1
Q
What are the three levels in psychodynamic approach?
A
Conscious - conscious awareness
Preconscious - anything that could be bought into the conscious mind
Unconscious- things outside our awareness that are unacceptable or unpleasant
2
Q
What are ways of unconscious coming through?
A
Dream analysis, Freudian slips, Free association
3
Q
What is the tripartite personality?
A
Id, Ego, Superego
4
Q
Describe the ID?
A
-pleasure principle
-Instincts that drive towards sex and aggression
-Present at birth
5
Q
Describe the Ego?
A
- Reality principle
- results to resolve conflict between ID and superego
- when balance can’t be achieved abnormal behaviours occur as a result eg anxiety
- Develops around 1
6
Q
Describe the Superego?
A
- develops after socialisation
- is our conscious and moral standards
- morality principle
- morals come from same sex parent
7
Q
What are the psychosexual stages?
A
Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
- Everyone goes through them during development
- Each associated with a particular conflict that must be resolved
8
Q
Describe the oral stage?
A
- age 0-1
-Primary source of pleasure is mouth and sucking, mothers breast is object of desire - fixation is smoking, biting nails, chatiness
9
Q
Describe the anal stage?
A
-1-3
- primary source of pleasure involves membranes of anal region
- toilet training is main demand and children become aware as ego develops
-fixation is obsessiveness (anal retentive) or thoughtlessness (anal expulsive)
10
Q
Describe the phallic stage?
A
-3-6
-Focus of pleasure is on genital area
- males experience Oedipus whilst females experience electra
- fixation is narcissistic, reckless behaviour
11
Q
Describe latency stage?
A
-6-12
- development of other activities so less focus on sexual area
- earlier conflicts repressed and little is remembered from childhood
12
Q
Describe the genital stage?
A
- puberty onwards
-previous stages left and genitals become focus of pleasure as sexual desires become conscious - fixation is difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
13
Q
What are the three defence mechanisms?
A
- repression = defence mechanisms used by the ego where traumatic memories forced into the unconscious, this drives behaviour
-denial = deny an event so cannot cause anxiety - displacement = redirection of an emotion at an easier target, is an unconscious process
14
Q
Describe how the psychodynamic approach is andocentric?
A
- A weakness of the theory is it has a gender bias due to his views on women and their sexuality being les developed than the male
- Andocentric so is male focused and views male behaviour as the norm
- Freud seemed to ignore female sexuality and how it differed from males, it has been argued that treatments were then less effective on females
15
Q
How is the psychodynamic approach not scientific?
A
- Not scientific or falsifiable which is a limitation
- Opponents claim the unconscious is not testable so Freud could interpret the behaviour in anyway to fit his theory so it is also not objective
16
Q
Describe the strength of the psychodynamic approach?
A
- A strength is the contribution to psychology through the psychoanalysis therapies
- Freuds psychanalysis was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
- Psychoanalysis helps patients deal with their issues by providing access to their unconscious e.g. through dream analysis
- Therefore, it leads to many successful modern day talking therapies
17
Q
What do behaviourists believe?
A
- all behaviour is learnt and we our born as blank slates
-Influenced by the environment via conditioning
18
Q
What is classical conditioning?
A
- learning through association
- first shown by Pavlov
- It occurs when a neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus produces a conditioned response on its own
19
Q
What is Pavlov’s dog experiment?
A
- Found dogs can be conditioned to salivate at sound of bell if sound was repeatedly presented at time they were given food
- Found neutral condition can become learned response through association
20
Q
What affected classical conditioning?
A
- Timing
- Stimulus generalisation
- Extinction
- Spontaneous recovery
21
Q
How does timing affect classical conditioning?
A
- If the timed interval between the NS and the UCS is too long conditioning doesn’t take place
22
Q
How does stimulus generalisation affect conditioning?
A
- Pavlov discovered that once an animal has been conditioned they will respond to other stimuli that are similar to the CS
23
Q
How does extinction affect conditioning?
A
- The CR does not become a permanent response, after a few presentations of the CS without the UCS it loses the ability to produce the CR
24
Q
How does spontaneous recovery affect conditioning?
A
- Following extinction, if CS and UCS are paired together ever again, the link between them is much more quickly
25
Describe operant conditioning?
- when behaviour is shaped and maintained by consequences
26
Describe Skinners Box experiment?
- Skinner designed an experiment to demonstrate principles of operant conditioning
- he put rats in cages and every time they pushed a lever they were rewarded with food
- the reward increased the behaviour
- also showed rats avoid behaviour when punished e.g. given electric shocks
27
What are the types of reinforcement?
