revision cards for aqa psych paper 2 approaches topic. please excuse spelling or grammar mistakes! made entirely by me using the standard year 1 textbook, for reference i achieved an a* :)

1. Origins of Psychology
 Early philosophical roots: Descartes (1596 – 1650), Locke (1632 – 1704), Darwin
(1809 – 1882)
 First lab dedicated to psychology was opened by Wundt in Leipzig, Germany
in 1879
 Introspection: the first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by
breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and
sensations
 All introspections were recorded under the same conditions and had
standardised instructions given, allowing procedures to be replicated
 Watson criticised introspection for providing simply subjective data and
focusing on ‘private’ mental processes, suggesting a truly scientific discipline
should limit itself to observable phenomena
 Behaviourism brought science into psychology and developed the
psychological use of the experimental method, which is still relied on today

2. Behaviourism
 Assumptions: only concerned with observable behaviour, and rely on lab experiments;
suggests that the basic processes that govern learning are universal in all species, meaning
animal study is viable
 Classical conditioning: Pavlov first demonstrated learning through association via his studies
using dogs; two stimuli (an unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus) are repeatedly
paired together until the UCS (now a conditioned stimulus) produces alone the same
conditioned response that it produced together with the NS (this was originally an
unconditioned and innate response to the NS, now is a CR to the CS)
 Operant conditioning: Skinner (1953) suggested learning is an active process done through
the consequences of behaviour; experimented with rats in an electrified box and saw they
learned both to flick a lever for food and to stop electric shocks
 Positive reinforcement: rewards for a desired behaviour meaning the behaviour is more likely
to occur again
 Negative reinforcement: avoidance of an unpleasant consequence, the avoidant behaviour is
more likely to occur again
 Punishment: unpleasant consequence because of a behaviour, so that behaviour is less likely
to occur again

3. Behaviourism - EVAL
 Scientific credibility – was able to bring the language and methods of the sciences into
psychology and work on solidifying it as a respected scientific discipline, giving it
greater credibility
 Real-life application – conditioning can be applied to a wide variety of scenarios, for
example the token economy system in prisons and parenting practices, meaning that
behaviourism has application outside of a written theory
 Mechanistic view of behaviour – organisms in behaviourism are seen as passive learners
rather than active, and this diminishes the role of mental processes in learning and the
free will of an individual to reject conditioning; suggests that behaviourism may apply
more to animals rather than humans who have a much more complex cognition
 Environmental determinism – this approach sees all behaviour as determined by past
experiences that have been conditioned, meaning that it negates the concept of free will
 Ethical and practical issues – experimentation on animals, especially in the boundaries of
studies like Skinner’s rats, can be seen as harmful and heavily unethical

4. Social Learning Theory
 Assumptions: much of our behaviour is learned from experience, but this is instead through
observation and imitation of others within a social context
 Vicarious reinforcement: an individual observes another being rewarded for a certain
behaviour and they are more likely to replicate that behaviour themselves in order to obtain
the same reward
 Role of mediational processes: attention – the extent to which we notice certain behaviours,
retention – how well the behaviour is remembered, motor reproduction – ability of the
observer to perform the behaviour, motivation – the will to perform the behaviour
 Identification: people (esp. children) are much more likely to replicate a behaviour if they
identify with or wish to be like the role model, e.g. they are attractive, have high status, or
other coveted traits
 Bandura (1961) Bobo Doll: recorded the aggressive behaviour of children in a room of both
aggressive and non-aggressive toys and a bobo doll, after they had been shown a video of an
adult attacking the bobo doll. Found that those shown the adult being praised for this
behaviour were much more likely to be aggressive, as well as the fact that children were more
likely to be aggressive if the role model was the same gender as them

