AQA- A- Level Psychology Approaches Correct Questions & Answers(RATED A+)
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
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
