Introduction to PsychologyPsychology is the scientific study of how Free Essay Example

Introduction to Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of how us as humans feel, think and behave . This assignment will go on to explain two of the key approaches within psychology, identifying and evaluating key theorists studies. As Well as explaining and showing understanding of two key debates within psychology.

The Social approach with psychology first became prominent in the 1950’s and 60 ‘s.Social psychologists investigated the behaviors, thoughts and feelings of an individual to identify if influences are applied by the presence of other individuals, groups, culture or society.

To help social psychologists achieve this, they developed ingenious lab experiments to identify and manipulate social situations(PSYCHOLOGY WIZARD, 2019). In a laboratory experiment is carried out in a controlled environment and therefore accurate measurements are possible. An example of a lab experiment within social psychology is the behavioral study of obedience conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1961, which was carried out at Yale university in America. Adolf Eichmann influenced Milgram’s study, Milgram wanted to test his hypothesis that ordinary people could be put in a social situation where they too would do the sort of things that Eichmann did (sending thousands of innocent jews to their death).

Milgram paid his participants $4 for taking part in his study and led them to believe they were taking part in a memory experiment. Milgram wanted to establish a baseline measure of how obedient participants would be when ordered to administer intense electric shocks ranging from 15v to 450v to an innocent victim. All participants showed they would obey the orders of someone with authority, as all 40 ppts (which were men only) obeyed the measurement to the shock voltage of 300v and 65% went all the way to the highest voltage of 450v.

This revealed participants were willing to obey an authority figure and potentially cause serious harm to an innocent person within the study. (Psychologywizard.net, 2019)” Milgram’s study has been heavily criticised for breaking numerous ethical guidelines including: deception,right to withdraw and protection from harm”.(tutor2u, 2019).Milgrams study had various advantages and disadvantages. An advantage would be all men had a wide variety of occupations and backgrounds, therefore they were likely to be representative of the target population. The study was ethnocentric as he used all americans for direct comparisons with the Germans, it was also done in a lab setting so it was easier to observe and have a high level of control. Milgram’s study could also be replicated as he went on to carry out different variations of his baseline studies and it could be used to increase obedience in schools, prisons,work etc..and it showed uniforms provide authority with the feeling of it been a greater good. However Milgram’s study lacked ecological validity it was artificial, it was just tested on men (all american) from Yale University. He showed deception , he didn’t tell participants what he was testing, although they volunteered they didn’t give informed consent resulting in the participants suffering mentally as he didn’t give them the right to withdraw clearly.” Stanley Milgram concluded that a majority of individuals will continue to obey authority figures, even if the individuals believe the acts to be wrong or harmful to another person “..(Anon, 2019)

Another approach in psychology is the Learning approach ” The Learning approach to Psychology proposes that behaviour is acquired by learning experiences. Learning theorists examine how we acquire these behaviours and study the mechanisms that underlie learning”(Sites.google.com, 2019) The learning approach also associated as the behaviourist approach,conclude we are born as babies ‘tabula rasa’ which indicates a blank slate .So accordingly all behaviour is accomplished, from our environment or from individuals. Principles of classical ( learning through association) , operant conditioning (learning through consequences) and social learning (learning through observation) were used to explain the behaviorist approach . A theorist linked to classical conditioning within the learning approach was a russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov’s study investigated the digestive system of dogs,he wanted to know what generated dogs to salivate. A Good example for Pavlov to use was food, as food generates saliva. As the study began Pavlov became aware the people awarding the dogs with food were all in fact wearing lab coats and before long the dogs were salivating just at the sight of the lab coats and not just at the food. He then began to run a study of ringing a bell every time the dogs were to be fed resulting in the dogs salivating to the noise of the bell associating the noise to the food. ” Pavlov said the dogs were demonstrating classical conditioning. He summed it up like this: there’s a neutral stimulus (the bell), which by itself will not produce a response, like salivation. There’s also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus (the food), which will produce an unconditioned response (salivation). But if you present the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus together, eventually the dog will learn to associate the two. After a while, the neutral stimulus by itself will produce the same response as the unconditioned stimulus, like the dogs drooling when they heard the bell. This is called a conditioned response ` “.(Study.com, 2019) . Among the advantages and disadvantages of Pavlov’s study is generalisation, which in this study the main use is generalising from dogs to humans. A plus is the Theory of Evolution backs up the idea that humans will learn through association in the same way as other animals. An example of this is the success of programmes to treat alcoholics with aversion therapy.However, humans have different brains from dogs and various more complicated thoughts and motives, resulting in humans not been strongly motivated by finding food. Reliability was another strong advantage as it was a standardised procedure, Pavlov went on to repeat his study umpteen times over 25 years with different dogs and stimulus (never the bell). Which gave the research inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. The artificial nature of Pavlov’s tests which involves the dogs been tied up, could indicate another problem as you can’t judge such unrealistic tests to explain or predict behaviour in the real world.(PSYCHOLOGY WIZARD, 2019) ” Concluding it can be stated that Pavlov’s discovery of conditional reflexes while studying digestion in dogs led to a systematic investigation of learning processes, and established the principles of classical conditioning. These were taken as a foundation of behaviourism by J.B. Watson and so influenced the development of psychology.” (M?nter, 2019).

