Summary AQA A Level Psychology Approaches Example Essay Plans
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Approaches
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2
Essay plans for AQA A Level Psychology, Approaches. Will help students achieve high levels following the plan, particularly with the PEE(L) structure for AO3.
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1. The behaviourist approach
AO1: Behaviourist approach: theory that claims all behaviour is learned through interaction
with its environment through conditioning.
Reinforcement: uses a reinforcing stimulus to affect the likelihood of behaviour. Can be
positive (reward) or negative (punishment) .
Classical conditioning: learning through association. Shown by Pavlov (1927). Showed how
dogs would salivate at the sound of a bell if repeatedly sounded when given food.
Association of the sound of the bell (neutral stimulus) with the food (unconditioned stimulus)
produced salivation (conditioned response). Showed how a neutral stimulus can produce a
learned response through association/repetition.
Operant conditioning: Behaviour is learned as a result of its consequences. Skinner (1953).
Used Skinner box to understand the impact of positive and negative reinforcement. Rats
move around in a box; pressing the lever causes food to appear. Rat now starts to push the
lever to get food. If after pressing the lever no more food appears, he will stop pushing the
lever (extinction).
AO3: STRENGTHS:
- P: conditioning is scientific in methodology. E: scientific means more control over
variables (lab experiments). E: easy to establish cause and effect relationship
between variables, stimulus, responses etc.
- P: classical conditioning has contributed to psychological treatment. E: those with
phobias; systematic desensitisation based on it. Eliminate learned anxious responses
associated with an object or situation through replacing anxious fear with feeling of
relaxation. E: effective approach in fears such as arachnophobia.
LIMITATIONS:
- P: involvement on animals in studies. E: e.g. Difference in human and animal
behaviours. E: findings cannot be generalised, human behaviour is more complex,
not as simple as reinforcement.
- P: reductionist. E: unlike animals used in studies, humans have free will in behaviour.
Behaviourists think free will is an illusion. E: humans may not follow rewards systems
like animals, more complex conscious thinking.
2. Social learning theory
AO1: Social learning theory: learning through observation and imitating behaviours that are
rewarded.
Imitation: copying the behaviour of others.
Identification: form of influence. Adopting the attitude or behaviours of others due to wanting
to be associated with a group.
Modelling: form of learning, imitating the behaviour of a role model (observer perspective).
Demonstration of specific behaviour that is imitated by an observer (role model perspective).
Vicarious reinforcement: learning that is not the result of direct reinforcement, but observing
others being reinforced for that behaviour.
Mediational processes: cognitive factors that influence thinking and come between stimulus
and response. 1. Attention. 2. Retention. 3. Motor reproduction. 4. Motivation.
AO2: Bandura et al (1961): Procedure: experiment involving two groups of children
observing adult models acting violent and non-violently towards Bobo dolls. They were then
taken to a room full of toys.
, Findings: ⅓ of children that were shown violent models acted aggressively towards the Bobo
dolls. The children shown non-violent models showed little to no aggression towards the
dolls.
Follow up study in 1963 showed that children that were rewarded for aggressive behaviour
were more likely to repeat in play.
AO3: STRENGTHS:
- P: useful applications. E: social learning can be applied to human behaviours e.g.
criminal behaviours. Akers (1998), probability of criminal behaviours increases when
exposed to models, identify with them and create expectations of positive
consequences. E: it has real world applications in human behaviour.
- P: recognises cognitive processes. E: behaviourism displays human behaviour as
mechanical, whereas humans are more complex, mediational processes influenced
by emotions. E: offers a more complex explanation for human behaviour.
- COUNTERPOINT: P: criticism for little reference to human behaviour. E: although
Bandura claimed biological differences impacted learning ability, it was assumed that
learning was determined by environment. Observational learning may be the result of
mirror neurons, which allow for empathy and imitation. E: underemphasis of
biological influence on the SLT.
- LIMITATIONS:
- P: evidence for approach was mainly lab studies. E: contrived nature, space for
demand characteristics. Children may have thought hitting the Bobo doll was
expected. E: research tells us little about how children learn aggression irl, no
generalisation.
- P: issue of causality, people seek out models that produce favourable behaviour. E:
Siegel and McCormick (2006) show deviant people seek deviant peers as they are
more ‘fun’. E: SLT has the perception that association with deviant peers increases
likelihood of deviancy, when it may be an innate behavior to be deviant.
3. Cognitive approach
AO1: Cognitive approach: how mental processes (cognitive - thoughts, perception, memory)
affect behaviour.
Internal mental processes: operations of the mind (perceptions, attention) that mediate
between stimulus and response. These can be studied scientifically/indirectly through
inferences.
Schema: pre-existing framework of beliefs/expectations that influence cognitive processes,
based on experiences. Enable to process information quickly. But may distort sensory
information, leading to perceptual distortions.
Computer model: refers to using computer analogies as representation of human cognition.
Info inputted into senses, encoded into memory and combined with previous info to complete
the task.
Theoretical model: simplified, pictorial models to represent mental processes. E.G. MSM,
WMM from memory.
Cognitive neuroscience: scientific study of biological structures that define cognitive
processes. Use of non-invasive image techniques - fMRI, helps to understand/locate brain
activity in different situations. E.G. Broca’s Area, damage to frontal lobe impairs speech.
AO3: STRENGTHS:
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