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AQA Alevel Psychology Approaches Topic Notes
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AQA Alevel Psychology Approaches Topic Notes
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Approaches quick revisionOrigins of psychology
- Studying the mind was a philosophy, Wundt ‘the father of psychology’ started controlled
empirical scientific research
- Opened the first psychological lab is Leipzig, Germany (1870’s)studying internal mental
processes.
- Used introspection- looking inwards/self examination, analysing your own conscious
experience to standard stimuli e.g metronome. Reporting present experience such as
sensations, emotional reactions, mental images
- Systematic approach/ research - are stimulus, surroundings and instructions. The
participants were highly trained
- Breaking thoughts about an object down into separate elements was an attempt to
uncover the structure of the mind.-structuralism
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- Wundt work paved the way for later scientifically controlled research in psychology
- The study of internal mental processes was later continued by cognitive psychologists
who built models of how systems such as memory worked- used experimentations and
not introspection
- Wundt’s work was criticised by after behaviourist learning theorists who thought
internal mental processes could not be studied scientifically introspection, focused on
observable inputs-stimuli- and outputs-behaviours- seeing the mind as a black box not
an open scientific investigation
The behaviourist approach
- Developed to make psychology more scientific by using highly controlled experiments,
criticised earlier attempts to study internal mental processes saying they can't be
scientifically studied , sees the mind as a ’black box’
- Classical conditioning- learning by association, learning happens when a neutral stimulus
is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that eventually the NS becomes
a conditioned stimulus CS producing the response caused by the UCS a CR
- Pavlov 1897- demonstrated this in dogs who would associate sound of bell(NS THEN CS)
with the food (UCS) and drool (R TO CR) to the CS
- Stimulus generalisation- conditioned response happens with similar stimuli- LITTLE
ALBERT
- Operant conditioning- learning by trial and error, learning from connection between
behaviours and consequences.
- Skinner 1938- demonstrated this in rats who learnt from trial and error that pulling on a
leaver would release a food pellet. The leave pulling behaviour become more frequent
and deliberate over time. The rats also learnt to press the leave to stop the floor of the
cage being electrocuted for 30 seconds
- Types of reinforcement- positive, adding a stimulus to increase a behaviour, negative,
removing a stimulus to increase a behaviour, punishment, adding a stimulus to decrease
a behaviour. Extinction, stopping reinforcement will result in the behaviour stopping
over time.
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- Little Albert(Watson 1920) study showed fear could be a learnt response, suggesting its not
instinctual. Led to the development of behavioural explanation and counter conditioning
treatments for phobias
, - Behaviourists used objective scientific experimental methods- systematically manipulating
variables, focus on observable behaviour demonstrates cause and effect
- Behavioural theories have been used in an attempt to control human behaviour( token
economies) this can be seen as unethical
- Environmentally deterministic. Behaviours result from learning from the environment, not
free will. Hard determinist, no role for free will in behavioural theories
- Reductionist approach focusing on lower level of explanation e.g S-R links/associations
therefore lacks meaning when it comes to complex human behaviours
- Research mainly with animals therefore generalisation to human behaviour could be limited.
The Social Learning Theory
- Agrees with behaviourist ideas that behaviour results from learnt experience, disagrees with
behaviourist approach of ignoring internal mental process, suggesting they must be present
for leaning. Focuses on learning taking place in a social context due to exposure to others
behaviour.
- Imitation: other’s behaviour is observed, if behaviour is rewarded we are more likely to
reproduce the behaviour, (vicarious reinforcement). Less likely to replicate if observes
negative consequences,( vicarious punishment)
- Modelling: others act as blueprints for our behaviour. Can be real or symbolic models
- Identification: models with characteristics we range to are more likely to be imitated, e.g
gender, ethnicity, age
- Mediational processes: cognitive processes between stimulus and response that influence
likelihood of behaviour imitation. Attention, Retention, Motivation and Reproduction
- Bandura (1961) 72 3-5 year olds. Children measured on levels of aggression. Groups watched
videos of adults interacting aggressively or non aggressively/ neutrally with a bobo doll.
Found, aggression was imitated in group who watched adult models aggression. Other group
were not aggressive, effect is stronger if adult was the same gender as the child. Suggests
imitation and identification f
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- Bandura research used controlled variables and demonstrated behaviour was imitated
- SLT’s inclusion of internal mental processes is improvement on behaviourism in explaining
human behaviour due to personal experience of having internal mental processes, face
validity
- A cause and effect relationship due to imitation in real like examples of aggression is difficult
to study
- Cognitions used in SLT are not observable directly, making SLT less scientific than
behaviourists who only studied objectively measurable stimulus response mechanisms
- SLT processes can explain the development of basic learnt behaviours, aggression, but not
more abstract concepts like justice
- SLT sees behaviour as environmentally determines, nurture, but some behaviours many be
innate, nature, and better explained by biological explanations or a combination of both
factors
The cognitive approach
- Behaviour is a result of conscious and unconscious information processing, thoughts.
- Internal mental processes: series of stages of mental information processing, stages are
representative by cognitive theories as theoretical models. Flow charts like used by
computer programmers showing how information flows and is processed in a mental system
such as memory, or attention, produce theories testable by experiment.
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