5. Social Learning Theory - EVAL
 Importance of cognitive factors – SLT provides a much more comprehensive
account of the process of learning compared to conditioning, and is therefore
more credible in a variety of scenarios
 Over-reliance on lab evidence – much of Bandura’s evidence comes from lab
studies with young children, and it has been criticised that these ppts were
simply responding to demand characteristics; as well as this, a bobo doll is a
toy where its only purpose is to be hit, so the children may have just been
acting accordingly
 Underestimates biological influence – doesn’t take into account biological
factors such as hormones, or genetic predisposition to certain behaviours;
meaning that SLT is not entirely comprehensive
 Explains cultural differences – SLT, by suggesting people learn from those
around them, is able to explain why we see such stark differences in behaviour
from culture to culture
 Less determinist – has the advantage of being less determinist than the
behaviourist approach by considering private cognitive processes

6. Cognitive Approach
 Assumptions: argues that internal mental processes can and should be studied
scientifically, and investigates areas of behaviour neglected by behaviourists- such as
perception and thinking. Also studies these indirectly through inference
 Theoretical and computer models: use of these to study and attempt to explain the
cognitive process, for example the information processing approach which suggests
information flows through the brain in a series of stages
 Role of schema: schema are ‘packages’ of ideas or perceptions of the world that allow us
to process the information around us quicker by creating neural shortcuts (for example,
meows and has four legs is a cat, but four legs by itself could be many animals); babies
are suggested to be born with a few innate motor schema like how to grasp and feed,
but schema are always being developed and added to throughout life
 Emergence of cognitive neuroscience: cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of
the influence of brain structures on mental processes; has exploded in use and
application in the last few decades due to fMRI and PET scans

7. Cognitive Approach - EVAL
 Scientific and objective methods – employs highly controlled and rigorous methods and
study, meaning that it has very strong scientific credibility and produces mostly reliable
and objective data
 Machine reductionism – the computer analogy dehumanises the mental processes of
thinking and ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation
 Application to everyday life – cognitive psychology occasionally suffers from being to
abstract and inapplicable to everyday scenarios due to its reliance on inference and
rather complicated models to explain its assumptions
 Real-life application – however, the cognitive approach is the dominant approach in
most disciplines of psychology today and contributes to many fields regularly (e.g. AI)
 Less determinist – founded on soft determinism and recognises that the cognitive
system can only operate within the bounds of what we know, but we are free to think
before responding to a stimulus; more interactionist than others

8. Biological Approach
 Assumptions: suggests that everything psychological is at first biological, and to fully
understand human behaviour we must look at biological structures; the mind lives in the
brain and therefore all behaviour ultimately has a physical basis
 Genetic basis of behaviour: behaviour geneticists study whether characteristics like
intelligence and mental disorders are inherited in the same way as physical
characteristics; twin studies are used to determine this, with concordance rates
measuring genetic similarity of certain traits- if MZ twins have a higher CR than DZ
twins, this suggests a genetic basis as MZ twins share 100% of their DNA where DZ twins
share only 50%
 Genotype: the particular set of genes that a person possesses
 Phenotype: the characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and
environment
 Evolution: the changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over
successive generations; suggested at first by Darwin and adapted into psychology by
suggesting that desirable psychological characteristics are passed down through
generations

9. Biological Approach - EVAL
 Scientific methods of investigation – biological approach uses highly scientific and precise
methods of investigation, giving it higher credibility and validity within the sphere of scientific
disciplines
 Real-life application – increased understanding of biochemical brain processes has allowed
the development of psychoactive drugs and other biological treatments for mental disorders,
suggesting the biological approach has use in everyday life
 Causal conclusions – biological approach often conflates associative discoveries (such as the
malfunctioning of certain neurotransmitters in a neuroatypical brain) as the cause of a certain
condition, when only a correlative relationship exists
 Determinist view of behaviour – if everything psychological is at first biological, this suggests
the existence of particular undesirable genes in society such as a ‘criminal’ or ‘murderer’ gene,
the application of which could lead to human rights abuses and obstruction of justice
 Cannot separate nature and nurture – biological approach studies behaviours by seeing
whether nature or nurture has more influence on a characteristic through twin and adoption
studies, but it is wholly impossible to separate the two influences completely and thus this
method of investigation is somewhat redundant