Classical conditioning theories such as Pavlov’s dogs supports the first key debate to be explained, which is Nature vs Nurture. This controversial debate has existed since 1869, when the phrase “Nature Versus Nurture” was coined by the English polymath, Francis Galton.(ORIGINS, 2019). Scientists believe that people behave as they do according to genetic predispositions or even “animal instincts” which is known as the “nature” theory of human behaviour.For example genetics, what we were born with i.e eye colour or hair colour . While on the other hand, others believe that people think and behave in certain ways because of the way they are taught i.e the way we were brought up. This is known as the “nurture” Theory of Human Behaviour.

A good example of the Nature vs Nurture debate would be the studies of twins. Fraternal studies of twins which argues that if genetics didn’t play a key part in the development of our personalities, then it follows that dizygotic(non identical) twins brought up in the same home and surroundings would be alike regardless of variation in their genes. However, dizygotic twins resemble one another more than non twin siblings, they also illustrate the astonishing similarities when brought up apart from his/her twin. Identical twins (monozygotic) also show similar personality traits when raised separately. On the other hand is that if “nurture” doesn’t play a part in individuals traits etc., identical twins should therefore be the same in all respects even if brought up separately. However, some of the studies show that identical twins are never alike, they resemble each other in most aspects. For example , “Happy Families: A Twin Study of Humour,” a 2000 study published by faculty at the Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, researchers concluded that a sense of humor is a learned trait influenced by family and cultural environment, rather than any genetic predetermination.”(ThoughtCo, 2019). So is the behaviour inherited before we’re born or does it evolve over time in the experiences we endure and the way we are brought up. The nature vs nurture debate shows researchers on both sides agree the link between a gene and behaviours is not the same as cause and effect. So, rather than being a case of “either/or” its likely that whatever personality we develop is due to a combination of both nature and nurture.(ThoughtCo, 2019)

Free will and determinism is the next key debate to be discussed. Determinism is the aspect that free will is an illusion, and that our behavior is governed by internal or external forces. We have no control over these forces, resulting in our behaviors been viewed as predictable. An example of external force would be the influence of parents when rewarding certain behaviours, whereas an example of internal force would be hormones influencing the way in which some behave. (tutor2u, 2019) Identical twin studies for example, typically find an 80% similarity in intelligence scores and a 40% similarity in the likelihood of depression. However, as identical twins share 100% of their genes, these results suggest that 20% is caused by other (environmental) factors. This demonstrates that biological determinism is unable to explain any particular behaviour, in this case, depression and intelligence. The same evidence indicates that no behaviour is completely environmentally determined. If identical twins only show an 80% likeness in terms of intelligence, it is therefore assumed that only 20% is caused by the environment(tutor2u, 2019) .

Free will is the suggestion that we are able to have some choice in how we act and assumes that we are free to choose our behaviours (self determinations).For example, people can make a free choice as to whether to commit a crime or not (unless they are a child or they are insane). This does not mean that behavior is random, but we are free from the causal influences of past events. According to freewill a person is responsible for their own actions.(Mcleod, 2019).Many psychologists, theorists and legal experts do not favour a deterministic point of view. If behaviour is determined by outside forces, that provides a potential excuse for criminal acts. For example, in 1981 Stephen Mobley argued that he was ‘born to kill’ after killing a pizza shop manager because his family had a disposition towards violence and aggressive behaviour. An American court rejected this argument. Therefore, a truly determinist position may be undesirable as it provides an ‘excuse’, allowing people to mitigate their own liability and could lead to vexing legal issues regarding the nature of responsibility and intent .(tutor2u, 2019) Clearly, a pure deterministic or free will approach does not seem appropriate when studying human behavior. Most psychologists go on to use the concept of free will to express the idea that behavior is not a passive reaction to forces, but that individuals actively respond to internal and external forces. (Mcleod, 2019),