Approaches in Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt is widely regarded as the 'father of psychology' primarily because in 1879 he:

• Apublished the first systematic theory of classical conditioning after his work with salivating dogs
• Bdeveloped psychoanalysis, including free association and dream analysis, as a treatment for hysteria
• Copened the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig and used controlled introspection✓
• Dproposed the hierarchy of needs, with physiological needs at the base and self-actualisation at the top

Answer: Wundt established the first laboratory dedicated to psychology in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879, marking psychology's separation from philosophy. He used introspection under standardised, controlled conditions to study the structure of conscious experience (structuralism).

A criticism of Wundt's method of introspection as a scientific technique is that:

• Ait required expensive brain-scanning equipment (such as fMRI) that had not yet been invented at the time
• Bit could be used with non-human animals and infants but not with adults
• Cit ignored conscious mental processes altogether and recorded only what could be seen from the outside
• Dit produced data that were subjective and could not be objectively verified by others✓

Answer: Introspection relies on participants reporting their own inner experiences, which are private and subjective. Because such reports cannot be independently observed or reliably reproduced, later behaviourists (e.g. Watson) argued the method lacked scientific objectivity.

In Pavlov's classical conditioning experiments with dogs, the bell (originally a neutral stimulus) becomes able to produce salivation. At the point salivation occurs to the bell alone, the bell and the salivation are correctly labelled as the:

• Aunconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response
• Bneutral stimulus and unconditioned response
• Cconditioned response and conditioned stimulus
• Dconditioned stimulus and conditioned response✓

Answer: After repeated pairing with food (the unconditioned stimulus), the previously neutral bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation it now produces is the conditioned response (CR). Salivation to the food itself would be the unconditioned response.

In Skinner's operant conditioning, a rat learns to press a lever to switch off an unpleasant electric current. The increase in lever-pressing is best explained by:

• Apositive reinforcement
• Bnegative reinforcement✓
• Cpositive punishment
• Dnegative punishment

Answer: Negative reinforcement strengthens a behaviour by removing an unpleasant stimulus. Switching off the electric current (removing something aversive) makes lever-pressing more likely to recur. Positive reinforcement would involve adding a pleasant stimulus such as food.

Bandura's Bobo doll studies are most often used to support which explanation of learning?

• ALearning can occur only through direct reinforcement and punishment of the learner
• BBehaviour is the outcome of unconscious conflict, driven by the id and superego
• CLearning can occur through observation and imitation of a model, mediated by cognitive processes✓
• DLearning depends on innate maturational readiness (a critical period)

Answer: Bandura's social learning theory holds that behaviour can be acquired by observing and imitating models. The Bobo doll studies showed children imitated aggression they had watched, and Bandura emphasised mediational processes (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation) between stimulus and response.

In Bandura's social learning theory, a child is more likely to imitate a model who is seen being rewarded for a behaviour. This phenomenon is termed:

• Avicarious reinforcement✓
• Bnegative reinforcement
• Cidentification with the same-sex parent
• Dreciprocal determinism

Answer: Vicarious reinforcement occurs when an observer is more likely to imitate a behaviour because they have seen the model being reinforced (rewarded) for it. The observer learns about the likely consequences without experiencing them directly.

The cognitive approach argues that, because mental processes cannot be observed directly, psychologists must study them by:

• Ameasuring hormone levels (e.g. cortisol) in the blood during laboratory tasks
• Binterpreting dreams and slips of the tongue to access the unconscious mind
• Crecording the frequency of reinforced responses
• Dmaking inferences about internal processes from observable behaviour✓

Answer: The cognitive approach studies internal mental processes (e.g. memory, perception, attention) by drawing inferences from what people do and say, since the processes themselves are not directly observable. It often uses theoretical and computer models to represent these processes.

Within the cognitive approach, a 'schema' is best defined as:

• Aan inherited reflex that produces a fixed and automatic response to a stimulus
• Ba chemical messenger that crosses the synapse or travels in the bloodstream
• Ca packet of information or mental framework, built from experience, that organises and interprets incoming information✓
• Dthe part of the personality, the id, that is governed by the pleasure principle

Answer: A schema is a cognitive framework or 'packet' of beliefs and expectations, developed through experience, that helps us organise and interpret information. Schemas enable rapid processing but can also distort perception and produce errors or biases.

According to Freud's psychodynamic approach, which component of the personality operates on the 'reality principle' and mediates between the other two structures?

