Psychology - Approaches

?
  • Created by: Annat3744
  • Created on: 28-02-18 18:55

Approaches

Behaviourism -

A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable.

Classical conditioning -

Learning by association

Was demonstrated by Pavlov's dogs experiment. In which he showed that an unconditioned stimulus causes an unconditioned response, therefore when a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are paired they can then make a conditioned response.

Operant conditioning -

Learning behaviour through consequences

Was demonstrated by Skinner's rat experiment. Rats were out in Skinner's box where a rat learnt to push a leaver to get food. Then Skinner taught the rats to push the leaver to stop an unpleasant electrical shock.

Positive reinforcement- receiving a reward for a behaviour

Negative reinforcement- performs behaviour to avoid unpleasant experience

Punishment- unpleasant consequence for a behaviour

Evaluation -

  • experiments are done in lab environments and are heavily controlled which means they are replicable
  • real life application, for token economies and treatments for phobias
  • not generalisable for human population because experiments are based on animal studies
  • environmental determinism, ignores the idea of free will
  • Skinner boxes are unethical

Social Learning Theory -

Learning behaviour through direct and indirect reinforcement

Bandura -

In 1961 young children watched adults aggressively hit a Bobo doll, this lead to the children imitating the adults aggression.

Vicarious reinforcement -

The learner may only imitate behaviour of others if they have seen that the behaviour was positively reinforced.

Mediational processes -

Cognitive factors that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.

1. Attention

2. Retention

3. Motor reproduction

4. Motivation

Identification -

More likely to imitate people they identify with called a role model. This process is called modelling.

Evaluation -

  • recognises mental processes
  • less determinist due to considering free will
  • Bobo doll experiment may be due to demand characteristics due to children thinking that they had to act aggressively
  • Bobo doll experiment doesn't consider biological factors

The cognitive approach -

Focuses on mental processes

Schemas -

Mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. Babies are born with simple motor schemas for innate behaviours such as grasping. Adults develope more detailed schemas which create short cuts which prevents us form being overwhelmed by our environment.

Inference -

The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observable behaviour.

Cognitive neuroscience -

Seeing…

Comments

No comments have yet been made