Approaches in psychology

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what is the definition of psychology?
the scientific study of the human mind and behaviour
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facts about wundt
'the father of psychology' who opened the first psychology lab in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany.
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what did wundt want to study?
the structure of the human mind
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how did wundt want to study the human mind?
breaking down mental processes into their component parts known as structuralism
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what is structuralism?
breaking down mental processes into their component parts
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what are mental processes?
operations of the mind such as memory, perception and attention
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what technique were used to study mental processes?
introspection
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what is introspection?
'looking into' - examining ones own conscious thoughts and feelings.
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how was introspection carried out?
participants were presented with a stimulus (visual image or auditory tone) and asked to record their thoughts and feelings.
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what are two weaknesses of introspection?
1.) reports could not be replicated as participants thoughts are subjective, making it hard of wundt to establish any general theories. 2.) mental processes that influence participants are unobservable. Nisbett and wilson challenged introspection
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what did nisbett and wilson 1977 find?
participants were unaware of factors that influenced their decision when losing their favourite dressing gown.
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what was the main thing that wundt achieved?
he separated psychology from its philosophical roots
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who argued introspections findings?
John B Watson
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what did John B Watson say against introspection?
he said introspective reports focus was unobservable and psychology should restrict itself to study behaviours that can be observed.
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what did John B Watson create?
the behaviourist approach
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what is the behaviourist approach belief?
psychology should restrict itself to studying behaviours that can be observed and measured scientifically. we are born as blank slates and behaviour is learned through experience ( classical and operant conditioning)
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what is classical conditioning?
learning through association discovered by Ivan Pavlov
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what is the process of classical conditioning?
a unconditioned stimulus has a unconditioned response e.g. food causes salvation. a neutral stimulus has no response e.g. bell= no response. the UCS is paired with the NS to create a conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response eg bell=salvation
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how did Pavlov demonstrate classical conditioning?
he demonstrated that dogs could be conditioned to respond to a neutral stimulus (bell) and salivate as the dog associates the bell with food coming.
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what is operant conditioning?
learning through consequences
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what is positive reinforcement?
occurs when a an animal receives something positive for performing a behaviour. eg press the lever = treat
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what is negative reinforcement?
occurs when a animal avoids something unpleasant by performing a behaviour. eg pressing the lever avoids a electric shock
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what is punishment?
when a animal receives something unpleasant for performing a behaviour, if a behaviour is punished it is less likely to be repeated.
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who scientifically studied operant conditioning?
Skinner 1953 used a skinner box to do testing on rats
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how did skinner demonstrate positive reinforcement?
the rat would receive a treat for pressing the leaver so would continually press the lever
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how did skinner demonstrate negative reinforcement?
it would avoid having a electric shock every time it pressed the lever so it would continually press the lever.
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how did skinner demonstrate punishment?
it would receive a electric shock every time it pressed the lever so it avoided pressing the lever.
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what are two strengths of behaviourism?
1.) behaviourism increased the scientific credibility of psychology as experiment were completed in highly controlled settings, giving it greater credibility. 2.) research has been applied to real life. operant conditioning used in prisons
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what are two weaknesses of behaviourism?
1.) it has a simple view of human behaviour ( humans have multiple influences the affect their behaviour eg emotion and thought). applies less to humans. 2.) many experiments have ethical issues using rats but experiments found valuable finding
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what is social learning theory?
proposed by Albert Bandura and is the development of the behaviourist approach. set suggests that learning can occur indirectly through the observation and imitation of models.
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what is modelling?
the demonstration of a behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.
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what is identification?
a observer is more likely to imitate the behaviour if they identify with the model, which is the role model (someone who possess similar characteristics and have a high status)
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what did Bandura use in a series of experiments to support SLT?
a Bobo doll
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how did Bandura carry out the experiment?
young children were split into groups. 1 group observed aggressive behaviour and 1 group observed non-aggressive behaviour. they were left to play with the doll
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what did Bandura find and conclude from the Bobo doll experiment?
children that observed aggressive behaviour reproduced the physical and verbally aggressive behaviour they witnessed. closest imitation was with the same sex of model. shows children learn through observation and imitation of a model.
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what are the 3 things that SLT suggest?
1. people learn through the observation and imitation of a model. 2. they are more likely to repeat a behaviour if they see the model being rewarded. 3.mental processes occur between the stimuli and the response (meditational processes)
