Approaches Evaluation

Question 1

Origins of psychology

Answer 1

• approach relied primarily on nonobservable responses, although participants could report on their conscious experience the process themselves were unobservable constructions
• lack of reliability
• in contrast Pavlov and Thorndike were producing reproducible results
• most psychologists accept Nisbett and Wilsons 1977 claim that we have little knowledge of the cuases of and processes underlying our behaviour and attitudes, a claim that would challenge the introspection idea,
• found that consumer were unaware of the influences that made them buy and item
• because of reliance on objective and systamtic methods it can be accepted as fact
• because they rely on determinism they are able to establish cause and effect
• if the scientific theories no longer fit the fact they can be abandoned or changed, therefore it is self corrective, hard for a theory to hold on for long
• create contrived situations this tells us little about how somebody acts in a natural environment therefore it is lacking ecological validity
• psychology is unobservable therefore cannot be measured by any degree of accuracy
• human behaviour is not subject to the laws and regularities implied by scientific methods then predictions become impossible and methods inappropriate
• Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter - used introspective methods as measuring a way of happiness, they gave a group of teenagers beepers that went off during the day at random they then had to write down their thoughts and feelings in the moment before the beep
  most were unhappy but found when focusing on the challenging task they were more upbeat

Question 2

Behaviourist approach Evaluation

Answer 2

• lead to reduction of anxiety and phobias
• SD
• different species face different challenges to survive so have different capabilities to learn through the process of classical conditioning therefore can be more difficult to establish for some species than others
• animals more prepared to learn things that are significant in terms of their survival
• reliance on experimental method
• use of controlled conditions
• non humans
• relied on rats and pigeons
• Human beings have free will
• behaviourists ignore other levels of explanations,
• ignore shaping behaviour
• skinner rejected this and argued that these internal states are scientifically untestable

Question 3

Social learning theory evaluation

Answer 3

The principles of soical learning theory has been used to increase our area of human behaviour including criminal behaviour

• Akers 1998 suggested that the probability of someone engaging in criminal behaviours increases when they have models which commit crimes, they then develop the positive consequences for their own criminal behaviour
• Ulrich (2003) supports this claim in review of the literature - strongest cause of violent behaviour was found in delinquent peer groups

Fox and Bailenson 2009 - found evidence for this using a computer generated human models, the models either looked similar or dissimilar to their participants
- the participants saw their similar model engaging in exercise and subsequently engaged in more exercise in the next following 24 hours in comparison with the participants who saw their model loitering or dissimilar model exercising

• There is a problem with the idea that increased association with deviant peers increases the likelihood that an individual adopts the same views
• arguably the cause of deviancy is not adopting the attitudes while hanging around with those but instead having those attitudes before hand
• Siegel and McCormick 2006 suggested that young people with deviant attitudes will seek out peers with similar behaviours and attitudes
• in real life an individual is exposed to many different ideas on behaviour and this influences them
• e.g. media portrayals, genetic predispositions this would all influence our behaviour
• Health adverts have tried to match their models to the physical characteristics that they are trying to apply in order to achieve greater identification
• Andsager et al 2006 found that perceived similarity to a model in anti-alcohol advertisement was positively related to the message effectiveness - if the individual cannot relate then some of the message will be lost

Question 4

Humanistic Evaluation

Answer 4

• Research suggests that Maslow’s hierarchy may have relevance on a much larger stage than individual growth
• Hagerty 1999 - looked at the relationship between economic growth and measures of Maslow’s need levels in 88 countries over 34 years - he found that countries in the early stages of economic development were characterised by lower level needs e.g. access to food, whereas in the advanced stages of economic development did esteem needs and self-actualisation become important
• Research with adolescents has shown evidence consistent with Roger’s view - those who had experienced conditional positive regard are likely to display false self behaviour - they do things to meet other peoples expectations
• Harter et al 1996 - discovered that teenagers who feel that they have to fulfil certain expectations to obtain parents approval end up not liking themselves, if they become the person that their parents would love which is not themselves then they often end up developing depression

scientifically hard to prove as there most of the evidence that is used to support this approach fails to establish a relationship between variables

