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Conceptual and Theoretical Psychology - CLPS11053
The Psychology of Mental Health Conversion Course - Conceptual and Theoretical Psychology
Exam - Answer 2 essay questions out of a choice of 5 (2 hours)
Topics:
Week 1 -Defining Psychology
Week 2 – Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Approaches
Week 3 – Biological Psychology
Week 4 – Behaviour, cognition and the space in between
Week 5 – Psychology and social issues
Week 6 - Understanding scientific evidence
Week 7 – Controversies in Psychology
Week 8 – Learning Theories and Educational Psychology
Week 9 – Attachment Theory
Week 1 - Defining Psychology
Essential Reading Notes:
1. A comparison of DSM and ICD Classifications of mental disorder – Peter Tyrer (2014)
- Mental and behavioural disorders are classified using the ICD and DSM (DSM-I published in the USA
in 1952, DSM – II in 1980)
- Its success was largely owed to Robert Spitzer, who showed most diagnostic conditions in psychiatry
were poorly defined, showed poor reliability in test-retest situations and were temporarily unstable
o Therefore the beliefs of the psychiatrist seemed to matter much more than the characteristic
of the patient with regard to classification
Reasoning behind classification in medicine:
- Good classification provides information on the causes of the disorder, possible prevention, clinical
characteristics, natural history (course of disorder without intervention), guide to treatment and
outcome
- Without diagnosis, it becomes a long description of the client’s symptoms.
- The problem is a lack of specificity and an impaired understanding of fundamental biological
processes.
- Few psychiatric disorders have a biological basis that confirms clinical impressions of disease
- There are no independent tests for most disorders in psychiatry – but there are in Alzheimer’s,
Down Syndrome – compared to anxiety, depression etc
o Increasing numbers of neuroanatomical and imaging studies help with such disorders, but it
is not the same in each patient
2. Psychology – Daniel Schacter (2019) Textbook, Chapter 1
- Psychology as a term first appeared in the English press in 1853
Types of Psychology:
Biological Psychology – (biopsychology) – how biology interacts with psychological processes
Cognitive Psychology – study of mental processes, thinking and problem-solving
Developmental Psychology – how psychological processes change over the lifespan
Individual differences – how psychological processes vary from one person to the next
Social psychology – psychological processes that operate when we interact with others and how we
behave in groups
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Conceptual and Theoretical Psychology - CLPS11053
Humanistic Psychology – an approach to understanding human nature that emphasises the positive
potential of human beings – (Maslow and Rogers)
o Focused on the highest aspirations people had for themselves, viewed people as free agents
who have an inherent need to develop, grow and reach their full potential
- Behaviourism – different/dramatic departure to previous schools of thought, suggested that
psychologists should restrict themselves to the scientific study of observable behaviour, which can
be measured and is not subjective (Watson – influenced by Pavlov) – stimulus-response psychology
- Operant conditioning – reinforcement (the consequences of a behaviour determine whether it will
be more or less likely to occur again)
- Cognitive psychology – study of mental processes
- Evolutionary psychology – natural selection
- Social and cultural psychology (80s and 90s) – influence of other people/context
o Absolutism – culture makes little/no difference for most psychological phenomena
o Relativism – psychological phenomena likely to vary across cultures
Lecture:
Exam Structure:
- Choose 2 out of 5 essay questions to answer
- Include references (only the author and year required) and critical analysis
Defining Psychology – The scientific study of mental processes and behaviour
History
- 1874 (Wundt)
- 1890 (William James) – wrote the first textbook
- 1898 (Thorndike) – Law of effect – do something and good outcome, you do it again (start of
behaviourism), cats/animals learn by reinforcement
- (Pavlov) – association and classical conditioning
- 1900 (Freud)
- 1921 – Gestalt Psychology (more about mind, less behaviour)
- 1928 (Piaget) – stages of how a child learns – judgement and reasoning in the child
- 1938 (Skinner) – behaviourism
- 1951 (Carl Rogers) – Person-centred therapy, self-actualization
- 1950 onwards – Cognitive Revolution (started to think about what happens inside brain)
- 1960s (Bowlby) – Attachment Theory – secure, anxious, avoidant
- 1960s (Beck) – cognitive therapy
- 1992 (Kwong) – cognitive neuroscience – first fMRI study
Theoretical perspectives
- How have psychological theories changed across history?
