5 extended response questions and essays on exam questions about psychology as a science, including key topics in psychology, key studies used as evidence to demonstrate points.
questions ranging from 8 to 20 marks.
full paragraphs and conclusions.
balance of AO1 and AO3
Psychology as a science
Assess whether the learning theories approach demonstrate that
psychology is a science (8)
One argument for learning theories demonstrating that psychology is a
science is the use of controls to establish a cause and effect relationship. Controls
ensure that only the independent variable is affecting the dependent variable, so that
causation can be established. For example, Pavlov (1927) tied up the dog in a
harness in a sealed room to prevent other extraneous variables of sound or
researchers being associated with the food. This helped Pavlov to ascertain that the
dog associated the sound of the metronome with the food, and not with the
researcher or other external sounds, hence establishing a cause and effect
relationship was possible. This makes research into learning theories scientific as
causation between the independent and dependent variable could not only be
established, but also checked through subsequent replications for reliability. On the
other hand, this experiment had low ecological validity since the dog was in unusual
circumstances (being tied up in a harness in a box and cut off from other dogs and
humans). This meant that the dog’s reactions might have not been normal because
he was not in its natural environment. This suggests that experiments about learning
theories may not be applied to the real world where people would normally be
subject to a range of stimuli.
One argument against learning theories demonstrating that psychology is a
science is the decreased degree of reductionism in social learning theory.
Reductionism is the idea of breaking down a complex phenomenon into simpler
components that could be more easily studied. For example, the learning approach
often focuses on studying observable behaviour as this can be more easily
investigated. However, research into social learning theory may not be reductionist
since the individual’s cognitive processes have an influence on their chances of
imitating their role model. For example, in Bandura’s (1961) study, the girls might
have imitated fewer physically aggressive acts than boys because they may have
already learned cultural expectations around their gender, hence they acted in a way
that was expected from them. However, these cognitive processes of thinking could
not have been measured by the researchers in an objective way, therefore they had
to interpret the findings in a subjective way. By doing so, a more holistic explanation
of imitating observed aggressive behaviour can be achieved, even though the
scientific credibility of such research may be lessened as objective and reliable data
about the cognitive stages of social learning theory may be hard to gain.
, Nonetheless, Bandura had employed standardised procedures such as the same
checklist categories for aggressive and non-aggressive acts shown by the children
after observing the role model. This enables the reliability of the data obtained to be
checked since further replications of this study could be possible due to the
standardised controls.
In conclusion, the learning approach could demonstrate that psychology is a
science by investigating observable phenomena such as the dog’s salivation after
the sound of the metronome, which could help to determine a cause and effect
relationship. However, social learning theory may be the least scientific theory as it is
less reductionist by considering also the cognitive processes which are difficult to
measure.
To what extent is biological psychology scientific (12)
Biological psychology may be scientific due to reductionism in studies.
Reductionism is the idea of breaking complex phenomena down into small and
observable parts, and this idea in science is fundamental in order to better
understand a phenomenon by first studying its parts. For example, Dabbs et al.
(1988) focused on the role of testosterone in prisoners as a variable in aggression,
hence reducing aggression to levels of testosterone in the brain. They found that
testosterone was highest for prisoners that acted on unprovoked violence, but it was
lowest when violence was used for self-defence such as in domestic abuse. This is
important as it enabled the researchers to determine if testosterone had an effect on
aggressive and violent behaviour in prisoners, considering that determining what
affects a complex behaviour like aggression would be more difficult if the variables
were not isolated. This makes biological psychology scientific in terms of employing
reductionist methods. Nonetheless, a cause and effect relationship could not be
established between testosterone levels and aggression. For example, it could be
that violence increased testosterone levels so it’s the effect of violence not the
cause. There is no way of determining this since the prisoners would have to be
screened before committing a crime in order to find any differences in their
testosterone levels after the crime. This suggests that establishing causation may
be a challenge affecting the scientific status of biological psychology.
However, some aspects of biological psychology may not be so scientific, in
particular psychodynamic explanations for behaviour. Scientifically credible research
needs to be objective, reliable and valid in order to be considered seriously by
researchers. Freud’s psychodynamic approach though may be criticised for being
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