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what is vicarious reinforcement?
if they observe the model being rewarded for a behaviour, they are ore likely to imitate it.
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what is vicarious punishment?
if they observe a model being punished for a behaviour, they are less likely to imitate it.
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how did Bandura and Walters complete their experiment?
split children into 3 groups (aggressive rewarded, aggressive punished and aggressive not rewarded or punished) children then left to play with the Bobo dolls
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what did Bandura and Walters find in their experiment?
children that watched aggressive behaviour rewarded behaved most aggressively. children are more likely to imitate aggressive behaviour if they observe the model being rewarded.
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what are meditational processes?
mental processes that occur between the stimulus (observation of a behaviour) and the response (imitation) . they decide if the behaviour is imitated or not.
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how many meditational processes did Bandura discover?
4
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what are the 4 meditational processes?
attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation.
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what is attention?
the extent to which a observer notices a modelled behaviour - must be noticed to imitate it
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what is retention?
the extent to which a observer remembers a modelled behaviour
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what is motor reproduction?
the ability of an observer to physically perform a modelled
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what is motivation?
the will of a observer to perform a behaviour - affected by vicarious reinforcement of punishment
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what are 2 strengths of SLT?
1. SLT explains cultural differences, they learn from others around them, explains how children understand gender roles. 2. evidence to support importance of identity, Andsager - found importance in ads, now health ads use model people associate with
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what are 2 weaknesses of SLT?
1. lacking validity, kids respond to demand characteristics "look mummy, theres the doll we have to hit it". 2. ignores biological factors, boys have more testosterone, ignored by SLT
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what does the cognitive approach suggest?
internal processes can and should be studied scientifically. as mental processes are private operations of the mind, they should be studied indiretly and make assumptions based on observable behaviour
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what are inferences?
when they go beyond the immediate evidence and make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be observed directly but from observable behaviour
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what do cognitive psychologists use to make inferences about internal mental processes?
theoretical models and computer models
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what are theoretical models?
simplified representations of mental processes by boxes and arrows. they are often incomplete and informal (oftenly changed/updated) eg msm and wmm
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what are computer models?
cognitive approach suggests that the mind works in a similar way to a computer (receives info as a input, codes info into a useable format, processes and stores info and gives a output)
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what are schemas?
packages of information and ideas that are developed through experience. act as a frame work for interpreting information - affecting our behaviour
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why are schemas helpful?
they allow us to take shortcuts in our thinking and process huge amounts of information quickly, as well as printing us form becoming overwhelmed by environmental stimuli
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why can schemas be unhelpful?
they can cause us to exclude important information and focus only on things that confirm our pre-existing beliefs. they can lead to errors
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what is cognitive neuroscience?
the scientific study of the brain structure on mental processes. imaging techniques such as FMRI have allowed scientists to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes
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who used cognitive neuroscience to demonstrate LTM's location in the brain?
Tulving et al - demonstrated how LTM stores may be located on opposite sides of the prefrontal cortex
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what are 2 strengths of the cognitive approach?
1. CA has used highly controlled rigorous methods of study, collecting reliable/objective data, established a credible scientific basis. 2. CA has many applications, development of cognitive behavioural therapy, usefully application to the real world
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how has CA been used to treat psychological disorders eg depression?
CA suggests that psychological disorders are traced back to irrational thinking - individuals encouraged to dispute their faulty thoughts during CBT
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what are 2 weaknesses of the cognitive approach?
1. research lacks validity, lab studies use artificial stimuli, lacks external validity. 2. computer analogy criticised by many, ignore influence of human emotion and motivation to process information - over simplistic
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what do biological psychologists do?
explain all aspects of psychological functioning in terms of physical factors within the body (genes, biological structures, neurochemistry). they consider the influence of evolution on behaviour
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what do behavioural geneticists study?
whether psychological traits (intelligence and personality) are inherited like physical traits (eye colour)
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what do behavioural geneticists use in experiments?
twin studies
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what term is used when twins have the same trait?
concordant
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facts about wundt

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'the father of psychology' who opened the first psychology lab in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany.

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what did wundt want to study?

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Card 4

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how did wundt want to study the human mind?

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what is structuralism?

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