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AQA A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY REVISION NOTES: APPROACHES IN PSYCHOLOGY

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PSYCHOLOGY AQA  A-LEVEL UNIT 2: 7182/2

The syllabus.

ORIGINS OF PSYCHOLOGY

• Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science

LEARNING APPROACHES

• Classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research
• Operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research
• Social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research
• Evaluation of Learning Approaches

THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

• The study of internal mental processes
• The role of schema
• The use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes
• The emergence of cognitive neuroscience
• Evaluation of the Cognitive Approach

THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH

• Evolution and behaviour
• Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour
• The influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour
• Evaluation of the Biological Approach

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• The structure of personality: id, ego and superego
• The role of the unconscious
• Defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement
• Psychosexual stages
• Evaluation of the Psychodynamic Approach

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• Free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth
• The influence on counselling psychology
• Evaluation of the Humanistic Approach

COMPARISON OF APPROACHES

• Biological, behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic

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INTRODUCTION

For centuries, philosophers and biologists theorised about the causes of human behaviour. However, Psychology as a separate academic discipline did not emerge until 1879 when Wundt established the first Psychology laboratory using a method known as introspection – reflecting on one’s own mental processes such as emotions and sensations.

Freud developed the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach from approx. 1895 onwards. Freud was incredibly influential on 20 th C. Psychology arguing that humans were governed by instincts and irrational unconscious conflicts which arose in early childhood experience . However, Freud’s emphasis on unobservable aspects of human behaviour (e.g. the unconscious mind ) attracted criticism from psychologists who argued that Psychology should be scientific in aims and methods, and focus on observable behaviour .

The Behaviourist approach ( or Learning Theory) was developed by Watson who argued that Psychology should adopt a strictly scientific , empirical approach (i.e. only focus on outwardly observable , measurable behaviour ). Throughout the 20 th C. Behaviourism explored the variety of way in which behaviours are acquired (learnt), maintained (kept) and extinguished (unlearnt) via classical conditioning , operant conditioning and social learning .

By the 1950’s Cognitive psychologists returned to studying internal mental processes (such as memory , perception , attention , decision-making , etc.) and the development of the first computers in the ‘50’s allowed Cognitive psychologists to model human mental processes artificially (e.g. chess computers). The Cognitive approach also favoured scientific methods and controlled experimentation .

The Biological approach has always existed within Psychology, focusing on the way in which internal structures and processes (the brain , neurotransmitters , hormones , genes , etc.) influence the mind and behaviour. Biological psychology employs highly scientific methods and shares much in common with biology and chemistry.

Humanistic Psychology emerged in the 1960’s and was critical of Behaviourist and Psychodynamic arguments that behaviour was controlled by the either the environment or the unconscious mind. Humanistic psychologists argued that people had free-will (can actively choose how they want to act, feel and behave) and the potential to guide their own personal growth to achieve psychological health , overcome traumas in their past and achieve self-actualisation (personal fulfilment and happiness).

ORIGINS OF PSYCHOLOGY: WUNDT, INTROSPECTION AND THE EMERGENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE ( AQA A-level Psychology resources)

For centuries, philosophers and biologists theorised about the causes of human behaviour, however Psychology as a separate academic discipline did not emerge until 1879 when Wundt established the first Psychology laboratory in Germany. Wundt employed introspection as his main method – asking subjects to systematically report on their inner mental processes such as emotions and sensations, and asking them to describe the quality, duration and intensity of what they felt.

Wundt used experimental methods to try to establish the basic building blocks ( structures ) of thought and investigate how they interacted with each other. Thus, he attempted to break down participants’ observations of objects, images and events down into constituent parts in the same way that an anatomist would study a body by trying to find its constituent parts (e.g. heart, liver, etc.) and how they interact.

For example, in studying reaction time , Wundt systematically changing the stimuli he presented to participants and measured how long it took them to respond - inferring that the longer it took them to respond the more mental processes must be involved.

One major criticism of Wundt’s approach relates to the methodology of introspection. Critics argue that relying on individuals' self-reporting of their thoughts and feelings is subjective : i.e. depends on individual perception and interpretation. Variability in individuals' introspective reports, the inability to access certain mental processes consciously, and the potential influence of biases all undermine the reliability of introspection as a method of inquiry.

Wundt's structuralism, with its emphasis on breaking down mental processes into isolated elements, has also been criticised for oversimplifying the complexity of human cognition and emotion. Critics argue that the reductionist nature of this approach neglects the holistic and dynamic nature of human consciousness and fails to capture how various mental processes interact and influence each other in real-world scenarios.

Lastly, Wundt's work lacked the cross-cultural perspective that contemporary psychology recognises as crucial. His studies were primarily conducted on Western, middle-class populations, which limits the generalisability of his findings to non-European populations.

LEARNING APPROACHES (BEHAVIOURISM) ( A-level Psychology notes)

The behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and skinner’s research; social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and bandura’s research.

  From the 1920’s-60’s Behaviourism attempted to develop a more scientific approach in Psychology focusing on observable behaviour and how individuals acquire/learn behaviours through interaction with their social environment : e.g. family, peers, teachers.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND PAVLOV’S RESEARCH

Classical Conditioning (CC) argues that behaviours are acquired through ‘ stimulus-response’ associations : e.g. an event in the environment ( stimulus ) will cause a physiological effect ( response ) such as fear , happiness , etc. If this association is repeated a number of times the response will automatically occur every time the stimulus is presented.

In 1927 Pavlov formulated the basics of CC after studying why dogs in his laboratory salivated in the presence of his research assistants.

Dogs naturally salivated in the presence of food. He described this link as an unconditioned stimulus ( UCS - the food) causing an unconditioned response (salivation - UCR ).

By repeatedly pairing the UCS of food with a neutral stimulus (a bell ringing) just before presentation of food, Pavlov found that eventually dogs salivated simply at the sound of the bell. Therefore, the neutral stimulus of the bell had become a conditioned stimulus (CS ) producing a conditioned response (CR) of salivation.

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER SYLLABUS AREAS

• Watson later showed how phobias could be acquired through CC in the ‘Little Albert’ experiment . (Psychopathology)
• Systematic Desensitisation is based on the principles of CC to ‘unlearn’ phobic responses. (Psychopathology)
• Learning Theory of attachment partly explains attachment through CC . (Attachment)

This material could be described and evaluated in an Approaches question on CC to provide practical applications/explanations from this approach.

OPERANT CONDITIONING, TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT AND SKINNER’S RESEARCH

Operant Conditioning (OC) focuses on how behaviour is influenced by the consequences of our actions.

If behaviours are reinforced ( rewarded ) then they are strengthened and more likely to be repeated in the future. If behaviours are punished (or ignored ) they will be less likely to be repeated in the future and may eventually be extinguished . For example, aggressive behaviours in a child could be strengthened through the positive reinforcers of praise, attention, respect, etc.

Skinner (‘53) developed a ‘Skinner Box’ to study leaning through OC in rats and pigeons. An animal placed in the box would discover accidentally at some point that pressing a lever in the box would release a food pellet. This positive reinforcement would increase the frequency of lever-pressing. This would also occur if the lever took away an unpleasant stimulus such as a loud noise – i.e. negative reinforcement . Unsurprisingly, punishments such as the lever generating an electric shock would lead to decreased lever-pressing.

  RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER SYLLABUS AREAS

• Learning Theory of attachment partly explains attachment through OC . (Attachment)

This material could be described and evaluated in an Approaches question on OC to provide practical applications/explanations from this approach

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (SLT) INCLUDING IMITATION, IDENTIFICATION, MODELLING, VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT, THE ROLE OF MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES AND BANDURA’S RESEARCH

SLT was developed by Bandura in the 60’s and focuses on how behaviours such as aggression may be learnt via observation and imitation of others .

• Modelling : imitating observed behaviour (e.g. aggression) of a model.
• Vicarious Learning : imitation as a result of seeing another individual being positively reinforced (e.g. praise, popularity, respect, etc.) for a behaviour (e.g. aggression).

Imitation is most likely if the learner (e.g. a boy) identifies with the person whom they are imitating – the model (e.g. the boy’s father, a media hero, a peer, etc.)

Bandura identified 4 mediational processes in social learning.

Mediational processes refer to the thoughts/cognitions which influence whether we will or will not imitate others and how motivated we are to do so.

• Attention : the observer must observe the model behaving in a particular way.
• Retention : the observer must remember what they’ve seen.
• Reproduction : the observer must be capable of imitating the observed act.
• Motivation : the observer must be willing to imitate the observed act.

