AQA A Level Psychology
Approaches Solution
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
Approaches Solution
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
