Approaches in Psychology

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

• Apublished the first theory of classical conditioning
• Bdeveloped psychoanalysis as a treatment for hysteria
• Copened the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig and used controlled introspection✓
• Dproposed the hierarchy of needs

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
• Bit could only be used on non-human animals
• Cit ignored conscious mental processes entirely
• 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 occurs only through direct reinforcement of the learner
• BBehaviour is determined entirely by unconscious conflict
• CLearning can occur through observation and imitation of a model, mediated by cognitive processes✓
• DLearning depends on innate maturational readiness

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 in the bloodstream
• Binterpreting dreams to access the unconscious
• Crecording only 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 response
• Ba chemical messenger that crosses the synapse
• Ca packet of information or mental framework, built from experience, that organises and interprets incoming information✓
• Dthe part of the personality 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.