A study into imitative aggression based on SLT

Bandura (61) divided 72 children aged 4 into 3 groups of 12 boys and 12 girls.

• In condition 1 the children saw a male and a female adult model physically and verbally attack a 5’ tall inflatable doll ( bobo doll ).
• In the 2 nd condition the adults did not aggress against the doll.
• In condition 3 there was no adult model at all.

Children were then taken to a room and prevented from playing with some attractive toys (to frustrate them).

They were then taken to a 3 rd room with a bobo doll and various weapons. Bandura’s observation of imitative aggression found that children in condition 1 who had witnessed the violent model were far more likely to aggress against the bobo doll than those in the other conditions.

Bandura’s research implies that violence in the media and the family can cause imitative aggression in children.

• Bandura’s study is described in more details in the Aggression
• SLT is discussed in the Gender

This material could be described and evaluated in an Approaches question on SLT to provide practical applications/explanations from this approach

EVALUATION OF LEARNING APPROACHES

• Behaviourism adopts a strictly empirical approach: i.e. it only focuses on observable behaviour which can be measured and tested – it does not make reference to hypothetical, non-measurable or observable states such as ‘the super-ego, ‘emotion’, ‘motivation’, etc. Equally, Behaviourism employs scientific methods – experiments conducted under tightly controlled laboratory conditions aimed at understanding the cause-effect relationships which govern the acquisition, maintenance or extinction of behaviours.
• Behaviourism illustrates how our social environment – family, peers, teachers, etc. – influences our behaviour through reinforcement, punishment or imitation. Clearly this is an important ‘nurture’ influence governing a huge range of behaviours ranging from gender role to aggression to language acquisition. Therefore, Behaviourism is important in understanding how our social experiences with others in the family, our peer group, at school, at work, etc. mould our behavioural responses.
• Learning theory has been used to develop methods for controlling behaviour in real-world situations: for example, classroom and family discipline, managing the behaviour of prisoners or inmates in mental institutions, and treating mental disorders such as phobias (SD).
• Behaviourists argued that humans are born a ‘tabula rasa’ (blank slate) whose behaviour, personality and attitudes are acquired as a result of learning. Behaviourism is criticised for its extreme ‘nurture’ viewpoint: e.g. it argues that all behaviours are acquired through learning and ignores the importance of biology, instinct, evolution and thought (cognition) in influencing behaviour. Thus, Behaviourism is reductionist (reduces all behaviour to learning) and deterministic (argues that our behaviours are determined by previous learning experiences and we possess no free-will or choice).
• The laws of Behaviourism were originally formulated using research conducted on animals such as rats, dogs and pigeons. Behaviourists believed that the fundamental laws governing the acquisition of behaviours were similar for all species including humans. Clearly, there is a problem of generalising from animals to humans in regard to the complexity of human cognitive processes . Although animals may respond fairly mechanically to conditioning, human cognitions make human behavioural responses much more complex.
• You can also gain marks for evaluation by stating what Learning Theory ignores which other approaches do take account of .

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THE COGNITIVE APPROACH ( AQA A-level Psychology notes)

The study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. the emergence of cognitive neuroscience.

Cognitive (from the Latin cogito – I think) refers to the study of human mental processes .

Cognitive Psychology developed from the 1950’s onwards partly as an improvement on Behavioural Psychology which failed to recognise the importance of mental processes in determining behaviour; partly, as a result of the development of computers which were able to mimic human mental processes.

THE STUDY OF INTERNAL MENTAL PROCESSES

Cognitive Psychology is concerned with internal mental processes such as

• Perception – how we take in and make sense of external environmental stimuli.
• Attention – how we focus in on and filter out external environmental stimuli.
• Memory – how we retain and recall information.
• Language – the use of mental symbols to represent, manipulate and communicate aspects of internal and external reality.
• Thinking – judgement, reasoning, logic, problem-solving.

Thus Cognitive Psychology is concerned with all the ways in which knowledge of the world is attained, retained and used .

THE ROLE OF SCHEMA

Schemas are mental maps of understanding about the world, ourselves and others: for example, we have schemas of understanding about how to use the Underground, how to act in a job interview, how a policeman is likely to behave, etc. Our schemas help us make sense of, understand and predict what is likely to happen in situations. In the field of eye-witness testimony (EWT) schemas about race, gender and social class have been shown to bias witness’s memories of events in that stereotypes may cause us to believe that some people are more likely to commit crime.

THE USE OF THEORETICAL AND COMPUTER MODELS TO EXPLAIN AND MAKE INFERENCES ABOUT MENTAL PROCESSES

The mind is often conceptualised as a computer/information processor . The mind has an input of information from the external world via the senses; throughput in the form of memory, thinking and language; and output in the form of decision-making, speech and action.

Parallel processing is processing different tasks at once (e.g. driving a car and holding a conversation). Sequential processing is performing one task and then another, in order.

The brain can be conceptualized as ‘hardware’ , our experiences and learnt responses as ‘software’ .

Cognitive abilities such as memory and attention have limited capacities and if concentration/focus on one task is interfered with by competing stimuli we may lose focus/be distracted. For example, when learning to drive we may find that holding a conversation is causing interference meaning that we lose focus and driving ability suffers.

Inference refers to going beyond the immediate evidence to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed. Much memory research makes inferences about the underlying processes of memory by drawing inferences from studies which involve, for example, asking participants to recall lists of words.

• Memory : the whole topic is based on the Cognitive Approach.
• Psychopathology : the cognitive approach to understanding and treating depression focuses on cognitions (thoughts).
• Gender : Kohlberg’s theory and Gender Schema Theory are based on children’s changing cognitions about gender

This material could be described and evaluated in an Approaches question on the Cognitive Approach to provide practical applications/explanations from this approach

EVALUATION OF COGNITIVE APPROACH

• The cognitive approach has been useful in researching, describing and understanding the effects of mental processes and cognitions on behaviour : e.g. Loftus and Palmer’s study of eyewitness testimony showed that memory can be warped and distorted after the event by leading questions. Studies such as these have real-life applications – in this case how witnesses are questioned by police and cross-examined by lawyers. Similarly, cognitive therapies are widely employed in the NHS and research evidence indicates they are an effective in the treatment of a wide range of disorders – depression, stress, anxiety, social phobias, etc.
• The cognitive approach lends itself to laboratory experimentation , therefore hypotheses can be tested under highly controlled conditions, confounding variables can be eliminated, and cause-effect relationships between variables established. The testing of mental processes such as memory or perception often makes use of technical measuring instruments which ensures high levels of precision in measurements taken.
• Although the computer analogy of the mind is, in some respects, suitable, computers essential number-crunch quantitative data at high speeds. Humans are far less capable than computers in this respect, but computers do not possess most of the characteristics of the human mind – intuitive decision-making, emotion, personal beliefs and motivations, self-consciousness, moral judgment, etc. Thus humans are qualitatively different to computers. Even the most advanced computer technology is far from able to mimic more complex human mental states.
• The cognitive approach views thought processes as all important in determining emotional state and behaviour . It ignores, therefore, alternative influences on behaviour such as instinct, genetics, neurotransmitters, learning experiences and social environment. For example, a depressive’s maladaptive cognitions could be the result of a biochemical imbalance, and mood and behaviour could be improved by a drug such as Prozac rather than through altering cognitions.
• You can also gain marks for evaluation by stating what the Cognitive Approach ignores which other approaches do take account of . 

THE EMERGENCE OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

Cognitive neuroscience brings together knowledge of the structure and functions of the brain (from Biological Psychology) with cognitive psychologists’ knowledge of mental processes such as memory and perception. By studying individuals who have suffered damage to the brain, brain scanning techniques can illustrate which parts of the brain are involved with which mental processes. For example, HM had his hippocampus removed in an operation to reduce his epilepsy. After the operation he could remember things he had just been told suggesting that his STM was intact, but he could not transfer this information to the LTM. Thus he could not form new long-term memories. He could, however, remember things (LTM) from before the surgery. This provides evidence for the MSM’s argument that STM and LTM are 2 separate stores.

THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH ( A-level Psychology revision notes)

The influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour.

