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Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches

  • 34 subtopics
  • 100 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

What Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches covers

Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches is examined on AS Unit 1 of WJEC Psychology, Psychology: Past to Present. 420 recall questions across 34 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

AS Unit 1

Psychology: Past to Present.

Check the WJEC specification ↗

The 34 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

Which researcher's cross-cultural survey supports the evolutionary explanation of partner preferences, and what did it find?

Study

Why is the study described as a quasi-experiment rather than a true experiment?

Process

What are the three assumptions of the psychodynamic approach, and why does it stress early childhood?

Key term

Explain Freud's iceberg analogy of the mind.

Evaluation

What is psychic determinism, and why is it a weakness?

Process

Distinguish manifest content from latent content.

Who and when

What did Bowlby find about prolonged separation among the affectionless thieves, the thieves overall and the controls?

Key term

Explain the blank slate assumption, and name the philosopher whose term the behaviourists adopted.

Process

Distinguish generalisation from discrimination.

Study

On which type of conditioning is aversion therapy based, and which are the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli when it is used for alcohol dependence?

Key term

Why does high dropout complicate the evidence on aversion therapy?

Who and when

How was the loud noise produced in the Little Albert study, and what were the unconditioned stimulus and response?

Key term

Describe a typical conditioning trial with Little Albert, and say what turned the rat into a conditioned stimulus.

Study

Give the ethical problems with consent, harm and deconditioning in the Little Albert study.

Key term

Why do psychologists disagree about what became of 'Little Albert'?

Key term

Explain the computer analogy.

Key term

Name three forms of disputing used in rational emotive behaviour therapy.

Evaluation

What is the central conclusion about the nature of memory?

Study

Which real-world study challenges Loftus and Palmer's conclusions, and how?

Key term

Given both sets of findings, what is the fairest judgement about eyewitness memory?

Key term

What does the positive approach set out to study?

Key term

Give three criticisms of the positive approach.

Key term

Who brought mindfulness into Western clinical practice, and who developed mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and for what purpose?

Key term

Explain the 'standards' and the final 'other' elements of CASIO, and how positive therapy builds on what the client already has.

Key term

Give two reasons the effectiveness evidence for mindfulness should be treated cautiously.

Key term

Name the type of determinism associated with the biological, behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches.

Key term

Why does the free will debate matter for how each approach views responsibility for behaviour?

Key term

Which approach is regarded as the least scientific and why, and which is the most reductionist?

Key term

Compare the methods used in the five classic studies.

Key term

Why does the evolutionary assumption treat a widespread fear of snakes and spiders as adaptive?

Key term

Name two modern psychosurgical procedures.

Study

What extra step was taken over the murderers who had schizophrenia?

Key term

Which part of the tripartite personality is present from birth, and on what principle does it operate?

Numbers

Which book set out Freud's theory of dreams, and when was it published?

Evaluation

Which broader hypothesis grew out of Bowlby's (1944) study of juvenile thieves?

Study

What is the fundamental problem with inferring cause from Bowlby's (1944) study?

Evaluation

Why is the behaviourist approach considered an optimistic one?

Numbers

Which psychologist developed systematic desensitisation, and when?

Key term

Why does aversion therapy often fail to generalise outside the clinic?

Key term

How can the approach be criticised for blaming the individual?

Numbers

Who developed cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, and when?

Key term

How does Ellis's therapeutic style differ from Beck's?

Evaluation

Which cognitive assumption is being used when a therapist works on a client's long-standing belief that they are unlovable?

Study

Describe the design of the second experiment.

Key term

Give the broken glass results.

Evaluation

What are the three routes to 'the good life' that Seligman describes?

Key term

Who developed quality of life therapy, and what does it combine?

Study

Who conducted the 1995 classic positive study, and what was it called?

Key term

Why is self-report defensible as a measure here despite its faults?

Key term

Which two approaches make the greatest use of animal research, and why?

Key term

Which chemicals are associated with the shift from attraction to long-term attachment?

Numbers

Which team reported that people newly in love had serotonin levels resembling those of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Key term

Which class of drug is used for schizophrenia, and how do the typical versions work?

Key term

Under what circumstances is psychosurgery considered acceptable in the UK today?

Key term

Give one piece of evidence on the effectiveness of drug therapy.

Key term

How was reduced prefrontal activity interpreted?

Key term

How was abnormal amygdala and limbic activity interpreted?

Process

What is a defence mechanism, and which part of the personality uses them?

Key term

What is free-floating discussion?

Key term

Define the matrix in group analysis.

Numbers

Who conducted the classic psychodynamic study, in what year, and what was it called?

Who and when

Which earlier principle of learning did Thorndike contribute?

Who and when

What does the cognitive approach argue determines our behaviour?

Evaluation

Give three practical applications that count as a strength of the approach.

Numbers

Who launched modern positive psychology, and in what role?

Key term

Which of the three routes contributes most to lasting life satisfaction?

Key term

Give two practical applications of the positive approach.

Key term

Which personality traits were most consistently linked with happiness?

Who and when

What did the evidence show about relationships and happiness?

Key term

Name the three assumptions of the biological approach.

Evaluation

How do twin studies act as a strength for this approach?

Key term

Name two types of drug used to treat anxiety and explain how each works.

Key term

Why is relapse a problem for judging drug therapy successful?

Numbers

Who conducted the classic biological study, in what year, and what was it called?

Key term

Why might a poorly functioning corpus callosum contribute to violence?

Key term

Who founded the psychodynamic approach, and what are its three assumptions?

Key term

Distinguish displacement from projection.

Process

Define condensation as a dreamwork process.

Key term

What is meant by mirroring in a therapy group?

Key term

How is the methodology of the study best described?

