Approaches Flashcards
What are two examples of supporting research for the learning approach?
Classical conditioning- Pavlov’s dogs, Dogs learnt to associate the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus). Food triggered the unconditioned (innate) response of salivation. When the bell was consistently presented with the bell, the bell became a conditioned stimulus which triggered the conditioned response of salivation without the presence of food.
Operant conditioning- Skinner researched operant conditioning in rats using his ‘skinner’s box’. These were designed so when a rat (or pigs, pigeons) activated a lever they were rewarded with a food pellet. From then on it would continue this behaviour. (positive reinforcement)
He also showed how this process could be used to show negative reinforcement. Rats were subject to electric shocks, only stopping when the rat knocked into or switched a lever. The rats quickly learnt to go straight to the lever after a few times of being in the box.
What is punishment in terms of the learning approach?
- Punishment is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour. opposite of reinforcement, it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it.
- It is an aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows.
What is an application of the behaviourist approach?
-It has helped develop treatments that can be used to treat abnormalities. For example systematic desensitisation was developed to help people unlearn their phobias through counter-conditioning.
They’re taught to unlearn behaviour by associating phobic stimulus with a feeling of relaxation rather than a feeling of anxiety and fear.
This is a strength as shows that if behaviours (e.g. phobias) can be unlearned through classical conditioning then other behaviours that individuals learned must have developed through classical conditioning.
Do experiments into the behaviourist approach have high internal validity?
Explain.
- They do have internal validity.
- Experiments were conducted under highly controlled settings, as a result a strong cause and effect relationship could be established. for example specific conditions and variables could be manipulated in order to assess the effects of both classical and operant conditioning.
This is a strength as it means that the principals of the behavioural approach have been measured in a scientific and objective way (not influenced by human bias).
What type of determinism is the learning approach?
- It is environmentally determinist, claims that all thoughts and behaviours are out of our control and caused by outside factors.
- For example, the approach states that we develop behaviours through stimuli-response associations and through the learning that takes place as we interact with our environment.
- This means the explanation fails to consider the role of free will, it states that we do not have control over our actions and that the behaviours we develop are governed by external experiences.
- this means the explanation underestimates the uniqueness of human beings and their freedom to choose their own destiny.
What is a limitation of the behaviourist explanation of learning to do with generalisation?
- Research into the behaviourist explanation used animals and as a result findings may not be able to be generalised to humans.
- Animals, for example dogs and rats as used in experiments, are different physiologically to humans.
- As a result, findings generated from animal studies can be criticised for extrapolation and the findings cannot be generalised to humans.
What is the four point evaluation of the behaviourist explanation within the learning approach?
- Research support from Pavlov and Skinner.
- High internal validity due to research being conducted in a lab setting.
- Environmentally determinist, fails to account for free-will.
- Failure to generalise research to humans as conducted on animals.
Outline Bandura’s orginal research.
- Observed behaviours of children following them watching an adult acting aggressively to a Bobo doll, e.g. hitting them with a hammer and using words such as ‘pow’.
- After this children were then observed playing with toys such as a Bobo doll. They were recorded as being much more aggressively towards the doll and other toys when compared to non-aggressive observing group.
Outline Bandura’s second research into social learning theory.
(to do with media influence)
-Instead of first-hand observation, Bandura and Walters showed children a video of an adult acting aggressively towards the Bobo Doll.
- One saw the adult praised for their behaviour (being told ‘well done’)
- Second group saw the adult punished for their behaviour towards the doll.
- Third group watched the behaviour without any consequences.
- Children acted more aggressively in the first group, then the third then the second.
- Those in the first group reproduced behaviour as they witnessed the adult being rewarded for their behaviour.
Those in the third may have imitated behaviour as they internalised the adult and saw them as a role model.
The second group would have seen the adults behaviour as not beneficial as they were punished for their behaviour.
Strength of SLT to do with it being comprehensive.
- Explains learning with reference to cognitive factors.
- Neither classical or operant conditioning can give adequate explanation as learning on their own.
- Humans and animals both store information about behaviours of others and use this to make judgements about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions/tasks.
-SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the importance of mediational processes.
outline ethical implications of Bandura’s research.
- exposing children to aggressive behaviour with the knowledge that they may reproduce it in their own behaviour raises ethical issues concerning the need to protect participants from psychological and physical harm.
- Reduces the replicability of testing SLT as Bandura’s research raised significant ethical issues as it put participants (especially bad as with children) under significant stress.
(Boxing)
Research support for SLT in media.
- Philips conducted research and found the daily rate of murders in the US always increased following the week of a major televised boxing match.
- Suggests that viewers were imitating behaviour they watched and so social learning is evident in adults as well as children.
Evaluation of SLT, cultural differences.
-Social learning theory can explain cultural differences in aggression.
-The theory explains behaviour as imitation of the behaviour an individual is surrounded by.
This means the theory can explain differences in culture as different cultures have different practises and traditions and as a result members of these communities will replicate behaviours that they observe in their environment.
-Strength as it has high ecological validity.
Four point evaluation of social learning theory (SLT)
- Research support from Phillips.
- Ethical concerns
- Can explain cultural differences
- explains differences with references to the role of cognitive factors.
What are the different psychosexual stages and when do they occur?
- Oral stage; Focus on pleasure of the mouth, mothers breast for example can be object of desire. 0-1 years.
- Anal stage; Focus on pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces. 1-3 years.
- Phallic stage; Focus of pleasure is with the genital area. 3-6 years.
- Latency stage; Earlier conflicts are repressed, no new psychsexual developments. 6-puberty.
- Genital; Sexual desires become conscious alongside onset of puberty. satisfying sexual impulses in dyadic relationships, and aggressive impulses e.g. competition or physically demanding activity.
