the ideas and values that characterise 'I' and 'me' and include perseption of 'what I am' and 'what I can do'.

Key Assumptions:

The aim of therapy is to establish congurence between the self-concept and the ideal self. Carl Rogers argued that personal growth requires an individual's concept of self to be congruent with their ideal self (the person they want to be). If the gap is too big, the person will expeirence a state of incongurence and self-actualisation isn't possible.

Parents who impose conditions of worth may prevent personal growth. Issues such as worthlessness and low self-esteem have their roots in childhood and are due to a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents. A parent who sets boundaries on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming 'I will only love you if...' is storing up psychological provlems for the child in the future.

The humanistic approach has has a lasting influence on counselling psychology. In Rogers' client-centred therapy an effective therapist should provide the cluent with three things:

• Genuineness
• Empathy
• Unconditional positive regard

Strengths:

• Humanistic psychologists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components meaning they are anti-reductionist. They advocate holism - the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person (their relationships, past, present and future, etc)
• Humanistic psychologists have been praised for promoting a positive image of the human condition - seeing people as in control of their lives and haveing the freedom to change.

Limitations:

• Humanistic psycholody includes a number of vague ideas that are abstact and difficult to test, such as 'self-actualisation' and 'congruence'. Rogers did attempt to inctroduce more rigour into his work by developing the Q-sort - an objective measure of progress in therapy. 
• Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be more readily associated with individualist cultures in the Western world such as the US. Collectivist cultures such as India may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology