Approaches: Behaviourism

Question 1

Summarise the Behaviourist approach

Answer 1

• primarily concerned with observable behaviour, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion.
  -> observable behaviour can be objectively and scientifically measured.
• behaviour must be measured in controlled environments to establish cause and effect.
• When born our mind is a blank slate.
• Little difference between humans and animals in terms of learning -> research can be carried out on animals.
• behaviour is the result of a stimulus.
• All behaviour is learnt from the environment: classical and operant conditioning.

Question 2

What are the key concepts of behaviourism

Answer 2

• stimulus: anything, internal or external, that brings about a response.
• Response: any reaction in the presence of the stimulus.
• Reinforcement: process by which a response is strengthened.

Question 3

What are the key concepts of classical conditioning

Answer 3

• unconditioned Stim: the stimulus that causes the reflex response before conditioning. It is the stimulus that naturally produces the response.
• Conditioned stimulus: the stimulus which, after repeated pairings with the unconditioned stimulus, produces the response.
• Unconditioned response: the innate (reflexive) response to a stimulus that has not been conditioned.
• Conditioned response: the response that occurs after exposure to the conditioned stimulus.

Question 4

Explain Pavlov’s dogs (classical conditioning)

Answer 4

• First Pavlov established that meat caused the dog to salivate.
• Unconditioned stimulus (food) = unconditioned response (saliva)
• Then played a tone before presenting the food -> eventually dog salivates when hearing the tone.
  -> unconditioned stimulus (food) + neutral stimulus (bell) = unconditioned response (saliva).
• tone becomes the conditioned stimulus, response to this (salivation) becomes the conditioned response.

Question 5

Summarise operant conditioning

Answer 5

• behaviour is learnt as a result of consequences -> involves learning through consequences (positive + negative) of behavioural responses.
• Positive reinforcement
• negative reinforcement
• punishment
• operant conditioning has been used for social skills training for offenders -> token economies in prisons where tokens are given as reinforcement for good behaviour.

Question 6

what is positive reinforcement

Answer 6

• increases the likelihood of a response occurring -> involves a reward for the behaviour -> e.g. dessert for eating vegetables, worker gets paid a bonus for working hard etc.

Question 7

what is negative reinforcement

Answer 7

• increases the likelihood of a response because it involves REMOVAL, OR ESCAPING from, unpleasant consequences.
  -> Baby cries when hungry so parent feeds them and removes feeling of discomfort.

Question 8

what is punishment

Answer 8

• consequence is receiving something unpleasant which decreases the probability of the behaviour being repeated (e.g. the behaviour leads to an electric shock or a smack in the face).

Question 9

(+) Explain how there is lots of support for the behaviourist approach

Answer 9

• testable -> experimental research -> can establish cause and effect.
• influences all areas of psych.
• replicable research.
• quantitative data -> easy to analyse.

Question 10

(+) explain how behaviourism can be applied to real life

Answer 10

• token economy systems (operant conditioning): prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
  -> Appropriate behaviour is rewarded with tokens that can be exchanged for privileges.
• can be used for treating phobias -> Little Albert.
• useful applications to education, child rearing.
• support for the nurture argument.

Question 11

(+) explain research support by Wong

Answer 11

• explains addiction to video games ‘5 creepy ways video games are trying to get you addicted’.
• gaming provides reinforcement contingencies and rewards depending on certain behaviours.

Question 12

(-) explain how behaviourism has a mechanistic view

Answer 12

• animals are seen as passive responders to their environment with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour.
• process mediates between stimulus and response, suggests people play a much more active role in their own learning.
• applies less to humans than animals.

Question 13

(-) explain how behaviourism supports environmental determinism

Answer 13

• all behaviours are determined by past experiences that have been conditioned.
• Skinner stated ‘free will is an illusion’.
• past history determines the outcome when something happens -> undermines personal responsibility?

Question 14

(-) explain the ethical/practical issues of behaviourism

Answer 14

• is experimenting on animals fair.
  -> experienced stress and aversive conditions.
  -> e.g. Harlow monkey.