EVOLUTION AND BEHAVIOUR

Darwin’s theory of evolution argues that physical and psychological characteristics which increase the chances of an organism surviving and reproducing ( adaptive traits ) mean that these characteristics will be more likely to be passed onto the next generation. For example, during the evolution of homo sapiens (approx. 150,000 – present) traits such as physical strength and intelligence would lead individuals to being more likely to survive (by gaining resources: e.g. hunting and gathering food) and reproduce , thus passing on these characteristics genetically to the next generation. Traits such as physical beauty in humans or length and quality of plumage in a peacock are indicators of ‘good’ genes and health: characteristics which are attractive to potential mates.

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE

Adaptive traits which brought advantages to our ancestors are coded in our genes. At the point of conception 2 sets of chromosomes (23 from the father and 23 from the mother) combine to form the unique combination of 46 genes present in each individual. The term genotype refers to the unique combination of genes present in the DNA of every cell in an individual’s body.

From conception, genes interact with the environment in various ways – first of all within the mother’s body: for example, toxins such as alcohol may be passed through the placenta, then from the outside world: for example, exercising will make one stronger. The way in which the genotype is modified and influenced by the environment is referred to as the phenotype .

THE INFLUENCE OF GENES ON BEHAVIOUR

Twin studies can be used to assess to what extent psychological characteristics are genetically inherited ( nature ) or caused by the environment ( nurture ). Schizophrenia, intelligence and personality type are some of the characteristics which evidence suggests are partially genetically determined. By studying large numbers of identical (MZ) and non-identical (DZ) twins where 1 of the twin pair has a characteristic (such as schizophrenia) we can calculate a ‘concordance rate’ – the average % probability that the other twin will also possess that characteristic. If the concordance rate is higher for MZ’s (who share 100% genetic similarity) than DZ’s (who are only 50% alike) we can deduce that the disorder is genetic to some extent. For example, concordance rates for depression are about 46% of MZs and only 20% for DZs.

THE INFLUENCE OF NEUROCHEMISTRY ON BEHAVIOUR

It is believed that inherited genes which cause mental disorders operate by causing abnormal neurotransmitter levels .

Excessive levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine are associated with schizophrenia. Phenothiazines (drugs used to treat schizophrenia) inhibit dopamine activity and reduce symptoms , and L-Dopa (used to treat Parkinson’s disease ) stimulates dopamine production and produces schizophrenic symptoms in unaffected individuals.

The Relationship between Dopamine, Phenothiazines & L-Dopa

THE INFLUENCE OF BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES ON BEHAVIOUR

The link between brain structures and their functions is referred to as brain localisation.

Brain localisation can be studied via

• Invasive methods

Animals can have brain sites electrically or chemically stimulated , or cut / burnt out ( lesions ). Psychologists then monitor the animal for changes in behaviour.

• Non-invasive methods

Brain scans such as CAT, PET and MRI scans use a variety of techniques to ‘see’ inside live brains. By asking people taking scans to perform certain tasks and monitoring electrical activity and blood flow we have been able to build up a picture of brain localisation.

For example, HM had his hippocampus removed in an operation to reduce his epilepsy. After the operation he could remember things he had just been told suggesting that his STM was intact, but he could not transfer this information to the LTM. Thus he could not form new long-term memories. He could, however, remember things (LTM) from before the surgery. This provides evidence for the MSM’s argument that STM and LTM are 2 separate stores.

• Biological explanations and treatments for Schizophrenia ( Schizophrenia ) or OCD (Psychopathology)
• Biological explanations of gender role (Gender)
• Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression (Aggression)

This material could be described and evaluated in an Approaches question on the Biological Approach to provide practical applications/explanations from this approach.

EVALUATION OF THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH

• The biological approach employs scientific methods such as laboratory experiments on physiological structures and processes conducted under controlled conditions. These produce quantitative data which can be statistically analysed to show cause-effect relationships between variables . For example, experimentation have proven that schizophrenia is linked to high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The drug chlorpromazine blocks dopamine receptors, reduces dopamine levels and lessen the disorder’s symptoms. Thus, scientific experimentation allows us to determine cause-effect relations between biological and psychological factors.
• Findings have resulted in practical applications which reduce suffering. For example, chemotherapy - the use of drugs to treat mental disorders - improves the quality of life of the mental ill. Before the invention of drug therapies, there was little that could be done to help schizophrenics ; chlorpromazine reduces the severity of symptoms and helps schizophrenics live independently and take care of their own basic needs. Anti-depressants may improve the mood of depressives to motivate them to engage in therapy and become more sociable.
• The biological approach is determinist – all behaviours are believed to be biological in origin – the influence of ‘nurture’ factors is ignored. For example, biological psychologists focus on the role of genetic and neurological factors in understanding intelligence and under-estimate the role of social and environmental factors or past experience : e.g. intelligence is affected by family values and schooling. Thus, the biological approach oversimplifies human psychology.
• The biological approach is reductionist – it reduces the complexity of human consciousness and behaviour to biological ‘parts’ and ignores the role of cognition (thoughts). For example, the biological approach reduces mental disorders such as depression or schizophrenia to genetic and neurological causation and ignores the role that an individual’s thoughts about their self, others and their life may contribute to the onset of a disorder.
• Much experimental research conducted by biological psychologists is based on animal research . For example, Selye’s research into how bodies respond to stress was based on the stress responses of rats. Apart from the obvious physical differences, the human stress response is influenced by complex sets of cognitions (thoughts) about the stressor whereas animals generally respond to stress in a fairly predictable manner. Thus, findings from animal studies are not directly generalisable to humans.
• You can also gain marks for evaluation by stating what the Biological Approach ignores which other approaches do take account of .

THE PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH ( AQA A-level Psychology revision notes)

The role of the unconscious; the structure of personality: id, ego and superego; defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.

THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY: ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO

Freud viewed the personality as being composed of

• Id - the biological, instinctual, asocial part of ourselves concerned with the satisfaction of basic desires such as food and warmth, and drives such as sex and aggression.
• Super-Ego - concerned with obeying social norms and rules, shaped by the authority and discipline of the parents and society. Composed of the conscience (which punishes the ego with feelings of guilt) and the ego-ideal (which rewards us when we behave in socially appropriate ways).
• The Ego - manages the conflict that takes place between the impulses of the Id and the realities of the external world (the reality principal).

THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

Freud argued that only a small part of the mind was Conscious - the far greater proportion is Unconscious and thus we have limited insight and self-understanding of our own motives, emotions and behaviour. Much human behaviour is, therefore, irrational and caused by unconscious impulses such as

• Anxiety caused by conflict between the Id and the Super-Ego
• Socially unacceptable unconscious wishes and desires : e.g. aggressive urges toward a parent, etc.
• Repressed memories – painful memories that have been pushed down from the Conscious to the Unconscious (without us consciously deciding to do so)
• Fears and anxieties
• Sexual and aggressive drives

Painful, anxiety causing material is repressed (pushed down) into the Unconscious to prevent us being overwhelmed in everyday life.

During sleep, material from the Unconscious enters the Conscious mind to take the form of dreams – symbolic dramas of Unconscious conflicts.

DEFENCE MECHANISMS INCLUDING REPRESSION, DENIAL AND DISPLACEMENT

Conflicts between the Id, Super-Ego and Ego create anxiety . Anxiety may be reduced through defence mechanisms – irrational/abnormal ways of thinking or behaving. Common defence mechanisms include Denial (refusing to face up to an unpleasant aspect of reality); Repression (blocking of unacceptable or unpleasant feelings, thoughts or impulses); and Displacement (re-directing thoughts and impulses from one person to another: e.g. one feels aggressive towards one’s teacher but aggression is displaced onto a weaker, more accessible target).

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

The psychosexual theory of development proposes that children pass through five stages from birth to early adulthood. If a child finds a stage problematic or too pleasurable fixation occurs which will result in clusters of personality traits emerging.

