Unit 8 –
Psychological
Perspectives
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Monday 13th April 2015

Today’s aims….
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 Introduction to new unit
 Start to look at the basics of Psychology
 Unit spec

Unit 8
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2 assignments
P1, P2, P3
M1, M2
D1

What is Psychology?
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 It is a science which looks at the study of mind and behaviour
 There are different perspectives or ‘schools’
 We will look at various perspectives and try to apply them to a work setting

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We observe things around us

We develop a theory to

Understand

Explain

Predict

Start thinking…..
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 Read the case study and think about the questions, to get in the Psychological mindset

The perspectives
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We will look at the following perspectives –
The Behaviourist perspective
Social Learning theory
The Psycho-Dynamic approach
The Humanist perspective
The Cognitive perspective
The Biological perspective

The Behaviourist perspective 
 The key idea behind this theory is that we can try and understand behaviour by looking at what it is that the person has learnt
 The theory looks at things like individual personality such as their levels of confidence or shyness
 Also looks at things like ‘on the spot’ behaviour such as giving money to a homeless person 
 This perspective suggests that all human behaviour occurs as a result of EXPERIENCE from which we learn things and these things shape our behaviour
 Think about a time when you experienced something – good or bad. Has this in some way changed your behaviour?

Key thinkers
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 Ivan Pavlov
 Frederic Skinner

Pavlov
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 Came up with a theory known as CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
 Pavlov (1849 – 1936) was a Russian psychologist who has a very famous study where he used dogs. He was studying dogs’ digestive systems

Pavlov’s dogs
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 One day he noticed that a dog began to salivate when a bowl of food was brought into the room by his assistant – but the dog was yet to taste the food
 He found this unusual because salivation is a reflex response  At the time, it was believed that saliva is only produced when food touches the tongue
 Pavlov thought – maybe the dog salivated because it associated the assistant with food?
 So he started to investigate……

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 Pavlov's Dogs

Pavlov’s theory….
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 Salivation is an automatic response not a learned response– a bit like the thought of
Haribo’s fizzy sweet make your mouth water/salivate  This automatic response is known as an unconditioned response (UR)
Not learned

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 Food automatically leads to this response
 This is known as an unconditioned stimulus
(US)
 The food stimulates the response automatically  Pavlov rang a bell when presenting food – this is a neutral stimulus
 He wanted to see if the dog associates the bell with food
 Eventually, the dog would salivate at the sound of the bell even when no food was

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 Therefore the dog had learned to conditioned response (CR) of salivation to the conditioned stimulus (CS) of the bell

Key terms
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 Now match the terms – it is important that you understand what they mean
 Unconditioned response
 Unconditioned stimulus
 Conditioned response
 Conditioned stimulus

Terms answers
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 A new, learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that mimics the response to the unconditioned stimulus – CONDITIONED RESPONSE  A response that regularly occurs when an unconditional stimulus is presented, e.g. the startle response resulting from a thunderclap –
UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE
 A stimulus that regularly and consistently leads to an automatic (not learned) response from, e.g. a clap of thunder – UNCONDITIONED
STIMULUS
 A neutral stimulus that, when paired with the unconditioned stimulus, produces a conditioned n(learned) response, just as the unconditioned response used to – CONDITIONED STIMULUS

Skinner
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 Burhuss Frederic Skinner (1904 – 1990) was also a thinker of the Behaviourist perspective but had a slightly different theory known as
OPERANT CONDITIONING
 He was an American psychologist who had a
famous