Flashcards
Strength & Weaknesses Approaches in Psychology AS WJEC
Cards in this deck (22)
- 1Psychodynamic Strength Considers: Nature & NurtureTakes into account influence of both
E.g: Freud adult personality innate drives(nature) Id, Ego, Superego & childhood experiences(nurture) Psychosexual stages.
Freud considers influence of things we are born & develop through experience. - 2Psychodynamic Strength Successful Therapeutic ApplicationFreud's theory had major impact on understanding the link between childhood development & adult behaviour.
1st person recognise psychological factors such as childhood trauma used to explain disorders, i.e depression. - 3Psychodynamic Weaknesses Freud's theory DeterministFreud saw infant behaviour as determined by innate drives & adult behaviour being determined by childhood experiences.
- 4Psychodynamic Weaknesses Non-ScientificCannot be studied scientifically because unconscious NOT observable.
E.g: homosexual tendencies repressed cannot be disproved. As good theory is one that can be falsified (tested to see if wrong) - 5Biological Strength Scientific ApproachScientific research can be used to support biological explanations of behaviour. Psychosurgery therapy involves removing part of brain.
E.g: Raine et al. Used PET scans
Have variables can measure, i.e different areas of brain. Objective, controlled research. - 6Biological Strength Successful Therapeutic ApplicationE.g: Effectiveness capsulotomy for OCD recovery rate 67%. Drug treatments are popular as have been successful in treating psychotic disorders, depression.
Strength as approach has led many forms of treatments & helped people live normal lives 'out' of hospital. - 7Biological Weakness Reductionist ApproachReduces complex behaviours to set of simple explanations.
E.g: Depression=low levels of Serotonin
As reducing behaviour to simple explanations may prevent reaching true understanding of behaviour. - 8Biological True cause of Depression?Depression=repressed memories & unresolved conflicts from childhood experiences or maladaptive learning.
Antidepressants increase level serotonin relieving symptoms-NOT solving underlying problem. - 9Biological Weaknesses Ignoring Individual DifferencesAssumes everyone's biological systems behave same way.
Only conducted research on males.
Men respond to stress="fight/flight"
Female respond to stress="tend/befriend
Producing untrue picture of behaviour. - 10Cognitive Strength Research is ScientificDemonstrates CAUSE & EFFECT
E.g: Loftus & Palmer research major impact on understanding link between leading questions & inaccurate EWT.
Led development of "Cognitive Interview" by avoiding leading questions & maintain accuracy EWT. - 11Cognitive Strength Successful Therapeutic ApplicationE.g: Successful treatments for mental disorders (anxiety, depression). REBT aims to change irrational thoughts caused by emotional distress into thoughts that are more reasonable & rational. Ellis 90% success rate.
REBT=27 sessions - 12Cognitive Weakness Lab Experiments are ArtificialLab experiment artificial. Behaviour different in real world.
E.g: Loftus & Palmer examined effect leading Q's had on memory. Experiment lacked mundane realism & result in low ecological validity. E-W viewing real car accident have much greater motivation to memorise event. - 13Cognitive Weakness Reductionist ApproachE.g: cognitive approach suggests depression is the result of faulty processing & irrational thoughts.
Doesn't take into account medical history as may have biological explanations for behaviour. E.g: lack serotonin=depression. - 14Behaviourist Strength Research is ScientificOnly focuses on behaviour that can be observed & objectively measured
E.g: Bandura's observational learning of aggression. Demonstrates children observe & imitate aggressive behaviour of role models.
Looks @ cause & effect in relationship to I.V & D.V. - 15Behaviourist Strength Successful Therapeutic ApplicationE.g: Demo phobias are learnt through classical & operant conditioning & observational learning.
SD (class cond.) success rate in treatment of phobias 80%-90% of patient
As patient can be reconditioned & replaced w/ new learnt adaptive behaviours. 25-30 sessions. - 16Behaviourist Weakness Lab Experiment are ArtificialE.g: findings generated in Lab cannot be generalised to aggression in real world. Imitating in Lab is different in real-life.
Bandura's research=children responded aggressive because they believed they were invited to hit the Bobo doll.
Lacking ecological validity. - 17Behaviourist Weakness Reductionist ApproachE.g: Suggests depression is the result of maladaptive learning of helplessness or loss of reinforcement.
Medical influences, cognitive & cultural influences affect persons behaviour. Simplified explanation prevent reaching true understanding of cause of depression. - 18Positive Strength Free Will ApproachNot argue behaviour is determined but instead we have Free Will.
E.g: Individuals are neither predetermined/restricted. Psychologists recognise humans are self-regulating & NOT victims of their past=have personal freedom to grow & develop Authentic Strengths & Virtues - 19Positive Strength Shift in Focus for PsychologyMoved focus away from explaining & treating mental disorders = NOW focusing on our Authentic Strengths to experience greater life contentment.
Celebrating the good things in life instead of magnifying the worse.
Raising awareness of Happiness - 20Positive Weakness Ignores Individual & Cultural DifferencesBy proposing a one size fits all philosophy. E.g: approach ethnocentric based on western ideals of individual autonomy & fulfilment. USA culture preoccupied w/ idea of positive thoughts, attitudes & emotions for Good Life. Negative emotions something to be avoided or controlled.
- 21Are positive qualities beneficial to be universally developed?This is a danger for "Defensive Pessimists" as they deal w/ anxiety by thinking of everything that could go wrong. Processing realistic possibilities they work harder to avoid anticipated pitfalls. Forcing optimism/positive mood on Anxious Defensive Pessimists can change performance.
- 22Positive Weakness Can Happiness be measured?E.g: defining happiness proven challenging as individuals will have different ideas of what happiness means to them. Subjective as 2 people could be referring to different states of mind.
PROBLEM: measuring happiness & developing "Scientific" measures for SWB.
Information
- Description
- Psychology AS strengths & weaknesses of approaches. Revision for 2016 Summer exam.
- Created by
- Obri Gonzalez
- Views
- 313
- Tags
- Rating