• Over-indulgence – the infant is fed whenever it demands food – this results in traits such as being overly optimistic, dependency on others, egocentricity.
• Under-indulgence – the infant experiences problems breastfeeding – this results in traits such as pessimism, envy, cynicism, greed and ‘oral’ habits.
• Anally retentive – excessive discipline – causes traits such as obsession with cleanliness, orderliness, control, obedience, conformity, being overly moral.
• Anally expulsive – lax discipline – impulsive, rebellious, non-conformist, expressive, disorganized, creative.
• Phallic Stage. Aged 4-5 boys experience conflicting emotions towards the mother (love and desire for possession) and the father (jealousy and fear). This ‘Oedipus Complex’ needs to be resolved for the infant to develop their appropriate gender role. Fixation may result in homosexuality, exhibitionism, excessive ambition, vanity, excessive masculinity or femininity.
• The Oedipus Complex - Gender

This material could be described and evaluated in an Approaches question on the Psychodynamic Approach to provide practical applications/explanations from this approach

EVALUATION OF THE PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

• Freud highlights irrational behaviour and thought processes arguing that we are motivated by deep, Unconscious desires and instincts we are unaware of and have little control over. Thus humans are viewed as lacking self-insight and self-control. This perspective is important in helping us understand the many irrational behaviours individuals and groups display: for example, the obsession with cleanliness, routine and regularity which marks the major symptoms of OCD, or an anorexic’s refusal to eat.
• Many studies report psychodynamic therapy as effective , particularly for clients whose psychological problems arose in childhood. Lindgren (2010) found that after 18 months of therapy 134 young adults who had suffered long-term depression, anxiety and low self-esteem reported their symptoms had significantly decreased. Psychodynamic therapies are still recommended by the NHS in some instances – for example, complex cases of depression accompanied by other symptoms.
• Freudian methods are unscientific . He is criticised for constructing theories through self-analysis or based on unrepresentative studies of a small numbers of neurotics. Thus, the psychodynamic approach is subjective , its findings not generalisable to the population as a whole, and Freud is often accused of making false links between case studies and theory he wished to prove. For example, the concept of the Oedipus complex was based on Freud’s memories of his own childhood and the case study of Little Hans. This case study is highly criticisable for generalising from a sample of 1 boy, and that Freud may have interpreted Han’s behaviour to provide proof for the Oedipus Complex.
• Psychodynamic theory is deterministic . It is argued that Freud puts too much emphasis on childhood experiences - a time people have no memory of or control over events in their life - thus they are a ‘victim’ of childhood experience and parents are to blame for their offspring’s psychological problems. For example, overly strict discipline during an infant’s toilet training may cause an anally-retentive personality type.
• Freud’s theories are based on case studies generally conducted on young 19 th Viennese neurotic women: therefore, his theories are gender biased and may not be relevant to 21 st C. society.
• You can also gain marks for evaluation by stating what Psychodynamic Theory ignores which other approaches focus on/do take account of .

THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH ( Psychology A-level revision)

Free will, self-actualisation and maslow’s hierarchy of needs; focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. influence on counselling psychology.

FREE WILL, SELF-ACTUALISATION AND MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Humanistic Psychology emerged in the 1960’s and was critical of Behaviourist and Psychodynamic arguments that behaviour was controlled by the either the Unconscious mind or the environment (i.e. both these approaches are ‘determinist’ ). Humanistic psychologists argued that people had free-will (can actively choose how they want to act, feel and behave) and the potential to guide their own personal growth to achieve psychological health , overcome traumas in their past and achieve self-actualisation (personal fulfilment and happiness).

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory argues that humans all exist somewhere on a hierarchy associated with particular needs/desires . At a basic level people needs to satisfy simple physiological needs to do with food, warmth and survival. Once these needs are satisfied we are motivated to focus on needs relating to physical and psychological safety (e.g. not feeling threatened). The next level relates to love and belonging – the desire for acceptance from family and friends. The 4 th level relates to self-esteem – feeling positive towards oneself and a sense of competence and achievement. Once all of these needs have been satisfied we may engage with the need for self-actualisation – the desire for personal fulfilment. Self-actualisation is associated with creativity, spontaneity and thinking in original, unconventional ways.

FOCUS ON THE SELF, CONGRUENCE, THE ROLE OF CONDITIONS OF WORTH

Rogers argued that humans have an innate drive towards personal growth . During childhood we develop a sense of self (who we are and what we’re capable of) and self-esteem (how we feel about ourselves) from our parents, friends, teachers, etc.

A child’s self-esteem may be dependent on approval from parents. If a parent only gives conditional love (what Rogers refers to as conditions of worth: i.e. only shows love when the child behaves as the parent wishes them to) this may interfere with positive psychological growth and health. Rogers argued, therefore, that parents should give unconditional positive regard to their children.

Roger’s also argued that psychological problems arise when a person experiences a state of incongruence (where their ideal self – how they would like to be – does not fit with their perception of how they actually are). Congruence can be encouraged by others giving unconditional positive regard. Self-actualisation is only possible when a state of congruence is achieved.

INFLUENCE ON COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY

Humanistic psychology inspired Person-Centred Counselling – where clients are encouraged to explore their emotions/thoughts and discover their own solution to their problems. The therapist encourages the client to talk openly and tries to enter into the world view of their client and clarify exactly what the client is expressing. The therapist should be (i) empathetic, (ii) give unconditional positive regard to the client without imposing conditions of worth .

EVALUATION OF THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

• The humanistic approach emphasises our ability to exercise free-will and choice in deciding how to behave, thus the approach is not deterministic .
• The approach focuses on how humans make sense of their experiences – thus, there is a focus on individuals’ personal, subjective experience which cannot be studied in laboratory settings . Thus there is more a focus on the ‘whole’ human being and what they feel is important and relevant to their life.
• Humanistic Psychology is not reductionist . Whereas behaviourism reduces behaviour to what has been learnt in the past, and the biological approach focuses on genes, the brain and neurotransmitters, the Humanistic Approach focus on the whole person and understanding them in the context of their life and their experiences .
• Person-centred Counselling is supportive of people with psychological problems and argues they must be treated with respect and unconditional positive regard . The aim of therapy is to empower the client so that they are able to help themselves overcome their own problems. This should provide a more long-term improvement in mental health.
• Humanistic Psychology has been criticised for being overly-optimistic about human nature: e.g. that humans are fundamentally ‘good’ and naturally attempt to make ‘positive’ progress in their lives. This contrasts strongly with Freud’s view where humans are thought to be motivated by unconscious drives which are often aimed at self-satisfaction and a disregard for others.
• Humanistic Psychology’s emphasis on free-will and choice may be a reflection of wealthy, western cultures where money and liberal laws allow people to choose how to act and behave and pursue personal growth rather than dealing with basic issues such as food and safety.
• Due to the focus on personal subjective experiences , Humanistic Psychology is not open to scientific study , therefore it is difficult to ‘prove’ Humanistic approaches right or wrong or make scientific predictions about how people are likely to behave.
• The focus on ‘conscious experience’ ignores the fact that we may be motivated by unconscious forces we have little awareness of (as the Psychodynamic Approach argues).
• CCT is of little use for individuals with low intelligence, learning difficulties or the mentally ill , as they may lack the insight or ability to reflect on their own life and experiences and benefit from the guidance and advice provided by the therapist.
• You can also gain marks for evaluation by stating what the Humanistic Approach ignores which other approaches do take account of .

COMPARISON OF APPROACHES ( A-level Psychology revision)

Biological, behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic, humanistic.

You may be asked to compare any of the 5 major approaches with each other and this may be an 8 or 16-mark essay question.

So – the 10 possible combinations are…

The easiest way to tackle these questions is in terms of their view on some of the major topics covered in the paper 3 Issues & Debates topic.

Use the chart below to understand how the different Approaches compare (are similar) and contrast (are different) with each other in terms of:

• Basic assumptions about human psychology/behaviour
• Methods of investigation they tend to use
• Their scientific status – i.e. is the Approach regarded as scientific or not?
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Free-will versus Determinism
• Holism versus Reductionism
• Idiographic versus Nomothetic

 Your essay should be based around comparing and contrasting the Approaches in terms of points 1-4 above and (if appropriate or if you have enough time) illustrating these similarities/differences by referring to the main topics you have studied from each Approach.

Click here for a detailed chart illustrating how the different Approaches compare and contrast with each other.

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Perspective — The Seven Perspectives Of Psychology

The Seven Perspectives of Psychology

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Overview – Approaches in Psychology

There are multiple different ways to approach the study of psychology. For example, a biological approach might explain depression as a chemical imbalance, a cognitive approach might explain it in terms of maladaptive thought processes, and learning approaches might explain it as a result of negative life experiences.

A level psychology looks at the following psychological approaches:

• Learning approaches ( behaviourism and social learning theory ): Behaviour is learned from experience
• The cognitive approach : Behaviour is a result of thoughts and cognitive processes
• The biological approach : Behaviour is a result of biological processes
• The psychodynamic approach : Behaviour is a result of unconscious processes and unconscious conflicts
• Humanistic psychology : Behaviour is influenced by all these things, but each person ultimately has free will to decide their actions

Note: A level students need to understand the basic assumptions of these 5 approaches and be able to evaluate and compare them with one another. AS students only need to learn the basic assumptions of the first 3, and are not required to compare these approaches.

