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Summary Psychology: Approaches Notes
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Psychology Paper 2 notes on Approaches including definitions of each approach, evaluations and key studies
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Approaches:Origins of Psychology:
Started as philosophy with Wilhelm Wundt, father of psychology, believed in introspection
Introspection - gaining knowledge about one's own mental and emotional states allowing us to
observe our inner world
Behaviourist Approach:
Key points of behaviourist approach:
● Learn through observation
● Classical conditioning
● Reinforcement
A Behaviourist believes that changes in behaviour are caused by a person's direct experience of
the environment using principles of classical and operant conditioning.
Behaviourist Manifesto (Watson,1913)
● Only study observable, quantifiable behaviour
● Laws that predict behaviour and how behaviour change can be controlled
● Humans are just animals and should not be treated as more complex
● Animal research will directly relate to humans
Almost all behaviourist research involves laboratories and animals.
Reasons they use animals:
● More convenient
● Easier to replicate
● More ethical
● Easier to find general laws
Classical Conditioning - Learning through experience, all animals have natural reflexes and
we consistently learn to associate other stimuli with the natural reflex so that the previous reflex
also triggers with a new reaction.
Steps of classical conditioning learnt through Pavlov's dog:
1. The Dog is shown unconditioned stimuli leading to an unconditioned response.
2. The Dog is then exposed to a neutral stimulus leading to neutral response
3. They are then exposed to the neutral stimulus while the unconditioned stimulus is
present resulting in unconditioned response.
4. The Dog will then respond to the conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response.
, Operant conditioning - Learning through consequences. Reinforcement (rewards) and
punishments.
Skinner’s Research:
● Skinner believed freewill is an illusion and we react to our environment based on our
past.
● If consequences were bad (punishment) then actions are likely to not be repeated
● If consequences were good (reinforcement) actions are likely to be repeated
● Negative Reinforcement- taking away something bad to reward you
● Negative Punishment - taking away something good to punish you
● Positive Reinforcement - giving you something good to reinforce behaviour
● Positive Punishment - giving you something bad to deter behaviour
Evaluation of behaviourism:
+ Scientific credibility - Focuses on observable behaviour, takes place in controlled
setting and should be objective with repeatable results
+ Real life application with children and with phobias
- Machine reductionism - Sees animals and humans as passive with little or no insight
into behaviour and simplifies human thought and behaviour.
- Environmental determinism - It ignores influence of free will on behaviour
- Ethical and practical issues - Uses animal experiments due to stress on animals and
how it will affect the results
Social Learning Theory:
Albert Bandura - Believed that conditioning cannot account for all human learning so therefore
proposed social learning theory as a development of behaviourism.
children learn behaviour through observing their parents and imitating behaviour such as
drinking or smoking. This is because if they see the behaviour in their parents then they think
this is good and therefore are more likely to repeat or imitate the behaviour.
Observation - Watching people or things around you
Role Model - Someone you look up to and admire
Imitation - Copying someone's behaviour (usually a role models)
Identification - The process by which an observer relates to/ associates themselves with a role
model and aspires to become more like that role model.
Reinforcement - Encourages behaviour to be repeated throughout rewards
Vicarious Reinforcement - behaviour is seen to be rewarded rather than punished, Learner
observes behaviour and the consequences for it with reinforcement not directly being
experienced just observed.
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