10. Psychodynamic Approach
 Role of the unconscious: Freud suggested our conscious mind is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of our
cognition, and most of our mind is made up of the unconscious which is a vast storehouse of biological
drives and instincts, as well as repressed and harmful memories
 Personality is said to have three key parts- Id, Ego, and Superego
 Id: entirely unconscious, made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand instant immediate
gratification, only structure present at birth
 Ego: the ‘reality check’ that balances the wants of the id with the moral superiority of the superego,
develops at the age of ~2yrs, balances by using defence mechanisms
 Superego: the moralistic part of our personality which represents the idea self + how we ought to be,
develops at the end of the phallic stage
 Psychosexual stages: Freud suggested that child development occurred in 5 stages, and that each stage is
marked by a significant conflict that a child must overcome to develop, as well as that negative personality
traits are due to failure of these stages
 Stages: Oral (0-1yrs) – consequence is oral fixation (smoking, biting nails etc); Anal (1-3yrs) – anal retentive
(obsessive perfectionist) or anal expulsive (thoughtless and messy); Phallic (3-5yrs) – phallic personality
(narcissistic, reckless, possibly homosexual (omg me?)); Latency – earlier conflicts are suppressed; Genital
(puberty) – difficulty forming heterosexual relationships
 Defence mechanisms: denial, repression, projection, displacement, regression, sublimation, rationalisation,
reaction formation, introjection

11. Psychodynamic Approach - EVAL
 Explanatory power – psychodynamics has had a huge influence on western
psychology and has a vast amount of explanatory power within industries like
therapy and clinical psychology
 Case study method – Freud primarily used case studies, which are controversial
in that they are highly ungeneralisable and only reflect the experiences of one
person, which brings into question how much of Freud’s theories are too
specific to be utilised well
 Untestable concepts – Freud’s theories do not produce testable hypotheses,
which is a key part of being a scientific discipline and suggests that
psychodynamic psychology is unscientific
 Practical application – psychoanalysis is a developed form of therapy by Freud
that has helped much with modern therapies
 Psychic determinism – in suggesting our behaviour is controlled by an unseen
unconscious, it negates free will and suggests that we do not truly have
control over our actions

12. Humanistic Approach
 Free will: the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by
biological or external forces
 Self-actualisation: the desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one’s potential-
becoming what you are capable of
 Self: the ideas and values that characterise the concept of self, including perception and
‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’
 Congruence: the aim of Rogerian therapy, when the self-concept and the ideal self seem
to broadly accord or match up
 Conditions of worth: when a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their
children; for instance, a parent saying to their child they will only love them if they study
a certain career, or marry a certain type of person
 Hierarchy of needs: a five-levelled hierarchical sequence developed by Maslow, in which
basic needs (such as hunger) must be satisfied before higher psychological needs (such
as esteem) can be achieved
 Physiological needs > safety and security > love and belongingness > self-esteem >
self-actualisation

13. Humanistic Approach - EVAL
 Not reductionist – rejects attempts to break behaviour into smaller components and
advocates for holism, meaning that it considers the entire human experience and may
therefore have more validity than its counterparts
 Limited application – Rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling but humanistic
psychology has little application to real-world scenarios besides, because it is more a
collective of abstract concepts
 Positive approach – brings the person back into psychology and focuses on growth
rather than failure, which can be useful in psychological scenarios where a person needs
to be uplifted rather than scrutinised for their mistakes
 Untestable concepts – like psychodynamic psychology, it does not often create testable
hypotheses which diminishes it as a scientific area of psychology and therefore impacts
its validity
 Cultural bias – based upon the aims and wishes of western society, where in some
societies that are more collectivist such an intense focus on the self would not be seen
as something positive, but rather selfish instead