The topic also includes details on the origins of psychology .

Example question: Outline and evaluate social learning theory. Refer to Timmy’s behaviour in your answer. [16 marks]

Origins of psychology

Wilhelm wundt: introspection.

Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory – the Institute of Experimental Psychology – in 1879 and is often called the ‘father of experimental psychology’. As part of his experiments, Wundt pioneered the technique of introspection . Introspection involves looking ‘inward’ and examining one’s thoughts, emotions, and sensations. For example, an experiment might involve showing subjects a picture, and the subjects would then report back their inner experiences.

For Wundt, introspection was not about reporting whatever random thing the subject felt. It was intended as a highly systematic and controlled process – a science . Wundt carefully controlled the environments and researchers were trained to adopt the right mental state and then report back the specific data Wundt wanted. Despite this rigour, Wundt often found that reports were highly subjective and varied from person to person, which meant they were unreliable .

Strengths of Wundt’s role in psychology:

• Scientific: Wundt tried to apply the scientific method to his studies. For example, controlling the environment where he conducted his introspection experiments would prevent this extraneous variable from skewing the results. Further, training subjects to adopt the same state of mind and report back specific data should, in theory, produce more reliable results.
• Influential: Introspection and Wundt’s focus on the importance of inner mental processes can be seen to have influenced the cognitive approach to psychology .

Weaknesses of Wundt’s role in psychology:

• Unscientific: Despite Wundt’s attempts to study the mind scientifically , his research can be considered unscientific in many ways. Science is about what is objective, measurable, and repeatable but the private thoughts examined during introspection are subjective and can’t be measured. As such, Wundt was unable to replicate his findings. Because of this, Wundt’s research can be said to be unreliable and unscientific.

Emergence of psychology as a science

Since Wundt, a variety of approaches to psychology have emerged – some more ‘scientific’ than others.

Science is concerned with empirically observable facts that can be repeated and measured . For example, by repeatedly observing and measuring objects falling to the ground, scientists can deduce the laws that govern these observations (e.g. gravity). In theory, the science of psychology would observe human behaviour and deduce the laws that govern it in a similar way.

However, human behaviour is much less consistent than stuff like gravitation – people don’t always behave in the same ways or for the same reasons. This subjective dimension has led to various different approaches to the study of psychology, which developed along the following rough timeline:

• Behaviourism emerged in the early 20th century and remained the dominant approach to psychology until the 1950s. It rejected Wundt’s introspective approach as too subjective , instead focusing only on externally observable and measurable data – behaviour .
• The ‘cognitive revolution’ of the 1960s saw renewed interest in inner mental processes. Although thoughts and feelings are private and unobservable, the cognitive approach sought to make inferences about these inner mental processes from experiments.
• Advances in technology (particularly in the early 21st century ) have progressively increased the power of a biological approach to psychology. For example, the discovery of fMRI brain scanning in 1990 enabled psychologists to measure brain activity and correlate it with mental processes. Elsewhere, advances in genome sequencing since the early 2000s have enabled psychologists to identify a genetic basis for some psychological disorders.

Learning approaches

Learning approaches measure and explain human behaviour as a product of environment and experience. The A level psychology syllabus specifies two learning approaches: behaviourism and social learning theory .

Behaviourist Approach

The behaviourist approach to psychology explains behaviour as a result of learning from experience, such as via classical and operant conditioning .

Basic assumptions

• The mind is a blank slate at birth and behaviour is learned from experience.
• The study of the mind should focus on external behaviour , not internal thought processes, as behaviour is the only thing that can be objectively measured and observed.
• The same processes that govern human behaviour also govern the behaviour of non-human animals (particularly mammals e.g. rats and dogs). As such, experiments on animal behaviour can yield valid conclusions about human behaviour too.

Ivan Pavlov: Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a key principle of behaviourism. It explains how behaviours are learned from experience via (subconscious) association.

The earliest and most famous documentation of classical conditioning is found in Pavlov (1927) . Pavlov demonstrated how dogs could be conditioned to salivate (a natural response to food) in response to a bell ringing (a neutral stimulus) by ringing the bell at the same time as presenting the dog with food. The repeated occurrence of the bell ringing at the same time as the food meant the dogs learned to associate the bell with food. Eventually, this association produced a conditioned response in the dogs, who would salivate at the sound of the bell even when there was no food.

As mentioned, a basic assumption of behaviourism is the validity of animal studies in explaining human behaviour. And, in the case of classical conditioning, there are plenty of human examples like the one above. For example, hearing a phone notification go off (even if it’s someone else’s with the same tone) may cause you to instinctively reach into your pocket for your phone.

Other examples of classical conditioning in humans can be seen in the behaviourist explanation of phobias .

B.F. Skinner: Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning is another principle of behaviourism. It explains how behaviours are learned from and reinforced in response to consequences.

There are 3 types of consequences for behaviour:

• E.g.: Doing your homework because it gets praised by the teacher
• E.g.: Doing your homework to avoid getting told off by the teacher
• E.g.: Getting told off by the teacher for not doing your homework

An example of operant conditioning is found in the research of Skinner (1948)  and Skinner (1953) . Skinner’s experiments involved putting animals (rats and pigeons) in cages like the one below:

In one variation of the experiment, pressing the response lever caused food to come out of the food dispenser. The rat quickly learned this consequence and so would repeat the behaviour to get more food. This is an example of positive reinforcement.

Another variation of the experiment demonstrated learning through negative reinforcement. In this setup, an electrified grid would cause pain to the rat but pressing the response lever turned the electrified grid off. Similar to the other experiment, the rats quickly learned to go straight to the response lever when put in the box.

These experiments demonstrate how learning through positive and negative reinforcement increases the chances of a behaviour being repeated.

Strengths of behaviourism:

• Scientific: Behaviourism focuses on what is observable, measurable, and repeatable, which lends credibility to the study of psychology as a science .
• Practical applications: Behaviourism has been successfully applied in several psychological contexts to produce desirable behavioural results. One example of this is the behaviourist treatment of phobias , including flooding and systematic desensitisation . However, there are also more ethically dubious applications of behaviourism, such as use of operant conditioning to make social media algorithms, gambling machines, and similar such activities more addictive.

Weaknesses of behaviourism:

• Ignores the internal mind: By focusing only on environmental inputs (stimulus) and behavioural outputs (responses), behaviourism neglects the mental events in the middle such as thoughts, reflections, and emotions. This makes it difficult for behaviourism to explain behaviours such as memory, which happen internally and so cannot be observed. These internal aspects of the mind may be better explained by other psychological approaches such as the cognitive approach  or social learning theory .
• Validity of animal studies: A  basic assumption of behaviourism is the use of animal studies to explain human behaviour. But humans are very different to animals such as pigeons and rats – both physically and cognitively. As such, the conclusions drawn from studies on animals (e.g. Pavlov and Skinner ) may not transfer to human psychology.
• Ethical concerns: There are several ethical questions that can be raised against behaviourism. For example, it may be argued that many animal experiments (e.g. Skinner’s ) caused distress for the animals involved. In humans, it may be argued that certain applications of behaviourism (e.g. the social media and gambling machine examples above) are ethically wrong.

Social Learning Approach

Like behaviourism , the social learning approach to psychology also explains behaviour as a result of learning from experience, but adds the extra element of learning by observing others’ behaviour .

• Like behaviourism , social learning theory says behaviour is learned from experience. But whereas behaviourism focuses on classical and operant conditioning , social learning theory adds a social dimension: We learn not only from consequences of our own behaviour, but by observing and imitating other peoples’ behaviour.
• People imitate the behaviours of role models who they identify with. Behaviours may be reinforced vicariously , i.e. by seeing someone else be rewarded for that behaviour.
• Social learning theory is not entirely behaviourist : It allows for the inclusion of cognitive elements (e.g. mediating processes ) in explaining behaviour.

Albert Bandura: Bobo the doll experiment

Bandura and Huston (1961) observed that children imitate the behaviours of role models they identify with. The aim of another study, Bandura et al (1961) , was to see if this behavioural imitation continued even when the role model was no longer present.

