APPROACHES SHORT
Wundt and Introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science
Behaviourist approach - classical and operant conditioning
Cognitive approach
Biological approach
Social learning theory - Bandura
The Psychodynamic approach
Humanistic approach
Wundt and Introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science
A01 Wundt ‘father of psychology’
first psychologist - separation of psychology from the philosophical roots
Leipzig, Germany 1879.
Human mind is scientifically studied.
Study structure of human mind
Describe human consciousness using structuralism (breaking down behaviours (e.g sensation and perception)
into basic elements).
Method of introspection - self report, participants reflect on their own perception e.g an object. Establish general
scientific theories from comparing reports by breaking conscious awareness into thought, images and sensations.
A01 John Watson
Criticised Wundt - lacks objectivity and scientific credibility, cant establish general principles
SHOULD BE → objective, measurable and observable
A01 Scientific approach in psychology
Behaviourist approach - highly controlled scientific lab
Biological approach - objective measures of methodology
Cognitive uses experimental data to measure internal mental processes
SUPPORTING - Wundt’s methods systematic, controlled environment, lab ,control EVs. standardised.
Forerunner to later scientific approaches e.g behaviourist
Oppose - Nisbett and Wilson - Introspective reports not accurately capture true motivations. - Participants were
unaware of factors influencing their choices in consumer item experiments. - Self-reports are often based on
speculation or socially acceptable factors. - Implicit attitudes exist outside conscious awareness. - Introspection
cannot uncover these implicit attitudes or unconscious influences. - Other methods like behavioural measures or
implicit association tests are needed for deeper understanding of behaviour.
Support - Scientific approach - objective, systematic, unbiased, causal, replicable, validated. Theories can be
redefined over time and scientific knowledge can be developed.
OPPOSING - scientific approach - research may not actually tell us much about how people behave in the real
world. To achieve objectivity and control in observations, psychologists must carry out their experiments in
controlled environments e.g. laboratories. Limitation as observing people in a controlled environment may be
detrimental to acquiring knowledge about more natural behaviour. Not appropriate for observing all aspects of
human behaviour and explains the decision for other approaches to reject the scientific approach. The humanistic
approach focuses only on individual experiences and subjective experience to reach conclusions.
Behaviourist approach: Classical and Operant Conditioning
A01 John watson - blank slate a birth
Tabula rasa
Behaviour is learnt through environment/experience
Thoughts and feelings unimportant
Behaviour acquired by classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
stimulus-response approach
, A01 Classical conditioning - association
Pavlov - dogs associating bell with food
Food (UCS) = UCR salvation
Food (UCS) and Bell (NS) = UCR salvation
Repeatedly shown - Bell (CS) = CR salvation
Generalisable to other stimuli, extinction can occur
A01 Operant conditioning
Skinner’s box - rat in box, lever released food (positive reinforcement) increases frequency of behaviour
Negative reinforcement - rat pressing lever stops electric shock
Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than
increase it.
● Positive punishment - adding something unpleasant immediately following a behaviour to decrease
the likelihood of that behaviour happening again.
● Negative punishment - removing something rewarding immediately following a behaviour to
decrease the likelihood of that behaviour happening again.
A03 - Practical application - overcoming phobias to reduce anxiety. Modifying behaviour through association
eliminating the conditioned response. This helped positively develop treatments and therapies for mental
disorders. This showed the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation. Study on patients with aerophobia had a
75% success rate flying. Thus, a real world application in psychopathology.
A03 This study was reliable, lab, high internal validity, showing it as consistent. There are less confounding
variables, scientific credibility, It is replicable using objective and observable techniques, This theory based off
invalid research. Research into behaviourism using extrapolation. Animals don't learn in the same way as
humans, each individual's own experience is as important in their response.
A03 - Animal experiments are unethical, no consent or right to withdraw. Undergo extreme stress, which would
be harmful affecting their response to the stimuli presented. Behaviourism has a minor contribution to
understanding human behaviour, as the biology between species, and individual differences is not accounted for.
A03 This approach ignores free will, conscious choices emphasised by the humanist approach. Cognitive factors
and emotional state could impact behaviour. Social Learning challenges e.g bobo dolls showing mental
processing as a key role. Environmental determinism contradicts everyday decision making.
Cognitive Approach
A01 Inference - draws conclusions about mental processes we can’t directly observe by assumptions on directly
specific and observable evidence. It has input from the senses which it then processes to produce outputs such
as language and specific behaviours. Internal mental processes mediate between stimulus and response
Human mind = computer Schema encodes, stores and outputs information → computers use central processing
units. Useful in development of thinking machines or AI
A01 Schema is a package of information developed through past experiences (mental framework). Babies born
with motor schema for innate behaviours e.g sucking, grasping. Through age, more detailed and sophisticated.
Helps us predict the future based on experiences, processing vast amounts of information rapidly (mental
shortcut prevents overwhelm from environmental stimuli). Assimilation and Accommodation. Disequilibrium and
Equilibrium.
A01 - Cognitive neuroscience: Study of brain structures on mental processes
This emerged in the 1950s however George Miller first used the term cognitive neuroscience in 1971.
- fMRI: Measures brain activity by detecting blood flow changes
- PET scan: Uses radioactive substance to mimic glucose uptake, showing brain areas in function
- Brain areas associated with actions, moods, emotions identified through scanning techniques
- Example: Frontal lobe's Broca’s Area linked to speech production
A03 RWA - cognitive interviews decrease the inaccuracy of eyewitness testimony, decreasing wrongful
convictions. This reduces the schema effect through reverse order, change of perspective etc.