Key term

How many of the thieves overall had experienced prolonged separation?

Key term

Name the three assumptions of the behaviourist approach.

Key term

Explain the formation of a relationship using operant conditioning.

Key term

On which type of conditioning is aversion therapy based?

Key term

Distinguish in vitro from in vivo exposure, and say which works better.

Key term

Who carried out the 1920 classic behaviourist study, and what was the paper called?

Key term

State two conclusions Watson and Rayner drew.

Key term

State the three assumptions of the cognitive approach.

Key term

What new field resulted from combining the cognitive approach with biology?

Key term

What are the three elements of Beck's cognitive triad?

Key term

What is the main ethical objection to the confrontational style of rational emotive behaviour therapy?

Key term

What were Loftus and Palmer trying to find out?

Key term

State the three assumptions of the positive approach.

Key term

How would the authenticity of goodness explain who we are drawn to?

Key term

What is the problem with the approach's reliance on self-report?

Key term

Define mindfulness.

Key term

How does the authenticity of goodness and excellence shape positive therapy?

Who and when

What imbalance in the published literature did Myers and Diener point out?

Who and when

What did the paper say about temperament and heredity?

Key term

Which approach's therapies are the most invasive, and what ethical issue does that raise?

Take Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Manifest content vs Latent content

    Manifest content: the dream as the dreamer tells it. Latent content: the hidden wish behind it.

  • In Loftus and Palmer's research, response bias vs In Loftus and Palmer's research, memory alteration

    In Loftus and Palmer's research, response bias: a leading question changing only the answer given at the time. In Loftus and Palmer's research, memory alteration: a leading question changing what is stored, which is why the effect survived a week.

  • Classical conditioning vs Operant conditioning

    Classical conditioning: linking two stimuli so that a reflex transfers from one to the other. Operant conditioning: changing the frequency of a voluntary act through its consequences.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name the three assumptions of the biological approach.

    Model answer

    Evolutionary influences, localisation of brain function, and the action of neurotransmitters.

  2. 2

    Explain what is meant by an evolutionary influence on behaviour.

    Model answer

    A behaviour that helped ancestors survive and reproduce was passed on genetically, so it persists today as an inherited adaptation.

  3. 3

    Whose theory of natural selection underpins the evolutionary assumption, and in what year was it published?

    Model answer

    Charles Darwin's, in On the Origin of Species in 1859.

  4. 4

    Why does the evolutionary assumption treat a widespread fear of snakes and spiders as adaptive?

    Model answer

    Ancestors who avoided venomous animals were more likely to survive long enough to reproduce, so a readiness to fear them was inherited.

  5. 5

    Define localisation of function.

    Model answer

    The principle that specific areas of the brain are responsible for specific behaviours and mental processes.

  6. 6

    Which brain area is associated with the production of speech, and where is it found?

    Model answer

    Broca's area, in the left frontal lobe.

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Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches
Contemporary Debates
Principles of Research and Application of Research Methods
Mathematical Requirements for Psychology (Appendix A: AS Unit 2 and A2 Unit 4)

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Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches revision questions

What does Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches cover in WJEC A-Level Psychology?
34 subtopics: the biological approach: assumptions of the approach and applying the assumptions to the formation of relationships, the biological approach: love chemicals, strengths and weaknesses, biological therapy: drug therapy or psychosurgery — how the approach is used in therapy, biological therapy: drug therapy or psychosurgery — effectiveness of the therapy, classic evidence (biological): raine, buchsbaum and lacasse (1997) — methodology and findings, classic evidence (biological): raine, buchsbaum and lacasse (1997) — conclusions, the psychodynamic approach: assumptions of the approach, the psychodynamic approach: personality, defence mechanisms and the formation of relationships, the psychodynamic approach: strengths and weaknesses of the approach, psychodynamic therapy: dream analysis or group analysis psychotherapy — how the approach is used, psychodynamic therapy: dream analysis or group analysis psychotherapy — effectiveness of the therapy, classic evidence (psychodynamic): bowlby (1944) — methodology, procedures and findings, classic evidence (psychodynamic): bowlby (1944) — conclusions, ethical issues and social implications, the behaviourist approach: assumptions of the approach, the behaviourist approach: applying the assumptions to relationships, strengths and weaknesses, behaviourist therapy: aversion therapy or systematic desensitisation — how the approach is used, behaviourist therapy: aversion therapy or systematic desensitisation — effectiveness of the therapy, classic evidence (behaviourist): watson and rayner (1920) — methodology, procedures and findings, classic evidence (behaviourist): watson and rayner (1920) — conclusions, the cognitive approach: assumptions of the approach and applying the assumptions to the formation of relationships, the cognitive approach: strengths and weaknesses of the approach, cognitive therapy: cognitive behavioural therapy or rational emotive behaviour therapy, cognitive therapy: cognitive behavioural therapy or rational emotive behaviour therapy (2), classic evidence (cognitive): loftus and palmer (1974) — methodology, procedures and findings, classic evidence (cognitive): loftus and palmer (1974) — conclusions, the positive approach: assumptions of the approach, the positive approach: applying the assumptions to the formation of relationships, the positive approach: strengths and weaknesses of the approach, positive therapy: mindfulness or quality of life therapy — how the approach is used in therapy, positive therapy: mindfulness or quality of life therapy — assumptions in practice, effectiveness and ethics, classic evidence (positive): myers and diener (1995) — methodology, procedures and findings, classic evidence (positive): myers and diener (1995) — conclusions, comparison of the five approaches: biological approach and psychodynamic approach and comparison of the five approaches: behaviourist approach, cognitive approach and positive approach. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Psychology Past to Present — The Five Approaches organised?
By the WJEC 601-5719-7 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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