The procedure of the study was as follows:

• Subjects were 36 boys and 36 girls aged between 3 and 6 years old
• They were each put into a room with an inflatable doll (Bobo) and observed an adult role model interact with the doll for 10 minutes
• Aggressive: Role model hits the doll with a hammer and shouts abuse at it
• Non-aggressive: Role model does not hit the doll or shout at it
• Control: No role model
• Half of the subjects had a role model of the same gender, while the other half had a role model of the opposite gender
• After observing the role model for 10 minutes, the participants were taken to a room with toys but told they couldn’t play with them (the aim of this was to increase aggression)
• After 2 minutes, the participants were taken to a room with lots of different toys (including a Bobo doll) and left to play with them for 20 minutes

• Children who had observed an aggressive role model previously acted more aggressively than children who had observed a non-aggressive role model
• Boys acted more aggressively than girls in general
• The child was more likely to imitate the behaviour of the role model if the role model was the same gender as them

These results illustrate many key concepts of social learning theory:

People imitate (copy) the behaviours of role models they identify with (i.e. people they are like or want to be like). For example, the fact that children were more likely to imitate/model the behaviour of the role model if they were of the same gender could be because they were more likely to identify with the role model.

Another key concept is vicarious reinforcement , which is where a person is more likely to imitate a behaviour if they observe the model being rewarded for it. Vicarious reinforcement is demonstrated in Bandura and Walters (1963) , which was another variation of the Bobo the doll where the model was either praised or punished for acting aggressively towards the doll. Children who saw the model praised for their aggression toward the doll were more likely to imitate this aggressive behaviour.

Mediating processes

As mentioned above , social learning theory is not entirely behaviourist . We don’t just automatically imitate every behaviour we observe. Instead, there are various cognitive processes in between that determine whether someone imitates a behaviour or not.

These mediating processes are described in Bandura (1977) as follows:

Strengths of the social learning approach:

• Offers a more complete account than behaviourism : Whereas behaviourism is limited to stimulus and response only , the social learning approach allows for cognitive processes in explaining behaviour. For example, Bandura’s mediating processes allow that someone could internally reflect on what they’ve observed and make a judgement on how they will behave. This can explain why people often act differently in response to similar stimuli.
• Explains cultural differences: If children learn behaviours by modelling those around them (as social learning theory claims) then this explains different behaviours between cultures because the children imitate the behaviours of the culture. The biological approach, in contrast, may have difficulty explaining these variations because the biology is essentially the same between cultures but the behaviour is different.

Weaknesses of the social learning approach:

• Biological approach : Although the Bobo the doll experiments support social learning theory, they also support a biological approach. Bandura and colleagues consistently found that boys showed more aggression towards the dolls than girls independently of other conditions. This suggests that biological factors (e.g. testosterone levels ) also play an important role in explaining behaviour and that the social learning approach is not, by itself, sufficient.
• Questions of ecological/external validity : The  Bobo the doll experiments were conducted in an unfamiliar (laboratory) setting. Because of this new situation, the children might simply have been behaving in the way they thought they were expected to in this situation (copying the model). Further, the children would have known the doll was just a doll and so it is unclear whether the children would model aggressive behaviour towards, for example, other children in a real-life scenario.

Cognitive approach

The cognitive approach to psychology explains behaviour as a result of cognitive processes such as thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions.

• Inner mental processes (e.g. thoughts and perceptions) can and should be studied in a scientific way.
• Although a person’s inner mental processes can’t be observed , they can be inferred from their external behaviour. So, the cognitive approach is kind of in between behaviourism and introspection : behaviourism is wrong to focus only on behaviour, but introspection’s focus on private mental states alone is too subjective to count as proper science.
• Mental processes can be modelled like a computer program: inputs (e.g. sense data) get processed in the mind (like a computer program) to produce outputs (i.e. behaviour). Whereas behaviourism focuses only on the inputs and outputs, the cognitive approach acknowledges on the thing in the middle: the mental process.

Schema are a key part of the cognitive approach. They are cognitive frameworks, mental models, patterns of thought and behaviour. They are mental short-cuts, ways of organising information and understanding the world.

Examples of schema include:

• Self-schema, e.g. physical “I’m tall” and personality e.g. “I’m kind”
• Stereotypes/generalisations, e.g. “dark alleys at night = dangerous”, “revision is boring”
• Social roles , e.g. “customers join the queue before paying”, “police catch criminals”
• Motor schema, e.g. how to walk, babies are born with schema to feed

Basically, schema covers a lot of things. Our schemas inform our perception of the world – they are the cognitive lens through which we make sense of reality.

Schema are formed from experience. We form schema blueprints and use them to interpret the past, categorise information in the present, and form expectations/predictions for the future. Because people have different experiences, they have different schema.

Schema change over time. For example, a young child might form the simple schema that dog = 4 legged furry animal . But this schema would include cats, too. So, over time, the child refines its schemas to become more detailed.

However, once a schema is formed, it can be difficult to change: People tend to be biased towards information that fits pre-existing schema, and often ignore or re-interpret contradictory information in order to fit their existing schema.

Computer models

Advocates of the cognitive approach often think of mental processes as analogous to computer processes . With a computer, data goes in, it gets processed, then you get an output.

Obviously this is a very simple example, but all computer programs work in this way. When you’re playing a game, for example, controller inputs are processed , which changes the output displayed on screen. When you input a URL in your browser, it gets processed (through multiple computers) until the browser displays the output of the website you entered.

The mind can be said to work in a similar way: Input from your senses is processed by the mind to produce an output . For example:

So, the cognitive approach explains behaviour as a series of processing steps analogous to the processing steps of a computer. These processing steps can be broken down into theoretical models , which can be tested against observation to see if they are accurate.

Theoretical models

The cognitive approach uses theoretical models to explain the cognitions (mental processes) behind behaviour.

An example of such a theoretical model is the multi-store model of memory from elsewhere in the course: It explains how information flows through various components for processing. For example, paying attention to sensory information causes it to be transferred (processed) to short-term memory.

Emergence of cognitive neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience is the study of the relationship between brain activity and mental processes. It looks at the biological workings underlying cognition and so can be thought of as a mixture between the cognitive and biological approaches.

As technology has advanced (most notably brain-scanning techniques such as fMRI and PET), scientists have been able to identify correlations between certain types of brain activity and certain types of mental processes. For example, Braver et al (1997) observed that greater working memory load (a cognitive concept) is correlated with greater prefrontal cortex activity (a biological concept). This suggests the underlying biological basis for working memory is situated in that area of the brain. As cognitive neuroscience advances, more cognitive processes might be analysable in biological terms.

Strengths of the cognitive approach:

• Acknowledges mental processes: It is obvious that mental processes (thoughts, reflections, emotions, etc.) are important in determining behaviour. The cognitive approach recognises the importance of these mental processes and studies them (unlike e.g. behaviourism ).
• Scientific: Although mental processes cannot directly be observed, the cognitive approach uses rigorous experimental methods based on observable data to infer details of them.
• Practical applications: Therapies based on the cognitive approach (e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy) have been shown to produce positive results. For example, many studies have shown CBT to improve symptoms of depression .

Weaknesses of the cognitive approach:

• Overly reductive : The cognitive approach’s analogy between the mind and a computer has its limitations. Although there are similarities between the two types of processing, there are important differences. For example, human emotions (which computers lack) have a significant effect on processing, which is not accounted for in a purely information-processing model. An example of this in action is the effect anxiety has on eyewitness testimony .
• Questions of ecological/external validity : Theories based on the cognitive approach (e.g. the working memory model ) are often based on laboratory studies, but these results might not translate to real-life. For example, Baddeley’s (1996) test of the capacity of the central executive is an unusual task that one wouldn’t normally perform in real-life.

Biological approach

The biological approach to psychology explains behaviour as a result of biological factors such as genetics , biological structures , and neurochemistry .

• A full understanding of human behaviour will look at the underlying biological processes that cause it. Psychological processes are, at first, biological processes.
• Genetics : i.e. biological traits inherited from parents.
• Biological structures : the physical systems that make up the mind and body (in particular the nervous system ).
• Neurochemistry : i.e. chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters .
• The mind is the brain (unlike e.g. the cognitive approach which treats the mind as something separate to the brain).

Just as physical characteristics – such as eye colour and hair colour – are determined by genetics inherited from parents, so too are certain behavioural tendencies.

An example of this is the genetic explanation of OCD from elsewhere in the course. But other psychological traits – e.g. intelligence, or aggression – also have a genetic component that can be passed on from parents to children.