- How are psychological theories applied within research?
- How are psychological theories applied to clinical practice?
Is Psychology a science?
- Scientific method
- Theory – Hypothesis – research – observation
- Open science – results published even if not exciting
Categorising Mental Health
- International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
o Covers all illness, not just mental illness
o Intended to use by all health professionals
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Conceptual and Theoretical Psychology - CLPS11053
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
o Covers mental illness
o Mainly used by psychiatrists
Potential Essay Question & Answer: Is Psychology a science? (Covers topics from week 1 and 6) present in
the 2023 Exam paper
The question of whether psychology can be considered a science has been a contested issue within the
academic community. Some argue that Psychology is fundamentally a science, whereas others highlight the
subjectivity inherent in the discipline and the complexity of human behaviour and mental processes,
making it practically difficult to test theories in the same way other sciences can. This essay will argue that
Psychology is a science; however, it will highlight areas of Psychology that can be considered less scientific,
as well as areas that have taken a turn away from scientific methods inherent in Psychology. It will then
conclude by showing how there is a movement towards ensuring psychology follows a scientific approach.
Psychology is described as the scientific study of the mind and behaviour. Science can be described
as the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the natural world following a systematic methodology
based on evidence (Science Council, 2017). Science, therefore, includes objective observation,
measurement, data, experimentation and observation to test the hypothesis and replicability of this. In the
Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn (1962) describes that science undergoes revolution when enough
knowledge is cumulated to replace an existing paradigm. Through accumulated knowledge, existing flaws in
theories become apparent and eventually replaced by new ones. Previous Psychologists have pointed out
that science is ‘uncommon sense’ (Cromer, 1993) as it requires that we put our intuition and biases to the
side as we focus on data. Skinner (1971) said ‘It is science or nothing’ (p160), when discussing common
sense or insights gained from personal experience. Science is, therefore, a rejection of personal biases,
common sense, intuition and beliefs from experiences and focuses instead on objective evidence, as
exemplified by Feynman (1985), who said the essence of science is to bend over backwards to prove
ourselves wrong”.
Psychology can be seen as a science because it follows a scientific approach using the theory data
cycle. In this, theories become research questions, forming a research design and hypothesis, which are
then tested through data collection and analyses. This data either supports a theory or leads to a revised
new theory. Therefore, Psychology is self-correcting. Many parts of psychology adhere to this scientific
approach for example, Neuroscientists often provide exact replications of their findings, either with new
experiments on the same subjects or with replications with new participants (Overath et al. 2015). Further,
advances in Neuroscience with fMRI and EEG studies have meant that more studies have now supported
psychological theories with science.
Similarly, some psychological theories adhere closely to this, including behaviourism, which can be
traced to Watson's (1913) manifesto, in which he argued that natural scientists should study only
objectively observable behaviour rather than covert, non-observable phenomena. Some have argued that
Watson’s aim of achieving greater objectivity led psychology towards becoming a scientific discipline (Coon
& Mitterer, 2010). Similarly, Skinner's ‘radical behaviourism’ also focused on observable behaviours, which
he saw as being able to be simplified into stimulus -response components. Behaviourism therefore can be
seen as a scientific approach as in its original form it was an attempt to move away from studying internal
processes to observable behaviour.
However, some areas of psychology have been criticised for their subjectivity and for lacking
scientific rigour, for example, qualitative research methods which have become more popular in
Psychology. Qualitative research methods are used as a way of gaining a deeper and more holistic
understanding of individuals and their subjective experiences. However, the subjective nature of qualitative
research makes pure induction from data unattainable (Braun & Clarke, 2021). This means that the
researcher is heavily involved in the process and their own interpretations influence their research, which
goes against the scientific approach.