-Positive= receiving an award when certain behaviour is performed
- increases likelihood behaviour will be performed again
-negative = feeling reward of avoiding something unpleasant
- Increases likelihood behaviour will be performed again
28
What are the types of punishment?
-positive = adding an unwanted stimulus after behaviour to discourage a person from repeating it
- negative = removal of a pleasant stimulus to decrease behaviour
29
Strength of behaviourism being scientific?
- A strength is that it has scientific credibility e.g. falsifiable
- Behaviourists have broken down behaviour into stimulus-response units and studied casual relationships
- Suggests behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility
- However, may oversimplify learning and ignore important influences e.g. thought
30
Describe behaviourists treatments?
- Strength s conditioning has led to development of treatments for reducing anxiety to do with phobias
- E.g. systematic desensitisation is a therapy based on classical conditioning used to treat phobias - aims to eliminate learned anxious response that is associated with a fear
- This application adds validity to the theory
31
Describe behaviourists nature vs nurture debate?
- Sees all behaviour as learnt and ignores any bio factors that cause behaviour
- E.g. assumes phobias are as a result of a learning process and ignores any potential evolutionary explanations
- May be problematic as some individuals may have phobias without a traumatic experience
- Theories without an interactionalist approach between nature and nurture can be seen as limited explanations of behaviour
32
Describe SLT?
- development of behaviourism
- shows important mental processes as well as conditioning
- Includes both direct and indirect reinforcement. combining learning theory with role of cognitive factors
33
What is imitation?
- copying behaviour of a role model
34
What is identification?
- desire to be associated with a person/ group because they posses desirable characteristics
35
What is vicarious reinforcement?
-indirect reinforcement that increases likelihood of behaviour being repeated
- E.g. your favourite TV character receiving a compliment for their haircut increases the likelihood of you getting it
36
What are mediational processes?
- Mental factors that intervene in the learning process to determine whether a new behaviour is acquired
37
What are the four mediations processes?
-attention = wether we notice the behaviour
-Retention = wether we remember the behaviour long term
- reproduction = wether we are physically able to perform it
-motivation = wether it is worth it
38
What is the real life application of SLT?
- A strength is that it has real life application
- The principles of SLT particularly observational learning can account for how children learn through the media and this can can explain how cultural norms are transmitted
- This has been useful to understand a complex range of behaviours, e.g. how children understand their gender role through imitating media
- Increases usefulness of SLT in explaining human behaviour
39
Describe how SLT is lab based?
- Limitation is that many of its key concepts were developed through observation of children in a lab setting
- E.g. Banduras Bobo Doll study involved controlled observation of how children behave towards a Bobo doll, where its purpose is to be hit
- It may have been these children were demonstrating demand characteristics and simply behaving in a way that was expected of them
- Therefore, the research may tell us little about how the children actually learnt aggression in everyday lives, reducing validity
40
Issue and debate for SLT?
- Sees all behaviour as environmental determined by external factors that we are unable to control
- However, Bandura put forward idea of reciprocal determinism that we are all being influenced by our environment but we also have some influence on our behaviours
41
Describe the humanist approach?
-emphasis the importance of individual experience
- believes humans are active agents who have free will and can determine their own behaviour
42
Describe Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
- humans are motivated beyond needs of just survival and we have a desire to grow and develop and achieve full potential
- want to achieve self actualisation
43
What are the stages in Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
- physiology e.g. breathing, food
- safety e.g. security of health
- love/belonging e.g. family
-esteem e.g. confidence, self esteem
- self actualisation e.g. morality
44
Describe self worth?
-what we think and feel about ourselves
-Roger believes feeling of self worth develop in childhood and with interactions with our parents
45
Describe self image?
how we perceive ourselves
46
Describe Rogers congruence?
- if there are similarities between ideal self and self image a state of congruence is achieved, healthy sense of wellbeing
47
Describe incongruence?
- a gap between ideal self and self image
- leads to low self worth
48
What does Rogers believe?
- individuals strive to achieve their ideal self because self improvement is wanted
- Believes an individuals concept of self needs to be congruent with their ideal self, if not incongruence occurs
49
Describe unconditional positive regard?
- humans have a basic need to feel nurtured and valued by significant people (e.g. parents)
- if this is unconditional then people develop a healthy sense of worth
-Children who receive negative regard more likely to have low self esteem
50
Describe conditions of worth?
- a parent who sets conditions of worth ( limits of love for their child) causes psychological damage for that child in adulthood
- Rogers believe most people hinder their chances of self actualisation because they fail to reach social expectations and conditions of worth so cannot truly except themselves
51
What is positive about the humanist approach?
