Approaches- Advanced info Flashcards
What are the assumptions of the behaviourist approach
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- Rejected introspection
- little difference between animals and human behaviour
- behaviour is a result of stimulus response
- all behaviour is learnt (born as tabula rasa blank space)
- we are influenced by our environment
- Focus on observable behavior (behavior that can be seen).
- Believe psychology should be scientific and objective therefore behaviorists use mainly laboratory experiments to achieve this.
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Outline classical conditioning and the key experiment
Learning through association
-learning is passive
Pavlov
- Dogs were presented with the food, and they salivated.
- food was the unconditioned stimulus and salivation was an unconditioned ( response)
- then the bell sounded (neutral stimulus) before giving the food.
- this was paired a few times and dogs associated the bell with food which led to salivation
- bell had become the conditioned stimulus and salivation had become the conditioned response
- although association was made it can be reversed.
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What are the processes of classical conditioning (discrimination etc)
Discrimination: only respond to specific stimulus over time
Extinction: disassociate two stimuli so you don’t respond anymore
Spontaneous recovery: previously broke the association
Generalisation: demonstrate sane response to a stimulas that was similar
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Outline operant conditioning and the key experiment
Learning in which consequences shape a behaviour
Positive reinforcement: repeats behaviour to receive a reward e.g getting a prize for something
Negative reinforcement: a behaviour that is reinforced because they behaviour reduces negative feeling ie taking paracetamol for pain
Punishment: way of stopping behaviour , This can be negative (taking something away like a phone) positive (extra chores)
Key study: skinner
- rat was placed in a cage in an electrical current
- when rat hits lever switches off the electrical current (negative reinforcement).
The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after being put in the box a few times.
Positive reinforcement: rat placed in box, when lever pressed rat gets food. Rat repeated behaviour
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Behaviourist approach: Has real-world application
Principles of classical conditioning have been used to develop a treatment for phobias called systematic dissensitaion
- this treatment aims to associate the phobia with relaxation
- Similarly, token economy programmes based on operant conditioning are used in institutions like prisons and psychiatric.
- This works by rewarding behaviour by giving out tokens in exchange for a privilege
- This highlights how behaviourist approach has wide applications that are used a in variety of different real life settings
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Behaviourist approach relies to much on animals
- For example skinners research on operant conditioning relied heavily on the behavioural response of rats and piegons
- critics claim that human beings have free will and there behaviour is not entirely determined by their environment
- therefore research on animals is hard to generalise as it may not explore, as humans and animals are not influenced by the same things, for example animals may not go through socilisation
- However, skinner argues hat our behaviour is the result of previous conditioning and that the idea of free will is an illusion hence why studies from animals can be applied to humans
- Therefore it can be argued behvauoirst approach is environmentally detreminist
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The behaviourist approach ignores internal mental processes
Approach ignores the emotions and cognitions behind every behaviour
-because it sees people as passive in their learning with little conscious thoughts influencing their behaviour.
-Unable to explain important aspects of human behaviour such as memory and problem solving
-because such processes cannot be observed
-therefore this approach may not be a comprehensive way of explaining human behaviour
other approaches like social learning theory recognise the importance of mental events in the learning process
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The behaviourist approach is scientific but also environmentally reductnaist
- introduced the scientific methods to psychology.
- Lab experiments were highly controlled
- These meant experiments were replicable and the data obtained was objective
- A positive effect of moving away from subjective methods like introspection is that it gave psychology more credibility.
- However, this approach may not be fully comprehensive as other factors can influence behaviour
- For example, when looking at behavioural tretanets such as systamtic dissentaion, it ignores cognition which means it may not be an effective treatment for phobias
- because approach is environmentally reducatnoist it may not comprehensive at times
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What are the key assumptions of social learning theory?
- Behaviour is learned through observation and imitation
- Mediating processes happen between stimulus and response
- takes into account cognitive processes
- sugests learning happens directly though opernat conditioning and classical conditioning but also indirectly
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What was the procedure and findings of the bobo experiment
There were 72 children
1. Agressive model was shown to 24 children
No model was shown to another 24
Non-agressive model shown to another 24
Children were exposed to aggression arousal: told the experimenters best toys were for other children
Then child was in a room with agressive and non agressive toys and played with them for 20 minutes
Findings
1. Children who observed more aggrieved model were more agressive than control group
- Boys were more likely to imitate same sex models than girls
- Boys imitated more physically agressive acts than girls but no difference in verbal aggression
What are the mediational processes (AO1)
ARRM
A-ttention : did we notice the behaviour
R-etention : did we remember the behaviour
R-eproudction: can we do the behaviour
M- otivation : do we have the will to do it (has it been rewarded or punished)
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Imitation will occur if the behaviour is rewarded than punished
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SLT has real life application
- principles of SLT have been useful
-helped increased understanding of human behaviour - For examples Akers suggests probability of engaging in criminal behaviours increases when exposed to a model who commits criminal behaviour
Ulrich supports the importance of social learning
Believes strongest cause of violent behaviour In adolescence was association because with delinquent peer groups, where violence was
both modeled and rewarded.
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A strength of SLT is that it recognises cognitive factors
- Behaviours approach cannot offer adequate account of learning on their own
- SLT is a complete explanation of human behaviour as it takes into account the meditational processes and applies it to human behaviour
- this demonstrates how SLT is a more comprehensive explanation
- However in Banduras bobo study an observation was that boys were more agressive
- this may have been due to factors like boys having more testosterone then girls thus making them more aggressive
- therefore it can be argued that although SLT takes cognition into account it ignores the influences of biological factors in behaviours
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SLT has soft determinism
-SLT is an example of soft determinsm as it soley doesn;t belive the eviomrnet influences our behaviour,
-recognises cognition plays a role
Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism – the idea that we are influenced by our environment, but we also exert an influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform.
suggests there is some free will in the way we behave, as we go through mediational processes when carrying out behaviour
This is a more realistic and flexible position than the behaviourist approach as it recognises the role we play in shaping our environment.
