SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
MIDTERM EXAMINATION (2020)

QUESTION-1
Define learning. Elaborate learning by conditioning.
ANSWER:
 LEARNING:
In psychology learning is define as a relatively permanent change in
behavior as a result of experience.
Three essential elements of learning are highlighted by this concept of
learning:
 A behavioral improvement, which can be positive or worse, requires
learning.
 As a product of practice and experience, this behavioral change
should take place. Changes due to maturity or progression should not
be viewed as learning.
 This change in behavior must be relatively lasting and last for a very
long time.

 THE KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LEARNING

PROCESS:
1. When expressed in the simplest way possible, learning is described as
a process of gaining experience.
2. Learning can be defined as the process of acquisition, retention and
alteration of knowledge in a complex form.
3. The link between a stimulus and a response is reestablished.
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

4. It is a problem solving approach and is concerned with making

environmental changes.
5. This includes all those behaviors that can have a reasonably lasting
impact on the person.
6. The learning process is concerned with the acquisition of experience,
retention of experience, and creation of experience in a step by step
way, synthesizing both old and new experiences to create a new
pattern.
7. Cognitive, conative and affective elements are concerned with
learning. The phase of development of information is cognitive, any
shift of feelings is affective and learning of new behaviors or abilities
is conative.

 TYPES OF LEARNING:
1) MOTOR LEARNING:
To maintain a healthy life, our day to day tasks such as walking,
biking, driving, etc, must be taught. Such tasks require muscle
control to a large degree.
2) VERBAL LEARNING:
It is related to the language we use to communicate and other
means of verbal communication, such as symbols, words,
languages, sounds, signs and figures.
3) CONCEPT LEARNING:
This type of learning is correlated with higher-order cognitive
processes that we experience from our childhood, such as
intelligence, thought, reasoning, etc. Concept learning requires
abstraction and generalization methods, which are very useful for
the identification or recognition of items.
4) DISCRIMINATION LEARNING:
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

Learning that differentiates between different stimuli and their

acceptable and different responses is considered to stimulate
discrimination.
5) LEARNING ATTITUDE:
Attitude affects our behavior to a very large degree, since our
positive or negative behavior is dependent on our predisposition to
attitude.
6) PRINCIPLE LEARNING:
Learning based on concepts helps to manage the job most
efficiently. Principles based learning describes the correlation
between different concepts.

 LEARNING BY CONDITIONING:
Conditioning is a type of learning that links some sort of trigger or
stimulus to a human behavior or response.
Following are the types of conditioning:

1) CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral
stimulus (e.g., a tone) becomes associated with a stimulus (e.g., food)
that naturally produces a behavior. After the association is learned,
the previously neutral stimulus is sufficient to produce the behavior.
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING EXAMPLES:
Classical conditioning has three steps. Special scientific terms are
given to the stimuli and responses at each stage:
O STAGE 1: BEFORE CONDITIONING:
In this step, in an organism, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
produces an unconditioned response (UCR).
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

In simple terms, this implies that a stimulus has produced an

unlearned (i.e. unconditioned) action / reaction in the environment
and is thus a normal response that has not been taught. No new
behavior has been learned in this regard yet.
FOR EXAMPLE:
A stomach virus (UCS) will generate a nausea response (UCR). In
another case, a perfume (UCS) may produce a happiness or desire
(UCR) response.
Another stimulus that has no effect on a person is also involved in
this process and is called the neutral stimulus (NS). An individual,
entity, location, etc. may be the NS.
Unless it is combined with the unconditioned stimulus, the neutral
stimulus in classical conditioning does not generate a response.

O STAGE 2: DURING CONDITIONING:

During this level, the unconditioned stimulus is contrasted with a
stimulus that generates no response (i.e. neutral), at which point it is
now known as the Conditioned Stimulus (CS).
FOR EXAMPLE:
Consuming a certain food such as chocolate (CS) may be associated
with a stomach virus (UCS). Perfume (UCS) may also be correlated
with a particular individual (CS).
The conditioned stimulus should occur before the unconditioned
stimulus, rather than after it, or at the same time, in order for classical
conditioning to be successful. Thus, the conditioned stimulus for the
unconditioned stimulus serves as a form of signal or cue.
For learning to take place, the UCS must often be paired with the CS
on a number of occasions or trials during this stage. However, on
certain occasions, one trail learning may occur when it is not
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

appropriate to improve an association over time (such as becoming ill

after food poisoning or drinking too much alcohol).

