These are detailed Notes for the Approaches in Psychology Topic of AQA A-Level Psychology. I wrote them using class notes, revision guides and textbooks. I will also be uploading the other topics and creating bundles.
Topics Included:
- Origins of Psychology
- The Behaviourist Approach
- Soci...
Approaches in Psychology
Origins in Psychology:
Origins in psychology
Wundt and Introspection:
- Wundt opened the first psychology lab in 1879. He wanted to explore the The behaviourist approach
human mind. Social learning theory
- His method was introspection, it was the first systematic experimental
attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic The cognitive approach
structures of thoughts, images, and sensations. The biological approach
- Isolating the structure of consciousness is called structuralism.
The psychodynamic approach
- The procedures were standardised to all participants, they could be repeated
(replicated). Humanistic psychology
AO3: Comparison of approaches
+ The introspections were recorded within a controlled lab experiment. They
were also standardised, so it can be considered a forerunner to the later scientific approaches in
psychology.
- Other aspects of Wundt’s research would be considered unscientific today. It relied on participants
self-reporting their mental processes. This data is subjective, as participants may not have wanted to
reveal some of the thoughts they were having. Participants would also not have had exactly the same
thoughts every time, so establishing general principles would not have been possible. General laws are
useful to predict future behaviour, one of the aims of science. Wundt’s early efforts to study the mind
were naïve and would not meet the criteria of scientific enquiry.
Emergence of psychology as a science:
- Early 1900s behaviourists rejected introspection. John Watson (1913) argued that introspection was
subjective and varied between people. According to the behaviourist approach scientific psychology
should only study phenomena that can be observed and measured. Skinner (1953) brought the language
and rigour of natural sciences into psychology.
- 1950s cognitive approach used scientific procedures to study mental processes. They likened the mind
to a computer (e.g., MSM) and tested their predictions about memory and using experiments.
- 1980s biological approach introduced technological advances. They used scanning techniques such as
fMRI and EEG and advanced genetic research.
AO3:
+ Scientific, has the same aims as the natural sciences. To describe, understand, predict, and control
behaviour.
- Not all approaches use objective methods. The humanistic approach rejects the scientific approach,
preferring to focus on individual experiences and subjective experience. The psychodynamic approach
makes use of case studies which does not use representative sample. Also, demand characteristics can
affect data.
+ Knowledge acquired using scientific methods is more than just the passive acceptance of facts.
+ The causes of behaviour can be established through the use of methods that are empirical and
replicable.
+ Scientific knowledge is self-corrective, meaning that it can be refined or abandoned.
- Scientific psychologists create contrived situations that create artificial behaviours.
- Much of the subject matter of psychology is unobservable, therefore cannot be measured with any
degree of accuracy.
- Not all psychologists share the view that human behaviour can be explored through scientific methods.
Learning Approaches: The Behaviourist Approach:
Assumptions:
- Only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured, rejected introspection as it
had too many concepts that were vague and hard to measure.
- Not concerned with investigating mental processes of the mind because these are seen as irrelevant.
, - Tried to maintain control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab studies.
- Believe all behaviour is learned. They describe a baby’s mind as a ‘blank state’ which is written on by
experience.
- They suggested all the basic processes of learning are the same in all species. This means animals replace
humans as experimental subjects.
- Two important forms of learning: classical and operant conditioning
Pavlov’s Research (1927) – Classical Conditioning:
- Learning through association.
- Showed dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell.
- A neutral stimulus can elicit a new learned response through association.
Skinner’s Research (1953) – Operant Conditioning:
- Learning is an active process whereby humans operate on their environment
- Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.
- Rats and pigeons were in specially designed cages. When a rat activated a lever, or a pigeon pecked a
disc it was rewarded with a food pellet. A desirable consequence led to behaviour being repeated. If
presenting meant an animal avoided an electric shock, the behaviour would also be repeated.
- Positive reinforcement – receiving a reward when behaviour is formed.
- Negative reinforcement – when an animal or human produces behaviour that avoids something
unpleasant.
- Punishment – an unpleasant consequence of behaviour.
- Positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated. Punishment
decreases it.
AO3:
+ Gives psychology scientific credibility, controlled lab experiments, and emphasised the importance of
scientific processes such as objectivity and replication.
+ Real-life applications, token economy systems reward appropriate behaviour with tokens that are
exchanged for privileges (an example of operant conditioning). This is successfully used in prisons and
psychiatric wards
- The Behaviourist approach portrays a mechanistic view, animals and humans are seen as passive and
machine-like responders to the environment. By reducing behaviour to simple components, behaviourists
may have ignored the important influence of human thought on learning. Other approaches such as
social learning theory and the cognitive approach have drawn attention to the mental processes
involved in learning. This suggests that learning is more complex than observable behaviour alone, and
that private mental processes are also essential.
- Behaviourism is a form of environmental determinism, it sees all behaviour as determined by past
experiences that have been conditioned and ignores any influence of free will on behaviour. Skinner also
suggested that free will was an illusion. This is an extreme position and ignores the influence of
conscious decision-making processes on behaviour.
- There are ethical issues to Skinner’s box studies. Animals were housed in harsh cramped conditions and
deliberately kept below their natural weight, so they were always hungry. The animals were exposed to
stressful situations, and this may have affected how they reacted and so affect the validity of the
study.
Learning Approaches: Social Learning Theory:
Assumptions:
- Agreed with behaviourists that behaviour is learned from experience.
- Bandura proposed that learning takes place in a social context through observation and imitation of
others’ behaviour.
- Learning occurs directly through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly.
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