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32 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Outline wundts theory on introspection |
Wundt believed that a person could look into their own mental, emotional, and physical states to determine scientifically their psychological state. |
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Evaluate wundts introspection theory |
Wundts methods could be seen as unreliable as he may have used demand characteristics to cause his work to seem bias. Due to using introspection his methods would've been subjective. By testing the theory on himself it makes his findings difficult to generalise the information in comparison to the public. As the study was conducted in a lab little is known about how he'd react in a natural environment. In addition to this the study would have little ecological validity. |
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What's the difference between classical and operant conditioning? |
Classical involves learning to associate a behaviour with a stimulus. Whilst operant conditioning involves behaviour being learnt by positive and negative reinforcement ie removing or adding a stimulus. |
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Outline Watson and Raynors little Albert study |
Showed how a phobia could be conditioned. Initially tested his response to a selection of furry objects and animals(no fear shown). Then used classical conditioning to introduce a stimuli that would lead to an unconditioned fear response(hammer striking an iron bar) each time Albert would try pet a rat. This caused him to associate the rat with the noise as a conditioned response. |
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Outline the behaviourist approach to psychology |
1)Behaviourism- acquired through association experience. Follows two types of learning theory(Classical and operant) and the idea that beings are born as tabula rosa. 2)classical conditioning- occurs when a response is naturally produced by a certain stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus. 3) Watson and raynor little Albert study demonstrates how fear is learnt from a stimuli. 4) operant conditioning occurs via reinforcements of behaviour increasing the likelihood of the behaviour responding as wanted. 5)Pavlov used comparative psychology to show how dogs could learn to salavate when an unconditioned stimuli is sounded. 6) Skinner demonstrated how rats in a box could associate the addition of a stimulus with positive reinforcement(pressing a lever with food). |
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What is empirical evidence? |
Scientifical, statistic evidence from observations ie Pavlovs dog study as it was conducted in a laboratory. |
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What is comparative psychology? |
The comparison between data from animals to humans. Ie skinners rat study or Pavlovs dog study. They cannot be generalised as humans and animals are different. |
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Describe ethics. |
Whether something is acceptable or not within a study. Rules are put in place to protect participants. Eg of unethical study would be little Albert as phobias were formed which could have lead to psychological harm. |
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What is a reductionist? |
Putting behaviour and emotions into their simplist form. |
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What is determinism? |
When it is assumed that all events have causes. |
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What is social learning theory? |
Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded. This theory was developed by Albert bandura to show how behaviour patterns were learnt from role models through identification and reproduced by imitation. |
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Outline banduras bobo study |
72 children were paired up and placed in either an aggressive condition or non aggressive condition to determine whether the children imitated the response they witnessed from the role models towards the bobo dolls. Children mainly mimicked what was seen and mimicked behaviour significantly if the model was the same sex as them. |
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Evaluate banduras bobo doll study |
The models behaviour wasn't completely standardised. The bobo doll isn't a real person so findings are hard to generalise. Unethical as aggression was taught to the children. |
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What are limitations of Rutter et al 's study? |
Unable to separate twins to see how nature vs nurture has affected them. Selection may have not been randomised. |
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Difference between Genotype and Phenotype |
Genotype refers to a collection of inherited genetic material that is passed down from generation to generation. eg. gene for eye colour Phenotype refers to the observable characteristics that an individual may posses due to their genotype. eg. eye colour |
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Outline the influence genes have on behaviour. |
Genotypes can influence behaviour by passing down the genes for certain characteristics. For example Rutter (1990) conducted a study to illustrate how monozygotic twins had a higher concordance rate of 25-51% toward criminal behaviour than 13-22% of dizygotic twins. This suggests that those who share 100% of their genes -monozygotic twins- are more likely to behave in similar ways than those who are not identical. |
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Describe what happened to Phineas Gage |
1848 whilst working in construction he suffered extreme injury to the frontal cortex of his brain when a rod was propelled through his skull. Although there were no fragments of skull lodged in his brain he suffered an infection and fell into a semi- comatosed state. Physically he recovered however his mental state was severely impaired and it is believed he underwent a dramatic character alteration. Using modern research it is possible to suggest that his injury caused a loss of social inhibitions as the role of the frontal cortex is to aid social cognition and decision making. |
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Describe the role of the frontal lobe |
To perform complex mental processes. Left hemisphere perfroms scientific reasoning, Broca's area forms sentences and the right henisphere performs creative actions.
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What is the role of the parietal lobe? |
control senses and movement |
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What is the role of the temporal lobe? |
controls hearing, smell, speech and memory. Wernicke's area aids the understanding of language. |
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What is the role of theoccipital lobe? |
Aid vision and spatial awareness. |
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Outline the fight or flight response |
The sympathetic nervous system associates sensory signals with emotions such as fear and sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus responds by releasing CRH into the bloodstream. The pituitary gland releases ACTH into the bloodstream and to it's target sites. The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for rapid action associated with fight or flght. The adrenal medulla releases adrenaline into the bloodstream causing physical changes. The adrenal cortex releases cortisol and other stress related hormones in response to stress. The pituitary gland monitors hormone levels so the CRH and ACTH production is inhibited if cortisol is too high. The parasympathetic nervous system dampens down the stress response when the threat has passed. |
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Explain the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system |
Sympathetic NS is initially used when the host believes they're at threat whereas the parasympathetic NS 'dampens' the reaction once the threat has passed. |
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Outline the endocrine system |
The endocrine system has three key parts: pituitary gland, adrenal gland and the reproductive organs. The pituitary gland produces hormones which triggers the release of hormones from other glands and regulates vital bodily functions. The anterior pituitary gland releases ACTH as a response to stress and stimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol. The posterior pituitary gland releases oxytocin which aids life affirming activities. The two adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys. The adrenal cortex produces cortisol which regulates a variety of bodily functions such as cardiovascular. The adrenal medulla releases adrenaline in response to stressful situations. Ovaries are responsible for the production of eggs and the hormones progesterone and oestrogen. Testosterone is controlled by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. It also aids sperm production, libido and muscle strengths. |
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Evaluate the fight or flight response |
Uses reductionism- Gray(1988) the first response to stressors is to freeze- fight or flight contradicts this. Gender bias- Taylor(2000) women react in a way to protect and tend to be more social. Historical validity- modern life is less stressful so we are less likely to require fight or flight. |
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define schema |
collection of ideas and beliefs about an individual formed from experience. |
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what is cognitive neuroscience? |
An approach that maps human behaviour to brain functions. |
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What methods are there to cognitive neuroscience? |
lesion studies look at those with brain damage to see how behaviour is affected. Electrophysiology use electric and magnetic fields to measure brain activity and brain waves. Neuroimaging pinpoints areas of the brain which are active when a task is performed. |
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Evaluate the cognitive approach |
It considers mental processes which are often overlooked. It has had a big influence on the development of theories. However research is often carried out in artificial situations so results aren't ecologically valid. Also it fails to take individual differences into account by assuming that all humans process information the same way. |
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Describe Bartlett (1932) |
He told western cultural participants Navajo indian stories that didn't make sense from their cultural viewpoints. Found that their memory of the story became distorted so details were changed to fit their own viewpoint. Bartlett concluded that memories were reconstructions of events influenced by active schemas to meet expectations. |
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Describe theoretical models |
Follow the assumption that the human mind uses imput-processing-output stages when dealing with information such as the multi-store memory model. This model supports a scientific approach and produces objective results however is over simplistic and may be reductionist. |
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Evaluate the cognitive aproach |
Objective, reductionist, controlled, lacks validity and applicable to real life. |
