Summary AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 Student Book, ISBN: 9781912820429 Approaches in Psychology
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Course
Approaches
Institution
AQA
Book
AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book
A succinct and complete summary of the Approaches to Psychology topic of AQA A-level Psychology. Using only this material when revising for the Approaches to Psychology section of Paper 2 I was able to achieve an A* in psychology.
Origins of Psychology
- Wundt’s work is significant because it marked the beginning of scientific psychology,
separating it from its broader philosophical roots.
- Introspection - the first systematic attempt to study the mind under controlled
conditions
- Standardised procedure - they divided their observations into three categories:
thoughts, images and sensations. E.g. participants might be given a ticking
metronome and they would report their thoughts, images and sensations.
- Structuralism - stimuli were always presented in the same order and the same
instructions were issues to all participants
Evaluation
+ Scientific - highly standardised, in a controlled lab environment ensuring that possible
extraneous variables were not a factor and as mentioned previously all proceed and
instructors were carefully standardised.
- Subjective data - based on participants self reporting (which is subjective and allows
participants to hide thoughts), so general laws not possible as each introspections
are different
+ Modern psychology can claim scientific - same aim as natural sciences: to describe,
understand, predict and control behaviour. Also, many psychological approaches,
such as the cognitive and biological approach, investigate theories in a controlled
and unbiased way using scientific methods.
- Psychology is subjective - humanistic (rejects scientific approach, preferring to focus
on individual experiences) and psychodynamic (uses case study method) are both
subjective. Humans are also active participants, responding for example to demand
characteristics.
, Learning approaches: the behaviourist approach
- Only interested in behaviour that can be observed
- Rejects introspection as vague and difficult to measure
- Therefore, relied on lab studies - as allows for greater control and objectivity
- Believe that all behaviour is learned -
- Suggest that the basic processes for learning are the same in all species so animals can
replace humans in experiments
- Describe a baby’s mind as a ‘blank slate’, written on by experience
- Behavioursit identified two important forms of learning: classical conditioning and operant
conditioning
Classical conditioning - Pavlov
- Learning through Association
- Association of unconditioned stimulus with neutral stimulus to produce a new conditioned
stimulus and conditioned response
- E.g. Pavolov showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sounds of a bell if that
sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food (dependent
variable - salivation)
Operant conditioning - Skinner
- Learning through Consequences
- Positive reinforcement - receiving a reward when a behaviour is performed (encourages
desired behaviour)
- Negative reinforcement - avoiding something unpleasant, the outcome is a positive
experience (encourages desired behaviour)
- Punishment - unpleasant consequences of behaviour (prevents undesired behaviour)
- For example, Skinner's box - 1) when a rat activated a leaver it was rewarded with a food
pellet 2) pressing the lever meant the rat avoided an electric shock - in both cases the
desirable consequence led to behaviour being repeated.
Evaluation
Well controlled research
Behaviourists focus on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings.
Breaking down behaviour into basic stimulus-response units and allowing cause and effect relationships to
be established. E.g. Skinner was able to clearly demonstrate how reinforcement influenced an animal's
behaviour. This suggests that behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility.
Counter, reductionist - behaviourist may have oversimplified the learning process, by reducing behaviour
to such simple components behaviourists may have ignored an important influence on learning - human
thought. Other approaches such as social learning theory and the cognitive approach have drawn attention
to the importance of mental processes in learning. This suggests that learning is more complex than
observable behaviour alone, and that mental processes are also essential.
Real world application
Principles of conditioning have been applied to real world behaviours and problems. For example, operant
conditioning in token economy systems used in prisons and psychiatric wards (rewarding appropriate
behaviour with tokens) and classical conditioning in systematic desensitisation in the treatment of phobias.
This increases the value of the behaviourist approach because it has widespread application.
Environmental determinism
Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum of our reinforcement history. This ignores any possible
influence that free will may have on behaviour (Skinner himself believed free will was an illusion). This is an
extreme position and ignores the influence of conscious decision making processes on behaviour (as
suggested by the cognitive approach).
Extra: Ethical issues -
Skinner's box: animals were housed in harsh, cramped conditions and deliberately kept below their natural
weight so they were always hungry.
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