• AThe id
• BThe ego✓
• CThe superego
• DThe libido

Answer: Freud described the ego as working on the reality principle, balancing the demands of the id (pleasure principle) and the superego (morality principle) using defence mechanisms. The id is present from birth, while the ego develops in early childhood.

Maslow's humanistic theory places which need at the very top of his hierarchy of needs?

• APhysiological needs
• BSelf-actualisation✓
• CSafety needs
• DEsteem needs

Answer: Self-actualisation, realising one's full potential, sits at the apex of Maslow's hierarchy. Lower deficiency needs (physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem) must generally be met before a person is motivated to pursue self-actualisation.

What does the behaviourist approach assume?

• ABehaviour is determined mainly by unconscious childhood conflict
• BBehaviour is learned through interaction with the environment✓
• CBehaviour results from information processing in the mind
• DBehaviour reflects an innate drive towards self-actualisation

Answer: Behaviourism studies only observable behaviour and treats the mind as a black box. Its strength is scientific rigour; its weakness is a mechanistic view that ignores cognition and free will.

What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?

• AOperant associates two stimuli, classical associates behaviour with consequence
• BClassical requires reinforcement, operant requires an unconditioned stimulus
• CClassical applies only to animals, operant applies only to humans
• DClassical associates two stimuli, operant associates behaviour with consequence✓

Answer: Pavlov's dogs learned that a bell predicted food, which is stimulus-stimulus. Skinner's rats learned that pressing a lever produced food, which is behaviour-consequence and depends on reinforcement.

What is negative reinforcement?

• AAdding something unpleasant in order to decrease a behaviour
• BRemoving something pleasant in order to decrease a behaviour
• CRemoving something unpleasant to increase a behaviour✓
• DAdding something pleasant to increase a behaviour

Answer: Negative reinforcement still increases behaviour — it is the removal of an aversive state that does the reinforcing, as when avoidance reduces anxiety in a phobia. Punishment is what decreases behaviour.

What are the mediational processes in social learning theory?

• AAttention, rehearsal, imitation and identification
• BPerception, encoding, storage and retrieval of behaviour
• CModelling, vicarious reinforcement, imitation and reward
• DAttention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation✓

Answer: Bandura placed cognitive processes between stimulus and response, which is what separates social learning from strict behaviourism. Identification and vicarious reinforcement are also part of the theory but are not the four mediational processes.

What does the cognitive approach use computer models for?

• ATo prove that the brain functions exactly like a computer
• BTo measure brain activity during a cognitive task
• CTo replace the need for experimental investigation
• DTo make inferences about internal mental processing✓

Answer: Since mental processes cannot be observed directly, the approach infers them and uses information-processing analogies. The machine reductionism of the analogy — ignoring emotion and motivation — is a standard criticism.

What is the humanistic approach's concept of congruence?

• AAlignment between conscious and unconscious motivations
• BAlignment between the self-concept and the ideal self✓
• CAlignment between a person's behaviour and social norms
• DAlignment between genetic potential and actual attainment

Answer: Rogers argued that a large gap between self and ideal self prevents self-actualisation, and that client-centred therapy narrows it through unconditional positive regard. Conditions of worth imposed in childhood create the gap.

What are the three parts of Freud's tripartite personality?

• AId, ego and unconscious
• BId, ego and superego✓
• CConscious, preconscious and unconscious
• DOral, anal and phallic stages

Answer: The id works on the pleasure principle, the ego on the reality principle and the superego on morality. The third option describes levels of consciousness and the fourth the psychosexual stages — related but distinct.

What does the biological approach emphasise?

• AGenes, neurochemistry and brain structure shaping behaviour✓
• BEnvironmental contingencies shaping observable behaviour
• CUnconscious drives originating in early childhood experience
• DConscious subjective experience and personal growth

Answer: It treats behaviour as having a physiological basis, investigated through twin studies, brain scanning and drug research. Its strength is scientific method; its weakness is biological determinism and reductionism.

Why is a concordance rate below 100% in identical twins important?

• AIt shows genetic factors play no part in the disorder
• BIt shows environmental factors must also play a part✓
• CIt shows the twins were incorrectly classified as identical
• DIt shows the disorder cannot be reliably diagnosed at all

Answer: Monozygotic twins share essentially all their genes, so anything less than full concordance means genes alone cannot be responsible. This is a standard argument for the diathesis-stress position.