Flashcards
KEY APPROACHES
Cards in this deck (15)
- 1Biological Approach what are the basic assumptions?- Genes influence behaviour
- Biological structures such as the brain and nervous system influence our behaviour
- Brain chemistry influences our behaviour
- Behaviour has evolved: behaviours that can help us survive are more likely to be passed on to future generations - 2BIOLOGICAL APPROACH what are the strengths?- Methods are highly scientific
- Knowing how biology is involved in psychological disorders enables researchers to find suitable treatments - 3BIOLOGICAL APPROACH what are the limitations?- Ignores environmental factors
- it is reductionist as it is over simplistic: cannot explain complex behaviours at the levels of cells and chemicals
- suggests that the mind and the brain are the same thing
- it suggests people do not have free will to decide how to behave. biological determinism
- difficult to generalise animal research to humans - 4BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH what are the basic assumptions?- All behaviour is learned through association and can be learned through stimulus-response links
- Behaviour depends on consequences: reinforcement and punishment
- Sensible to generalise animal research to human behaviour
- Should only study observable behaviours not mental processes like memory and attention - 5BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH what are the strengths?- Highly controlled scientific methods
- It enables the prediction of behaviour
- Many therapies derived from behaviourist approach: token economy - 6BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH what are the limitations?- Assumes that biological factors have little influence on behaviour
- Neglects mental processes and emotions
- Behaviour is seen to be determined by the environment: suggests there is no free will: environmental determinism
- Not sensible to generalise from animal research to human behaviour
- Seeing all behaviour in terms of simple stimulus-response links is an oversimplification - 7SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY what are the basic assumptions?- Behaviour is learned through observation and imitation
- Modelling is performing a behaviour demonstrated by a model, a person with whom we identify
- Identification with someone involves a desire to be like them and therefore leads to a desire to imitate them
- Vicarious reinforcement - learning from observing consequences of others
- Mediating cognitive factors occur between stimulus and response - 8SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY what are the strengths?- It considers the role of cognitive factors in learning
- It explains the learning of complex human behaviours such as aggression - 9SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY what are the limitations?- The bobo doll experiment is highly artificial - lacks ecological validity
- Not all behaviours are learned by observation and can be readily copied: some take years of practice while others are classically or operantly conditioned - 10COGNITIVE APPROACH what are the basic assumptions?- Internal mental processes like memory and perception can be studied scientifically
- Humans actively process information
- Humans process information similarly to computers - input and output: computer analogy
- Theoretical models can be used to explain cognitive processes - 11COGNITIVE APPROACH what are the strengths?- It considers the role of thinking in behaviour
- Cognitive models (computer) help to explain complex thinking processes by separating a complex process into its separate components
- It focuses on investigations using human participants
- Highly controlled scientific methods
- Successful therapies have been developed using cognitive principles: E.G. cognitive behaviour therapy - 12PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH what are the basic assumptions?- Unconscious mental processes shape our behaviour
- Personality is in 3 parts: Id, Ego & superego
- Early childhood experiences influence adult behaviour and personality
- Development takes place in psychosexual stages
- Defence mechanisms are unconscious processes that protect the conscious self from unpleasant events/thoughts - 13PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH what are the strengths?- Freud recognised the importance of childhood experiences later in life
- The idea of unconscious mental activity is appealing
- Defence mechanisms offer plausible explanations for everyday behaviour and experiences - 14PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH what are the limitations?- It is often accused of being male-orientated
- It over emphasises the sexual instinct - 15COGNITIVE APPROACH what are the limitations?- The cognitive approach says little about initial causes of behaviour
- It takes a mechanistic view
- Cognitive experiments tend to be highly artificial, lacking in ecological validity
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- AS psychology Flashcards on KEY APPROACHES, created by jennifer.rayment on 09/05/2013.
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