Genotype and phenotype

Genetic effects can be divided into genotype and phenotype :

• E.g. eye colour or hair colour. Obviously you can dye your hair, but your hair still grows back the same colour that is determined by your genotype. Similarly, you might be born with the SLC1A1 gene, which is linked to OCD.
• E.g. height has a strong genetic component, but a person with tall genes could end up short if they grow up in a malnourished environment. Similarly, a person with a genetic tendency towards OCD could use psychotherapy to overcome these genes and not exhibit OCD behaviours.

Twin studies

Twin studies can confirm the genetic influence of psychological traits.

The reason for this is that the identical twins have 100% identical genetics whereas non-identical twins only share 50% of their genes. So, if a disorder is entirely determined by genetics, then identical twins would both develop the disorder because they share identical genes. However, because non-identical twins only share 50% of their genes, there is a chance that only one of them will inherit the genetics for the disorder but not the other.

In reality, most psychological disorders are a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, the examples above illustrate how there is a strong genetic component to many psychological disorders. If one identical twin has OCD, for example, there is a 68% chance the other twin will too.

If psychological behaviours and psychological disorders have a genetic component (as the biological approach believes), then it follows that these psychological traits would be subject to evolution in the same way that physical traits are.

For example, intelligence: If there was a gene that made a human better at hunting food, then the human with that gene would be less likely to starve to death and so more likely to pass on their genes to the next generation.

Biological structures

In addition to the biological dimension of genetics , the biological approach also looks at the influence of biological structures on psychological traits and behaviour. These biological structures are covered in more detail in the biopsychology module and include:

• The central nervous system (i.e. the brain and spinal cord)
• The endocrine system

Neurochemistry

Another aspect of the biological approach is neurochemistry . Again, this is covered in more detail in the biopsychology module and primarily concerns:

• Hormones (e.g. testosterone, estrogen, cortisol)
• Neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, glutamate)

Strengths of the biological approach:

• Supporting evidence: The fact that concordance rates for behaviours and psychological disorders are often higher among monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins (e.g. Gottesman (1991) for schizophrenia , Holland et al (1988) for anorexia , and Verhulst et al (2015) for alcoholism ) supports biological (genetic) explanations of behaviour.
• Scientific: The biological approach focuses on observable and measurable phenomena such as hormone levels, brain structures, and genes. These biological phenomena are often measured using sophisticated technology (e.g. fMRI scanners) and tested using rigorous scientific methods (e.g. randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials of drugs).
• Practical applications: Biological approaches have proven highly successful in treating mental disorders. For example, we saw in the psychopathology topic how drugs such as SSRIs are highly effective for treating OCD . Similarly, drug therapy is successfully used to treat depression, anxiety, and other psychological conditions. Further, tools to better understand and measure biological structures (e.g. fMRI scanning) yield new explanations and ways of treating psychological disorders.

Weaknesses of the biological approach:

• Conflicting evidence: Despite high concordance rates for certain behaviours and psychological disorders among identical twins (see supporting evidence above), these concordance rates are much lower than 100%. This suggests there are other factors besides genetics needed to fully explain behaviour.
• Overly reductive : The biological approach can be said to be overly reductive in that it ignores other factors, such as environment. For example, a person with the same genes is likely to behave differently if raised by a different family or in a different culture. This shows that genetics can only go so far in explaining human behaviour.
• Deterministic : The biological approach explains behaviour as a result of biological factors outside our control, such as genetics and biological structures. This leaves no room for free will , which makes it difficult to hold people responsible for their actions as those actions are just a consequence of biology rather than being freely chosen by the individual. This raises both moral and legal issues: How is it fair to send someone to prison, for example, for something they didn’t choose to do?

Psychodynamic approach

Note: This topic is A level only, you don’t need to learn about the psychodynamic approach if you are taking the AS exam only.

The psychodynamic approach to psychology explains behaviour as a result of unconscious processes .

• The mind consists of multiple parts: The conscious mind, the pre-conscious mind, and the unconscious mind . The unconscious mind includes biological instincts that cannot consciously be accessed but that have a significant influence on behaviour.
• Behaviour is explained as a result of conflicts between these different aspects of the mind.
• Early childhood experiences shape us as adults. Failure to resolve conflicts (e.g. not properly progressing through the five psychosexual stages ) in childhood can lead to psychological problems as an adult.

Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalytic theory

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is the most influential example of a psychodynamic approach to psychology. It emphasises the role of the unconscious mind in determining behaviour.

The role of the unconscious

• Conscious: What we are directly aware of.
• Pre-conscious: Memories, thoughts, and beliefs we are not directly aware of but that can be accessed by making an effort to do so.
• Unconscious: Everything else (and there is a lot) including biological drives, instincts, desires, repressed memories, and fears. These cannot easily be accessed (at least not without psychoanalytic therapy).

A lot of significant psychological activity happens below the level of what is consciously available. However, these unconscious thoughts often bubble to the surface in things like dreams and ‘Freudian’ slips of the tongue (e.g. accidentally calling your girlfriend ‘Mum’). Psychoanalysts use psychoanalysis to identify and interpret these unconscious thoughts and their meanings, which then serve as a basis for treating psychological disorders.

Structure of personality

Freud proposed a tripartite structure of personality :

• Id: The primitive, biological, part of personality. It is present from birth and operates on the pleasure principle , demanding gratification of its needs.
• Ego: The part of personality that mediates between the id and the superego. It develops around 1-3 years old and operates on the reality principle .
• Superego: The moral ‘higher values’ part of personality. It develops around 3-5 years old and operates on the morality principle , punishing the ego through guilt.

According to this theory, behaviour is determined by the interaction of these three parts. The ego sits in the middle and tries to balance the competing demands of the id (i.e. base biological drives) and superego (i.e. moral beliefs about right and wrong). Improper balance between the id and superego creates anxiety and is the cause of mental disorders. One way in which the mind resolves these conflicts is via defence mechanisms .

Defence mechanisms

Defence mechanisms are a way in which the ego manages conflict between the id and superego. They include:

• Repression: Hiding an unpleasant or undesirable thought (e.g. sexual or aggressive urges) or memory (e.g. childhood abuse) from the conscious mind.
• Denial: Rejecting and refusing to accept reality (e.g. failing to acknowledge that your girlfriend doesn’t love you any more after you break up).
• Displacement: Redirecting emotions from the actual target to a substitute (e.g. kicking your cat because you’re angry about an episode that happened at work that day).

Psychosexual stages

According to Freud, normal development in childhood involves passing through five psychosexual stages . At each stage, a conflict must be resolved before moving on to the next stage. If a conflict is not resolved, the child becomes stuck at that stage, which affects their behaviour as an adult.

The five psychosexual stages are as follows:

An example of getting stuck: If you’ve ever heard someone describe a person as ‘anal’ and thought it was a weird word to describe someone who’s obsessive about detail, it comes from Freud. According to the theory, if toilet training is too strict , it can manifest as a (anal retentive) personality that is obsessive about details, tidiness, routine, etc. If toilet training is too relaxed , it manifests the opposite personality (anal expulsive), i.e. messy and disorganised.

Another famous example of psychosexual conflict is the Oedipus complex , which occurs at the phallic stage. According to Freud, boys develop a sexual attraction towards their mother during this stage and a hatred of their father.

Strengths of the psychodynamic approach:

• Explanatory power: Although much of Freud’s work is scientifically controversial (see below), it has some explanatory power. For example, Freud’s theories were among the first to explain how experiences in early childhood influence adult personality. This idea is now common to many other psychological theories, such as Bowlby’s continuity hypothesis and the double bind explanation of schizophrenia .
• Practical applications: Freud’s theories yielded a treatment form known as psychoanalysis, which involves accessing and interpreting the unconscious mind (e.g. via dream analysis, free association). There is some evidence that psychoanalysis can successfully treat mild neuroses (though not serious mental disorders like schizophrenia ) and later therapies developed from Freudian psychoanalysis (talking therapies) are still used today.

Weaknesses of the psychodynamic approach:

• Unscientific/pseudoscientific: Science is about what can be measured, observed, and repeated . By this standard, Freud’s theories are much less scientific than e.g. the behaviourist or biological approaches. For example, unconscious concepts (e.g. the id ) are not even observable by the individual themself let alone measurable in a lab! Further, Freud’s theories were primarily based on individual case studies rather than measurable and quantified data. As such, Freud’s interpretation of the results is highly subjective. The relatively small number of case studies may also mean the theories derived from them may not apply to human psychology in general.
• Ignores other factors: The psychodynamic approach explains mental disorders as a result of conflict between different aspects of the mind but this ignores other explanations (e.g. biological ). For example, there are physical differences in both the neurochemistry and biological structures of people with OCD and without. Treating these physical causes is likely to be more effective for many psychological disorders.

