Approaches in psychology

Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment (1961)

• Method: Children watched an adult act violently towards a bobo doll, they were then placed in a room with the doll to see how they would behave
• Results: After observing the adults behave violently, the children would also act this way towards the doll.
• Conclusion: Children imitate the behaviour that they see
• Evaluation: Ethical issues - Exposing children to violet behaviour. - children didn't have right to withdraw. - Lacks external validity. - They proved the hypothesis.

Watson's Little Albert (1920) - Classical conditioning

• A boy was presented with a rat (NS). Everytime he had the rat there was a loud noise (UCS) created a fear reaction. (UCR)
• This was repeated until the rat alone (CS) created a fer reaction (CR)
• Results: When Albert was shown a rat he would start to cry 
• Conclusion: A fear response to white fluffy objects has been connditioned - abnormal behaviour can be learned. 
• Evaluation: Unethical. Experiment couldn't be repeated today, lab study-lacks ecological validity as situation was artificial. It supports Pavlov's study.

Skinner's Box (1938) - Operant conditioning

• A rat moves around a box and when it accidentally presses a lever, a food pellet (reinforcer) drops into the cage. The rat is conditioned to keep pressing the lever to recieve food.
• If the food stops the rat will press the lever a few more times then stop (extinction)
• results: positive reinforcement meant the rat would repeat the same action
• conclusion: behaviour paired with reinforcement encourges same behaviour
• evaluation: it wasn't human, people claim free will plays a part.

Assumptions: 

• People learn through observation and imitation

• Learning can occur by observing role models

• Believes that meditational processes (between stimulus and response) affect our behaviour 

• learning can be the result of direct and indirect reinforcement

Strengths:

• Scientific methods - Scanning techniques (fMRIs and EEGs), twin studies and drug trials. Technology ensured it is possible to accurately measure biological processes.
• Real life application - Development of psychoactive drugs that can treat serious mental illnesses such as depression. - sufferers able to manage their condition and live relatively normal life.
• People have more control over their life - If people realise they have a genetic problem (crime or mental disorder) they can seek help early.

Weaknesses:

• Experiments lack ecological validity
• Too deterministic - Ignores other factors like emotional and cultural factors and the effect of the mind.
• Cannot seperate nature/nurture - Twins are often exposed to similar environments so findings could be down to nurture rather than nature.

Strengths:

• The importance of cognitive factors in learning - We use the mind to question how right our answers are. Shows better reasoning for learning than classical and operant conditioning alone
• Explains cultural differences in behavious - Explains how the world is different
• Less determinist than behaviourist - not as determinist, acknolodges free will

Weaknesses:

• Over-reliance on evidence from lab studies - Controlled experiments. Participants behaved the way they were expected.
• Underestimates influence of biological factors - Little reference to biologicial factors. Ignores that factors such as hormones explain behaviour.

Assumptions:

• Behaviour is learnt from the environment

• Animals and humans lern in the same way

• The mind is irrelevant. (personality shouldn't affect how you learn something)

The Jim Twins:

• Seperated as babies, reunited at 39
• Same wife's names and son's name
• Similar IQ, interests, habits
• 500,000/1 odds
• Twins grown up seperate as alike psychologically as twins brought up together

Canadian ice hockey team - Hormones:

• Levels of testosterone were higher when they played in their home town.
• The hormone energised the players to defent their home teritory.

Buss (1989) - Evolution & Behaviour:

• Studies 37 different cultures. 
• Woman desired mates with resources to provide for offspring.
• Men desired young, physically attractive women

Assumptions:

• The mind, like a computer, encodes, stores and outputs data

• The human mind can and should be investigated scientifically

Strengths:

• Looks at throught processes which were ignored by other psychologists - processes such as memory and attention have been studied as they affect our behaviour
  

Weakness: 

• It is reductionist - Reduces human behaviour down to individual processes (such as memory) this is a weakness because the human is a product of all processes working together not individually 
• Too mechanical - compares humans to computers because we have similar processes. Humans are more complex than computers e.g. emotions can affect a human's output.

Strengths:

• Easy to quantify and measure
• Scientific credibility - measurable evidence that is objective and can be replicated.

Weaknesses:

• Ethical and practical issues(animal experiments) - Animals have no right to withdraw, they cannot mirror human responses and they are subject to poor conditions
  
• Mechanistic view of behaviour - Reduces human behaviour to a mechanical like state.
• Environmental determinism - behaviour is determined by past experiences and ignores free will

Assumptions: 

• All behaviour/characteristics is down to genetics

• Genes evolved to match behaviour with our environment

• The mind is irrelevent