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A level psychology aqa approaches
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A-level PsychologyPAPER 1 PAPER 2 PAPER 3
a. Social influence a. Approaches a. Issues and debates
b. memory b. Biopsychology b. Relationships
c. Attachment c. Research methods c. Schizophrenia
d. Psychopathology d. Aggression
APPROACHES
Wilhelm Wundt - how does the mind work?
Wilhelm Wundt set up the first ever
experimental psychology lab in Leipzig
Germany in 1879, where he applied the
scientific method to studying the mind, whereas before psychology had only been in the
realm of philosophy. He started making observations in a controlled environment to
understand cause and effect (meaning that he applied the scientific method to psychology).
Wundt studied the mind by bringing participants into his lab and presenting them with a
stimulus.
Before setting up the first experimental psychology lab, Wundt worked as a scientist studying
the human body, he knew that we could learn how the body works by looking at organs like
the hearts or the lungs, smaller parts that make up the body. The idea that complicated
things like the human body can be explained in terms of smaller or simpler parts is called
reductionism, e.g. how organs work in terms of cells.
Wundt believed that he could apply reductionism to the human mind, and believed he could
explain the mind in terms of its simpler parts.
HOW HE CARRIED OUT HIS EXPERIMENTS? Wundt carried out his experiments by
presenting participants with a stimulus, the responses to it are called “mental processes”
(=the thoughts and feelings you have in response to a stimulus).
Introspection - when the participants describe their own mental processes.
(STRENGHT) The big strength of Wundt’s research is that he was the first to apply the
scientific method to psychology, by controlling all his situational variables (e.g. room
temperature and kept the same for every participant), using standardisation and his studies
were replicable as he made sure to note down the methods.
(LIMITATION) Woundt’s work lacked reliability as he never got consistent results when
repeating his studies, moreover, he studied his participants through introspection and not by
directly observing, meaning that Woundt’s studies’ results were not based on any empirical
evidence, making the research less scientific.
,APPROACHES INTERLUDE AO3
FREW WILL vs DETERMINISM
Free will is when psychologists believe that people always have the freedom to choose how
they behave, sawn in the humanistic approach to psychology.
On the other hand, some psychologists believe that people never have control over their
behvaiour is known as determinism.
IDIOGRAPHIC vs NOMOTHETIC
The nomothetic approach believes that psychologists can study a sample of a population
and generalise the results to the entire population. People are similar enough to one other,
that we can come up with general theories. The nomothetic approach involves establishing
general laws of behaviour. The behaviourist approach is nomothetic as It assumes that
everyone learns using the same learning mechanisms.
The idiographic approach to psychology believes that people are so different from one
another, that coming up with general laws is not possible. The idiographic approach involves
studying personal differences. The Humanistic approach to psychology is idiographic
because it assumes that everyone is unique, so we can’t generalise from one individual to
the next.
REDUCTIONISM vs HOLISM
Reductionism is the idea that behvaiour can be explained in terms of its smaller parts.
Reductionists believe that behaviour can be explained in terms of stimulus and response, or
behvaiour can be explained in terms of the captivity in the neurons.
Holsim believes that behaviour has to be studied as a whole and it is not possible to break it
into smaller components.
NATURE vs NURTURE
Nature believes that behaviour is genetically inherited. Some psychologists believe that our
behvaiour is inherited, it is caused by genotypes.
Nurture believes that our behvaiour is determined by our environment. Some Psychologists
believe that our behvaiour is determined by our experiences and environment.
, PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
The psychodynamic approach to psychology was developed by Sigmund Freud.
The Conscious mind contains everything you are currently thinking about right now. The
Preconscious mind contains everything you are not currently thinking about but can be
easily accessed. The common factor between the conscious and preconscious mind is that
we can easily access both of them. Freud believed there was another part of our mind,
which contained things we could never access and could never be in our conscious mind -
the Unconscious mind. Freud believed that dreams are the only times that we fully
experience the unconscious mind.
Freud used an iceberg to describe the
mind, the bit above the water is the
conscious mind, representing what we
are thinking about right now. Just below
the surface, the preconscious mind
represents what we are not currently
thinking about, but can easily access.
The part deep below the surface, the
unconscious mind, represents what we
can never access consciously.
The key assumption of the psychodynamic approach is that most behaviour is caused by the
unconscious mind (as most of the mind is unconscious), which is everything we can’t
consciously think about.
THE TRIPARTITE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
In the Psychodynamic Approach, according to Freud, the personality has a tripartite
structure (split into three): Id, Super-ego and Ego.
➢ Id (stands for “it” in Latin) - part of the personality that wants instant gratification or
pleasure. It is also responsible for our urges, which is an impulse. According to Freud
the urges and impulses that are caused by the Id, come entirely from the
unconscious mind. As the unconscious is most of the mind, this means that the id is
responsible for most of our behaviour.
➢ Super-ego - part of the personality that wants to follow rules and morals; it is found
in the conscious, preconscious or unconscious mind.
➢ Ego - the part of the personality which decides to follow the impulses of the Id or the
morals of the Super-ego, and whenever the Ego decides whether to follow the Id or
the Super-ego, it mediates between them. Usually, the Ego finds a compromise. As
the Ego is aware of the decision is making, means it is in the conscious mind;
sometimes it is also in the preconscious mind.
DEFENCE MECHANISM
Since the conscious mind is just the tip of the iceberg, is much less powerful than the
unconscious mind, therefore the Ego is less powerful than the unconscious mind. It is hard
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