Approaching Psychology:
Definitions:
‘the study of mental experiences and consciousness’, ‘the study of the
unconscious mind’, ‘the study of behaviour’, ‘the study of the individual’
If results and data are to be verifiable:
Study must be carried out and reported with precision
Data must be objective, not influenced by personal feelings, opinions, biases,
accuracy can be examined
Distinctions in research:
Pure vs applied research – the starting point for applied is usually a practical
problem and aims to provide an answer by conducting new studies and looking
and pre-existing understanding, research is undertaken for its own sake and
always has a problem or interesting question about behaviour as its starting point
Person vs process approach – process approach is likely to appear less relevant
and usually focuses on processes such as memory, reasoning or learning and
study these separately and in the simplest form they can be reduced to and soe
of the research can appear strange out of context, the person approach focuses
on the whole person and usually involved studying behaviours that appear human
and relevant (such as research on bystander apathy)
Beginnings of psychology:
Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 established first experimental psychology laboratory to
study the working of the mind through introspection observing and analysing the
elements that make up mental processes
Focused on investigations of conscious mental experiences, believed while mental
experiences and physical events occur simultaneously, they don’t interact or
influence each other
He used introspection, the examination of own thought processes and feelings,
emotions and sensations – his researched reported back with their experiences
and their analysis, and Wundt found these couldn’t be replicated and were
unreliable as the experience was too subjective
Empiricism:
Psychology inherited this doctrine
Believes people are born with minds like blank paper, no knowledge is innate, all
knowledge comes from info acquired through the senses and reflections on this
info, so knowledge only gained through senses
Learning approaches:
Theories that are based on assumption that behaviour is learned through
interaction with the environment
Behaviourism:
J.B Watson believed psychology could only be truly objective if it limited itself to
the study of behaviour as opposed to conscious experience
Advances in biology and knowledge helped to direct psychology, e.g Darwin’s
evolutionary theory for the first time suggested a degree of continuity between
man and other animals, so it was possible to investigate processes in other
species then generalise the knowledge back to man
, Behaviour is learned from experience, only observable behaviour measured, non-
human animals are valid as they share same principles of learning, born a blank
slate with no influence of genetics on behaviour
Classical conditioning:
Learning occurs when association made between previously neutral stimulus and
reflex response, the response and feeling will arise when they come into contact
with that stimulus
Pavlov’s dogs made an association with arrival of food when door opened, rang a
bell when given food, the bell became associated with food, when he rang the bell
the dogs would salivate even if no food present
He also found stimulus generalisation (if stimulus is similar to conditioned
stimulus, association would also be made to new stimulus e.g tone of bell) and
stimulus discrimination (cut off where association isn’t made and generalisation
wont occur)
Also found time contiguity where association only occurs if unconditioned stimulus
and neutral stimulus are presented at same time/around the same time, if time
lapse is too great there will be no association
Operant conditioning:
Trial and error learning, occuring through positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement and punishment
Used widely in schools, prisons and the home
Law of Effect – generated from work by Thorndike (1898), observed how cats
escape a puzzle box where they were required to pull on a latch, when cats were
first put in box it took them time to escape as it happened by chance but when
they learned how to escape they did it straight away because pulling the latch
was positively reinforced – a fish in sight out of the box acted as a further reward
Positive/negative reinforcement is likely to result in behaviour repeated, while
punishment = no repetition
Skinner’s research – worked mostly on animals, rats in a box with a lever which
would release pellets down a chute for them to eat, there were visual and
auditory signals which also acted as cues, the floor could be electrified so a shock
could be administered – actions to avoid shocks = negative reinforcement, pellets
= positive reinforcement, electrified floor = punishment – found pressing the lever
was a learned behaviour as it received pellet (continuous reinforcement) –
described processes involved as ABC (antecedents, behaviours, consequences)
Continuous reinforcement – every response is reinforced, response rate low but
steady, resistance to extinction very low, e.g in humans, receiving high grade in
every assessment or tip from every customer
Fixed interval – reinforcement given every period of time provides response
occurs at least once during the time, response rate speeds up as next
reinforcement is available with a pause after each reinforcement with overall
response rate fairly low, resistance to extinction fairly low occurs quite quickly,
e.g in humans being paid regularly, 15 minute break every hour studying
Variable interval – reinforcement given on average every period of time but
interval varies from trial to trial so interval in unpredictable, response rate very
stable over long periods of time, resistance to extinction very high occurs slowly
and gradually, e.g in humans self employed receive irregular payments
Fixed ratio – reinforcement given for fixed number of responses (e.g every 10),
there’s a pronounced pause after each reinforcement and a high rate of
responding leading to next reinforcement, resistance to extinction fairly low, e.g
in humans, piece work or commission
Variable ratio – reinforcement given on average every (e.g 10) responses but
number varies from trial to trial so number of responses required is unpredictable,
