This document is detailed revision notes with all you could ever need to know on the whole AQA A-level Psychology Approaches topic, including AO1 and AO3 content. The notes are subdivided into the subtopics used by the textbook. They include the content from the textbook, which has been combined wi...
Approaches
Origins of psychology
Wundt and introspection
1879: Wilhelm Wundt opened the first ever lab dedicated to psychological enquiry
(the Institute for Experimental Psychology) at the University of Leipzig, Germany.
The term ‘psychology’ originated from Edward Titchener, an American psychologist
trained by Wundt.
He separated scientific psychology from its philosophical origins.
He produced the first academic journal for psychological research and wrote the first
textbook.
Psychology: the scientific study of the mind, behaviour and experience.
Science: a means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective
investigation. The aim is to discover general laws.
He used introspections, in the first systematic attempt to study the mind under
controlled conditions, to try to analyse the nature of human consciousness.
Introspection: the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by
breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and
sensations.
Procedures:
He and his co-workers recorded their experience of various everyday stimuli such as
different objects or sounds. They divided their observations into: thoughts, images
and sensations.
Standardisation
Stimuli that he and his co-workers experienced were always presented on
the same order with the same instructions
Structuralism is isolating the structure of consciousness in this way.
Voluntarism is the process of organising the mind.
Evaluation
Scientific – some methods were systematic and well-controlled
Controlled lab experiment – removed EVs
Standardisation
Can be considered a predecessor of the more scientific approaches
- Subjective data
o Relied on self-reports on mental processes
o None of the reports were replicated
o Wasn’t scientific
o Participants may have also hidden some of their thoughts
, o Difficult to establish meaningful ‘laws of behaviour’ which are useful
o Only observable behaviour can be objectively measured
Timeline
17th-19th Century: psychology is a branch of philosophy – called experimental
philosophy.
1879: Wundt opens his lab, psychology emerges as a discipline in its own right.
1900s: Freud emphasises influence of unconscious mind on behaviour – develops
psychodynamic approach and psychoanalysis, showing that physical problems can be
explained in terms of conflicts within the mind.
1913: John B. Watson write Psychology as the Behaviourist views it and later, with B.F.
Skinner established behaviourist approach.
1950s: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow develop humanistic approach – the ‘third
force’ in psychology – emphasises importance of self-determination and free will.
1950s: introduction of computer gives psychologists a metaphor for the human mind,
leading the creation of cognitive approach – reintroduces study of mental processes
but scientifically.
1960s: Bandura proposes Social Learning Theory, bridging cognitive approach and
behaviourism.
1980s -->: biological approach dominates due to advances in technology increasing
understanding of the brain and biological processes
Beginning of 21st century: cognitive neuroscience emerges, investigating how
biological structures influence mental states.
Empiricism = states that the only source of knowledge comes through our senses; all
knowledge is based on or may come from experience.
Importance of evidence
Rationalism = what we know about reality by employing reason alone.
Emergence as a science
1900s Behaviourists
Introspection was questioned as subjectivity made it difficult to establish general laws.
Watson and Skinner proposed: a truly scientific psychology should only study
behaviour that can be observed objectively and measured – behaviourism.
1950s Cognitive Approach
Digital revolution meant psychologists likened mind to a computer (e.g. the multi-
store model) and tested predictions about memory and attention with experiments.
- Legitimate and highly scientific
,1980s Biological Approach
Taken advantage of technological advances to investigate physiological processes as
they happen e.g. sophisticated scanning techniques such as fMRI and EEG to study
live activity in the brain.
New methods e.g. genetic testing have shown the relationship between genes and
behaviour.
Evaluation
Modern psychology is scientific
Aims of psychology: to describe, understand, predict and control
behaviour
Use of scientific methods e.g. lab studies – controlled and unbiased
Focused on standardisation and control of variables
- Subjective data
o E.g. humanistic approach prefers to focus on individual, subjective
experience and rejects the scientific approach
o Psychodynamic approach – case study method – unrepresentative
o Human beings are active participants in research, responding to demand
characteristics
o Varied results
o May not always be desirable or possible
o Skinner claims the results cannot be verified as mental processes are not
observable
o Wundt believed in reductionism
- Paradigm
o Philosopher Thomas Kuhn: any science must have a paradigm (a set of
principles, assumptions and methods that all who work within the subject
must agree on)
o Internal disagreement at its core means it cannot have a paradigm nor be
a science
Learning approaches: the behaviourist
approach
Behaviourist approach: a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable
and in terms of learning.
Assumptions:
Only study observable and measurable behaviour
Not concerned with mental processes – irrelevant
Maintain control and objectivity – lab studies
All behaviour is learned
A baby’s mind is a ‘blank slate’ (tabula rasa) written on by experiences
Basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species
Animals replace humans as experimental subjects
, Psychology does not mean understanding the origins of behaviour but
understanding what people have learned and how
Classical conditioning - Pavlov
Classical conditioning: learning by association
Demonstrated by Pavlov in 1927: showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate
to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time they
were given food.
Before conditioning:
Unconditioned stimulus (food) --> unconditioned response (salivation)
Neutral stimulus (bell) --> no conditioned response
During conditioning:
Bell + food --> salivation
After conditioning:
Conditioned stimulus (bell) --> conditioned response (salivation)
Dogs produced the salivation response upon hearing the bell, associating its sound
with food. So a neutral stimulus elicits a conditioned response through association.
Case study of ‘little Albert’:
Raynor and Watson (1920) – classical conditioning to demonstrate origin of phobias…
18-month-old Albert was only afraid of loud noises – they struck a steel bar with a
hammer when he saw a white rat – he developed a fear of them in a controlled lab
experiment.
Before: Noise (UCS) = Anxiety (UCR)
During: Noise (UCS) + Rat (NS) = Anxiety (UCR)
After: Rat (CS) = Anxiety (CR)
Ethical issues: protection from harm, incapacitated to give informed consent
He passed away at 6 of hydrocephalus – a condition that can lead to brain damage.
Evaluation of classical conditioning:
Empirical research – can infer cause and effect, control over variables, gives
psychology greater credibility and respect
Insight into development of phobias – Rayner and Watson
High credibility – Albert’s anxiety response had generalised from the white rate
to some other white furry objects (white beards etc) that were similar to the
white rat
Valuable contribution to society – good explanation for behaviour, useful in
counter conditioning treatments e.g. systematic desensitisation
Research support – little Albert
- The use of animals – differences between humans and animals (complex
emotions and thought processes) – cannot generalise, supporting evidence
- Limited to explaining how reflex responses become associated with new stimuli
– much human behaviour is voluntary and cannot be explained by CC
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