Approaches Flashcards
Wilhelm Wundt
Known as the Father of psychology he opened the first psychology lab in Germany 1879 which was used to understand psychological processes like emotions and sensations.
Identify 3 assumptions of the Behavioural Approach
Humans are born as a blank slate
All behaviour is learnt from the environment
Psychology is a science
2 main theories of behaviourism
Classical and operant conditioning
Classical conditioning is where we learn through…
Association
Operant conditioning is where we learn through…
Consequence (punishment and reinforcement)
Positive Reinforcement
When you add a desirable stimulus to increase a behaviour.
Negative Reinforcement
When you remove an undesirable stimulus to increase a behaviour.
Punishment
The consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated
According to positive reinforcement, WHY is behaviour likely to be REPEATED?
To receive the same reward
According to negative reinforcement, WHY is a behaviour likely to be REPEATED?
To avoid a negative consequence
In Pavlov’s research, what was unconditioned stimulus?
Food
In Pavlov’s research, what was unconditioned response?
Salivation
In Pavlov’s research, what was the bell?
Neutral Stimulus during conditioning
Outline the conditioning process during Pavlovs experiment
Before conditioning
Food (Unconditioned Stimulus) caused salivation (Unconditioned Response)
Bell (Neutral stimulus) caused no response
During Conditioning
Food (US) + Bell (NS) caused salivation (UR)
After Conditioning
Bell (Conditioned Stimulus) caused salivation (Conditioned Response)
Skinner Rat experiment
In 1938 there was a study that suggested that rats can learn behaviour through operant conditioning. A behaviour such as pressing a lever can be positively reinforced by receiving food
Little Albert Watson and Rayner
Little Albert (11 month old) initially showed no fear in white fluffy objects like rats or rabbits. The researchers created a conditioned response by banging a metal pole loudly behind his head whenever he reached for the white rabbit. This resulted in him being conditioned to have a fear of white fluffy objects showing abnormal behaviour can be learned. But was unethical and lacked ecological validity as it was artificial
Social Learning Theory
Learning can occur simply through observing others in our environment
Proposer of the social learning theory
Bandura
Behavioural Approach
This approach assumes someone is a product of their environment, people are born a ‘blank state and all behaviour is learnt
Cognitive Approach
How our mental processes (eg thoughts and perceptions) affect behaviour