Humanistic psychology

Note: This topic is A level only, you don’t need to learn about humanistic psychology if you are taking the AS exam only.

Humanistic psychology rejects scientific and objective explanations of behaviour, instead arguing that human experience is subjective and that humans have free will to choose their behaviour.

• The humanistic approach emphasises the free will of the individual.
• Each individual is unique and so psychology should focus on the experience of each individual (subjective or idiographic approach ) rather than trying to identify general rules of human behaviour (objective or nomothetic approach ).
• Rather than focusing on one aspect of a person (e.g. biological factors or childhood experiences), the humanistic approach believes each person should be viewed holistically .

Free will is the philosophical view that humans are able to make choices for themselves – without being controlled by the influences of biology or environment. It is a key assumption of the humanistic approach. Humanistic psychologists see humans as free to change and make decisions that lead to self-actualisation .

Self-actualisation

The humanistic approach believes all humans have a desire to achieve self-actualisation. Self-actualisation means fulfilling your potential – developing your abilities and skills, successfully deploying them, and enjoying doing so. Because each human is different, self-actualisation will differ from person to person.

Humanistic psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers characterised self-actualisation in different ways:

• Maslow: Meeting all levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs , the top of which includes creativity, problem solving, and full achievement of potential.
• Rogers: Having unconditional positive regard and achieving congruence between self-concept (how you see yourself) and ideal self (the version of yourself you want to be). Rogers’ treatment approach is counselling psychology , which aims to help individuals self-actualise .

Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s (1943) view of self-actualisation involves satisfying 5 levels in a hierarchy of needs .

These lower levels of the hierarchy are deficiency needs. A person without these basic needs is lacking and must address them before they can reach the final stage of the hierarchy: self-actualisation .

Self-actualisation is a growth need . It involves fulfilling your full creative, moral, and intellectual potential. A self-actualising person is one who is constantly striving towards and achieving a worthy goal. Maslow gave various examples of self-actualised people, including Albert Einstein, but believed only around 1% of people truly achieve self-actualisation.

Carl Rogers

Rogers’ view of self-actualisation builds on Maslow’s hierarchy. According to Rogers, self-actualisation also involves unconditional positive regard and congruence between how a person sees themself and their ideal version of themself .

Conditions of worth

Rogers argues that self-actualisation requires positive self-regard (i.e. a positive opinion of yourself).

But if a person’s parents impose conditions of worth on them, them are less likely to have positive self-regard. For example, if a parent only praises and loves their child when they do well in school, or win competitions, then their love is conditional . This can cause feelings of low self-esteem and worthlessness that prevent self-actualisation.

In contrast, children whose parents have unconditional positive regard for them are more easily able to achieve self-actualisation.

Congruence refers to how closely two things overlap.

If the gap between a person’s self-image and their ideal self is too high (low congruence), it will be harder to achieve self-actualisation.

Counselling psychology

The humanistic approach has been influential on counselling therapy, which originated with Rogers.

According to Rogers, the core qualities of a good counselling therapist are:

• Genuine: The therapist doesn’t hide behind a professional facade that is incongruent with their real personality.
• Unconditional positive regard : The therapist accepts and values the client for who they are without disapproval or judgement.
• Empathy: The therapist actively tries to understand and appreciate the client’s perspective.

The aim of Rogers’ counselling psychology (also called person-centred therapy) is to increase congruence between the client’s self-image and ideal self and increasing their feelings of self-worth . Ultimately, this helps the client to self-actualise and fulfil their potential.

Strengths of humanistic psychology:

• Practical applications: The humanistic approach has yielded therapies that have helped people. For example, counselling psychology is commonly used within social work and has helped many people improve their lives. This is supported by a review by Sexton and Whiston (1994), who found that person-centred therapy was effective for some people. Beyond psychology, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been influential within the business world to explain and help improve motivation within the workplace.
• Holistic : Whereas other psychological approaches are reductive (e.g. behaviourism reduces the mind to stimulus and response, the biological approach reduces the mind to biological structures and neurochemistry) the humanistic approach considers all aspects of a person’s life. This holistic approach may yield more valid insights and treatment as it is based on real-life experience and context rather than artificial and unrealistic laboratory experiments.

Weaknesses of humanistic psychology:

• Unscientific:  Science is about what can be measured, observed, and repeated . But the subjective approach of humanistic psychology means it does not produce this kind of quantifiable or replicable data. As such, it is hard to objectively test the claims of the humanistic approach against reality and say whether they are true or not. Further, science involves developing hypotheses and general theories that explain behaviour, but humanistic psychology is idiographic and so rejects attempts to generalise behaviour in this way.
• Cultural differences: Self-actualisation within the humanistic approach focuses entirely on the individual achieving their own potential. However, more collectivist cultures emphasise the common good and may prefer to focus on achieving community or societal potential rather than individual self-actualisation.

Biopsychology>>>

A-level Psychology AQA Revision Notes

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

Revision Notes

Paper 1 : AS and A-Level

Social Influence

Paper 1 : A-Level

Psychopathology

Biopsychology

Research Methods

Paper 3 : Compulsory

Issues and Debates

Relationships

Cognitive Development

Schizophrenia

Eating Behaviour

Forensic Psychology

Download PDFs Resources

Research methods exam questions and answers, research methods exam questions and answers (24 marks), research methods exam questions and answers (48 marks).

There are three assessment objectives assessed in each examination: 

There may be one, two, or all (only in the extended writing 16-mark question). It is important to understand how assessment objectives are allocated to each type of question to maximize your chance of obtaining full marks.

AO1 : Demonstrate knowledge

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, processes, techniques, and procedures.
• Show knowledge and understanding of psychological theories, terminology, concepts, studies, and methods.

AO 2: Application of knowledge

• in a practical context
• when handling qualitative data
• when handling quantitative data
• in a theoretical context
• This skill area tests knowledge of research design and data analysis, and applying theoretical understanding of psychology to everyday/real-life examples.

AO3: Analyse, interpret and evaluate

Analyse, interpret, and evaluate scientific information, ideas, and evidence, including in relation to issues, to:

• make judgements and reach conclusions
• develop and refine practical design and procedures.

Examples of how you can score AO3 marks

• Whether or not theories are supported or refuted by valid research evidence : After describing a theory go on to describe a piece of research evidence saying, ‘X’s study supports/refutes this theory…’ and then describe the research study.
• Contextualising how the topic in question relates to broader debates and approaches in Psychology : For example, would they agree or disagree with a theory or the findings of the study?
• Animal Research : This raises the issue of whether it’s morally and/or scientifically right to use animals.The main criterion is that benefits must outweigh costs. Animal research also raises the issue of extrapolation. Can we generalize from studies on animals to humans as their anatomy & physiology is different from humans?
• General criticisms and/or strengths of theories and studies : E.g. ‘Bandura’s Bobo Doll studies are laboratory experiments and therefore criticizable on the grounds of lacking ecological validity’.To gain marks for criticising study’s methodologies the criticism must be contextualised: i.e. say why this is a problem in this particular study.‘Therefore, the violence the children witnessed was on television and was against a doll not a human’.

10% of the examination will consist of mathematical questions at the GCSE level. These questions will cover basic arithmetic, data, and graphs. There is no need to be worried if you have a GCSE pass grade of 5 or higher, as you will be familiar with these concepts.

To do well, you must get organized and plan your time logically and rationally to make sure you cover everything on the syllabus in an adequate amount of depth.

What are the most effective ways of revising subject knowledge?

• Ask ‘How” and ‘Why’ questions  when revising and try to connect ideas (this method is called ‘elaboration’)
• No cramming : Distribute your revision over time and use a spaced system of repetition
• Switch topics regularly  when revising (this is called ‘ interleaving, ‘ and it will help you to identify connections between different topics)
• Words and visuals . Combine words and visual representations to create two ways of remembering key ideas (this is called ‘dual coding’)

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A-Level AQA Psychology Questions by Topic

Filter by paper, core content, 1. social influence, 3. attachment, 4 . psychopathology, 5 . approaches in psychology, 6. biopsychology, 7 . research methods, 8. issues and debates in psychology, 9. relationships, 11. cognition and development, 12. schizophrenia, 13. eating behaviour, 15. aggression, 16. forensic psychology, 17. addiction.

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Approaches in Psychology Core Topic Essays for AQA A-Level Psychology

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