O STAGE 3: AFTER CONDITIONING:

To create a new conditioned response (CR), the conditioned stimulus
(CS) has now been connected with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
FOR EXAMPLE:
An individual (CS) who has been connected to nice perfume (UCS) is
now considered attractive (CR), Chocolate (CS) that was ingested
before a person was ill with a virus (UCS) now causes a nausea (CR)
reaction.

2) OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Operant conditioning is a form of learning that involves incentives
and penalties for actions, also referred to as instrumental
conditioning. An connection is made between an action and an
outcome (whether negative or positive) of that behavior by operant
conditioning.
FOR EXAMPLE:
When laboratory rats push a lever when a green light is on, as a
reward, they obtain a food pellet. They experience a mild electric
shock as they press the lever when a red light is on. As a
consequence, when the green light is on, they learn to push the lever
to stop the red light.
Yet operant conditioning is not just something that takes place when
teaching laboratory animals in experimental settings. In daily
learning, it also plays a powerful role. In natural settings, motivation
and punishment take place all the time, as well as in more organized
situations such as schools or counseling sessions.
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

QUESTION-3
Define psychology and its approaches.
ANSWER:
 PSYCHOLOGY:
Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Psychology includes
the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well
as feeling and thought.

 APPROACHES OF PSYCHOLOGY:
There are seven different approaches to psychology which have
profoundly helped society to overcome the daily challenges we face.
In an effort to make sense of ourselves and how the world we live in
impacts us, these seven distinct approaches explore psychology in all
different forms of fields and perspectives.

1) THE PSYCHO DYNAMIC APPROACH:

The psycho-dynamic method began with Sigmund Freud’s work. This
is the view of human behavior and psychology that emphasizes the
role of the unconscious mind, various experiences of life when young
and old, and relationships to understand how people act. This
approach has also been used to treat persons with mental disorders by
attempting to better understand how the particular person sees the
world and what could have changed their way of thinking. Freud’s
work allowed him to put the mind into three distinct categories, the I
d, the ego, and the superego, which are used to deal with distinct
things.

2) THE BEHAVIORAL APPROACH:

SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

The view that focuses on the learning process and learning behavior is
behavioral psychology. This behaviorism is taken into account in a
manner in which the world around them controls humans or animals.
This is the theory of how behavior is especially influenced by
environmental factors called stimuli. The strategy is very concerned
with how we have learned things and, in particular, how we maintain
that knowledge. This data helps us to apply it to a range of topics,
most specifically mental health, such as medications and counseling.

2) THE COGNITIVE APPROACH:

A new perspective known as cognitive psychology started to take
shape during the 1960s. Mental processes such as memory, reasoning,
problem-solving, language and decision-making are the subject of
this field of psychology. This viewpoint has evolved tremendously in
recent decades, inspired by psychologists such as Jean Piaget and
Albert Bandura.
Cognitive psychologists also use an information-processing model to
conceptualize how information is acquired, interpreted, stored, and
used, comparing the human mind to a machine.

3) THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH:

This psychology research focuses on genetics and how our genes are
a result of us and nothing else. Via biological lenses, this approach
looks at psychology as it explores our theories, attitudes, and actions.
Science has endorsed this approach and has a lot of evidence to
support its arguments, making it a clear point of view for psychology.
This approach explores the meaning of inheritance and how things
like the brain, nervous system, and immune system are things that can
influence your actions in a negative way. It has given us a deeper look
into our anatomy as technology has expanded, which has only further
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

reinforced this approach with more powerful evidence that has been
very influential in the psychological field of research.