Wundt and Introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science
Behaviourist approach - classical and operant conditioning
Cognitive approach
Biological approach
Social learning theory - Bandura
The Psychodynamic approach
Humanistic approach
Wundt and Introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science
A01 Wundt ‘father of psychology’
first psychologist - separation of psychology from the philosophical roots
Leipzig, Germany 1879.
Human mind is scientifically studied.
Study structure of human mind
Describe human consciousness using structuralism (breaking down behaviours (e.g sensation and perception)
into basic elements).
Method of introspection - self report, participants reflect on their own perception e.g an object. Establish general
scientific theories from comparing reports by breaking conscious awareness into thought, images and sensations.
A01 John Watson
Criticised Wundt - lacks objectivity and scientific credibility, cant establish general principles
SHOULD BE → objective, measurable and observable
A01 Scientific approach in psychology
Behaviourist approach - highly controlled scientific lab
Biological approach - objective measures of methodology
Cognitive uses experimental data to measure internal mental processes
SUPPORTING - Wundt’s methods systematic, controlled environment, lab ,control EVs. standardised.
Forerunner to later scientific approaches e.g behaviourist
Oppose - Nisbett and Wilson - Introspective reports not accurately capture true motivations. - Participants were
unaware of factors influencing their choices in consumer item experiments. - Self-reports are often based on
speculation or socially acceptable factors. - Implicit attitudes exist outside conscious awareness. - Introspection
cannot uncover these implicit attitudes or unconscious influences. - Other methods like behavioural measures or
implicit association tests are needed for deeper understanding of behaviour.
Support - Scientific approach - objective, systematic, unbiased, causal, replicable, validated. Theories can be
redefined over time and scientific knowledge can be developed.
OPPOSING - scientific approach - research may not actually tell us much about how people behave in the real
world. To achieve objectivity and control in observations, psychologists must carry out their experiments in
controlled environments e.g. laboratories. Limitation as observing people in a controlled environment may be
detrimental to acquiring knowledge about more natural behaviour. Not appropriate for observing all aspects of
human behaviour and explains the decision for other approaches to reject the scientific approach. The humanistic
approach focuses only on individual experiences and subjective experience to reach conclusions.
Behaviourist approach: Classical and Operant Conditioning
A01 John watson - blank slate a birth
Tabula rasa
Behaviour is learnt through environment/experience
Thoughts and feelings unimportant
Behaviour acquired by classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
stimulus-response approach
, A01 Classical conditioning - association
Pavlov - dogs associating bell with food
Food (UCS) = UCR salvation
Food (UCS) and Bell (NS) = UCR salvation
Repeatedly shown - Bell (CS) = CR salvation
Generalisable to other stimuli, extinction can occur
A01 Operant conditioning
Skinner’s box - rat in box, lever released food (positive reinforcement) increases frequency of behaviour
Negative reinforcement - rat pressing lever stops electric shock
Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than
increase it.
● Positive punishment - adding something unpleasant immediately following a behaviour to decrease
the likelihood of that behaviour happening again.
● Negative punishment - removing something rewarding immediately following a behaviour to
decrease the likelihood of that behaviour happening again.
A03 - Practical application - overcoming phobias to reduce anxiety. Modifying behaviour through association
eliminating the conditioned response. This helped positively develop treatments and therapies for mental
disorders. This showed the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation. Study on patients with aerophobia had a
75% success rate flying. Thus, a real world application in psychopathology.
A03 This study was reliable, lab, high internal validity, showing it as consistent. There are less confounding
variables, scientific credibility, It is replicable using objective and observable techniques, This theory based off
invalid research. Research into behaviourism using extrapolation. Animals don't learn in the same way as
humans, each individual's own experience is as important in their response.
A03 - Animal experiments are unethical, no consent or right to withdraw. Undergo extreme stress, which would
be harmful affecting their response to the stimuli presented. Behaviourism has a minor contribution to
understanding human behaviour, as the biology between species, and individual differences is not accounted for.
A03 This approach ignores free will, conscious choices emphasised by the humanist approach. Cognitive factors
and emotional state could impact behaviour. Social Learning challenges e.g bobo dolls showing mental
processing as a key role. Environmental determinism contradicts everyday decision making.
Cognitive Approach
A01 Inference - draws conclusions about mental processes we can’t directly observe by assumptions on directly
specific and observable evidence. It has input from the senses which it then processes to produce outputs such
as language and specific behaviours. Internal mental processes mediate between stimulus and response
Human mind = computer Schema encodes, stores and outputs information → computers use central processing
units. Useful in development of thinking machines or AI
A01 Schema is a package of information developed through past experiences (mental framework). Babies born
with motor schema for innate behaviours e.g sucking, grasping. Through age, more detailed and sophisticated.
Helps us predict the future based on experiences, processing vast amounts of information rapidly (mental
shortcut prevents overwhelm from environmental stimuli). Assimilation and Accommodation. Disequilibrium and
Equilibrium.
A01 - Cognitive neuroscience: Study of brain structures on mental processes
This emerged in the 1950s however George Miller first used the term cognitive neuroscience in 1971.
- fMRI: Measures brain activity by detecting blood flow changes
- PET scan: Uses radioactive substance to mimic glucose uptake, showing brain areas in function
- Brain areas associated with actions, moods, emotions identified through scanning techniques
- Example: Frontal lobe's Broca’s Area linked to speech production
A03 RWA - cognitive interviews decrease the inaccuracy of eyewitness testimony, decreasing wrongful
convictions. This reduces the schema effect through reverse order, change of perspective etc.