Definitions:
‘the study of mental experiences and consciousness’, ‘the study of the
unconscious mind’, ‘the study of behaviour’, ‘the study of the individual’
If results and data are to be verifiable:
Study must be carried out and reported with precision
Data must be objective, not influenced by personal feelings, opinions, biases,
accuracy can be examined
Distinctions in research:
Pure vs applied research – the starting point for applied is usually a practical
problem and aims to provide an answer by conducting new studies and looking
and pre-existing understanding, research is undertaken for its own sake and
always has a problem or interesting question about behaviour as its starting point
Person vs process approach – process approach is likely to appear less relevant
and usually focuses on processes such as memory, reasoning or learning and
study these separately and in the simplest form they can be reduced to and soe
of the research can appear strange out of context, the person approach focuses
on the whole person and usually involved studying behaviours that appear human
and relevant (such as research on bystander apathy)
Beginnings of psychology:
Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 established first experimental psychology laboratory to
study the working of the mind through introspection observing and analysing the
elements that make up mental processes
Focused on investigations of conscious mental experiences, believed while mental
experiences and physical events occur simultaneously, they don’t interact or
influence each other
He used introspection, the examination of own thought processes and feelings,
emotions and sensations – his researched reported back with their experiences
and their analysis, and Wundt found these couldn’t be replicated and were
unreliable as the experience was too subjective
Empiricism:
Psychology inherited this doctrine
Believes people are born with minds like blank paper, no knowledge is innate, all
knowledge comes from info acquired through the senses and reflections on this
info, so knowledge only gained through senses
Learning approaches:
Theories that are based on assumption that behaviour is learned through
interaction with the environment
Behaviourism:
J.B Watson believed psychology could only be truly objective if it limited itself to
the study of behaviour as opposed to conscious experience
Advances in biology and knowledge helped to direct psychology, e.g Darwin’s
evolutionary theory for the first time suggested a degree of continuity between
man and other animals, so it was possible to investigate processes in other
species then generalise the knowledge back to man
, Behaviour is learned from experience, only observable behaviour measured, non-
human animals are valid as they share same principles of learning, born a blank
slate with no influence of genetics on behaviour
Classical conditioning:
Learning occurs when association made between previously neutral stimulus and
reflex response, the response and feeling will arise when they come into contact
with that stimulus
Pavlov’s dogs made an association with arrival of food when door opened, rang a
bell when given food, the bell became associated with food, when he rang the bell
the dogs would salivate even if no food present
He also found stimulus generalisation (if stimulus is similar to conditioned
stimulus, association would also be made to new stimulus e.g tone of bell) and
stimulus discrimination (cut off where association isn’t made and generalisation
wont occur)
Also found time contiguity where association only occurs if unconditioned stimulus
and neutral stimulus are presented at same time/around the same time, if time
lapse is too great there will be no association
Operant conditioning:
Trial and error learning, occuring through positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement and punishment
Used widely in schools, prisons and the home
Law of Effect – generated from work by Thorndike (1898), observed how cats
escape a puzzle box where they were required to pull on a latch, when cats were
first put in box it took them time to escape as it happened by chance but when
they learned how to escape they did it straight away because pulling the latch
was positively reinforced – a fish in sight out of the box acted as a further reward
Positive/negative reinforcement is likely to result in behaviour repeated, while
punishment = no repetition
Skinner’s research – worked mostly on animals, rats in a box with a lever which
would release pellets down a chute for them to eat, there were visual and
auditory signals which also acted as cues, the floor could be electrified so a shock
could be administered – actions to avoid shocks = negative reinforcement, pellets
= positive reinforcement, electrified floor = punishment – found pressing the lever
was a learned behaviour as it received pellet (continuous reinforcement) –
described processes involved as ABC (antecedents, behaviours, consequences)
Continuous reinforcement – every response is reinforced, response rate low but
steady, resistance to extinction very low, e.g in humans, receiving high grade in
every assessment or tip from every customer
Fixed interval – reinforcement given every period of time provides response
occurs at least once during the time, response rate speeds up as next
reinforcement is available with a pause after each reinforcement with overall
response rate fairly low, resistance to extinction fairly low occurs quite quickly,
e.g in humans being paid regularly, 15 minute break every hour studying
Variable interval – reinforcement given on average every period of time but
interval varies from trial to trial so interval in unpredictable, response rate very
stable over long periods of time, resistance to extinction very high occurs slowly
and gradually, e.g in humans self employed receive irregular payments
Fixed ratio – reinforcement given for fixed number of responses (e.g every 10),
there’s a pronounced pause after each reinforcement and a high rate of
responding leading to next reinforcement, resistance to extinction fairly low, e.g
in humans, piece work or commission
Variable ratio – reinforcement given on average every (e.g 10) responses but
number varies from trial to trial so number of responses required is unpredictable,