• rogers suggested that the requirements of the scientific method would not be able to measure counselling and the effects of counselling
• most psychologists argue that without experimental evidence the evaluation of a theory becomes very hard to prove
• does not prove that therapy causes the changes seen in counselling, they may be other factors
• represents an overly idealised and unrealistic view of human nature
• critics argue that people are not self good and not everyone wants to grow as a person
• the innate potential from growth is an oversimplification - not realistic in a modern society

Nevis 1983 in China - found that belonging needs were more fundamental than psychological needs therefore they did not fit the hierarchy of needs table
- the hierarchy of needs only fitted the western culture and not collectivist cultures

Question 5

Biological approach Evaluation

Answer 5

• uses the scientific method particularly the experimental method as its main method of investigation
• take place in high controlled environments therefore this adds validity to the experiment as findings can be reproduced
• get the same results replicated
• provides clear predictions about effects of neurotransmitters and the behaviour of people
• e.g. neurotransmitter imbalance into the cause of depression this develops drug treatments - improved their conditions
• reductionism is the belief that complex human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into the smallest components such as the action of genes and neurotransmitters
• cannot fully understand a behaviour without taking into account other factors that influence it
• must human behaviours can be explained through genetic and cultural roots, evolutionary behaviour is complicated by this
• purely has cultural origins
• genetic basis for criminal behaviour has led to concerns how this information might be used
• genetic screening could be used - this could lead to discrimination against others based on their genes and those who have a predisposition for crime
• can be used to prevent mental disorders such as schizophrenia - gives them the chance to avoid environmental situations that may cause this

Question 6

Cognitive approach evaluation

Answer 6

• applied in many other areas of psychology
• in social psychology it has help psychologists better understand how we from impressions of other people and the errors and biases that influence our interpretation of the causes of their behaviour
• has shown how dysfunctional behaviour can be shown by faulty though processes
• this has led to CBT treatment for OCD
• Uses the experimental method, this is good for developing research and evaluating evidence to reach conclusions about how the mind works
• conclusions about how the mind works are based more on common sense and introspection which can give a misleading idea

uses cognitive models to explain human coding, terms such as encoding, retrieval and storage are borrowed from the computer field

• however there is a difference between the type of information being processed that takes place in the human mind in comparison with a computer
• computers do not make mistakes or ignore information whereas humans do

it fails to tell us why certain thought processes happen, so the role of emotion and motivation is largely ignored

• expected seeing that approaches which focus on emotional and motivational aspects largely ignore cognitive processes
• over dependence of information processing analogies as motivation is irrelevant to a computer but not to a human
• tend to use tasks that have little in common with everyday experiences - artificial memory tests - use these rather than try to understand how memory is used in every day life
• therefore it lacks ecological validity

Question 7

Psychodynamic Evaluation

Answer 7

• huge shift in psychological thinking
• suggested new methodological procedures for gathering empirical evidence
• based on observations of behaviour rather than relying on introspection
• Freud and his followers were the first to demonstrate the potential of psychological rather than biological treatments
• Matt et al’s 2009 - large scale review of psychotherapy studies concluding that psychoanalysis produced significant improvements in symptoms even years after
• has been tested and have been confirmed using scientific methodology
• Fisher and Greenberg 1996 - summarised 2500 of these studies and concluded that experimental studies of psychoanalysis compare well to studies of other areas
• found support for the existence of unconscious motivation in human behaviour and defence mechanisms

Freuds view of women and female sexuality were less well development than his view on males

• ignorant towards it
• Karen Horney broke away from Freudian theory to criticise his work on woman
• he had many female patients

Sue and Sue 2008 argued that psychoanalysis has little relevance for people from non-western cultures
- in china for example a depressed person with anxious thoughts avoids the thoughts rather than discussing them openly this contrasts with the idea of the western culture discussing thoughts openly in therapy

• can be used to explain many other areas of psychology
• Shakespeare has repressed hidden messages in his literature, by discovering these messages we are able to discover his thoughts and mind processes