4) THE CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACH:

The cross-cultural approach explores the various societies in which
people live and examines how these contexts can impact the actions
and decision-making of individuals. This methodology is modern and
has not been used as long as the other 6 psychology approaches, but it
still plays a major role and is very useful in better understanding
human nature.

5) THE EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH:

Evolutionary psychology is founded on the study of how
physiological mechanisms are explained by evolution. The
fundamental values of evolution, including natural selection, was
taken by psychologists and scholars and applied to psychological
phenomena. This viewpoint indicates that since they serve an
evolutionary function, these mental processes exist-they help in
survival and reproduction.

6) THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH:

This approach is a psychological viewpoint that looks at an individual
as a whole person. In addition to the clinical and psychoanalysis parts
of psychology, this began to appear. This method originated during
the 1950's and chose to look at the actions of individuals through
observation and also how existence is perceived by that person. This
approach expanded a number of different fields within the field of
psychology and gave psychologists a lot of new perspectives into how
to treat and interact with patients.
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

QUESTION-4
Research methods are psychology?
ANSWER:

There is several different research methods used in

psychology. Following are some of them:
1. CASE STUDY:
Case study is a qualitative method of research. It requires an
observation over a period of time of one person or a group of
people. The investigator interviews the topic or examines the
actions and records the data. This type of psychological study is
usually used to demonstrate how the ideas or theories of
psychology are used in practical life. In professional training, the
case study process is commonly used.
2. EXPERIMENT:
Although this is viewed as a broad form of research that can be a
component of several techniques, the word here is used to describe
a particular procedure. Experiments are the most commonly used
form of study in science and there are concepts that are involved in
its employment. One is a control group presence. This is an entity
that is not manipulated, or a group of people.
The another principle is regulation of variables. That is, the
experiment should be as free as possible from extraneous data.
That aspect allows the experiment to be replicated by
psychologists, and that is one prerequisite of reliable study.
The third principle is accuracy of measurements. Allowing
different criteria makes it difficult for replication and inaccurate
for the outcomes.
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

The fourth principle is involved in showing cause and effects, That

is, the manipulations carried out in the experiment contributed to
the findings and there was nothing else involved. Experiments such
as sleep studies, field experiments that enable the psychologist to
influence the subject but not his environment, or natural
experiments that allow no control and are primarily observational,
may be laboratory-controlled.
3. OBSERVATIONAL STUDY:
This type of qualitative study may be naturalistic or controlled. It is
systematic and well recorded. Identifying and defining a variable or
even a group of variables is the aim of observational study. It is
possible to use this form of research as a guide to other styles that
concentrate on a single problem.
4. SURVEY:
The survey is an approach to research called" shotgun. It relies on
data that is self reported, and may therefore be extremely
subjective. Because of this, surveys typically contain several topics.
It is a quantitative approach that uses a random sampling of
subjects and is perhaps the only method where randomness is used
in psychological study. It is not an experimental process, but it
"carefully chooses" the samples.
5. CONTENT ANALYSIS:
This research approach includes looking at media such as print,
TV , radio, and others for the repetition of particular words or
phrases, or even thoughts. It is a quantitative approach to research
topics such as stereotyping or certain facets of culture, such as
sexuality, using mathematical data regarding terms or concepts.
This form of research is particularly useful in advertising, but can
also be used in specific populations to predict actions. Interviews
usually have a limited duration, with a beginning and an ending.
SAMI ULLAH KHAN BS ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE 9494

6. INTERVIEW:
An interview is basically a structured conversation where
questions are posed by one person, and responses are given by the
other.
 STRUCTURE INTERVIEW:
A structured interview is a type of interview in which the researcher
asks a set of premeditated questions in order to gather information
about the research subjects. It is also known as a standardized
interview or a researcher-administered interview, and it aims at
investigating research variables using the same set of questions.
 UNSTRUCTURE INTERVIEW:
In an unstructured interview, the researcher does not prepare a set
of pre-planned interview questions while in a structured interview;
the researcher depends on an interview sequence. A structured
interview is a directive in nature while an unstructured interview is
non-directive in nature.