- Strength is it is refreshingly optimistic as promotes a positive image of humans as we are in control and have the power to change
- Other approaches show humans as passive and not in control
52
Issue and debate for humanism?
- Use of free will and holism - strength
- Humans have free will and are not determined by bio/external factors
- We determine our own development and must consider the person as a whole
53
Limitation of humanism?
- Limitation is it may have cultural bias
- Some ideas associated more with different cultures so cannot be applied universally
54
What does the cognitive approach believe?
- internal mental processes influence our behaviour
55
What is meant by internal mental processes?
- humans are seen as information processors
- info received from our senses is processed by the brain and this directs how we behave e.g. memory
56
What is inference?
-Drawing conclusions from evidence and reasoning
- Use clues from observable behaviours
57
Describe how the cognitive approach uses models?
- use of computer models to understand internal mental processes
- e.g. multi store model of memory
-info processed by the mind is similar to a computer
58
Strengths of theoretical models?
- has good application e.g. contributed to development of AI due to theoretical and computer models
59
Limitations of theoretical models?
- models are oversimplified
60
What is a schema?
- mental framework of beliefs and expectations that help interpret things
61
How are schemas useful?
- help interpret and understand the world around you
- fill in the gaps from info you are given ( with stereotypes and expectations)
-make it easier to predict behaviour
62
How are schemas bad?
- Can be wrong and lead to bias and generalisations
- Can lead to misunderstandings
63
Issue and debate for cognitive approach?
- Machine reductionism
- Explains how cognitive processes happen but does not explain why
- Ignores emotional motivation and human factors in human behaviour
64
What is good about cognitive approach?
- Scientific and based on carefully controlled research
- Uses lab studies to infer cognitive processes
- Has good internal validity
- However, the emphasis on lab experiments means the findings may not reflect everyday life so less ecological validity
65
Real world applications of cognitive approach?
- Strength as has useful applications e.g. used to improve eye witness testimony with memory
- Use of computer models helps us to understand unobservable mental processes
66
Describe the bio approach?
- Everything psychological was first biological
- To fully understand behaviour we must look at bio structures and processes in the body e.g. neurochemistry
- Believes the mind and the body are the same
67
What is the function of serotonin?
- Inhibits aggressive responses to emotional stimuli and increases self control
- Low levels implicated in OCD
- Treated using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors which reduces symptoms
68
What is the function of dopamine?
- Regulates mood and attention
- High levels implicated to schizophrenia
- Treated using dopamine antagonists to reduce levels of dopamine
69
What is the function of endorphins?
- Released when we feel pain and stress
70
What is the function of oxytocin?
- Produced in pituitary gland and processes feelings of calmness
71
What is the function of adrenaline?
- Excitatory neurotransmitter linked to fight or flight
72
What is the function of melatonin?
- Produced by the pineal gland and helps regulate sleep wake cycles
73
What is the function of cortisol?
- Stress hormone released by the adrenal cortex in response to a stressor
74
What is concordance?
- extent to which twins share the same characteristics
75
What are twin studies?
- Used to investigate whether psychological characteristics have a genetic bias
76
Define genotype?
- particular set of genes a person has
77
Define phenotype?
- Characteristics of an individual determined by genes and the environment
78
How is the bio approach scientific?
- Uses a range of precise and highly objective methods
- These include scanning techniques e.g. MRI
- With advances in technology it is possible to accurately measure psychological and neural processes in ways that are not open to bias
- Meaning much of this approach is based on objective and reliable data
79
How does the bio approach have real life application?
- Increased understanding of neurochemical processes in the brain is associated with the use of drugs to treat serious mental disorders e.g. drugs that increase serotonin in synapses used as antidepressants
- Means better managing of conditions
80
Issue and debate for bio approach?
- Limitation of biological determinism
- Sees human behaviour as governed by internal genetic causes over which we have no control
- However, the way in which an individuals genotype is expressed is heavily influenced by the environment
- A purely genetic argument becomes problematic when we consider thigs like crime
- Suggests this is often to simplistic and ignores the mediating effects of the environment
Revision Cards
flashcards
Decks in class (17)
# Cards
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Approaches80
-
Research Methods52
-
Bio core concept enzymes7
-
bio core concept molecules49
-
cells core concepts15
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Nucleic acids9
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Research Methods 243
-
Bio Component 324
-
Bio The Heart41
-
Memory82
-
English Key Phrases7
-
Social influence38
-
Bio component 3 transport in blood5
-
Nervous system32
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Kidneys13
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Bio core concepts water11
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Crit app12
