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AQA A Level Psychology Approaches May 2024 Exam Question and Answers
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AQA A Level PsychologyApproaches May 2024 Exam
Question and Answers
Who was Wundt and what did he do - Answer>> He is known
as the father of Psychology opening the first institute for
experimental psychology in Germany in 1879. He separated
psychology from philosophy and focused on studying the mind.
He took a very reductionist approach where he simplified
everything down to cause and effect.
Outline introspection and problems with it - Answer>>
Introspection is a psychological method to analyse someones
thoughts and feelings internally, this was done as there were no
brain scans or computers at the time and thus they used this
technique of presenting a stimuli and asking how they felt after
seeing it.
Problems with it include how it does not explain how the mind
works it simply relies on peoples subjective thoughts. Secondly it
doesn't provide data that can be used with certain reliability.
What are the 5 factors that need to be looked at when deciding
whether psychology is a science - Answer>> Objectivity
Control
Predictability
Hypothesis Testing
Replication
Evaluate the strengths and limitations to a scientific approach in
psychology - Answer>> :) - Due to its reliance on objectivity and
scientific methods knowledge acquired is more than just the
passive acceptance of facts
,:) - Because scientific methods believe in determinism they are
able to establish the causes of behaviour through the use of
methods that are replicable
:) - If scientific methods no longer fit the facts then they can easily
be refined or abandoned meaning that scientific knowledge is self
corrective
:( - Be focusing on objectivity and control in experiments they tend
to be too unrealistic and we lack an insight into natural behaviour
:( - A lot of psychological behaviour is unobservable and thus
cannot be measured with much accuracy meaning that the gap
between actual data and theories put forward is quite large
:( - Not all psychologists believe that human behaviour can be
viewed scientifically as it is not subject to laws and regularities
that science implies
The first worldwide accepted approach was behaviourism, outline
this - Answer>> Behaviourism, also known as learning theory,
started in the early 1900's by Watson who believed that
psychological research before this wasn't scientific enough.
There are three assumptions behaviourism makes:
1) All behaviour is learnt (exception of inborn reflexes)
2) Animals and humans learn in the same way
3) The minds is irrelevant
Outline Pavlov's classical conditioning - Answer>> Pavlov was
studying dogs salivation however during his studies he found that
dogs would end up salivating before there was any food, the
direction of his studies changed and outlined classical
conditioning.
He eventually ended up ringing a bell before giving the dogs food
and then he would ring a bell and give no food, the dogs still
salivated. The food is the UCS and salivation is the UCR. The bell
had become the CS and salivation the CR.
,This process of learning can be applied to human development.
Comfort for the baby is an UCS that produces happiness, the
UCR. The babies mother will talk to it while she feeds it and
changes its nappies etc. and thus the baby hears its mothers
voice every time it is made happy. The sound of the mothers
voice is matched with the UCS and therefore becomes a CS,
eventually the sound of the mothers voice alone will make the
baby happy. The CS now causes the CR.
Outline the several principles of classical conditioning -
Answer>> Generalisation - stimuli similar to CS produces the
CR
Discrimination - when stimuli similar to CS does not produce the
CR
Extinction - when the CR isn't produced after the CS
Spontaneous recovery - when a previously extinct CR is produced
in response to the CS
High order conditioning - when a new CS produces the CR
because the animal associates it with the original CS
Outline Skinners operant conditioning - Answer>> Skinner
studies how animals can learn from consequences of their own
actions. Consequences involve either:
Positive reinforcement where something desirable is obtained or
negative reinforcement where something undesirable is removed.
Skinner used a 'Skinner Box' which he placed one rat inside at a
time. Each box had a variety of different stimuli including a
speaker, lights an electric floor and a food dispenser connected to
a lever. The time taken for the rats to learn that pressing the lever
was recorded. He found that rats would initially run around the
cage until accidentally pressing the lever then it was rewarded the
food. The more it was put into the box, the quicker they got at
learning about the lever. The rat had learnt that when it pressed
the leaver there was a reward in return.
, Evaluate conditioning as a theory - Answer>> Classical
:) - Research into classical conditioning has lead to the
development of treatment of phobias, systematic desensitisation
works by eliminating the learned anxious response (CR) that is
associated with the feared object (CS). This process has been
proven to work on many different phobias such as arachnophobia
:( - It is difficult to say that conditioning works the same for every
animal as some animals find it harder to form associations with
certain stimuli. Thus Seligman proposed preparedness, this
means that animals are prepared to associate aspects that will
help their survival such as the smell of meat with food, but are
less ready to associate random items such as a bell with a tree.
Operant
:) - Skinner used a strong experimental method which allowed him
to control the conditions in which it was setup in. The 'Skinners
Box' in particular is a good example of this in practice where the
consequence was manipulated to see the effects on the rats
behaviour. All of this allowed him to draw a strong cause and
effect relationship.
:( - Critics have pointed out that he has relied strongly on the fact
he can extrapolate his findings from rats onto humans. We are
very different to rats and specifically we have free will, it can be
argued that we do not have our behaviour determined by positive
and negative reinforcement
Outline Bandura's SLT - Answer>> Bandura agreed that people
can learn through conditioning but he stated other people such as
role models also play a key role in our behaviour. He said people
must focus their attention onto a role model, perceive what they
do and then remember it in order to repeat it.
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